Josh Dorrell, CEO of the Wyoming Business Council, called into the Weekday Wakeup to discuss results form a recent poll conducted regarding public input on growth in small communities across Wyoming.

(0:00) Speaking now with Josh Durell, he’s the CEO of the Wyoming Business Council. (0:05) And Josh is on the air with us again today to talk about some polling results (0:08) done with the business council and the impact they’ll have across the state (0:11) and even locally in our communities. (0:13) Josh, good morning.

Thank you for your time today. (0:16) Tell us about this poll that was conducted. (0:17) First off, what was the poll for? (0:19) You bet.

Well, we ran a poll to understand (0:22) how the public viewed growth in their communities. (0:26) We run into all the time people saying, well, gosh, Wyoming doesn’t want to grow. (0:30) And that makes it really tough to do economic development.

(0:32) So we said, well, is that true or not? (0:35) And so we did a poll of 514 registered voters across the state. (0:40) And we found that overwhelmingly people actually do want to grow. (0:44) And that’s a myth that we don’t.

(0:47) And so we’re really excited to see those results and share them with folks. (0:51) So when you look at some of the results across the state, Wyoming, (0:54) as we’ve as we’ve talked about, it’s it’s so hard to it’s such a big state (0:58) with so many different communities. Right.

(1:00) And so when you talk about places like Casper and Cheyenne and Gillette (1:04) and compare those to places like small town, Kemmerer, (1:07) Diamondville, Afton, Alpine, Thane, (1:09) how do you distinguish between those types of different communities? (1:13) Fantastic question. (1:14) We did focus on we did focus the majority in some of those counties (1:19) with bigger cities, however, I believe about 200 of the voters (1:23) were from the rural communities in Wyoming. (1:25) And what we found is that there are differences indeed.

(1:29) But in terms of what we’re seeing overall, (1:32) is that the majority of people want to grow. (1:35) And they’ve also been feeling the pain of their loved ones (1:39) having to leave the state for better opportunities. (1:41) About 53 percent of the respondents said that they’ve had family members (1:46) or friends that have had to leave the state for better opportunities (1:49) and they don’t know if they’ll come back.

(1:51) Yeah, and we see a lot of times graduates leave after graduation (1:55) and don’t ever have a chance to come back. (1:57) Yeah, absolutely. (1:58) Josh Durell, this morning, CEO of the Wyoming Business Council (2:01) on the weekday wake up.

(2:02) So what do you do with this information now, Josh? (2:04) And what does the Business Council move forward now from here? (2:08) From here, the reason we did that is we wanted to understand (2:11) how do we make sure that we’re making the right investments (2:14) that not only are right for the economy, but are also in line (2:18) with what the public wants. (2:19) And the public said, look, we need to we need to focus on creating (2:23) more job opportunities and funding infrastructure in our towns (2:27) so that we can grow. (2:29) And so we use this information to to make decisions.

(2:32) But we also use this information to help our leaders in the legislature (2:36) and in the governor’s office (2:37) to understand what the public is feeling when it comes to the economy. (2:42) Josh Durell, CEO of the Wyoming Business Council on the weekday wake up. (2:45) Josh, appreciate your time and touching on this this poll and the results.

(2:49) Anything else on on this topic you’d like to mention (2:52) while we have you on the air today? (2:54) No, you know, more than anything, if people could visit Wyoming Business (2:57) dot org and tell us a little bit about their experiences with the economy, (3:01) we would love to hear from them and learn more about what’s going on (3:04) in your community. (3:06) That’s Josh Durell, Wyoming Business Council this morning on the weekday wake up.