A Retirement Open House is planned for Friday, Dec. 21^st, in honor of Cass-Atlantic Development Corporation Executive Director Russell Joyce. The event takes place from 10-a.m. Until 2-p.m., at the CADCO offices (14 W 6th St, Atlantic). Joyce has served the economic development organization for the past eight-years. Prior to that, he served on the Cass County Board of Supervisors. Reflecting back on his career, Joyce said beginning with his terms on the Board of Supervisors, one of the biggest things he’s seen happen that benefit the County and it’s communities, is passage of the Local Option Sales Tax, or “LOST.”

He said also, because of commitments made to facilities such as the Nishna Valley YMCA, the Ann W. Wickman Child Development Center and others, a lot of young professionals have made their home in Cass County, replacing aging baby boomers. The biggest challenge to bringing in more families and continued economic development, he says, is the state’s low unemployment rate of 2.9-percent.

Another challenge, is a skilled and semi-skilled workforce, which the local schools are trying to establish, as far as a “Skill-to-work” program. He said also, despite the amount of housing development that’s occurred over the past 15-years, “We need to look at development of more housing…but to create a place to build housing but is not an overnight project.” Joyce says the City or someone needs to develop some ground to build on. He says some people think CADCO may not be serving the smaller communities as well as well as they do Atlantic, but the reality is Atlantic needs the smaller communities for commerce and labor,” and vice-versa. “We try to do our best to serve the entire county, but it’s a challenge.”

As for what’s in-store for his future, Joyce isn’t ruling out another bid for the Cass County Board of Supervisors. CADCO Chief Administrator Jennifer McEntaffer assume the reigns as Cass County Economic Development Director, on January 1st.