Sandwich City Council creates $45K per year economic development, tourism post

The Sandwich City Council wants to hire someone to bring more economic development to the city.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, the majority of City Council members voted to create an economic development and tourism position. The part-time position would pay $45,000 a year with benefits.

Fourth Ward Alderman Rick Whitecotton was the only dissenting vote. After the meeting, Whitecotton declined to discuss why he voted against creating the position.

The person hired for the position would help market vacant properties within the city.

“We certainly have a lot of prime real estate out by the hotel that we need to start marketing,” Sandwich Mayor Todd Latham said. “We’ve had a little bit of growth, but we need to be a little more proactive in that.”

Latham said the city needs to use its residential growth to help fuel commercial growth.

“I’d hate to see us not take advantage of that,” he said.

Fourth Ward Alderman Fred Kreinbrink said the City Council also needs to take measures of its own to promote economic growth.

“As a council, we should probably change some of our requirements to make it more affordable and economical for these developments to take off,” he said. “So if the downtown buildings are empty because of some of our requirements that we have in our code, maybe the code should be changed. And I think that would have to take place on the front end.”

Latham said several surrounding communities have economic development directors.

“It’s about time that we get one and be a player in the game,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

Second Ward Alderwoman Rebecca Johnson spoke in favor of the idea.

“We want business to come here,” she said. “We don’t want to just keep taxing our homeowners because that’s all the revenue we’re going to get. I’m absolutely in favor of hiring somebody that has the background or some knowledge of how to go about finding those businesses that are looking for a home.”

Latham said the city is looking to fill the position in the spring.

“We’ll take our time and get it right,” he said.

The person who is hired is expected to start at 30 hours a week, Latham said after the meeting. Given its size – Sandwich has a population of about 7,000 – he said the city does not need a full-time economic development director.

“We will get to that at some point,” he said.

Latham said the person who is hired will help the city be proactive when it comes to economic development.

“We’re not going to wait until people show up,” he said. “We’re going to go out and find businesses and companies that want to come here.”