George Kotti, Executive Director

The Chamber’s Economic Development Committee met last Wednesday. I enjoy our Chamber’s committee meetings because the discussions are generally positive and the members are optimistic. Because of that, I come away recharged, and this month’s Economic Development Committee meeting was no exception.
 
First of all, Mr. Eddie Clay has agreed to serve as the head of our Economic Development Committee. Mr. Clay brings many years of experience to the table, both as a successful local businessman and also as a past member of our state legislature. He is well respected in this community and throughout the state. It is not often a community has a member of the South Dakota Hall of Fame as one of its volunteer committee heads. Our economic development efforts will be greatly blessed through his leadership.
 
One of the big areas of discussion at our meeting was our affordable housing program. A local contractor has made three lots available on Fresno Avenue for additional new Governor’s homes. These will have walkout basements, and two of the three will have garages. We anticipate these homes will range in price from $103K to $120K, depending on whether there is a garage or not. The committee recommended that the chamber purchase one of the lots to jump start the construction process. Our Board of Directors will make that decision at its February meeting.
 
Rumors from uninformed individuals have questioned where the money for these homes is coming from and have suggested that rather than asking the city for marketing money, the chamber should scrap our housing initiative and use those funds for marketing. Affordable housing has been identified as a critical need throughout the Black Hills and especially here in Hot Springs. To fund the program, we used a lot the chamber already owned. We obtained a small sum of money for that lot when the first house was sold. That money, along with a specifically designated $5,000 grant from Golden West, will be used to purchase the new lot and keep the program going. No BBB tax money is or could be used for this purpose.
 
The benefits of affordable housing are twofold; we provide housing for one of our local working families, keeping them in the Hot Springs community and greatly increase the property tax collected from these improved properties. Our program also removes the eyesores that empty lots can turn into, and we hope the success of this program stimulates more building in the future.
 
I also appreciate our chamber president, Dave Batchelor, who encouraged the economic development committee to extend our efforts beyond affordable housing. As one member aptly stated, “We need to transfer from building affordable housing to helping people to afford housing.” We do that by creating jobs.
 
The committee was reminded of all of the great things that Hot Springs has to offer in terms of climate, activities, the water, the sandstones and more. Part of our future strategy must be to encourage outside investment into our community in order to build on the things we have to offer. As we continue to look forward and dream big, we will insure that the best is yet to come for Hot Springs.