Olney Designated in the Top 100

Olney -- The city of Olney, Illinois has received a designation as being in the Top 100 U.S. Small Towns for Corporate Facilities, new and expanded, from 1998 to present.

The announcement of the special designation was made in a special presentation by Mary Heitzig, Executive Director of the Richland County Economic Development Corporation during the Olney City Council meeting Monday evening, March 11. Several members of the RCDC Board of Directors were in attendance at the meeting for the announcement.

Heitzig announced the award, saying Olney is joined by nine other Illinois Cities in sharing the highly coveted designation. The selection is made by Site Selection Magazine, the official Global Magazine of Business Strategy and Official publication of the International Development Research Council. Olney shared the rank of 63 with Litchfield, Illinois. Other Illinois cities receiving designation includes Danville, Peru, Effingham, O'Fallon, Jacksonville, Quincy, Monmouth and Mt. Vernon.

The 2001 Governor's Cup was awarded by Site Selection to the State of Illinois, followed by the State of Kentucky in 2nd place and State of New York in 3rd place. All 50 U.S. Governors and their top Economic Development Officials participated in the competition that ranked the states according to 10 criteria, each of which counted 10 percent towards the state's ultimate score. Site Selections New Plant Database from which the selections were made is the most exhaustive source of corporation location data available. NPD contains information on more than 110,00 corporate location projects dating from 1998, including manufacturing, distribution, office, R&D, headquarters and other facility types.

The Top 20 States with Small Town Projects in 2001 was headed by Illinois as number one, with 21 towns.

Heitzig said she was thrilled with the designation for Olney and the information will now be included on the RCDC web site and all marketing materials. "It pleases me because it proved that regardless of how small or large a community is, it can be as successful or more successful than others when everyone works together. I salute the Mayor, City Council, City Manager and the Board of Directors of the Richland County Economic Development Corporation. Those businesses and individuals in the community who support us financially know by this special designation of our dedication and desire to make our community economically sound and progressive."

Heitzig continued saying: "if you look at the map, you will find that Olney is the only Illinois community receiving designation without direct Interstate access. Also, Olney is the second smallest in population size with 8,631. Litchfield, directly served by Interstate 55, has a population of 6, 815.

The balance of the Top 100 U.S. Small Towns were from North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, South Dakota, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Tennessee.