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Getting to know the Tri-State Development Summit
Western Illinois, Northeast Missouri and Southeastern Iowa
Take Economic Development Beyond State Borders
History
In 1993, flooding on the Mississippi River wreaked havoc in the Midwest. As rising water closed bridges, highways, railways and barge traffic, the tri-state area of Northeast Missouri, Southeast Iowa and Western Illinois learned that a common transportation network was the lifeline of their economies. “Our tri-state region shares a common workforce. We utilize area educational and healthcare facilities, we exchange goods and services, we depend on rail, river and roads to move products and people in and out of our region,” said Jim Mentesti, president of Great River Economic Development Foundation in Quincy, Illinois. “The flood proved how much we need to work together.”
Born of the need to cultivate working relationships beyond state boundaries, a committee of five organized the first Tri-State Development Summit in 1996. “Our first objective was simply to assemble, get to know one another, and define common issues,” said Tom Boland, former chair of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission from Hannibal, Missouri. “The summit has since evolved from an annual networking and educational event into an ongoing economic development initiative.”
Mission Statement
To bring together Tri-State area leaders to define common issues; To develop an on-going dialogue to effectively address those issues; And to improve the quality of life of the entire tri-state region through economic development activities.
Summit Location and Attendance
Nearly 225 people attended the first summit on the campus of Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri in October 1996. The next two summits in Keokuk, Iowa and Quincy, Illinois grew by 100 attendees each year, and the 1999 summit in Hannibal, Missouri attracted 450. After an eighteen-month recess, the summit attracted a record 475 people in Burlington, Iowa on May 31, 2001. In 2003 the summit returned to Quincy. The summit draws a diverse crowd of elected officials, community leaders, CEOs, economic developers, bankers, educators, transportation and tourism representatives and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Culver-Stockton College was again the host of the 2007 Summit which drew an attendance of more than 450 people. The next summit will be held in April, 2009 in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.
Speakers, Agenda, Funding
The summit features an action-packed, four-hour agenda from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Speakers have included governors, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers division and district engineers, U.S. Congressmen, federal and state department heads, state senators, state representatives, rail and barge executives, and local private-sector business people.
One of the most popular features of the summit is a networking lunch where participants mix with their counterparts from other states. Area corporations and organizations sponsor the summit, allowing participants to attend at no charge or a small fee.
Tri-State Summit Action Task Forces
Following the 1997 summit, four action task forces were formed to tackle transportation, tourism, workforce development and rivers issues. Each task force is comprised of private-sector, political and civic leaders from Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. The task forces meet throughout the year and give progress reports at the summit. In 2000, a group formed to pursue value-added agriculture issues, and in 2001 a media coalition formed. Two new task forces, Entrepreneurship and Housing, were added in 2006 followed by two more at the 2007 Summit, Connectivity and Emergency Response.
Transportation Task Force
The first accomplishment of the Transportation Task Force was the unanimous agreement of regional highway priorities. Two or three top road improvement priorities were selected from each state. Priority maps were created and a delegation of six, two from each state, took the show “on the road,” making presentations to governors and state departments of transportation. High on the priority list is the completion of the Avenue of the Saints linking St. Paul Minnesota to St. Louis, Missouri. Another is the upgrade of U.S. Highway 36 across Missouri to interstate status, linking it with I-72 in Illinois. Other corridors include U.S. 63 in Missouri, U.S. 67 and 336 in Illinois, and U.S. 34 in Illinois and Iowa. The regional task force has impacted decisions in all three states.
Priority maps (pdf versions) from the Transportation Task Force are available on the Task Force page as well as a downloadable link to a live Google Earth depiction of the highway priorities.
Tourism Task Force
The tri-state area is rich in tourism opportunities including Hannibal, Missouri, boyhood home of Mark Twain; Nauvoo, Illinois, a restored Mormon settlement and home of a new LDS temple; and southeastern Iowa which features quaint communities and covered bridges. Located at the heart of a tourism triangle with Iowa’s Amana Colonies to the north, Abe Lincoln’s Springfield, Illinois to the east and the Missouri Ozarks to the south, the tri-state tourism task force produced a cooperative tourism brochure in 1999 which was expanded and updated in 2001. A series of "Fam Tours" familiarized tourism officials with regional attractions.
The Tourism Task Force has created a 2008 version of the multi-county marketing brochure. The brochure features 20 communities from across the Summit region.
Rivers Issues
Legislation has passed in all three states to create regional port authorities which can be linked to form the country’s first multi-state intermodal port authority. The task force works with other river-related organizations to impact the improvement of navigation on the upper Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri Rivers.
Workforce Development Task Force
Thanks to the summit, John Wood Community College in Quincy, Illinois, Southeastern Community College in Burlington, Iowa and Moberly Area Community College in Moberly, Missouri made history by signing an agreement enabling each to assist with the development and delivery of instruction and training to Tri-State business and industry.
According to John Wood Community College president, Dr. Bill Simpson, the consortium will “work with the private sector throughout the Tri-State region to offer the training needed to strengthen the economy of the entire area.”
The workforce task force has sponsored several Tri-State Job Fairs, and a successful on-line degree program has also resulted from the cooperative effort.
Agriculture Task Force
In 2000, an Agriculture Task Force was formed. The task force sponsored a "mini- summit" at Western Illinois University in January of 2001, bringing together producers and processors to discuss "value-added agriculture" across state borders. More than 150 people attended the mini-summit, and the task force continues to further ag-related issues in the tri-state area.
Media Task Force
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, the newspapers, radio and television stations of the tri-states launched a "Fight Back with Bucks" campaign. Public service announcements and ads encouraged citizens to exercise their buying power to bolster the economy. The media group also united to educate voters on highway funding ballot issues, and remains active as the sixth tri-state task force. The summit itself is covered by more than two dozen media outlets, including several TV stations that broadcast live.
Steering Committee
Tom Boland, President of Tom Boland Ford Sterling of Hannibal, MO
Dan Wiedemeier, Retired, Burlington, Iowa
Jim Mentesti, President, Great River Economic Development Foundation, Quincy, IL
Pat Poepping, President, Poepping Stone Bach PE, Quincy, Keokuk, Hannibal
Chuck Scholz, Former Mayor, Quincy, IL
The Tri-State Development Summit is facilitated by
Great River Economic Development Foundation, Jim Mentesti and
University of Illinois Extension, Shelby Crow
Tri-State Development Summit
c/o Great River Economic Development Foundation
300 Civic Center Plaza, Suite 256
Quincy, Illinois 62301
Phone 217/223-4313; Fax 217/231-2030
gredf@gredf.org or sschoon@uiuc.edu
www.tristateofmind.org
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