Four economic development directors, two city managers and four Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce directors since 2020. Sidney, Nebraska, is often seen as an example of how rural America can be revitalized after a large employer — in this case, outdoors retailer Cabela’s — leaves town.

Defying worries of economic devastation after Cabela’s was bought by Bass Pro Shops in 2017, roughly 124 new businesses have opened and stayed open in Cheyenne County. 

But that success is being held back, some residents say. The rotating door of local leadership has stunted business support and long-term development efforts. Even now, the city has gone four months without an economic development director.

“That is not a job that you step into and immediately just pick up the ball and start running,” said Melissa Norgard, Sidney’s economic development director from 2017-2021 and a former Cabela’s employee.

“Consider people who are leaving after a year, and then that role is empty for the next six to nine months,” she said. “There are things that are not happening because there is nobody dedicated to that role.”

Now, Sidney hopes to bring stability by creating a new Economic Development Corporation (EDC), with a proposal unanimously approved this month by the Sidney City Council and the Cheyenne County Board of Commissioners.

As an independent nonprofit contracted with the city and county, the EDC would take on economic development work with three staffers instead of just one. It also would be able to leverage philanthropy and government grant programs for initiatives like revolving loan funds for small businesses and housing, which have been transformative in other communities.

An EDC is the right step toward a consistent and long-lasting development effort, said Matt Monheiser, spokesperson for local real estate company 59 Properties, LLC. Earlier this year, in a full-circle move for Sidney, 59 Properties acquired the former Cabela’s headquarters for $1.5 million.

Taking the headquarters back under local ownership has come with the challenge of attracting tenants — something with which Monheiser feels an EDC would have more success. “Every morning, I wake up and I call three to five (businesses),” he said.

“It's very difficult for me to say … ‘I have a property that you may be interested in in Sidney, Nebraska, please give me a call back.’ That call is not going to get returned 99% of the time,” he said. 

But “if I had an Economic Development Corporation calling … they're going to get a call back.”

EDC shaped by years of uncertainty and opportunity

For over 50 years, Cabela’s was the engine for Cheyenne County, employing almost a third of Sidney’s population of roughly 6,500. In many ways, local economic development efforts reflected that reality.

“If small businesses started, it was ancillary,” said Sarah Sinnett, a former Cabela’s employee. “There wasn't a lot of support for the development of those different businesses. It was there and they existed, but (those efforts were) primarily to support the infrastructure that was needed for Cabela's.”

After the Cabela’s headquarters emptied out in 2017, Sidney had to lean into entrepreneurship to fill its economic gap. Cabela’s left behind helpful assets, from former buildings that have been redeveloped into business spaces to well-trained employees determined to stay in Sidney and launch their own companies.

Still, the city and business leadership struggled to adapt, an effort made harder by chronic turnover. “I've seen it over and over again in other small towns where you become dependent on one business,” said Joe McCarn, the director of the Cheyenne County Chamber.

“If and when — because they always do end up leaving — that business leaves, the community doesn't right away have the leadership that it needs … to be able to respond to that economic crisis,” he said.

Instead, residents found other help. First, an anonymous donor created the Sidney Community Donor Advised Fund, affiliated with the Nebraska Community Foundation (NCF), which started granting money to local initiatives.

Then in 2021, with a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, the NCF launched Energizing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (E3), a program for rural Nebraska communities to learn about community development from each other.

Sinnett became president of Sidney’s E3 cohort, which in 2023 decided to apply its lessons from the program. With a three-year, $270,000 grant from the Sidney Community Donor Advised Fund, the group hired Alisha Juelfs — another former Cabela’s employee — to help local entrepreneurs start their businesses.

“Especially in this economy, with what we're seeing worldwide, not just in small towns, there's a lot more stability in entrepreneurship than banking on a big business to come and save the day,” Sinnett said.

In 2024, Sidney E3 received a $97,000 rural business development grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It hired Melissa Norgard, now a small business owner and president of the Sidney and Greater Area Fund, as a grant and technical writer for business plans and funding.

In many ways, Sidney E3 informally became the local economic development agency. It has helped small businesses and nonprofits alike and responded to regional changes — like Tyson’s impending closure of a beef processing plant in Lexington — to promote jobs in Cheyenne County. It partners with the chamber of commerce and the city for business initiatives.

The group also tried twice to get approval from the city for an official Economic Development Corporation, but were turned down. Earlier this year, Sidney E3 decided to go it alone and prepared to file as an independent nonprofit.

Then the City Council came knocking. “Our last economic development director quit this summer,” Sinnett said. “They came to us … and said, ‘OK, put together a proposal.’”

Beyond Cabela’s

Pitching the EDC to Sidney’s residents has taught Sidney E3 the importance of educating the locals. Some residents were confused about the idea, thinking the “corporation” moniker meant an out-of-town company would be taking over regional development. Many didn’t understand the work that goes into economic development.

“It's really been eye-opening of, not only do they not understand what an EDC is, they didn't understand what the job description was for the (city’s economic development director), to understand what a heavy load it was, and how important it was to have a support system for that person to be successful,” Juelfs said.

Though the city and county have approved the EDC proposal, there still are a few months to go before it can become a reality. Now, the Sidney E3 team must draft the actual contract for the city and county to sign.

“It's bittersweet, because you just want to jump into all the work,” Sinnett said. “It's not fully approved yet, but (there is) definitely wonderful support from the community.”

The proposal would dissolve Sidney E3, create a new nonprofit and hire an executive director to set strategy and attract business to the region. Juelfs and Norgard will stay on to continue their E3 work — key to bringing the continuity that’s missing at the city level.

“It is great that we have (business support) programs in the state of Nebraska, but we find that a lot of people will not call or contact them because they're not here,” Juelfs said. “So if we have this well-developed team with a lot of experience ... building that trust in those relationships comes a lot easier, because we're here, we're locals.”

The first five years will be about sustainability, with an aim to raise $3.5 million for an endowment. In the meantime, the EDC will be supported by a $600,000, three-year grant from the Sidney Community Donor Advised Fund; a renewed USDA grant; and five years of economic development funding from the city and county — the proposal asks for a little over half of the city’s current spend.

After that, the EDC will be self-sufficient and fully focused on bolstering a new vision for Sidney: Not just reacting to the loss of Cabela’s, but building out strong infrastructure for entrepreneurship and a diversity of local businesses. That way, the region’s economy doesn’t have to depend on one company for its prosperity.

That’s also the plan for redeveloping the Cabela’s headquarters. Sidney E3 is helping 59 Properties to fill the property, and both are determined not to just bring in another big employer that dominates the town.

One of the headquarters buildings will likely be office space, Monheiser said. The other building, closer to Interstate 80, could be opened up for pharmaceutical manufacturing or other uses. It could also house a data center, something Cabela’s and Bass Pro previously had there.

But uses depend on the kind of tenants Sidney can attract and how quickly and well Sidney E3 — and the future EDC — can educate companies about the benefits of relocating. 

“It's a challenge to get them out here, because while we're in the center of the United States, we're away from major populations for talent,” Monheiser said. “However, Cabela's has proven in the past that if you build it, people will come to Sidney. Because it's a great place to live, raise kids, send your kids to school … We have the ability to recruit talent, which Cabela's proved we had.”

Silicon Prairie News is the leading independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on covering stories about innovation and entrepreneurship in Nebraska.