By DOUG WILSON
Herald-Whig Senior Writer
Jim Mentesti spent his final hours as president of the Great River Economic Development Foundationn putting the spotlight on the community, the region and the organization he loves.
"It's kind of unique, I think, in a town our size to have an entity like this to do the economic development work in harmony with city officials, county officials and state officials," Mentesti said.
After nearly 27 years of service to GREDF, Mentesti is retiring but will stay on temporarily as a consultant while the search for a new president is conducted. Phil Conover, a former GREDF Board chairman, has been named interim president.
After years as "the face of economic development" in Quincy and Adams County, Mentesti is ready for a slower pace.
Now 73, Mentesti moved from the GREDF Board to become executive director of the organization in 1986 after the death of Al Sellers.
"If you go back to those early days, we were still in a world of hurt because of the 3,500 jobs that were lost when Motorola closed and the 1,500 jobs that were lost at Electric Wheel," Mentesti said.
The loss of those quality manufacturing jobs -- in 1976 and 1982, respectively -- was a huge economic blow. The community of 42,000 had unemployment of 10 percent or higher for years.
The county's unemployment rate is now 6.8 percent, the second-lowest in Illinois, trailing only neighboring Brown County.
The entities that merged to become GREDF were formed to "stabilize the jobs and establish a strong economic development program," Mentesti said.
Over the years, GREDF has seen lots of economic development successes and has adopted a broader mandate to boost quality of life, work cooperatively across county and state lines, and provide funding for some vital projects.
Among GREDF's success stories, Mentesti can see several that led to secondary developments:
º GREDF took on the responsibility of filling the Edward Schneidman Industrial Park southwest of 24th and Koch's Lane. The success of that 106-acre park helped attract other developers, and the city now has more than 500 acres of industrial parks.
º Mentesti helped locate the 160 acres of previously undeveloped land where Knapheide Manufacturing moved along North 24th Street after the flood of 1993. To accommodate the major employer, better roads, electric infrastructure, and water and sewer systems were built. That allowed for the construction of Wis-Pak Inc., where Pepsi-Cola and other soft drinks are bottled, on North 30th. Other businesses that have moved to the area include ETC Computerland, an Army Reserve site, Allied Waste, a Mississippi Belle Distributing facility and a Schwan's Home Service site.
º A downtown development study done by Teska and Associates in the 1990s was originally seen as a script for development between the riverfront and Eighth Street. GREDF officials asked that the area be expanded to 12th Street. Quincy Medical Group and Blessing Hospital became part of a central business district that has been greatly redeveloped. Blessing Hospital recently broke ground to build a new $70 million patient tower.
º Street and infrastructure work along the East Broadway and East Maine corridors was launched with $20,000 in seed money supplied by GREDF in concert with the similar investments by the Illinois Department of Transportation, the city of Quincy and Adams County.
º The Geographic Information System -- an interactive map viewer that allows users to see maps of Adams County, showing property lines, addresses, photographs, streets and historical information -- was completed with funding from GREDF as well as other key partners.
º Home Depot was recruited and built at 54th and Broadway, helping the business community expand beyond the Frank Strieby Expressway along the Broadway/Ill. 104 corridor.
In each success story, Mentesti shares the names of many partners who made the development possible and mention's GREDF's support status. Business owners, city and county officials, financial institutions, and others made the developments happen. GREDF was a partner, he said.
Conover knows from his time on the GREDF Board that Mentesti often stood in the back row at groundbreakings. In other cases, there were no groundbreakings as businesses built or expanded quietly.
"Many of the things GREDF is involved with are strategic and confidential. It's a fairly delicate walk Jim had to do for 27 years," Conover said.
Confidentiality keeps Mentesti from telling about "a few deals" that still might come together in the coming months as he works alongside Conover and the search begins for the next GREDF president. Board Chairman Tim Finlay hopes to find a president by next spring.
