BENSON -- Sue Pirsig has accepted a position as the economic development coordinator for the city of Jackson and will be leaving the Swift County Rural Development Finance Authority and GROW, which she has headed from its start.
"It's not an easy one,'' Pirsig said of the decision to leave her position of 17 years and the friends she made in Swift County.
Pirsig said the position in Jackson offers her the opportunity to take on new challenges. She said she feels the time is right in her career for the change. The move will also place her closer to her mother, who lives in Blue Earth. Pirsig and her husband, Ja-mes, will be moving to Jackson. They are parents to two grown children.
Pirsig gave her 30-day notice to the Swift County Rural Development Finance Authority board on Tuesday. The board meets Oct. 12 to decide its next steps.
Pirsig accepted the position as the first director of the original Swift County GROW (Greater Rural Opportunities Working) when the county was in the throes of an agricultural downturn. The county had seen its population decline by 17 percent in the 1980s.
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In response, leaders in the county rallied to form GROW to work together as a county to create economic opportunity, said Pirsig. She said the goal was to retain and support existing businesses and do what was possible to help local entrepreneurs get started.
GROW's leaders felt that the county's best economic strategy was to help homegrown industries develop, rather than to try and attract larger firms from outside.
Swift County has seen some major success stories, and it has reversed the downward population trend, said Pirsig. Some of the better-known success stories are the opening of the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, and the jobs it created, as well as the development of the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company in Benson and its farmer-owned model for value-added agriculture and renewable energy. Another high-profile project is the Fibrominn power plant now under development.
Pirsig said that while Swift County has enjoyed some much publicized success stories, some of the most important projects are small and not as well-known. Small businesses started by local people are often the ones that grow and create the jobs and economic activity the county needs.
She said the opportunity to help individual entrepreneurs start their businesses -- and survive the challenges they face -- has offered her some of the greatest personal rewards of her work. Pirsig said Swift County has been fortunate to have so many people willing to work for a common goal.
She said her hope is that the county will continue on this path.
