Innovation center in Garfield County looks to bridge ‘2 different worlds’ of Utah | KSL.com

SALT LAKE CITY — Putting Skittles in a freeze-dryer started as an experiment, one Mike Sarles chuckles about and describes as “a little silly.”

But he was curious to try it, so he did. Happy with the results, he printed out some labels and put the fruity candies — puffed up to twice their regular size — on consignment at a local store in Panguitch. Within two weeks, he’d sold 40 packages.

It’s the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that community leaders hope a new business innovation center opening in Garfield County next year will cultivate. The center, housed in Panguitch’s city office and funded by a new grant from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, will provide a space for remote workers and aspiring small-business owners in rural southern Utah — including young people who may be otherwise drawn to career opportunities in the Wasatch Front.

“It brings our kids back home and it strengthens our community,” said Callie Ward, an assistant professor at the Utah State University Extension and one of the leaders of the project.

The grant to fund rural coworking and innovation centers is the latest development in a larger statewide effort to bridge the divide between what Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, describes as the “two different worlds” contained within the Beehive State: rural Utah and the more urban Wasatch Front.

“We’re not getting companies, so let’s do second-best” by encouraging remote work and home-grown businesses, said Albrecht, who sponsored the 2019 bill that created the grant. “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

The migration of young people from rural areas to cities has been well-documented across the U.S., leading some small towns and counties to look for creative solutions. Leland Pollock, chairman of the Garfield County Commission, attributes his county’s loss of young people over the past few decades in part to the closure of local sawmills and overall decline in industry since the 1990s.

Now, Pollock said, “our No. 1 export is our children.”

The Rural Coworking and Innovation Center Grant program goes hand-in-hand with two other statewide programs with similar goals. The Rural Online Initiative pilot program through Utah State University educates and coaches rural Utahns with an interest in developing remote working skills, while the Rural Economic Development Incentive program encourages businesses to create jobs in rural counties.

The Rural Coworking and Innovation Center Grant program in its first year distributed $500,000 for centers like the one in Panguitch. The Panguitch center received $67,000. The rest of the money was distributed to other communities around the state.

The $67,000 grant from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development will cover the project in Garfield County for 18 months. After that point, Ward said, the hope is that the center will be able to operate on its own.

The organizers are still hashing out the exact details around pricing and membership, but here’s how it will work: Those interested in using the space will purchase either a monthly or an annual pass, with day passes also available for people passing through town who need a place to work. The center will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The space will include semi-private offices — or cubicles — for four to six people, with a conference and work area available for an additional 10 part-time remote workers. It will also include a commercial kitchen for people with food-based business ideas.

The center will “encourage people that maybe have an idea, but haven’t figured out how to use their idea to make money,” said Sarles, who also serves as program coordinator for Utah State University Extension’s Rural Online Initiative in Garfield County. “It’ll give them a place to come and do that.”

In addition to being a workspace, the center will likely be used for USU Extension programming, 4-H classes, community groups and other events.

“Since we are a smaller community, it’s going to be a lot of trial and error to develop this,” Ward said.

The coworking space will be a practical tool for remote workers, particularly those who have a weak internet connection — or no internet connection at all — at home, a common challenge in some rural areas.

But it will also send a message that southern Utah is on board with “the shift to this new paradigm of working from home” over office life, Sarles said.

Community leaders hope the message will especially appeal to outdoor enthusiasts and those who prefer small-town life, but may not have previously considered career opportunities outside of larger cities.

“I think what’s really important is it says that Panguitch likes remote workers,” Sarles said. “You can go to where you love. You can enjoy the place you live.”