Reading Celeste Beam’s article in the Echo Press on June 4th, I was elated at the great news for the county. Celeste said that the news was mixed, I didn’t see any “bad” news. Sure some of the sectors are down, such as employment in construction, but compared to what? Overall, Alexandria and Douglas County have come a long way. The migratory pattern of people will continue to trend towards Alexandria, hence, some of the outlying communities will continue to struggle for eternity to hold on to their populace, with very little success. The Alexandria area however, is solid, despite what is going on in the rest of the world. Here’s what was in the article:

West Central Initiatives representatives discussed the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, which is a 5-year region wide plan that incorporates economic development strategies throughout the region into one document. CEDS is designed to be a tool for counties and municipalities and take a look at such things as population, unemployment rates, wages, income and poverty. Here are some of Douglas County’s statistics as reported by Celeste:

~ The population in 2008 was 36,258
~ The unemployment rate in 2008 was 5 percent
~ Many of the communities in Douglas County experienced growth since 2002. However, there were a few exceptions – Brandon (-0.2 percent), Evansville (-0.1 percent), Forada (-2 percent), Millerville (-0.8 percent) and Nelson, which saw the greatest decrease (-9 percent). MOst of the communities lost only one person, but Nelson lost 17. Alexandria on the other hand , saw an increase; it grew by 40 percent since 2000.
~ The labor force has grown steadily since 1995 and although there was a steady decrease of the unemployment rate from 1985 to 2000, since 2000, the rate has increased by 1.3 percent.
~ The current unemployment (March 2010) for Douglas County was at 7.8 percent, which is still lower than the state and nation, and is one of the lower unemployment rates in the region.
~ The 2008 median family income for Douglas County was $58,801.

Source: Echo Press