Four teams are at work with clear goals and new energy to move them along. They are:

Talent Lives Here is an initiative aimed at one of our long-standing ambitions, which is to increase the number of local college graduates who will choose to remain in the Tallahassee area as young professionals. The approach, specifically, will be through enhancement of internship experiences in businesses and organizations. The link is strong between where students have internships and the communities where they settle and thrive, because they’ve made connections and gotten to know the community outside of the campus “bubbles,” that students often never leave during their university experience. Interested? E-mail William Smith at Smith.William@ccbg.com.

Identify Tallahassee and Illuminate Tallahassee are two sides of one initiative that focuses on growing Tallahassee’s economy through an enhanced sense of place. This means recognizing special districts — like Midtown, G-Street (that’s Gaines Street), SoMo (that’s South Monroe) — for their unique qualities and enhancing Tallahassee’s visual appeal through art, arches, murals and other visual projects, with a focus on the urban core. Interested? E-mail jdrevell87@yahoo.com or mike@trusteria.com.

Explore Outdoors is such a natural. It will focus on informing newcomers as well as longtime residents about existing outdoor activities so there is more awareness of and participation in physical, cultural, historical and educational outdoor opportunities in this region. The flagship, to encourage an active lifestyle, will be an adventure race in August, with live music, food and vendors. Interested? E-mail lmille@cob.fsu.edu.

Start Up, Start Up is all about fostering a greater entrepreneurial climate in this region, especially in the areas of technology, research and development. This initiative will include identifying all the resources and organizations that can provide financial and/or consulting assistance to young, small businesses through a comprehensive Web site and with a mentoring focus. Interested? E-mail john.webb@freedomfabrication.com.

All of these ideas have been talked about off and on for years to some extent, and the KCCI program has such promise because it involves committed, well-focused volunteers with time-certain goals, the organization and human energy to advance these community-enriching ideas as never before.

With all the challenges and disruptions that the slow economy has brought about, we salute KCCI and all its volunteers in this year’s catalyst projects for stepping up and contributing so enormously and optimistically to this place we call home.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a first-of-its-kind move, wants to use Florida’s extensive database on water bodies to establish broad categories of pollution limits, instead of continuing the state’s lake-by-lake and river-by-river approach.

Florida’s process of developing custom-made pollution limits for individual rivers and lakes is a slow approach that even state authorities admit hasn’t been able to reverse the decline of Florida’s water quality.

Rusty Wiygul, director of grower affairs for Florida Citrus Mutual, told the crowd that the EPA’s proposal contains many unknowns to worry about.

Wiygul, whose family has farmed in Florida for four generations, said farmers don’t know if the federal rules would require them to build large ponds for holding dirty water, cut back on fertilizer or take other costly steps.

“You can regulate us out of business,” Wiygul warned. “That’s a scary thing.”

James Payne, representing the enormous Deseret Ranch, which covers large portions of Orange, Osceola and Brevard counties, said: “You often wonder how much regulation a cow can carry on her back.”

EPA officials heard from lawyers, scientists, engineers, farmers, fertilizer makers, paper makers, sewage-plant officials, environmentalists and anti-government advocates, all gathered in a large south Orlando hotel for the second of three public hearings the federal agency is conducting in Florida this week.

The EPA hopes to use Florida as a test for its regulatory approach — which is likely to face lawsuits — with an eye toward expanding it to other states.

An often-repeated theme at Wednesday’s hearing: The EPA rules would put Florida agriculture at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with farmers in other countries.

Another complaint: State pollution problems should be left to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, an agency often subjected to heavy pressure from Florida industries.

Speakers also challenged details of the scientific assumptions behind the EPA proposal as well as the basis of the agency’s Florida intervention.

Outside the hotel, a dozen protestors who support the Tea Party movement waved signs such as “EPA stay out of lakes.” Inside, Lynne Grace of Space Coast Patriots of Brevard County, another Tea Party supporter, said the Washington bureaucrats should go home soon.

“I’m beginning to think we need protection from the federal government,” Grace said. “You really don’t have any business in our Florida waters.”

The first dozen speakers were largely opposed to the federal rules.

Next to step to the microphone was David Guest, managing attorney in Tallahassee for Earthjustice, who appeared to briefly surprise the anti-regulation advocates with his forceful environmental message.

Guest’s group is part of the coalition that sued the EPA, alleging failures to uphold federal water-quality laws in Florida, which resulted in a settlement in which the U.S. agency agreed to step up enforcement of federal environmental laws in Florida.

