Quincy gets high marks in national study

August 10, 2008

Doug Wilson

Quincy was named the No. 2 micropolitan city in Illinois by Policom Corporation during a recent ranking of 577 U.S. communities with populations between 10,000 and 50,000.

William Fruth, president of Policom, said Quincy’s ranking of 158th overall shows the city compares well with other communities of similar size. He was impressed with consistent improvements since 2004, when Quincy was ranked 281st.

“We look for what separates the strong communities from the moderately strong ones,” Fruth said.

Policom is an independent economic research firm. Its annual micropolitan rankings look at 23 types of data, including the number of jobs in a community, personal income, retail sales, construction figures and welfare levels.

Data from 1987 to 2006 was used to develop the 2008 rankings.

Quincy was helped in the rankings by statistics generated by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Adams County reported the lowest unemployment rate in the state in November 2004 and had among the state’s lowest jobless rates for several years. The total number of jobs in the community also climbed during those years.

Personal income in Adams County for 2006 was listed as $30,234, up 4.4 percent from the previous year and up an average of 3.4 percent per year since 1996. While Illinois had a higher per 2006 capital personal income of $38,409, most of the highest income counties in the state are part of metropolitan areas.Quincy and Adams County compared favorably with the remaining non-metro areas.

“We take a long-term look and try to find consistency and look at the character of the community,” Fruth said.

TRANSPORTATION KEY IN RANKING

A strong transportation network involving highways, rail, air and river plays an important part in all the micropolitan areas. Fruth said improvements in the highway network in the past 20 years may have helped the Quincy area.

“I’ve discovered that virtually every county in America not on an interstate is on an economic decline,” Fruth said. “Just because you’ve got an interstate does not ensure that you’ll have economic growth, but you have very little chance if you don’t have access to a good transportation network.”

Some of the more recent setbacks in the area also do not show up in the statistics used for Policom’s rankings. Methode Electronics in Golden has closed, as did Prairie Farms in Quincy.

Unemployment is at a fouryear high in the Adams and Brown County reporting area. The rate was reported at 5.2 percent for June by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Yet that compares to a 6.8 percent unemployment rate statewide.

Jim Mentesti, president of the Great River Economic Development Foundation, said 16 percent of Quincy jobs are in the manufacturing sector. The statewide figure is 11 percent and the federal figure is 10 percent.

“Those are head-of-household jobs and that contributes to us getting this sort of demographic recognition,” Mentesti said.

Job diversification has been important to the community in the past decade or more, Mentesti said.

“The biggest thing is probably the growth in retail along East Broadway,” Mentesti said. The community has added jobs in what is known as logistics and distribution. Wis-Pak Inc. came to Quincy in 1998 and ships soft drinks and beverages to a large region. Premium Waters does both private and generic labeling of water products. Industrial Support Services brings in big bulk orders, breaks it down and ships it throughout the region and has expanded its facility five-fold in the past few years.

Those positive changes do not mean there are no concerns about the local economy. The JEO Consulting Group, which is doing comprehensive plan work in Adams County, points out that young people often move out of the county to establish careers. Some then move back home to raise families or because of quality of life.

JEO statistics also show that Adams County has fewer jobs than surrounding counties in what is termed “basic employment” — or export-driven jobs. That is of concern to economic statisticians because those in basic-sector jobs help support the jobs of others who serve local needs.

David Potter, a community planner with JEO Consulting, defined basic sector jobs as “city forming” jobs because they bring wealth into a community. The non-basic sector jobs are referred to as “city serving” jobs

since they are concerned more with supporting the city itself.

HIGH-PAYING JOBS HELP

Quincy Mayor John Spring said any community that wants to see growth and a solid economy has to find a way to create high-paying jobs. One way the city works toward attracting those jobs is with financial incentives. Spring said incentive programs are most numerous in areas west of 12th Street where the city’s central business district and historic industrial zones are located.

Spring also hopes that recognition for the city in the micropolitan listings will bring some positive results. Beyond that, city officials have been working for several years to seek metropolitan statistical area status that is reserved for communities of more than 50,000.

“Metropolitan statistical areas get more federal dollars” and appears on data bases used by firms seeking new locations, Spring said.

The metropolitan population limit has been close, with Quincy’s population listed at about 40,000, but Quincy School District listed as 55,000.

Rules that would allow a city to claim population within a school district boundary have excluded Quincy so far because there are certain minimum population density levels that must be met throughout the district.

Some of Policom’s micropolitan listings involve more than one county. In the case of Quincy, Lewis County, Mo., is considered a contributing area. Bill Smith, executive director of the Lewis County Industrial Development Authority, is not surprised to hear that Quincy and Lewis County have gotten a high micropolitan ranking.

“I see Quincy as truly the Gem City. It’s a diamond in the rough and it’s not very rough,” Smith said.

The Lewis County native bases his assessment on knowledge of other communities inthe region. He said Quincy’s Maine Street, its hospitals, schools, parks, shopping, university and other attractions compare favorably with much larger communities.

“It’s hard for me to say too much good about another community, because I’m involved in recruiting business for Lewis County. But we have to look at this not just on a county or state or district basis. We need to look at this on a regional basis,” Smith said.