GRANT COUNTY
Enriches Experience
A Cast-iron Constitution
In 1911, three papermakers incorporated a Marion company built on a better part for a paper machine. More than a century later, Bahr Brothers is still pouring metal on South Lincoln Boulevard. Drawing on local archives and a conversation with President Tim Street, we trace how shared gains, new methods, and local owners kept it here.
The Plate, the Cabinet, and the Cake
Three Grant County factory floors, three unrelated products, and one shared constraint. A Business Retention and Expansion visit to Huhtamaki, American Woodmark, and Cafe Valley finds all three limited not by orders or equipment, but by people, and each answering that constraint in its own way.
Workforce as Economic Development: Career Pathways, Sector Partnerships, and WIOA Basics
Walk the floor of nearly any manufacturing plant in Grant County and you will hear some version of the same conversation: the work is there, the wages are competitive, and the company would hire more people tomorrow if it could find them. That is not a recruitment problem. It is a pipeline problem, and pipeline problems are economic development.
Business Retention and Expansion: Helping Existing Employers Grow
Most economic growth starts with the employers already here. This post explains how a listen-first Business Retention & Expansion approach can help Grant County businesses solve problems early, coordinate support, and grow with confidence.