With that vision expressed by County Commissioner Louenda Downs, she praised the addition of Marlin Eldred as the county’s new economic development coordinator.
As explained to the county’s mayors and other key officials last week, his job will be to help foster business relocation, expansion and retention.
He began his duties early this month and replaces Kent Sulser. Sulser took the lead position of the new Economic & Community Development Department, replacing Wilf Sommerkorn, who took a position in Salt Lake City.
Eldred has held a variety of related positions, most recently as economic development director of Jerome, Idaho for five years. It is a growing city of about 9,000 residents north of Twin Falls. Areas of focus were business park development, business recruitment, expansion and retention.
Prior to that, he held the same position for Emery County, Utah.
The Sandy native holds an MBA degree from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Utah.
“We had a stellar pool of candidates, with the experience and background, vision to move us forward,” Downs said.
“He has a very impressive resume, certainly caught our eye,” said County Personnel Director Mel Miles. “I’m glad we could snag him.”
“I am excited to put my knowledge and talents to use for Davis County,” Eldred said. “I have a lot of ideas to help strengthen the relationship between the cities and county and move forward with Davis Economic Advisory Council (DEAC).
“We have increased the focus in this new position to purely be economic development,” Downs said. “There are so many opportunities on the horizon in Davis County,” making it prudent to dedicate the position to that function.
She noted such mammoth projects as Falcon Hill, where tens of thousands of jobs could be created over the next 20 years, to Station Park in Farmington, East Gate in Layton, and more.
“We’ve added 2,500 acres of business park development, so we will have (more) workplaces in Davis County. We’re still sending 45 percent of our workforce out of the county on the daily commute,” Sulser said.
“We are now poised to take on a different aspect of economic development – to recruit and develop within the business parks,” he said.
“Marlin is going to be a real resource to assist with promotion, to help us further develop those sites,” Sulser continued.
“A lot of what he does will be to work through those (various) agencies, look at recommendations that come from the council (DEAC),” Downs said.
“He’ll help us utilize those 85 community leaders, both public and private, to help continue with focusing on our main goals of economic development, by splitting our department,” out of planning, Sulser said.
“He has great vision, he’ll infuse that, bring his experience. We’ll just really move forward. Our plan is to do some incredible things,” she said.
Eldred’s starting salary is $72,134 per year.
tbusselberg@davisclipper.com
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