tl;dr Let’s put the future of Fremont into the hands of someone with a vested interest in long term success.

News broke last night at Cecilia Harry, the executive director of the Greater Fremont Development Council (GFDC) will be moving on to a new job as the President and CEO of an economic organization in Fond du Lac, WI around the end of June.

For those of you who do not know, the GFDC, and Cecilia in particular, were the main proponents of Costco and Lincoln Premium Poultry moving to the Fremont area. The courting of such a large corporation was met with lots of strife. The vocal opposition showed up in force to Fremont City Council meeting and filled many town hall meetings with talk of pollution, harmed ground water, noise, traffic and an increase low-wage labor. Those in favor of the project pointed to the massively increased economic activity in the region if the project were to come to fruition.

Fremont is already the home of many food and dog food processing plants. Costco and Lincoln Premium Poultry would be just another, albeit large, tenant in an already industrial town, right?

As I outlined in some earlier blog posts, I am not 100% opposed to the Costco project. I wish they would have gone about it different and I also wish they were more transparent and honest about the risks a project of this magnitude has. But if the projected numbers were in their respective ballparks, it would be hard to argue that Costco wouldn’t be an economically good thing for the region… at least on paper.

But with the departure of Cecilia, I call to question whether this project was spearheaded with Fremont’s best interests at heart. I always knew Cecilia was a temporary player in Fremont. She moved here from Leavenworth, KS just 4 years ago. She’s highly regarded in the economic development community, winning numerous awards from all types of economic development organizations. There was no way in hell she was sticking around Fremont for very long. Fond du Lac is definitely a step up in both city population and title for her. To which I say, kudos to her for that accomplishment.

But it upsets me that she was instrumental in bringing such a controversial project to town that has consequences that could last decades or more and she will not be around to see it through. She has essentially acted as a mercenary- coming in to do the dirty work, reaping the accolades from landing a project this large, and then leaving without having to deal with the aftermath. However, the problem does not lie with Cecilia; the root of the problem is the GFDC.

The life long citizens of Fremont are the ones who have to now live with the decisions she and the GFDC have made. Many of the GFDC leaders are also members of the ‘upper class’ of Fremont who won’t have to deal with day-to-day realities that will be disrupted now that Costco is coming to town.

To combat this from happening in the future, and now that the GFDC will be going through a transitionary period to find a new Executive Director, I’d like to see them “hire from within”. Don’t bring in another national, rising-star type from Anywhere, America to come and make long-term decisions for Fremont. Look inside of Fremont to find someone who has a vested, lasting interest in the longevity of our community. Fremont is blessed with hundreds of talented and passionate folks who spend every hour of their day working to make Fremont better and her citizens happier.

If you make your bed, you should have to sleep in it. Always hire local first. Make sure the next GFDC Executive Director has a vested interest in seeing Fremont succeed for generations to come.