Guest said pollution-fed algae is ruining many of Florida’s major and most important waters, including some of its famous springs.

“Who is talking about that? Nobody, and that’s the problem,” Guest said, interrupted briefly by hecklers. “This is killing the economy, and we can’t pretend that it is not.”

The EPA’s proposed regulations are aimed at the ordinary chemicals — forms of phosphorus and nitrogen — that plants need to grow.

Delivered to lakes and rivers by urban and agricultural runoff and in sewage-plant discharges, those chemicals can become pollutants that help breed smothering outbreaks of algae.

One speaker urged the EPA to carefully consider the comments from its hearings.

“You have never seen pushback like you’re going to see from Florida if this thing is pushed down our throats,” said Wade Grigsby, president of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association.

EPA officials are on track to make the rules final later this year.

Kevin Spear can be reached at kspear@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5062.

Kandimalla and Dudley are working on biotechnology projects, researching and developing active organic ingredients for use in medicine and everyday household items. Their young companies are utilizing resources and business support that are critical for the firms’ eventual success.

“All this started with a dream,” said Kandimalla, who owns the startup DiscovRx. “A lot of things needed to happen for us to get here.”

DiscovRx is using lab space at the small business incubator in Innovation Park to research and redesign all-natural oils in skin creams for babies and children. Kandimalla applied for one of Innovation Park’s Technology Commercialization Grants and was selected for funding.

Because of the grant and Innovation Park’s facilities, Kandimalla said he has the lab space he needs at an affordable rate, leaving him with resources to develop a Web site and brochures.

“I’m doing what I always wanted to do,” said the Florida A&M University School of Pharmacy professor. “I’m in academics, and most of my peers are in the industrial field. I thought I was missing out. It’s like a lawyer who studied law and has never been in the courtroom.”

The Leon County Research and Development Authority created the Innovation Park Technology Commercialization Grant program five years ago. The recipients are awarded up to $15,000 to help them develop their technology-related businesses, commercialize a technology and market the resulting products. The Research and Development Authority has awarded more than $200,000 in grants since the program was started.

Besides the grants and the incubator program, Linda Nicholsen, Innovation Park executive director, said the

Entrepreneurs Karunya Kandimalla and Greg Dudley both believe that if it were not for the Small Business Development Center at Innovation Park, they would probably not be able to pursue their business goals.

Kandimalla and Dudley are working on biotechnology projects, researching and developing active organic ingredients for use in medicine and everyday household items. Their young companies are utilizing resources and business support that are critical for the firms’ eventual success.

“All this started with a dream,” said Kandimalla, who owns the startup DiscovRx. “A lot of things needed to happen for us to get here.”

DiscovRx is using lab space at the small business incubator in Innovation Park to research and redesign all-natural oils in skin creams for babies and children. Kandimalla applied for one of Innovation Park’s Technology Commercialization Grants and was selected for funding.

Because of the grant and Innovation Park’s facilities, Kandimalla said he has the lab space he needs at an affordable rate, leaving him with resources to develop a Web site and brochures.

“I’m doing what I always wanted to do,” said the Florida A&M University School of Pharmacy professor. “I’m in academics, and most of my peers are in the industrial field. I thought I was missing out. It’s like a lawyer who studied law and has never been in the courtroom.”

The Leon County Research and Development Authority created the Innovation Park Technology Commercialization Grant program five years ago. The recipients are awarded up to $15,000 to help them develop their technology-related businesses, commercialize a technology and market the resulting products. The Research and Development Authority has awarded more than $200,000 in grants since the program was started.

Besides the grants and the incubator program, Linda Nicholsen, Innovation Park executive director, said there is additional help available from the Florida A&M University Small Business Development Center staff to help entrepreneurs develop their business plans, sharpen their financial management skills and learn various marketing methods.

re is additional help available from the Florida A&M University Small Business Development Center staff to help entrepreneurs develop their business plans, sharpen their financial management skills and learn various marketing methods.

The program takes place at the Florida State University Conference Center, 555 W. Pensacola St. On the program are five panelists who will discuss various aspects of transportation research, policy and technology.

“Fundamentally, we are at a crossroads where we are going to have to rethink how we use energy,” said Susan Glickman, a member of the Florida Business Network for a Clean Energy Economy. That dialogue must include transportation, she added.

