Government Advocacy

About One Voice

One Voice, under the leadership of the EDC, is a pro-community campaign that has brought together leaders from the City of Bloomington, the Town of Normal, McLean County, labor, local educational institutions and local private businesses. These groups have formed the One Voice Task Force. The goal of the campaign is to make McLean County a stronger economic force and a better place to live.

 

Each year, the One Voice Task Force chooses local projects to support in their quests for federal funding. Each spring, the One Voice Task Force travels to Washington, D.C. to meet with our congressional delegation and show them our community stands united in support of the projects. Each project must meet three criteria:

 

• It must have an economic development impact in McLean County.
• It must improve the quality of life in McLean County.
• Federal funding must be formally requested for the project.

 

 

Project Submittal

Due to the rising popularity of this program, we are changing the project submittal process. We will be working closely with each organization submitting a project to develop an economic impact analysis. We have also instituted a $250 application fee to help cover the administrative costs associated with the project development and impact studies.

 

Because this process will be much more involved than in prior years, the deadline for project submission has been moved forward. All potential One Voice project applications must be submitted to the EDC by August 1, 2010 with the $250 application fee in order to be considered for the 2011 Washington, D.C. trip - NO EXCEPTIONS. Click here to download an application form. 

 

For more information, contact Brooke Weishaupt at brooke@bnbiz.org or 309-452-8437.

 

 

 

2010 Washington, D.C. Fly-In

 

Over 30 community leaders traveled to Washington D.C. March 9-11 to meet with our congressional delegation and show them McLean County stands united in support of four local projects. The supported this year include: Village of Downs/City of Bloomington Water Project, MyEntre.Net Rural Entrepreneurship Program, a Community-Scale Food Waste Composting program and U.S. Highway 136 Development. Click here to learn more about these projects.

 

While in D.C., the One Voice group met with Senator Dick Durbin, Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson and her staff, Congressman Tim Johnson's staff and Congressman Aaron Schock. In addition to meeting with our congressional delegation, the group met with various governmental agencies and committees such as the Small Business Administration, the Economic Development Administration, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The group also had a meeting in the Executive Office Building with Michael Strautmanis - chief of staff for Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Obama.

 

The One Voice delegates attended a welcoming reception hosted by the Laborers' International Union of North America, as well as a breakfast reception focusing on "The Climate Issue and Economic Development" with speakers from the International Economic Development Council and the National League of Cities. Check back soon to see a slide show of the trip.