Newport looking to track grads in bid to stop 'brain drain'

NEWPORT -- For years, Newport -- along with most other small Arkansas towns -- has seen youngsters leave the area to attend college in bigger towns and then never return.

The director of the Newport Economic Development Commission wants to change the trend that business experts refer to as the "brain drain." Rather than losing people to migration, he wants to attract locals back to the town on the banks of the White River.

It's a reversal of sorts of the old Thomas Wolfe novel You Can't Go Home Again, commission Director Jon Chadwell said.

The commission is working with three University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service students this fall who plan to develop a database of graduates from Jackson County schools. The database will include the graduates' current addresses, their careers and other contact information.

Officials will then use that collection of names to recruit for businesses, make connections with potential donors on big projects and seek political pull across the state.

Chadwell said it's hard to get back youngsters who are lured away from a small town by a bigger city's excitement, entertainment and job opportunities.

"Young people, after graduating, don't think it's exciting here," Chadwell said. "They want to go out into the big world. But after they've been gone for four or five years, we may look a little better.

"We want to bring them home," Chadwell said.

"It is a multilayered issue," said Greg Hamilton, director of the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. "You have youngsters leave El Dorado for college, and they don't ever go back. You have Little Rock youths go to college and go on to Dallas, and they don't come back.

"The opportunities are always in the bigger cities," he said. "The grass is always greener elsewhere. It's a common phenomenon."

Hamilton said he can't track youth migration from the state. The U.S. Census provides population figures every 10 years, but those don't include specific migratory figures.

Newport was once a thriving river town. In the 1950s, Newport was ranked 10th in the nation in cotton production and 11th in soybeans, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.

The town grew to 8,339 in 1980, but three major employers closed operations and 1,200 workers were left without jobs in the early 1990s, Chadwell said.

The U.S. Census counted 7,879 people in Newport in 2010 and 7,731 in a survey taken last year.

The town's unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in June 2014, the latest statistics available from the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services. The state's unemployment rate in June was 6.2 percent.

"Newport is not a dying town," Chadwell said. "Things are looking better. Newport [residents] said we better do something."

In 2002, voters approved a countywide half percent sales tax earmarked for economic recruitment.

Now, Chadwell and his commission want to help pull those who have left back home, using the project's database. They feel that people who have roots to the community are more likely to return and build lives there than are newcomers.

For example, a Newport company needed to hire two certified public accountants a few years ago and contacted the Jackson County town's Economic Development Commission.

The commission found two qualified candidates who had no ties to Newport, and the business hired them. They stayed for a couple of years, but then both left for other jobs.

"They didn't have ties to our area," Chadwell said. "That happens a lot. The first good offer that comes up, and they're gone."

Shanell Ramson, a Clinton School of Public Service student from Columbia, S.C., is one of three students developing the project.

"We want to hit the ground running," she said. "We want to lay the groundwork for creating an economic boon here. We hope eventually, people will want to move back to Newport.

"We've already found that 800 people travel to Newport from around the area to work. Maybe we can increase the population by having them move back."

Alex Lanis of Ada, Okla., and Joyce Akidi from Kampala, Uganda, are working with Ramson. They have until April to develop the database. They plan to contact county schools to get graduation records for the past 60 years and then track each graduate's location.

It's not the first time the city has teamed up with Clinton School students.

Last year, three students conducted a study on the Arkansas 367 bridge that spans the White River. Known as the "blue bridge," the 83-year-old span will soon be replaced. Local officials wanted to determine if it was feasible to preserve the bridge and convert it into a walking trail or park.

In addition to trying to recruit people to return to Newport, Chadwell hopes to use the list of graduates for any major fundraising the city may have.

He also wants to know their locations so he can contact them and urge them to talk to their state legislators about any opportunities Newport and Jackson County have. For instance, Chadwell said, Newport may soon develop a U.S. veterans memorial park and would seek federal funding.

The Clinton School of Public Service is looking at this plan as a pilot study and, if it's successful, would likely use it in other cities, Chadwell said.

"This is how we can find a way to control our destiny," Chadwell said. "People leave when they are young, but the older ones can have something to come back to. They can help their hometown."

SundayMonday on 09/21/2014

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