Glickman will moderate the panel discussion. Speakers include Britta K. Gross of General Motors, Kathy Beck of the Global Rail Consortium; state Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach; Mary Ellen Hogan of law firm Bryant Miller Oliver; and Tom Gustafson from the Lehman Center for Transportation Research at Florida International University.

Glickman said a goal of the program is to examine the low-carbon economy not just from the standpoint of electric utilities, but in transportation as well. “This is an area where there hasn’t been as much attention as it deserves.”

Space is limited. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to futureoftransportation@gmail.com.

The 2010 Northwest Florida Legislative Dialogue was convened Monday morning at the DoubleTree Hotel by economic development organization Florida’s Great Northwest and Our Region Tomorrow, a Tallahassee-based consortium of Big Bend leaders. They invited members of the area’s legislative delegation to hear the case for the region’s business growth and what it will take.

Bo Taff, economic development task force chair for Our Region Tomorrow and executive with Foley Timber & Land Co. in Taylor County, described the area as a participant in a knowledge-based economy, where talent, ideas and understanding can flourish. That does not mean, however, that knowledge becomes a commodity or a product, he said.

“Rather, a knowledge-based economy is born on the idea that advancements in knowledge become a tool to form solutions that meet the needs and demands of a global economy looking for answers,” Taff said.

Al Wenstrand, president of Florida’s Great Northwest, said another sector, aerospace and defense, will play a big role in the future economy, pushed by the research and development of systems and hardware at Eglin and Tyndall Air Force bases and the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City.

Wenstrand said there are now 1,900 companies from Tallahassee to Pensacola that are working in aerospace and defense, or are providing support services of some type. Together, they have generated 70,000 jobs. “These are also the ones that kept growing during the Great Recession,” he added.

The challenge will be preparing the work force for jobs in science, engineering, information technology and related fields. State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, told the gathering that the funding resources the state does have need to be redeployed so that more students can be readied for employment in the new economy.

Performance-based business incentives will take the place of grants and similar forms of funding, Gaetz said. The state’s budget cutting has officials looking “for opportunities to do things better and smarter and sooner.”

Richard Williams, executive director of the Chipola Regional Workforce Development Board, echoed that sentiment. He stressed that more resources should be devoted to supporting technical education programs.

“I am really sick and tired of having these conversations about what the DOE needs,” he said of the Department of Education’s curriculum requirements. “What about what the companies need?”

One of his community’s projects has been to get teachers out into the work place to visit local industries and have them become better acquainted with what the firms do and what skills they seek when recruiting.

Along Detroit’s Woodward Avenue, a downtown stretch that seems permanently stuck in the “emerging” phase of business development, community leaders are hoping a new light rail system will help spark a renaissance. The city plans to break ground this year on stage one of a $420 million project: the first modern, mass-transit initiative in a city long synonymous with automobiles.

“Transit in Detroit has kind of been a joke,” says Matt Cullen, CEO of M1 Rail, a private consortium heading the development effort. “We’ve been a victim of balkanized politics and other efforts. But now we have a plan in place. We’ll get it done, and we feel it will have a huge impact on this region.”

In most cities, civic cash would pay for major infrastructure projects like a new mass transit system. But in Detroit, which faces a $300 million annual budget deficit, private backers have stepped in to try to kick-start the venture.

It’s the only project of its kind in the U.S., and the donor list reads like a Who’s Who of area megamillionaires: Compuware (CPWR) CEO Peter Karmanos, Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, Penske Corporation CEO Roger Penske and Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch are among those ponying up $125 million to cover the project’s entire phase-one price tag.

The planned 3.4-mile first stretch of light rail service would encompass some of Detroit’s best-known entertainment districts, including Comerica Park, home of baseball’s Tigers, and Ford Field, where the Lions play football. The route winds past the Fox Theater district and extends into Detroit’s New Center area, the center of gravity for many local hospitals and medical facilities, as well as much of the Wayne State University campus.

“With this light rail system we will have a much greater concentration of business investment possibilities,” says Rip Rapson, CEO of the Kresge Foundation, which awards grants to nonprofit organizations in a variety of fields. The foundation has committed $35 million to the M1 Rail project.

The obstacles
Is a rail line the best way to bring much-needed shoppers into Detroit’s retail zones? That question — and political skirmishes over funding for the rail line’s future extensions — kept the M1 plans stalled last year.

Proponents say there’s little to lose.

“If we can pull something off of this magnitude I think businesses will see Detroit in a different light,” says Sarah Hubbard, senior vice president of government relations for the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Business leaders have come to the table and are ready to act on this. It’s going to be as much of a psychological benefit as anything.”

