Ed Legault, Executive Director for the Delta County Economic Development Alliance

David Haynes sits down with Ed Legault, Executive Director for the Delta County Economic Development Alliance to talk about what’s happening in his part of the Upper Peninsula. Ed gives a review of some of the great things happening in Delta County, including new buildings, new businesses, and new projects. Also discussed are the issues of housing, child care, and health care in Delta County and what is being done to address the challenges in those areas.

Transcript

David Haynes:

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Rural Insights podcast, and we’re excited to have with us today, Ed Legault, who is the head of the EDA in Delta County, Escanaba, and has lots of exciting things to tell us about. And Scott Spyra, who’s one of our student researchers who worked on putting this together, is sitting in. So Ed, welcome. Welcome. We’re glad you’re here. We were just talking about, you grew up in Holton, moved as a young kid to Escanaba, and we were recalling the days of Montgomery Ward catalogs. We’ll explain that to a younger viewer some other time.

Ed Legault:

Yeah, it’s too long of a story.

David Haynes:

Yeah, it’s the old person’s version of Amazon. But anyway, Ed, tell us. Escanaba is one of Delta’s six biggest counties, Escanaba is one of the five biggest cities in the UP, it’s a thriving place, it’s got a community college, it’s got several hospital health systems, both from Marquette and from Green Bay. So, it’s very unique in that sense, and it has a lot of difference that a lot of people in the UP you don’t know about. So, I want to ask you, what’s new going on in Delta County in terms of economic developments?

Ed Legault:

Well, I know everyone has had a very interesting last year, and I had an opportunity to write a year in review for Delta County. And with all the things and heartache that everyone has gone through, we really still managed to do some really good things. As far as expansion in the county, we had a couple of brand new buildings; Bay Bank built a new branch in Escanaba, the Peninsula Federal Credit Union built brand new branch building, their headquarters, the Island Resort and Casino did an expansion, another 130 rooms and a water park, and a very nice restaurant. Actually, that’s due to open any day.

Ed Legault:

We’ve had a lot of new businesses either come into the area and start up, or we’ve had some existing businesses that have moved to, I would say, somewhat iconic buildings that were either not utilized any longer and repurposed those buildings to the historic gems that they were. Another good example of that is in Gladstone. The Rialto Theater was repurposed by Great Lakes Chiropractic, and they have a gym in there as well, and they’ll be adding some things, but we have a lot of really good momentum.

Ed Legault:

We have a handful of projects that are in the planning stages and I think will come out very soon. An example would be in Escanaba, there’s a request for CodeOut, for developers, for the old Delta County jail property, and some Escanaba city property. And then, there’s a phase two with that, that would be the old Chamber of Commerce building across from the House of Ludington.

David Haynes:

Sure.

Ed Legault:

And then, some of the park area that butts up against the municipal dock, but all of that could be… And we’re leaving some, obviously, flexibility and creative opportunity for the developer, but we would expect to have a mixed use type project, either hotel, some high end housing, perhaps some restaurant and other businesses. And it would really help the downtown of Escanaba at that end of downtown. And it’s right next to where we have our harbor and our park, so as many visitors come in, it’ll really enhance the area for sure.

David Haynes:

So, Ed, let me ask you, just to jump in for me, you mentioned housing. I just did a podcast with the City Manager of Sault Ste. Marie, and I know what [inaudible 00:04:53] the issue of affordable housing, middle class housing. Is that an issue in Delta County? [crosstalk 00:05:01]

Ed Legault:

David, I really think it’s an issue everywhere.

David Haynes:

Yeah.

Ed Legault:

There’s been a lot of incentives to do low to moderate income housing. There is great opportunity in high end housing, high end condos, that developers can make money after they sell them. But it’s that missing middle, that there seems to lack the enhancement to take the risks to build that. And unfortunately, in the Upper Peninsula, the rents for even a fairly nice apartment type living, just don’t offset some of the risks right now. So, it’s something that we’re working on with all of my peers and Invest UP right now, to hopefully get some of the American rescue plan money and have that be a fund that we can use to help entice developers to build that affordable housing.

