ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A rising tide lifts all boats

In 1963 President John F. Kennedy used this phrase in reference to a major economic development project.

The popular belief is that the President’s speech writer, Ted Sorensen, first saw this phrase on a sign. It was the slogan for a regional chamber of commerce, the New England Council.

How do those words apply today, to Adams County?

In 2007, when a group of community leaders and stakeholders gathered around a table to discuss the idea of forming a nonprofit economic development council, we quickly adopted the mantra that “What is good for Othello is good for Ritzville, etc.”

That theory als...