Sometimes, the challenges of economic development are unique to a place. While other communities are faced with uneven terrain or high costs of living, we are faced with a different hurdle: rental cars. Those of us who live here don't usually have to deal with this issue, but when a company or site selector comes to town, it's very important. We are fortunate to have a Hertz Rental at our airport, but those vehicles are almost exclusively rent here/return here cars. And this makes sense. Our airport serves as a regional hub, but most people who fly into it will eventually fly out of it. This was not the case for the crew that I had visiting Liberal a few weeks ago.

The panicked call from the site selector came Friday evening at 7:30. "Hey, we booked our flights, but I can't get a rental car. Can you help?" They were scheduled to arrive Tuesday evening. The Hertz office was closed all weekend, and Monday was a federal holiday. In this case, they wanted to rent a car here and leave it in Lubbock, the next stop on their site visits.

Jeff Parsons has always said that the role of the economic developer is to remove the barriers for businesses, and this was one of those moments. After all, we're trying to prove to this site selector and this company that they can easily do business in Liberal. If they can't even rent a car on their trip, it's not a good start for us. But it's Liberal, and our community rallies to a cause. In a panic, I contacted someone I know who has cars, Rod Riley. Despite the fact that it was a Friday night, despite the fact that he was out of town, and despite the fact that this is not typically how car dealerships work, his response was simply, "We can work something out."

And just like that, I could assure the site selector that even if Hertz didn't come through, we had a backup plan. It was a local business doing whatever it takes to support the growth of Liberal. In a world bombarded by negative news, this generosity reminded me how much our community members and business owners care. I like to think I could have called another dealership in town and received similar support.

In the end, we didn't have to use one of his vehicles, but it was great to know that it was there if we needed it.