Ed Legault:

Because it’s really, in my opinion and in several people’s opinions, some of the things that cause some of our best and brightest younger people to move out of the area.

David Haynes:

Yeah, absolutely. That’s interesting, you’re going through it too. The other issue we hear a lot from, both individual from workers, especially younger workers, and from business owners, is the issue of affordable childcare that, even if they can find the worker the childcare… We did a survey at Rural Insights, the average in the six big counties including those with $672 a month per kid. And businesses have been telling us, this is a struggle for them. For them and their employees, because their employees can’t put their kids somewhere, they can’t come to work. Is that also an issue in Delta, Escanaba?

Ed Legault:

We had quite a few childcare facilities in Delta County. And unfortunately, with the onset of the pandemic, we did have a few of them, they were owned and run by people my age that were probably looking to retire. And unfortunately, not being able to find the younger talent to help out with making sure, and there was obviously more scrutiny. So, you couldn’t have as many people close together, so you need more teachers from Hispana Control.

Ed Legault:

But actually, we just sent out today through Michigan Works and our Delta County Chamber of Commerce, a survey to our businesses regarding daycare.

David Haynes:

I saw that.

Ed Legault:

Yeah, we’re really going to be in a situation where I feel we will get some money from the State of Michigan, through the American rescue plans act, to help support either the wage structure or really get back to where that type of childcare business attracts either the ownership of new businesses, or some more people that want to go to work in that.

David Haynes:

A number of business leaders in the UP have said, including I talked with someone over in your area, the other problem is, as they try to encourage small business people to open up childcare and say, this is the state regulation. So, burdens of, well, nobody wants to not have regulation, to not protect children. On the other hand, for a small business, it’s very hard to survive that sort of very deep… I don’t know what the right word is, heavy, maybe unnecessary, I don’t know, regulation. Is that something also that…

Ed Legault:

Yeah, I think we would… I know when I worked in St. Louis, in Milwaukee, and some of the other for some larger businesses, as an example, City Group, we had a 5,000 person building and we did have our own daycare. But on the same token, there was the financial wherewithal from City Group to help fund that. But it was a benefit to its employees and helped attract more employees, because if your kid got sick, they were real close, you didn’t have to go somewhere. And for our smaller businesses, to your point, the paperwork and some other things are tough. And it’s an expensive opportunity for them, but if you’re looking at ways to really attract some good employees, what a great benefit it would be to have childcare on site.

Ed Legault:

So, I think some of our businesses are looking at it.

David Haynes:

Yeah, I think that’s right, and also to attract younger businesses who will work offsite and come onsite, sort of a hybrid employee situation. I think of Gladstone and Escanaba, Delta County as, over my years, a thriving, exciting place. They’ve always been innovative, a lot going on, and certainly in the healthcare area, your businesses have been varying, you have OSF in Escanaba, you have the two hospitals from Green Bay, I think Market General has a facility there… [crosstalk 00:10:24] UP Health System.

David Haynes:

And has always been a out migration, because it’s so easy to get from Escanaba over to Green Bay, much easier, it’s an hour, hour and a half shorter than it is for those of us that live in at least other places in UP. What healthcare challenges and benefits are there in Escanaba?

Ed Legault:

Well, I think every healthcare system has had its challenges over the last year with the pandemic and such, but for most part, I think all of our healthcare facilitators have done a great job and their people have just done a tremendous job under very tough circumstances. But we are really blessed in Delta County. OSF has been here for well over a 100 years and they’re basically a nonprofit healthcare system. They really are involved in the community. They’re one of our largest employers in Delta County. I have the CEO of OSF on my board and they’ve just been a great community partner for many, many years.

