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Janet Leslie

I’ve used this quote in columns before, but it often comes to mind when seeing so many of us in Holly fumbling jointly and separately toward more prosperous days. President Ronald Reagan said, “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”

Recently, I’ve talked to a number of people who are concerned that there are too many organizations in Holly that are working toward a goal of economic development, and yet there is too little work being done. 

There’s nothing wrong with looking at our local organizations and saying, “This one should do this,” and “This one should do that.” We all have our visions of a perfect world, and we’re entitled to express them. We’ve all also seen examples of how things have been done differently in different times or in different places, and there’s nothing wrong with pointing out that there is another way. In fact, that can be very helpful. But one person’s help is another person’s criticism. Some of us have never known life without criticism, and so we are inured to it and simply use it to learn and to grow. Some of us take it personally and that’s okay too. It’s just the way some folks process the information. And they are entitled to speak up if they don’t like what has been said. We can talk endlessly about who should do what, when and how.

But none of this should ever get in the way of “what a man can do or where he can go.” 

There are many organizations in this community whose intent is to inspire economic development. We have the Village of Holly Downtown Development Authority, the Holly Area Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Holly Merchants, and the Holly Area Economic Development Task Force. Each of them has a different approach, and each of them can work together or separately, as the various projects demand. Some of them are restricted by state law, some have by-laws, and some are ad hoc. Each method of organization provides different advantages, which lend themselves to different projects. 

That does not mean that these organizations are in competition. Each one does what it can do to help Holly. I find economic development to be a little like feeding the hungry. If the Catholic Church and the Baptist Church both have food pantries, they don’t get mad at one another for duplicating efforts. They each just try to feed as many people as possible. It doesn’t matter that they are both working on the same problem. It just matters that results are realized.

All that is needed to ensure that the various groups working towards economic development are working together, and not at cross purposes, is mutual respect and a shared vision. 

The Economic Development Task Force, being a joint effort between the village and the township, has made its mission the creation of a community vision statement. This statement is being developed by first gathering information from the community at large in the form of the market research survey developed for us by Great Lakes Creative. The development of the survey questions included submitting the survey to the Chamber of Commerce, the DDA, the Village Council, and the Holly Township Board of Trustees for input. The Chamber of Commerce volunteered to contribute resources to the survey project, and the EDTF has also asked the DDA to contribute. And of course, should the survey be funded, while the EDTF would oversee the process of collecting and reporting the data, the results will be shared with all of the participating agencies and with the public at large. Once the EDTF begins writing a community vision statement, that process too will make the rounds of the same community agencies, and possibly others, for input. 

I expect that any one of the groups working towards economic development in Holly would answer the call of another agency that requested their help. This is the kind of collaboration that allows multiple agencies to work towards mutual goals, while still retaining their independence and unique projects. And this is the kind of collaboration that allows our community to succeed without limit, not minding who gets the credit.