Regional efforts
Mentesti said the flood of 1993 was the second disaster that shaped GREDF and lots of regional partners.
When West Quincy was flooded, local employers saw how reliant they were on workers from Missouri and Iowa. Retailers saw how their customer bases shrank. And Quincy-area workers who had jobs west of the Mississippi River saw the importance of the bridges and roads.
Leaders across the region recognized they were closely tied with citizens and businesses from other states. That recognition gave birth to the Tri-State Development Summit, which has brought together political, business and civic leaders from Western Illinois, Northeast Missouri and Southeast Iowa.
The first Summit gathering convened in 1996 at Canton, Mo. Mentesti tells how a pair of journalists at that initial summit meeting told him the regional effort had great potential.
"At the beginning the Summit was just going to be three or four annual meetings to get people working together" across state lines and county lines, Mentesti said.
The Tri-State Summit now has met nine times, alternating meetings between Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. It also has expanded to include 35 counties, with task forces working on key areas such as agriculture, transportation, entrepreneurship and river issues. GREDF has provided the staff and support network for the Summit.
Mentesti often explains how regions that work together benefit from "speaking with one voice."
The Summit's success in major highway projects that cross state borders led other communities to adopt similar regional efforts. Two of those younger summit organizations are centered in and around Rockford, Ill., and Cedar Falls, Iowa.
"This is what can happen in one decade. Think what can happen in the next decade," with both the Summit and GREDF, Mentesti said.
Conover said the Tri-State Summit is a success because participants get involved in "big picture thinking" where everyone wins.
Continuity
Conover said it is an honor to be selected as interim president and he plans to "work hard at leveraging the legacy" established by Mentesti and GREDF.
"The equation always reduces itself down to people. Jim is the best that I've ever seen at bringing just the right people together at just the right time ... to make things happen," Conover said.
He said it's a luxury to have Mentesti stay on as a consultant so there is continuity within GREDF. Not only will Mentesti be a familiar face, but so will other staff members.
Charles Bell directs the Entrepreneurship Center, Pete Pohlman is GREDF's energy specialist, and Megan Backs is the business development manager. Maggie Strong is in charge of marketing and public relations. Nikki Albright is the office administrator, and Connie Hoyt is an office assistant working on several special projects.
Mentesti said members of the GREDF Board add their own strengths to the organization, representing Quincy, rural Adams County and other entities crossing state and county boundaries.
"I was just looking at some of the groundbreaking pictures, and I counted seven GREDF Board chairs who were involved in leadership roles," Mentesti said.
Quiet recognition
Mentesti was in a grocery store after news of his retirement went out Wednesday.
"A man said thank you. I wasn't certain I knew what he meant, and I asked him what he'd said. He said, ‘Thank you for everything you've done,' " Mentesti said.
Something similar happened when he held the door for a lady the next day and she thanked him for his service to the community.
Mentesti has an equal sense of pride in being "accepted as a member of the community" in what he describes as a beautiful and extraordinary place.
Among the community's strengths, he listed the 93 percent occupancy rate for buildings in the Historic Quincy Business District, a daily newspaper, several over-the-air television stations with even more channel listings, colleges in and around Quincy, the Mississippi River, a community foundation with more than $12 million invested, and many other amenities.
"We have 100 manufacturers, 25 trucking companies and a ton of other stuff here that you don't have in most communities of this size," Mentesti said.
"We've got something special here."
-- dwilson@whig.com/221-3372
Jim Mentesti, outgoing president of the Great River Economic Development Foundation, reflects on his time at the organization during an interview Friday in the Oakley-Lindsay Center. (H-W Photo/Phil Carlson)
Phil Conover, who will head up the Great River Economic Development Foundation on an interim basis, speaks during an interview Friday in the Oakley-Lindsay Center. (H-W Photo/Phil Carlson)
Jim Mentesti, second from left, is shown at the news conference in September 1986 when he was introduced as the new executive director of GREDF. (H-W File Photo)
