Ruston

RUSTON, LOUISIANA lion dollars in infrastructure work-everything from new streets, to newwater and sewer lines, to a new animal shelter, to a new sports complex that will be one of the most environmentally-friendly sports complexes in the country.All the rainwater runoff will be used for irrigation.And then, everything that’s sold in the concession stands will be served in a recyclable container.Our city started a curb side recycling program in January of this year.And the thing is, our city has really embraced all of the changes and our partnership with the university has never been stronger.” And then there is Monster Moto, a company which produces youth motorized bikes and go- carts, and was looking to move its manufacturing from China to the United States, and more specifi- cally to Texas. “We were working with this locator who helps companies find new places,” says Walker,“and Mon- ster Moto was looking.They had selected a city in a neighboring state and basically,we just begged, and borrowed, and everything else to get them to come here and look at us.They came for a day and a half.We showed them the town.We talked about how special this town is. We had businesses that are locally-grown businesses that could be located anywhere-Dallas,NewYork,Dubai -wher- ever, but they’ve chosen to keep their home offices here.Then the real sales pitch was,we took them to the engineering building at Tech, expecting to be there an hour or two, and they spent four and a half hours down the basement of the engineering building, talking to students and seeing what the students were doing on eco-cars and everything else, and they just fell in love with what that uni- versity could provide. But they had already com- mitted to go to Texas. “About three weeks later they called and said, ‘Hey.This isn’t exactly what we thought we were going to get in Texas.You know, let’s talk some more.’The only thing we did from an incentive standpoint was we had an old airport here in Rus- ton that was partially used for some recreational soccer fields but then the rest of it was just va- cant. So we turned that into an industrial park.We actually donated some land to what we call LEDC, which is Lincoln Economic Development Corpora- tion, in Lincoln Parish,where we are located.They turned around and negotiated a very reasonable lease to a private investor here in town,who built a hundred-thousand-square-foot building to Monster Moto’s specs.Then we guaranteed the lease for two years. Since this was a relatively new company,we guaranteed that if the company should go broke or go out of business,we guaran- teed the lease for two years or we can buy it back at a discounted price.” This is a city that took a risk and reimagined itself as a better representative of who it really was.And when it did that, everything just seemed to fall into place. (Well, finding itself plus the hard work of infrastructure building and taxation). But it really seems it asked, and continues to ask,what would make people want to live here,work here, Leverage our lean construction management and engineering experience to deliver large-scale revitalization projects Whether you need help with project management, construction assistance or detailed engineering design—no matter if you’re a municipality or business owner—our technical experts provide solutions that deliver results, on-time and within budget. www.hga-llc.com Delivering on commitments. Building long-term relationships. © 2017 Hunt Guillot & Associates LLC. All rights reserved. HGA201707.0014 2017 ENG Top Design Firms List 2017 Zweig Groups Hot Firm List We deliver innovative engineering designs to overcome challenges during construction HGA_BusVIEW_Vad_opt2.indd 1 7/27/17 2:01 PM