Civil Municipal - May 2024

Chipotle will be opening soon. The city partners closelywith the Covington Chamber of Commerce, and this partnership spawned a joint venture called the Covington Economic Development Council (CEDC). Formed in 2002, CEDC started as an initiative to help existing businesses “survive and thrive”. Today, it’s so successful that it helps bring awareness not just to existing businesses, but to new ones as well. Last year, CEDC created a program called Business2Business (B2B) which is focused on providing targeted, specific, personalized support to businesses throughout the community. There are currently ten CEDC members, and each one is assigned a business zone that they are responsible for supporting. Members visit businesses in their assigned zones several times per year to discuss their unique needs and how the city can better support them. COMMITMENT TO SAFETY A direct benefit of the Business 2 Business program is that the city receives meaningful feedback on how to improve the community. One finding that’s come out of this feedback is the collective desire to improve public safety. The costs surrounding public safety have skyrocketed, and someone needs to pay for this. So, the council made this a priority and brainstormed different approaches to help fund more public safety measures. They surveyed community businesses and got an incredible return rate, which is a testament to the relationships that the council has fostered with these businesses. 85 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 05 COVINGTON, WA