SIU Masters Degree Student Spending Six Weeks Marketing Du Quoin Industrial Park
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A globetrotting Masters Degree candidate majoring in emerging technology and business at SIU will spend the next six weeks in Du Quoin selling the sun to corporate America.
Talamossey Njiti, 28, is an American citizen born in St. Joseph's Hospital in Murphysboro while his parents were attending college at SIU. His parents come from the Republic of Cameroon in western Africa, a French and English speaking nation which is home to a very successful national football team and some great music that includes makossa and bikutsi.
His father majored in forestry and his mother in public health and nursing. Both of his parents are retired and "Tala" is part of an extraordinary family.
Tala received his Bachelor's Degree in engineering from SIU and enjoys an athleticism that could just as easily have sent him into the European soccer league. He gave that up for a career in emerging technologies and Du Quoin hopes to benefit from what he knows.
He will work alongside Du Quoin Economic Development Director Jeff Ashauer as a paid intern on loan from SIU to market Du Quoin's Industrial Park, 90 acres of possibilities powered--in part--by a new 408-panel solar park and a TIF district.
MPP, Inc., an electroplating company which plans to expand because of the 20 percent energy savings it hopes to capture from the solar park and an empty Heartland Baking Co. cookie plant occupy 16 acres. There is a smaller industrial building to the north.
Ashauer said it took about a week for he and Tala to identify the work ahead of them. "Now, we will figure out ways to market the solar park as an incentive. We have hit our stride."
"We have to find businesses that want to expand or relocate. We have to hit the vastness of the country to do it and we have to do it on a shoestring," said Ashauer.
The fact that the Du Quoin Industrial Park is the only site they can find in America that is offering solar energy savings as an incentive is a plus. They will take the power of that incentive straight to the internet, creating one or more Web sites that will market Du Quoin and its industrial park.
The first Web site will key on the solar park and show the energy generated by the solar park in real time. The site will show how much power is being generated, how much is being fed into the industrial park and the overage that is sent out onto Ameren's electric grid. Industrial park tenants will see a 20 percent savings. Ameren will pay for the power it receives. During the construction phase it was estimated the solar park can generate enough electricity to power a Walmart super center.
"To businesses in New York or California this industrial park is a bargain. The solar park speaks the language of business and I think we have a fighting chance," said Ashauer.
Tala said it will take about a week to get a solar park Web site and an industrial park Web site up and running.
Both understand that transportation and the cost of labor compared to some other states are a challenge. Illinois can be a tough sell. But, with the solar park, the TIF district incentives and Du Quoin's connectivity with the Champion Communities business lending program, success is only a matter of time and Tala believes he will be part of that story.