The Chamber's high-tech committee is wrestling with the question of how to approach our task. You have several other institutions already engaged in promoting development, all trying in some way to encourage high-tech, high paying jobs. We are not anxious to duplicate the good efforts already taking place. The Chamber's high-tech committee is just at our third meeting and very much in the exploratory stage. A. Education is very clearly a major issue to be solved.
Companies use the Internet for research before deciding whether to move to a community.
Before they ever visit, they know what our school scores are. In one of our meetings, we asked our members to score various economic and infrastructure development strategies. A related challenge is labor force availability. Companies like Publix, Highlander Engineering and NextGen Technologies tell us they have to go all over the world to recruit skilled employees. And in our efforts at Saddle Creek to recruit professional employees, we don't see the pool we would like to see.