Cooperative Living January 2015 - 17

good leadership that can stimulate broad
participation in public affairs.
* Small towns thrive when their school systems
are rated as outstanding by potential
residents and businesses, not just by local
interests.
* The biggest threats to the future of small
towns are resistance to change and apathy,
and it will take more than funerals to
subdue these scourges.
* Likewise, the smaller the community, the
more influence the naysayers have.
* In economically depressed towns, citizens
and leaders often accept lower expectations
about what they can achieve. (You
have to guard against this becoming a
self-fulfilling prophecy.) Do not undervalue
your product.
* Individual leadership development is perhaps
the single most important factor
influencing success. Leadership plus passion
can displace apathy and fear of
change to make things happen, and good
leaders serve as role models for the next
generation.
* Natural leaders tend to avoid leadership
roles in troubled towns. Rebuilding is
hard work and politically hazardous,
beginning with reaching consensus about
what the townspeople want for their
future. (Uncontested political races often
signal a loss of confidence about the
town's future.)
* Because small towns have so few leadership
positions, every vacancy on staff or
Council represents a golden recruiting
opportunity for new ideas and positive
change. Not only does a non-starter
mortgage the community's future, but
getting poor performers out of key positions
gets harder every year.
* When everyone knows everyone else in
the town, the peer pressure that regulates
social behavior still applies. Though we
may be ambivalent about everyone
knowing our business, this is one of the
most comforting attributes of small
towns for people of my generation.
Confidence about personal security
trumps a lot of other shortcomings in
any town.
* Towns whose recruiting slogan is that
" we have the lowest taxes " are not competitive
in anything else, including quality
of life. (They are unwittingly participating
in a race to the bottom!)
* Resistance to taxes, coupled with reduced
state and federal aid, are threatening the
sustainability of aging water and sewer
infrastructures in many towns. User fees
are going to have to increase substantially
January 2015/www.co-opliving.com
Charles Lee in his office at his Clarksville home.
The photo on the wall behind him is of the building
at Mississippi State University named after
Dr. Lee.
These are observations about small
towns in general. Each community
obviously has to plan its future based on its
particular circumstances. Self-determination
is going to be more important than ever in
the future, given the likely declines in state
and federal aid to these municipalities.
Virtually every town with which I have
worked would give its soul to have a university
presence. Think about what a modest
mix of program offerings could do for
place-bound students in your community,
and aggressively pursue your vision with
college and university leaders and with your
legislative delegation. It is an arduous way
to get a satellite campus but my experiences
confirm that it often works!
I would also encourage you to think
about recruiting firms whose workplace
skill requirements match those of local residents.
How about seeking a call center, for
in the future for many communities to
sustain current public health standards.
* A town must have room to grow at its
boundaries. Most business prospects
expect water and sewer availability,
which are typically not available beyond
town boundaries. Counties benefit when
their inclusive towns prosper, and suffer
when a town stumbles.
* A higher-education presence stimulates
growth and improves the quality of life of
any community.
* Retirees bring their income with them,
spend much of it locally, and do not
require the level of tax and other incentives
expected by business and industry.
(Contributing their expertise to the community
is a priceless bonus.)
example, now that they are migrating
back to the USA, along with manufacturing
enterprises?
I suspect that small towns will have a lot
more in common in the future than they
might think, as resistance to tax increases
threatens the level of public services to
which citizens have become accustomed.
Expensive equipment, such as garbage
trucks, could easily be scheduled to meet the
needs of adjacent towns. Sharing expensive
lab facilities for water testing should also be
relatively easy.
Virtually every town is facing rising costs
for maintaining independent public safety
services. I have lived in areas where a unified
system provided public safety and emergency
services, to everyone's benefit. Why
not test some of these concepts in your
county?
The history among small towns in many
areas is more one of competition than of
cooperation. Community pride is great when
it can be afforded but I suspect that the
future will not be so kind, unless attitudes
about desired public services and sustainable
levels of taxation change significantly.
Public debt and debt service are increasing
for many local municipalities, even as
population is declining in many of these
towns.
The county and the town in which I
served as interim manager recently reached
agreement to share net revenue from the
development of county-owned industrial
property near the town boundaries. The
town now has more explicit incentive for
recruiting new jobs to these sites.
The successful execution of new ideas
requires both financial resources and
expertise, both of which are often in short
supply in small towns. Planning, revitalization,
and other infrastructure projects do
best when towns get the experts involved.
Most people like to go with the winners.
Undercapitalization has doomed many businesses.
Avoiding the temptation to take the
least expensive route in planning and executing
community initiatives will ensure
more success in whatever endeavor you
choose. Experts do make a difference, and
they often know where to find the best
prices and sources of funds.
Finally, there is no substitute for optimism.
Someone has said that " we become
who we think we are. " Believing in your
town and what it stands for can make all the
difference, and if you are successful, your
children and grandchildren just might be
able to fulfill their life aspirations, without
having to live so far away from grandma.
15
JOHN LEE PHOTOS
Cooperative Living January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living January 2015
