Stillwater Business Park and Recreation/Tourism

Is Stillwater Park Our Future? Should it be? What about Recreation and Tourism?

We recently read that Turtle Bay “delivers $9.6 million” to the County last year. Not bad for a Park that receives $350,000 from the City each year to attract visitors from near and far. So, how do the “experts” come up with $9.6 mil? A complicated formula, no doubt, but seems to be based on the theory that the income that Turtle Bay generates is equivalent to 233 full time jobs in the area. These jobs would then provide income that would in turn be spent on living expenses here in Redding, which would in turn generate sales tax, property taxes, and a lot of other jobs that would create income, and on and on.
OK, I’ll buy that, to a degree. However, what does this “income” really tell us? It tells me that “tourism pays”. So, why aren’t our City leaders looking at ways to increase tourism/recreation dollars? In fact, maybe the tourism/recreation “industry” would be a good fit for Shasta County? Maybe even as logical to pursue as big industry coming to Stillwater Business Park.

Since my theory of “tourism/recreation” as our major industry will be discussed, down-played, and dismissed by smarter folks, I broadened my thinking to include all of the other sources of recreation/tourism dollars that flow into the City. There is the hotel-motel tax that is paid for every room occupied. Taxes are paid by Win-River and the 3 movie complexes. From Water World to Shasta Caverns, folks pay for this recreation and part of what they pay flows in as tax income to the city. How about the gas tax that is paid to the City, a good portion of that coming from out of town “tourists”. And so it goes. We are talking some “big bucks”, and yet, what are we doing to increase this “industry” if you will?

Stillwater broke ground a few weeks ago, and there was an excitement in the air that we would start seeing new businesses announce they were coming to Redding. We are all hopeful that they will, but will they? Over the past few years, a number of the new businesses, some in manufacturing and hi-tech have come, and gone. My thought is that it could be that we are not looking at the “right business or industry for our area”. Maybe we might consider going after industry that is related to what we seem to be doing pretty well, the recreation and tourism “industry”. Think about it: boats used on our lakes and rivers are built in Oregon, and the equipment used in fishing and water sports is a big business and made someplace, but not Redding. Ski equipment for both water and snow sports are manufactured in various parts of the country, but not in Redding. Bikes for many uses are sold in a number of local stores and come from all over the world, but not from Shasta County. RV’s are sold and repaired here, but are built in Montana or Mississippi. Even swimwear and snow attire could be made here, and the list of recreation/tourism related products goes on. It might be very interesting to be able to go visit the plant where your boat was being built, or see how snowboards or skateboards are made. And, of course, when one company finds that we have a great work force, a reasonable cost of living, and an exceptional quality of life, the word will spread.

Wishful thinking or naivety? Maybe. But the fact that we have all of the uses for these various products within a short distance does make a lot of sense to a manufacturer if only from the shipping and transportation aspect. Certainly makes sense to me to seriously look into this potential industry, especially when we don’t have many others lined up at the gate to get into Stillwater Park. But, just my view.
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