Douglas County economic development leaders were in Baldwin Tuesday evening in the first of four meetings to gather input on a new countywide plan to attract jobs and industry to the area.

What a small Baldwin audience told members of the Lawrence/Douglas County Economic Development Board, which is in the process of rewriting the economic development chapter of Horizon 2020, is the community is interested in small-scale industrial development. However, community members are primarily concerned about giving residents opportunities to spend their money in Baldwin.

“We know there are always going to be a lot of people who live here but work somewhere else,” Baldwin Mayor Ken Hayes told the group. “So for us, it’s not so much a question of people working outside the community, but really of making sure those people spend their money here whenever they have a chance.”

The community would be interested in receiving help with establishing a new industrial park, but leaders said they don’t envision the town becoming a major hub of activity.

“My vision would be that we have some small industries to provide some jobs, we have more services for those people who live here, but we would always be a bedroom community of sorts,” said Bill Harmon, president of the Baldwin Chamber of Commerce.

The economic development board will be having meetings in each of the county’s four cities in the coming weeks. Board member Jean Milstead told the audience the board was looking to develop new strategies to enact the county’s economic development goals of employment growth, tax-base growth, and income growth.

The board will next meet at 7 p.m. Monday in Lecompton at the Northeast Kansas Education Service Center, 601 E. Woodson Ave.

The board hopes to present a new plan to commissioners to consider by June.