Ed Legault:

And then on top of that, having Bellin and UP Health Systems now, and to your point, the one thing that, if you needed to go for… Maybe there were some things you needed that weren’t at OSF or in Escanaba or Delta County, you might have to travel to Green Bay, but what we’re seeing is, now some of the doctors have service days in Escanaba, maybe three, four days a month.

Ed Legault:

And so, if I need to go see them, I have the choice. Obviously, if it’s urgent, urgent, I’m going to Green Bay, but if I can wait a week, they might be here in Escanaba where I can just go see them locally. So, they’ve really been flexible, and it’s really been a huge benefit for our area.

David Haynes:

And you’ve had the benefit of systems and non systems, OSF, I think it’s a mercy system, right?

Ed Legault:

Yep.

David Haynes:

The system’s a mercy…

Ed Legault:

Yeah.

David Haynes:

And you have systems, I think that way you could feed into the system has been very beneficial. What is it that you think would most attract younger workers and younger entrepreneurs who want to start a business, to Escanaba? I’m sorry, to Delta County in general. What is it that you think [crosstalk 00:13:10] could help out?

Ed Legault:

The one thing I’m seeing, and I would say over the last six months, David, I’ve probably had, I would say upwards of 10 to 15 younger professionals, that had somewhat of a business plan of something they wanted to start up. You’ve talked to enough business people, the ones that are truly prepared and the ones that “boy, I want to really do something,” but they don’t know quite where they’re at.

David Haynes:

Gotcha.

Ed Legault:

So, in my job, I serve as a counselor to find out truly how prepared are they to start their business, or what help do they need, and I can get them that help. But I really think what we’re seeing now, is there are a lot of younger people that, you go somewhere else and let’s say the money is much more than I can make here. But it doesn’t take a long time to figure out, yeah, I’m making more money, but guess what? My house costs more. You want to go out for dinner, that costs more. God forbid if I want to get a beer, even that costs more.

David Haynes:

That’s right.

Ed Legault:

So, I think what people are starting to see, is once they leave the area, and even if you want to go walking or do something outdoors, you can do that elsewhere, but it might take you 45 minutes to drive there. Here in Delta County, in the Upper Peninsula, I can do some of those things walking from my house. So, I think people are starting to realize that, I can make less money in Delta County, I can have more control over my career, and guess what? I can have the lifestyle and cost of living that comes with that. That’s a benefit.

Ed Legault:

And unfortunately, I think this is one of the things that we need to do a better job, is actually educate people of that before they move away, so they understand it. Versus having to take three years and, in some cases what’ll happen is, they’re going to meet their significant other and they’re working somewhere in Milwaukee or wherever that is, and now my life’s more complicated. I can’t move back.

David Haynes:

Right.

Ed Legault:

[crosstalk 00:15:34] Yep. I have a kid and you know how that goes. Your life changes drastically.

David Haynes:

So, my last question to you is, the other thing when I think about Delta County, is that it is the home of our regional college, Bay College. And it’s also over on Iron Mountain, it’s really, truly a regional facility. I want to talk a little bit about how employers take advantage of the skill training, a student, they can go at a very decent tuition for skill training, or if they want to just get the first couple of years done to move on to a baccalaureate at Michigan Tech, or Lake State, or Northern, or somewhere else. That’s a huge asset. We only have three in the UP, community college. Well, they’re called colleges now. What do you have to say about how employers view that?

Ed Legault:

Well, I think they view it as a tremendous advantage. Dr. Coleman and her group have done just a wonderful job at Bay. They’re one of the few colleges that actually increased enrollment during the pandemic. They’ve stepped right up with many of the programs, the reconnect program, and some of those, and they were able to increase enrollment, utilizing those at the same time, helping people that either had been our frontline workers or helping their skill base. And the other thing, a good example would be, and this is with the reconnect program, engineered machine products in Escanaba.

