Rickey Hayes, an economic development consultant came to Altus Tuesday, Oct. 4. His seminar on Economic Development was sponsored by the Altus Chamber of Commerce.

Altus City Council member Dr. Rick Henry introduced Hayes and commented he was glad to see five major groups in attendance. The event, held at Southwest Technology Center, had representatives from the City of Altus, Jackson County Commissioners, many local businesses, the Economic Development Commissioner and the Altus Chamber of Commerce.

Hayes showed a short video that highlighted some of the changes he and his company, Retail Attractions, LLC, had brought to Owasso, Okla. "Retail is the only thing that will increase sales tax revenues," Hayes said. His company acts as a liaison between cities and major retailers. Retail Attractions currently works directly or indirectly with some 60 cities in the U.S., coordinating retail development.

Hayes first became acquainted with Altus about four years ago, he said. The same retailers that were building to suit Air Force base populations in Enid, Okla. and Jacksonville, Ark. inquired regarding other cities with Air Force bases. Hayes said he called former City Administrator Mike Nettles and appraised him of the retailers' interest in Altus. Retail Attraction's cost for a market analysis was and is $7,500. City of Altus administration then declined to have a market analysis done to pursue possible retail development, Hayes said.

Hayes asked attendees, "Who's selling your city?" Then he answered with, "Look at your web site. The Altus web site is bad...The City site, the Chamber site, the Altus Schools site should all reflect Altus is a great place to live," Hayes said.

Altus is really a multi-billion dollar business. Its citizens need to recognize that. Hayes asked if there are people in Altus that "run off" business by greed or bad attitudes.

Using an analogy of sales tax revenue being the lifeblood of cities, Hayes asked how much blood are we hemorrhaging to other cities in our region. We need to identify that "leakage" and determine the retailers where people are spending their money. He feels that Altus has enough "muscle" from a combination of the money infused into the community by Altus AFB and by people from other communities that would come here to major retailers.

It is now, once more, up to City administration to determine whether they would like Retail Attractions, LLC to perform a market analysis and coordinate between Altus and major retailers who might be interested in coming to our corner of the state.

For more information about Retailers Attractions, see their web site www.retailattractions.com.