Don Smith says it’s common for various government entities to cooperate less in difficult economic circumstances.

“A lot of times in times like these, you have communities that start pitting themselves against one another,” he said Thursday. “

Smith, the new director of the St. Clair County Economic Development Council, says it is the goal of his organization to make sure St. Clair doesn’t do that. Speaking Thursday morning at the county’s Partnership For Tomorrow Investor Update Breakfast at Ashville City Hall, he stressed the need for the county to cooperate and coordinate.

“If I can only stress one thing, it’s we need to be focusing on cooperation and coordination, now more than ever,” he said. “There are other communities that aren’t going to be following that idea, and they’re going to be the ones struggling.”

It’s something the EDC has stressed in its 10 years of existence within St. Clair County, exemplified by efforts like the Partnership, which consists of more than 70 private and public entities from around the county. On Thursday Smith said he’s seeing the fruits of that effort.

“We had a groundbreaking for the new hospital (Tuesday), expecting about 300 people,” Smith said. “It was standing-room only; they had to open up the sides of the tent to allow people just to be able to get around.

“That kind of community cooperation and participation is what’s going to continue to make St. Clair County a very successful community. And also, the leadership that we have in this room, and the investment in our future.”

Representatives from the County Commission and multiple municipalities attended the breakfast, as well as officials from various local businesses, including Red Diamond CEO Bill Bowron and St. Vincent’s Vice President of Business Development, Kirk Allen.

Developments like Red Diamond (Moody), the groundbreaking of the new St. Vincent’s facility (Pell City) and Rain Bird (Steele) are just some of the positive bits of news to come out of the county, even in troubling economic times.

“One thing I wanted to mention: whenever we’re talking about these jobs, these aren’t just Pell City jobs,” Smith said. “These are jobs throughout the county. I was talking to an HR director the other day, and I asked him to give me a list of all the cities where their employees worked.

“And every city in St. Clair County has an employee at that facility, except for Margaret and Argo. So it’s great – they’re earning these wages here, and taking it back to the community and spending it elsewhere. Just because the manufacturing’s taking in one area doesn’t mean it’s not shared throughout the county and other regions as well.”

Others in the crowd challenged the various local leaders to converse with the EDC, so that their communities might be prepared for any development that might come along.

“Jack’s is wanting to put a place in Argo right now, and they’re struggling because they can’t find any place to put it,” said EDC board member Lyman Lovejoy. “If y’all want it there, you’ve got to get out and find some property there to put it somewhere.

“If y’all don’t tell them what lots and land that you have available, or if you don’t have somebody to get out and bulldog this stuff out and let Candice put it on her list so she can put it out to the state people, they don’t know.”

Smith said the EDC is currently meeting with local leadership, in order to help determine which course of action is best for each municipality in the county as things progress.

“Sometimes when I’m speaking at chamber events, or other events, someone comes up and says, ‘Are you working on a project in Community X,Y,Z?’” he said. “And I’d like to say, ‘I would love to,’ but there’s no property. Let’s say I’ve got a Red Diamond coming in, and they want 30 acres, but there’s no place identified in that community.

“So that’s one of the things that we’re trying to do: become an advocate for the community leaders, make sure that they are identifying a property – if not, by the time you scrounge and try to get things together, they’re already looking somewhere else.

“The possible risk is if we’re not doing anything, if we’re just waiting for something to happen. We have to be pro-active … and to be prepared for some great things.”