Launch Stone County marks progress in year one

Table Rock Lake Chamber of Commerce officials say its five-year economic growth plan announced last summer has reached a $1.25 million investment goal well ahead of a housing study expected to be released this fall.

Called Launch Stone County, the initiative aims over a five-year period to improve the community in the areas of business retention, expansion and recruitment; workforce development and housing; marketing for tourists; and community development.

Chamber President and CEO Sheila Thomas said the plan’s initial target for financial pledges was $1.1 million.

“We were very pleasantly surprised at the response from the business community and the government community,” she said, adding the 45 investors comprise area businesses – ranging from banks to real estate agencies – as well as individuals and government entities, such as the cities of Branson West and Kimberling City. “We set a new goal, kind of a stretch goal of $1.25 million.”

The stretch goal was reached earlier this year, Thomas said. Chamber efforts to secure pledges were aided by community member testimonials shared via social media and YouTube. Several of those featured co-chairs of the Launch Stone County campaign. Co-chairs include Silver Dollar City President Brad Thomas and Stone County Presiding Commissioner Mark Maples.

“We’re not actively seeking funds anymore because we have the money to fund what we said we were going to do,” Sheila Thomas said. “Now it’s time to actually do the work.”

Setting goals
According to a prospectus on the chamber’s website, Launch Stone County’s goals include:

• Working with businesses to determine workforce challenges
• Soliciting a countywide housing study
• Developing an inventory to identify local workforce skill requirements
• Creating an annual marketing plan
• Adding an intergovernmental cooperation council
• Identifying potential public-private facility improvements

Stone County currently ranks 56th in the nation for the number of small businesses, and tourism is the county’s major economic driver, according to the chamber website. Additionally, the chamber said Table Rock Lake, located primarily in Stone County, has over 800 miles of shoreline and draws around 6 million annual visitors.

Another co-chair of the campaign is Cassie Cunningham, vice president and chief growth officer at White River Valley Electric Cooperative Inc. Aside from helping promote Launch Stone County, she said White River has pledged $25,000 toward it.

“There really was a need to get everyone aligned with collective goals, resources and partnerships,” she said, adding White River also occasionally aids the chamber in marketing efforts and legislative affairs. “Seeing that this Launch Stone County initiative could do that, we found it would really move the needle in further developing an already fantastic community but looking to support more of the business landscape. In doing that, we provide more opportunities for the residents and the visitors.”

As for project goals, the countywide housing study is now in progress, Thomas said, adding the chamber is investing $450,000 over five years on it with Pickerington, Ohio-based Bowen National Research.

The cost is for the study as well as potentially implementing recommendations that may come from it, she said.

Thomas said part of the Launch Stone County plan focuses on workforce development, but with an emphasis on workforce housing. She said a common desire the chamber hears from the business community is a need for more residential choices for its employees.

“Anecdotally, we have a lot of very expensive lake homes in Stone County. And we have a lot of kind of, frankly, substandard housing in some areas,” she said. “But we don’t have a lot in the middle, and we don’t have a lot of income-based housing. It’s just not available.”

The plan also calls for identifying and connecting potential developers with city, county, state and federal incentives, including the Missouri Housing Development Commission, to build or rehabilitate workforce housing.

By the plan’s third year, it seeks to create 25 housing units, contingent on development requirement timelines. In year four, the number increases to 30 housing units, followed by 35 units in the fifth year.

Additionally, the initiative seeks to assist 15 businesses in the first year and create 10 jobs from expansion or retention. The plan aims to increase the job growth number by five jobs each subsequent year, reaching 30 jobs by the fifth year. 

One of Launch Stone County’s goals was reached earlier this year, as the chamber hired its first economic development director. Kyle Cook started in February at the chamber after nearly eight years working at Springfield-based real estate development firm Miller Commerce LLC. Cook is responsible for implementing Launch Stone County, which he said has included strategic planning.

“I have spent a lot of time trying to meet with each of our investors in our campaign, and to promote our area’s assets to regional developers,” he said via email. “We continue to build relationships with our federal, state and local economic development partners throughout this initial process.”

The initiative also set a goal to design and develop a tourism information center, which Thomas said was achieved late last year when the chamber purchased a former Simmons Bank branch at 16407 State Highway 13.

She said the chamber board of directors had been seeking a new office space for years as its longtime home at 14226 State Highway 13 was simply too small at 2,200 square feet. Noting Cook was hired to become the chamber’s sixth employee, Thomas said the only place that would have accommodated him in its former office was the basement.

“We had a meeting room that would sit like six people, and our board is 18 people and so we had no room for our board to meet,” she said.

The total investment for the 13,000-square-foot building, which includes purchase, renovations and furnishings, was $1.1 million, Thomas said, stressing no money pledged to Launch Stone County was used in the transaction.

“We had saved money for 10 years. As long as I’ve been here, I’ve tried to save money,” she said, adding she started in her chamber leadership role in 2014.

Business support
Eric Simkins, vice president of commercial lending at Branson Bank, is among those who serves on the chamber’s board. He said the bank also is a Launch Stone County financial supporter, declining to disclose the bank’s contribution.

“We believe strongly that Stone County needs an economic development engine to help drive growth in the county. We have seen what the Taney County Partnership has been able to do in Taney County and we want to see something similar happen in Stone County,” he said, referring to the economic development arm of the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce & Convention and Visitors Bureau designed to attract and retain businesses to the Branson area.

Simkins said the bank is committed to support the communities it operates in, noting Launch Stone County is a great opportunity to do so. Branson Bank has five branches among Branson, Branson West and Forsyth.

Nick Morris, an independent insurance agent who operates his own Branson West office of Texas-based HealthMarkets Insurance Agency Inc., said he personally pledged $25,000, spread out over five years.

“I believe in the vision of Launch Stone County, which is to make this county a more viable place to live, work and invest in,” he said via email. “Our chamber does a great job promoting the area, but the more we, as the business community, can do to help make this area more attractive to other businesses and people looking for a place to relocate in general, the better it is for all of us in the long run.”

While Thomas said Launch Stone County is making notable progress, she hopes the initiative has legs beyond the next four years.

The county is showing signs of population growth that officials say they expect will continue. Stone County’s population was 32,658 in 2023, a 5.1% increase over 2020’s 31,076 total, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

“My feeling would be that this plan would then evolve into a plan for the next five years following that,” she said. “I don’t think you can ever just stop and say we’re done. We want to be having good growth. And when I say good growth, I don’t mean just uncontrolled growth and things just being thrown up faster than we can count, but planned, logical growth.”