Oconee leaders get tips from industry site selector

The director of Oconee Economic Alliance, Richard Blackwell, will accompany a professional industry site consultant from Greenville this afternoon for a look at Oconee County’s newest industrial park—the Information and Technology Center on south highway 11. Although Didi Caldwell’s company is located in Greenville, she has more than 10 years of site selection experience in the U-S and across the globe. The 11-month old Oconee Economic Alliance held its annual meeting and luncheon today at Duke’s World of Energy. Caldwell spoke of the company plant locations in which she played a role and gave the Oconee leaders ideas and tips on what employers are looking for—especially those who make up the heavy industry segment of economic development. At the start of the meeting, Blackwell extolled the progress made during the first year of the public-private partnership. He spoke of five major job creation projects so far in 2014 and predicted there would be another good announcement before the year is up.