Khalid Diab, manager of The Whitney — a high-end restaurant on Woodward Avenue — sees the rail line as “free advertising” for businesses on the route.

“You’re not zipping by at 50 miles an hour. Your attention is on what you are passing by, rather than the road you are driving on,” he says. He thinks trains could make downtown Detroit a more popular nighttime destination.

But some on the proposed route are skeptical.

“I just don’t know how significant the impact would be, because most of our foot traffic drives and wouldn’t take mass transit anyway,” says Kevin Prihod, CEO of the Detroit Science Center.

Funding is another challenge. M1 was ready to break ground last year, but the project went on temporary hiatus when Detroit’s Department of Transportation got involved. DOT had its own light-rail plans percolating, for a more extensive system reaching several miles further to 8 Mile Road, the traditional dividing line between urban Detroit and the city’s suburbs. (Eminem’s 2002 movie 8 Mile popularized the cultural boundary.)

DOT had plans, but not enough cash. Its executives hit on a novel solution. The rail project would qualify for federal matching funds if Detroit coughed up a chunk of the project’s cost. Could the $125 million in M1 Rail funding — contributed entirely from private backers — be used to fulfill the matching-funds requirement?

It can. In December, Congress blessed the unusual maneuver, tucking approval for it into an omnibus spending bill. With that green light, it’s game on for the rail construction.

The first, privately financed phase — built and operated by the M1 consortium — plans to start construction by the end of this year and have trains running by 2012. The second stage, adding at least 4.5 miles of track at an estimated $250 million price tag, is tentatively scheduled to start soon after 2012. The federal government will pay 80% of its cost, with the city of Detroit picking up the bill for the remaining 20%.

Civic planners hope the sight of trains carrying shoppers and workers through Detroit’s fledgling business corridor will win over the project’s doubters.

“Once we build this system, the benefit will become obvious to everyone — residents, business leaders and politicians,” says Norman White, Detroit’s CFO and former Department of Transportation director. “Already, we are getting calls every week about when ground will break and when we can get this project off the ground.”

The unstated hope is that a light-rail system will do more than simply move people around. It’s a sign of progress and modernization — and a selling point for the young, creative professionals Detroit wants to retain and attract. Southeastern Michigan has suffered youth exodus, thanks to its tepid job market. Cities like Chicago, Boston, New York and San Francisco lure new residents in part because of their extensive mass-transit systems.

There’s precedent for this kind of transit revitalization. In 2004, after three years of construction and more than a decade of political wrangling, Minneapolis launched a new 12-mile light-rail service connecting the city’s downtown with its airport, the Mall of America and several suburbs. In just two years, the line’s weekday ridership topped 25,000 — a target the rail’s developers didn’t expect to hit until 2020.

“[Minneapolis] is an almost identical process to what we’re working with here in Detroit,” says the Kresge Foundation’s Rapson, a Minneapolis native who worked on the city’s light-rail development. “Getting the federal funds, though, is a key.”

Even skeptics are willing to be won over. “Anything that brings people to downtown is good, and none of the non-profit or business leaders I have spoken to see a downside,” says Prihod of the Detroit Science Center. “Now we just need to see if it gets completed.”

Diab, The Whitney’s general manager, gives the line an “80% chance” of happening.

“This rail system is the start of a new page in the city’s growth and development,” he says. “We haven’t received a lot of positive news over the years here in Detroit, but this is great news for the city.”

Belinda Keiser, who is vice chancellor of community relations and student advancement for Keiser University, spoke at the Professional Women’s Forum at the Civic Center, outlining her thoughts on developing the kind of world-class talent that will build the state’s economy.

“Technology drives our innovation, but we know that human talent makes our growth and competitive edge happen,” she told the gathering, a program of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce that was sponsored by Premier Bank.

Keiser University, which has 18,000 students and nearly 40 locations in Florida, has its own focus on technology. A Keiser campus in Central Florida offers courses aimed at the emerging biotechnology field, she said.

Keiser is the second-largest producer of licensed practical nurses in the state and sixth largest producer of registered nurses. It was the first in the nation to offer an online bachelor’s degree in business taught in Spanish, Keiser said.

She encouraged local businesses to get involved in the schools and support education at all levels.

Composed of 47 members from various fields and professions, the Workforce Florida board directs the state’s own efforts at developing the labor force. Some work is done through the state’s 800 career academies that expose young students to various professions. Other projects identify the skills that employers need in their personnel, and how workers already in the labor force can expand their training and move up the career ladder.

