News

President's Welcome

Welcome to the East Central Illinois Development Corporation Website.  It is my pleasure to serve as President as we reflect upon a progressive year, marked by new business development all nine counties, particularly the retention and expansion of Just-Rite and the expansion of North American Lighting. Many of our member community's other accomplishments are listed with the community section of the website. I want to thank this year's grantor members for their support of ECIDC and its activities. This year we have seen a great deal of activity not only by our Corporation, but throughout the communities within the ECIDC region.   We are very excited that four of the 12 sites considered by FutureGen are within our region  Effingham, Marshall, Mattoon, and Tuscola. FutureGen is to be the worlds first zero-emissions coal-fired power plant. Due to underground geographical structure and the willingness of local and state officials to cooperate, each of these four sites has potential to make it to the final four selection, which is to be announced in July. ECIDC and all of our constituents are making every effort to bring FutureGen to East Central Illinois.   Promoting the virtues of our nine county region is still a prominent concern. ECIDC continues the partnership with Ameren in offering the "LocationOne" program with ECIDC member site specific information on our website. ECIDC has also partnered in a collaborative effort to market e-commerce as a viable development tool for our region.  Additional accomplishments during the past year include the continued success of the electronic newsletter and the increased marketing of tourism including the placement of an ECIDC tourism advertisement in the 2006 Central Illinois Tourism Guide.   It has been a busy year for the East Central Illinois Development Corporation and the coming year promises many more exciting opportunities for and accomplishments in economic development within our region.  We thank you for your past generosity and we look forward to many more years of cooperative efforts.   Sincerely,     Lloyd Murphy President, ECIDC