It was a glimpse into the past and the future Oct. 22 as long-time economist and former small town mayor Bill Fruth was the featured speaker at the Coweta Economic Summit held at the Centre for the Performing and Visual Arts in Newnan.

The highly animated Fruth explained at the outset that growth in local economies works like money that mixes and churns in a bucket. But there is a hole in the bucket and the money is draining out, Fruth said.

“The dollars leave and go to the places where the products we buy come from unless you’re able to replenish it by importing money,” Fruth said.

The way that is accomplished, he said, is by attracting and establishing the “primary” or contributory industries, whether large or small, that create goods and services that are needed in other communities and other regions. Often functioning as employers with higher pay rates, primary industries sell their products outside the local economy and import the money from those sales back in to the local community.

“And the growth in quality depends on the wage level of the primary industries in a community,” said Fruth.

Fruth cited four characteristics of primary industry employers he said were consistent nationwide. Those included selling goods and services outside the local economy and importing money back to the area, being influenced by geographic location that influences operating costs and, thus profitability, the ability to successfully market their products outside the local area and the willingness to move to another location if the area they are in becomes unprofitable.

Fruth said on the other side of the economic coin it are “consumptive” or dependent industries that use and consume the money generated by primary industry.

So where does Coweta stand in the overall picture of economic reality compared to other regional counties and the nation? For his analysis, Fruth used data from 363 metropolitan areas across America.

From the 2002-2006 period, Coweta ranked 7th in the U.S. population growth and 23rd in the growth of new jobs. But in annual wages Coweta ranked 359th. And looking at data from 1977-2006 pertaining to how the community averages in earnings compared to the U.S., Coweta, like Fayette, began the period with an average of 80 percent, but decreased by 2006 to 65 percent and with Fayette doing marginally better at 70 percent. And like other counties in the metro Atlanta area, approximately 50 percent of Coweta’s employees travel outside the county to work.

Looking to the future, Fruth said Coweta’s geographic location near metro Atlanta and its proximity to a significant transportation infrastructure already in place should support the acquisition of primary industry. To that end, Fruth offered a prediction that the next primary industry paradigm will be in the manufacture of energy, whether as oil, coal, nuclear, natural gas or alternatives, though he did note that corn-based ethanol was not a part of that equation. Fruth said most communities are 10 years behind the paradigm so successfully identifying the next hot industry and finding a way for primary industry to locate in the community can only benefit the future.

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