Bank, and Brad Dillon of Gilliland & Hayes, WSU President
John Bardo is among the leaders of the BREG initiative, an
economic development effort. For more information, visit
www.bregsck.com.
Back in 1997, 27 Kansas cities signed the first intergovernmental agreements forming the South Central Regional Council of Governments.
In 1998, the council adopted the name Regional Economic Area Partnership.
Today, REAP is comprised of 24 city and county governments in a nine county region in south central Kansas.
Last fall, REAP and six other entities, led by Wichita State University, partnered with a consulting firm to help develop a grassroots regional strategy for growth centered around “high performance clusters.”
This initiative resulted in the Blueprint for Regional Economic Growth, which has identified regional clusters (aerospace, oil and gas production and transportation, machinery and metalworking, agricultural inputs and processing, transportation and logistics, data services and electronic components, advanced materials, health care) and is seeking input and participation from the private sector from a 10 county region – all for the purpose of enhancing the economy of south central Kansas.
Leaders of the initiative – including WSU President John Bardo; Charlie Chandler, chairman and CEO of INTRUST Bank; and Brad Dillon, founder of Gilliland & Hayes LLC – held the first of a series of town hall meetings April 2 in Newton, Kan. The next town hall meeting is slated for July 10 at the Derby Welcome Center in Derby, Kan.
BREG's ongoing fact-gathering, economic analyses and industry meetings are set to continue through the summer months, with preliminary findings made available to the partner entities in fall 2015. These results will be used to refine WSU's innovation campus concept and assist REAP with the concept of a regional brand for south central Kansas.