Ed Legault:

They had a gentleman at a conference I was at that, he talked about, “I went to work for EMP, but I couldn’t afford to go to school and go to work, and I had a young family. And with this reconnect program, it would help with the college expenses.” And then his employer, knowing that with more training, and this is a really good, hard worker, I can get where he’s going to be more valuable to my company over the long haul.

Ed Legault:

So, what they do is, they’re extremely flexible and allow him to make his classes, knowing that he’s going to put in his hours at work, it’s just going to be over a staggered period or whatever that looks like. And that partnership between the Employ EMP and Bay College has just been a tremendous success story, and one that I think we’ll see replicated across many of our businesses.

David Haynes:

Well, and that maybe explained, but what my understanding always has been is, so I’ve lived here is… Before I say that, I do want to say as a former president of a higher rate institution, that Dr. Coleman is an incredible talent and a real jewel for your community. And she’s a tough competitor; I had to compete against her.

Ed Legault:

She’s on my board. She’s a tremendous, tremendous leader.

David Haynes:

She is, she is a great leader. But the other thing I wanted to just quickly wrap up on, is when we look at the UP and we looked out state, there’s manufacturing on the West Coast and the East Coast, but Iron Mountain, Dickinson, Delta County, Menominee is really our manufacturing in Delta. EMP’s a great example of that.

Ed Legault:

Yeah.

David Haynes:

You all have that belt of manufacturing, that’s very unique to the UP. That’s got to be an advantage in attracting employees and bringing people to Escanaba? [crosstalk 00:19:23]

Ed Legault:

Yeah, and once again, I think one of the things that we’re doing, is we work with our educators and Bay College is part of this, the Delta County or the ISD at the Escanaba High School is part of that, Doug Leisenring’s team. But what we’re doing is, we’re really having to change the vision with students, and in many cases, parents, that it’s not a necessity now for my child to go to a four year university and still make a really good wage, if their interests aren’t there. You know what I’m saying?

Ed Legault:

They are technical education classes that start in high school, and we’re going to start pushing those, actually, the interest into the middle schools and start doing some tours with some of our manufacturers. And what they have is, they’re going to go through the ISD, we’re hoping to do some apprenticeship type programs with those people at our manufacturers, because Michigan Works actually got a big grant to do that. And the other thing that we’re seeing a slight change, and this is through Dr. Coleman’s leadership.

Ed Legault:

In the past, their programs would’ve been two year degree type, technical programs. Well, what they found was, our manufacturers liked them to go for one year, and they learned and got up to speed, but then they would want to take them out of college and get them employed and train them on what I can do with my business. And unfortunately for the college, it looked like they dropped out, but they started their career.

David Haynes:

Right. That’s [crosstalk 00:21:08]

Ed Legault:

So, what they’re doing is, they’re going to come up with feedback from our manufacturers, some certification type programs that might be able to be done in a year to 18 months, and then they’ll have that certification that shows they’ve been successful in school, and be a better candidate to go to our manufacturers, or in many cases, I’m sure they’ll have a job already for them, or they may already be working for that company.

David Haynes:

Yeah, that’s great. That’s a great explanation of how that works. But Ed, I want to thank you. If I keep you much longer, your staff will never let me talk to you again when I want to have an interview in January or February, and I hope you’ll come back. I want to thank you.

Ed Legault:

I would love to come back, David. Thank you so much for the opportunity, and thank you for all you do and the insights you share with everyone else in the UP.

David Haynes:

Thank you, thank you. And Scott, who is the world’s best student researcher, thank you my friend for setting this up and getting it all done. And by the way, he’s a hell of a golfer. So, he plays on the NMU golf team. So, if you ever need lessons, you could say, “Hey, I gave you the interview, now you give me some lessons.”

Ed Legault:

Scott, I’m the former president at the Escanaba Country Club, so we’ll have to go out and play some.

David Haynes:

Yeah, there you go. Well, thank you both very much and have a great holiday.

Ed Legault:

Absolute privilege. Absolute privilege. Thank you.

David Haynes:

Take care.

Ed Legault:

Thank you.