Using statewide data for economic development planning on the city level is about as beneficial as feeding horse food to your dog.

What Fido needs to grow strong and healthy isn't the same thing Flicka needs.

Great Falls' economic backdrop is very different from what's happening in western Montana and Billings, and that's why it's important to break the data down and build strategies at local levels.

"Montana is a geographic place, not an economy," said Larry Swanson, the associate director of regional economics for the Center of the Rocky Mountain West. He delivered those comments to a crowd of about 45 government and Chamber of Commerce officials and business people Friday morning.

Swanson was in town on behalf of the Montana on the Move project.

It's an effort by the Center of the Rocky Mountain West and the Foundation for Community Vitality to help Montana's seven largest cities, Great Falls, Billings, Kalispell, Missoula, Helena, Butte and Bozeman, understand the trends in their own regions.

The information is intended to be used to shape local economic development strategies and identify ways those cities can help each other.

While Bozeman and Missoula are trying to figure out how to deal with booming population and business growth, Great Falls is struggling to maintain what's here now.

"Great Falls is being pulled down by the long-term trend of consolidation in agriculture," he said.

But that trend doesn't mean the Electric City is going to dry up.

The service industry is one segment that is growing, but Swanson said there's misconceptions about what the industry involves.

"It's engineering, health care, attorneys and accountants, things you send your kids off to college to learn," he said. "But we think the service industry is about flipping burgers somewhere."

Swanson is complimentary about local efforts already in place in Great Falls, including the Great Falls Development Authority's work to attract new businesses and progress made to meet goals set out in the city's three-year old strategic plan.

"You are moving in the right direction. You have your eye on the ball," he said. "In the state of Montana, there's times we don't even know what the ball is."

He said longing for a return to a natural resource-based economy isn't going to help.

"We are opening up to a worldwide market, not restraining our markets, and it's hard for agriculture, mining and timber to compete and grow in a worldwide market," he said. "We have too much rear-view mirror thinking in economic development. Those industries will always be foundations of the economy, but it's not where the opportunity is."

Keith Duncan, a Great Falls investment adviser with Sammons Securities, acknowledged that change is hard.

"We like it the way it was, we don't necessarily like it the way it is, but we sure don't want it to be like it is in California," he said.

Montana on the Move focuses on the state's seven largest cities because that's where 90 percent of the population and economic growth is happening, Swanson said.

"We need to work on the opportunities," he said.

Shawn White Wolf is trying to start a new newspaper, Native Journal of Montana, in Great Falls. He walked away from Friday's presentation with a better understanding of the demographics he has to work with.

"I think there's opportunities for tribal members and reservations to work with the city of Great Falls for economic development," he said.

One suggestion Swanson made is for Great Falls to find 10 to 20 peer cities of similar size and periodically measure our growth with theirs.

"It's good to see what's working in other places," he said.

Whitney Olson said that's the model used in the car dealership industry. She works at Bison Ford, where her father, Dick, is the president.

"We call us a 20 group, where you get together with other dealers your size to talk about what works and what doesn't," she said.

What happens with Montana on the Move in Great Falls next is up to the Regional Growth Alliance, a coalition of local businesses, government officials and the Chamber of Commerce.

"That's the key group we are in contact with," said Daniel Kemmis, director and regional policy associate for the Center for the Rocky Mountain West. "We can create a report for you to circulate in the community, if that's the direction you choose to go."

Black can be reached at black@greatfal.gannett.com or by phone at 791-6502.

Originally published Saturday, August 7, 2004