The Wednesday meeting, held at the Sallisaw Civic Center, was jointly hosted by the City of Sallisaw, the Sequoyah County Commissioners, and the towns of Vian and Gore.
Julie Ferguson, vice chairperson of the SACC-EZ board, said those attending the meeting heard from Ray Murphy with the Oklahoma Center for Rural Development (OCRD) at Northeastern State University (NSU) in Tahlequah, who gave a presentation. Ferguson said the OCRD was created as a result of the SACC-EZ forming, which is also known as the Tri-County Economic Development Cooperative and includes Cherokee Nation.
She said Murphy talked to the group about how to attract retail business to communities and about a software program developed by the OCRD that is available to communities. The program includes demographic information, attributes of communities, transportation studies, income information, census and Oklahoma Department of Transportation information, and various maps, Ferguson said. All the information provided by OCRD is at no cost to communities who want to utilize the information.
The SACC-EZ will be utilizing the information the OCRD has gathered to answer questions from industry prospects about what the area has to offer.
"The main purpose of the meeting is to share information with communities," Ferguson said.
She said the goal of the SACC-EZ is economic development in all three counties, with the view that anything that stimulates growth in one county will affect the others. Representatives from each county and Cherokee Nation serve on the board, which meets quarterly.
Through membership dues and a grant through Cherokee Nation, the organization is looking to contract a director to work with communities, seeking out an enterprise, businesses, or industry to benefit all three counties.
Ferguson said they are also currently looking for a possible project located near all three counties that could be beneficial to the region.
The group also used their funds to develop a brochure, which was done with the help of business woman Kasey Moran of Sallisaw and a local printer.
The brochures, which are used as a marketing tool, showcases the area and lists what the region has to offer to corporations and individuals.
