Any city with a number of industries that are not locally owned feels a concern about future operations. The same can be said about locally owned companies that are sold to a conglomerate. Changes in operations always occur, sooner or later. There is no comfort zones in this global economy.Sometimes the results are positive and expansion occurs. We have witnessed both kinds of results here — both negative and positive — and in the county.The reason for continuous efforts to seek new industries is that no one knows what the future holds in plant operations and jobs. Companies that seek to relocate usually have certain requirements they look for when site searching. In many cases, not all of the requirements can be fulfilled. One of the most important requirements today is the availability of a skilled workforce, and the potential for trainable people. Transportation — highways and airports — figure high in the requirements along with sites with all of the available utilities. State incentives are important for many companies looking for a site for a new plant. The work ethic is very important.Right now in Missouri there is a debate again about right-to-work. The General Assembly has passed a right-to-work bill, but the governor has vetoed it, giving reasons that don’t always stand up under the experience test. The governor mentioned the rate of pay and benefits. Today to get and retain good workers, the pay must be at a rate that is attractive.  The fact is some companies want to move to a right-to-work state. Others do not seem to be that concerned. If a right-to-work status is important to a company, a state without that law is ruled out initially in a site search. In other words, those prospects aren’t heard from because they already have ruled out a location in that state.The competition to land a new industry with good-paying jobs is intense. That has been the situation for some time. Free land and other incentives are offered by some communities but there is a limit to what can be offered. Incentives by the state have been very important.Today what is the most important is the quality of the workforce. That’s why education is so important, along with training programs. We have the latter but more is needed.There are many other factors important to companies: Availability of health care, quality of life in a community, housing, nearness to a large city, volunteerism, civic leadership, recreation facilities, preservation of historic aspects of a city and other factors that may not seem that important but can be to the site searchers, such as the efforts to maintain the viability of the downtown section.It can be surprising to learn why one city was selected over another. The community as a whole is very important. Weighing all the elements is the ultimate factor in site selection.