What is SWEDA?
SWEDA was formed in the late 1990’s, after community leaders realized having a part-time development authority wouldn’t attract the industry Springfield/Washington County needed to stay vital, much less grow.
“We had a volunteer board with no special training and no experience except the school of hard knocks,” said Chuck Polin, chairman of SWEDA and long-time director of its predecessor. “We realized that if we really wanted to make a splash, we had to have a full-time economic development director.”
That required bringing Washington County into the fold, for the original board was just for the city of Springfield. The county leaped at the chance, and SWEDA was born.
Polin said the effort has paid off. “For years, we took everything for granted,” he said. “Now, we’re a town of about
3000 people, and we have
1,100 manufacturing jobs. Very few counties, if any, of comparable size in Kentucky can say that.”
Hal Goode, SWEDA’s executive director, said the agency has three main tasks:
recruit new industry, retain existing industry, and provide workforce development. In the past 10 years, he said, the community’s industrial base has diversified. That’s an effort that will continue.
We’re trying to bring in high-skilled jobs, technical jobs,” he said. “
In the next 10 years, we’ll continue the emphasis on automotive suppliers, but also diversify into wood products, biotechnology, and plastic injection molding.”
What it means, he added, is that Springfield/Washington County “wants to find that perfect fit for a manufacturer.”