The rate at which technology advances and the competition for skilled workers only adds to the urgency.

“It drives the point home that we are in a race. We are in a competitive race for talent and Americans are known for creativity and leadership, and so this is a call to action,” Keiser said.

The Nature Conservancy originally bought the property because of its significant resource value and its key location: It forms a two-mile boundary with the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and a three-mile boundary with the Aucilla WMA.

The Conservancy acquired the land as part of a 10,000-acre transaction in January 2008 from Flint Rock Investments, LLC after it was sold by St. Joe Timberland Company of Delaware, LLC. The land is part of the St. Joe Timberland Florida Forever Project, a top-21 ranked project, and is also valued for its future benefit to allow species and habitat to adapt to climate change.

“The state greatly expanded connectivity between the Aucilla Wildlife Management Area and the St. Marks on an almost nonexistent north/south corridor of public managed lands with this purchase,” said the Conservancy’s Callie DeHaven, public lands protection manager in Tallahassee. “We are grateful to be able to continue to assemble these landscape linkages and for the partnerships we continue to forge in working to benefit future generations.”

The property is part of a vision for a landscape linkage that includes the 2008 Wood Sink purchase to the north, important to the water quality of not only the St. Marks River but Apalachee Bay and the estuary at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. The land provides habitat for an abundance of wildlife, and the adjacent refuge is a known aggregation area for wading birds, waterfowl and songbirds — in the fall an astonishing migration of monarch butterflies occurs. In addition, the tract is home to important species such as Florida black bear, river otter, Eastern indigo snake and flatwoods salamander.

“Folks that are familiar with the project, when they learn that they have these endangered birds right here are very excited and curious to learn more,” said International Crane Foundation outreach coordinator, Joan Garland.

The Whooping Crane monitoring team was on hand and its members say bird enthusiasts interested in the endangered crane have a lot to look forward to.

“Its a great experience. We really enjoy it. We’ve been doing it a long time. We take great pride in it and we take great pride in the effort,” said Whooping Crane expert, Brooke Pennypacker.

Area residents say the festival provided valuable information and most importantly it highlighted Saint Marks and the surrounding areas.

“It’s really good for the kids. Real educational and it really gets to showcase what Wakulla county’s’ got to offer,” said Wakulla county resident, Lian Callaghan.

“I’m a Wakulla county resident and I really enjoy Wakulla county’s history. It’s a beautiful day out here today and I just love coming out here to see our historical sites that we have out here,” said Wakulla county resident, Rashelle Donaldson.

The festival ended on Saturday and residents have a simple message for those who didn’t’ make it out.

“You’re sure missing a lot if you’re not coming out here,” said Tallahassee resident, Chase Sumner

Organizers say the festival and Whooping Cranes will continue to climb to new heights in years to come.

Whooping Crane monitoring team members will be available to answer questions on Friday’s and Saturday’s throughout the month of February.

“Go Gadsden,” the effort to reinvigorate the economy, has its work cut out for it. The county has one of the highest unemployment rates of any in the area and is still recovering from one of the state’s largest single layoffs at the end of 2008 at Quincy Farms, where 500 workers were let go.

“We’ve got the county commission, all six municipalities and a lot of stakeholders pointed in the right direction,” said David Gardner, executive director of the Gadsden County Chamber of Commerce at Go Gadsden’s meeting last week. “We’re excited.”

Go Gadsden’s objective is to promote the area and draw attention to its business attributes, among them an abundant labor supply, transportation infrastructure and availability of commercial sites and buildings.

“When a prospect comes here, we try to show them the whole picture,” Gardner said.

It was those features and the abundance of raw materials that attracted bioenergy company Adage, a joint venture of Duke Energy Corp. and power plant developer Areva. Adage wants to build a $250 million biomass plant at the industrial park in Gretna.

The plant will use clean, woody biomass from the forestry industry to generate 50 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 40,000 homes. Adage says the plant and its associated fuel operations will have a permanent staff of up to 150, but the construction will require employment of 478 workers. The construction is expected to take 2 1/2 years.

“The bottom line is we need the jobs. We need the tax base to support our hospital. We need great schools. We need roads. A great economy cures a lot,” he added.

Other residents aren’t so sure about the biomass project. They are concerned about the air emissions from the facility, the resulting health effects, and question whether Gretna will gain much in the way of employment opportunities.