Former ME&A COP Heads LED Efforts in Dunkirk, New York

WNY LED photo 1Former ME&A Senior Associate and Chief of Party (COP), Duane Beard, is currently serving as Director of Planning and Development for the City of Dunkirk in western New York, where he works closely with the Local Economic Development (LED) Committee of the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation (NCCF) in Chautauqua County. Mr. Beard recently completed two tours of duty for ME&A as COP for the USAID-funded Clean Energy & Water Program in Armenia and earlier for the Tajikistan Safe Drinking Water Project. He has more than 30 years of experience as a senior project manager, consultant, regional planner and county executive.

Since 2011 ME&A has been engaged in a long-term project to assist the City of Dunkirk and other localities in Northern Chautauqua County along the coast of Lake Erie with LED strategies to foment business growth and job creation. The project also attacks systemic problems with local government organization and services. Working with the LED Committee of the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation, ME&A helped to create this private sector initiative of business leaders from the region. ME&A also provided lead authorship of the Northern Chautauqua Regional Economic Profile and Competitiveness Assessment.

WNY LED photo 2The project engages local governments including the City of Dunkirk, Villages of Fredonia, Brockton, Westfield, Silver Creek and Ripley and surrounding townships. It works cooperatively with other private sector organizations including the county planning and development agency, Chamber of Commerce, and Visitors Bureau. The group is supported by the State University of New York at Fredonia and its Business Technology Incubator, forming a three-pronged public, private and educational institutional approach to solving the region’s economic problems. The group currently works at cluster levels to identify strategic thrusts and projects in such areas as Lake Erie waterfront development, tourism, manufacturing, agribusiness and food processing, and health services.