In a few short months, the Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority has grown from representing primarily Elko County to now covering more than 40 percent of the state. Our contributor Brook Bentley of the Northern Nevada Business Weekly has the details.
The authority has recently added Lander, Eureka and White Pine counties to its coverage area. All three wanted to stop running their own economic development departments. Humboldt County will soon be joining, too.
Pam Borda has been the authority's executive director for the past eight years. She works with mining giants and corner farm supply stores to encourage company relocations, expansions and entrepreneurship. Right now, the region is growing faster than they can train workers, so recruitment is another complex piece of the puzzle.
"We've actually learned by now not to recruit in the big cities. We recruit in other rural cities in other states because people are more likely to be able to come here and love it and stay here. When you come from a big city, it's kind of a culture-shock."
The next step for the authority is to double its staff of two people in order to meet the challenge of promoting economic growth across a vast territory.