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Doyle visits Vision Beloit
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| Staff photo by Ashley Rhodebeck Beloit City Manager Larry Arft greets Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle Tuesday morning at the grand opening for Vision Beloit, a downtown facility Doyle described as a “one-stop shop” for information about the city. |
By Ashley Rhodebeck
Daily News staff writer
Governor says city taking ‘right steps' at grand opening
A flat-screen TV played silently in the Vision Beloit lobby as people - among them city, town and school officials - navigated about the loosely packed crowd Tuesday, waiting for Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's arrival for the Vision Beloit center's official grand opening.
Vision Beloit first welcomed the public in early December, but the open house didn't match the fanfare of this week's event, during which local dignitaries and the governor saw Beloit's City Center for the first time.
“I'm really impressed,” said Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit. “I love refurbished and recycled old buildings like this.”
Located downtown at 500 Public Ave., the facility occupies the former Wisconsin Power & Light building, and, Beloit 2020 President Jim Fisher said, its sole purpose is to act as a marketing tool for the four organizations it houses - Visit Beloit, the Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Beloit Association and the Greater Beloit Economic Development Corporation.
Beloit 2020 spearheaded Vision Beloit's formation and envisions it to become the cultural, social, educational, economic and civic center not just for Beloit, but for the 110,000 people living in the greater Beloit area.
“It's great to see it come not to the conclusion but to the beginning,” Fisher said two-and-a-half years after making the idea a reality.
Beloit, Fisher continued, has never had a place to bring developers, potential businesses or families thinking of moving here to show them where the city has been, what it has accomplished and what the future may look like.
“You're taking all of the right steps,” Doyle told the crowd. “This is a beautiful space that helps bring everyone together.”
The importance of helping surrounding communities, such as Clinton, South Beloit and Janesville, grow was a message first stated by Fisher - he said, “The region is where the real growth comes from” - and was echoed by the governor and state senator.
“It ends the competition and rivalry,” Robson said, saying the synergy between collaborating communities affects job growth.
Doyle also said Beloit is in a “strategic location” for economic growth because it's a major manufacturing center, close to metropolitan areas and is near agriculture producers - prime conditions for what Doyle said is to come. In the next 10 to 15 years, he said, the states that do well be ones that devote a significant part of their workforce to jobs involved in creating energy.
“We can understand the world is coming in this direction from the south and in this direction from the north,” Doyle said.
A flat-screen TV played silently in the Vision Beloit lobby as people - among them city, town and school officials - navigated about the loosely packed crowd Tuesday, waiting for Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's arrival for the Vision Beloit center's official grand opening.
Vision Beloit first welcomed the public in early December, but the open house didn't match the fanfare of this week's event, during which local dignitaries and the governor saw Beloit's City Center for the first time.
“I'm really impressed,” said Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit. “I love refurbished and recycled old buildings like this.”
Located downtown at 500 Public Ave., the facility occupies the former Wisconsin Power & Light building, and, Beloit 2020 President Jim Fisher said, its sole purpose is to act as a marketing tool for the four organizations it houses - Visit Beloit, the Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Beloit Association and the Greater Beloit Economic Development Corporation.
Beloit 2020 spearheaded Vision Beloit's formation and envisions it to become the cultural, social, educational, economic and civic center not just for Beloit, but for the 110,000 people living in the greater Beloit area.
“It's great to see it come not to the conclusion but to the beginning,” Fisher said two-and-a-half years after making the idea a reality.
Beloit, Fisher continued, has never had a place to bring developers, potential businesses or families thinking of moving here to show them where the city has been, what it has accomplished and what the future may look like.
“You're taking all of the right steps,” Doyle told the crowd. “This is a beautiful space that helps bring everyone together.”
The importance of helping surrounding communities, such as Clinton, South Beloit and Janesville, grow was a message first stated by Fisher - he said, “The region is where the real growth comes from” - and was echoed by the governor and state senator.
“It ends the competition and rivalry,” Robson said, saying the synergy between collaborating communities affects job growth.
Doyle also said Beloit is in a “strategic location” for economic growth because it's a major manufacturing center, close to metropolitan areas and is near agriculture producers - prime conditions for what Doyle said is to come. In the next 10 to 15 years, he said, the states that do well be ones that devote a significant part of their workforce to jobs involved in creating energy.
“We can understand the world is coming in this direction from the south and in this direction from the north,” Doyle said.
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