Preparing Businesses for the B-21 Beddown

By Shiloh Francis

The record of decision regarding Ellsworth and the B-21 will be announced in May. But in true Black Hills fashion, no one is sitting around waiting. There is still work that can be done to prepare our community and businesses for the expansion.

We know this expansion will not only bring more military members to the region, but also opportunities for contractjobs. Helping local businesses prepare to do business with the government has been a key focus the past few months.

In the fall, Elevate Rapid City partnered with the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Procurement Technical Assistance Center to host a virtual series. In this series businesses were able to learn about the resources available and steps to take to apply for government contracts – for the base and beyond.

The new year kicked off with a B-21 Industry Day forum hosted in partnership with the Black Hills Military Advisory Coalition. This forum gave even greater insight for businesses about the type of projects that will be needed for the beddown.

Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment, and Energy, the Honorable John W. Henderson, provided keynote remarks and emphasized the importance of industry partnership: “We can only be successful whenwe proactively work as a team with our industry and community partners to ensure a common understanding of our plan, our timeline, potential environmental impacts, and the assistance that we’ll need from the private sector once the Record of Decision is signed by the secretary of the Air Force.”

Future B-21 industry days are expected to continue to prepare the region’s business community for future beddown construction opportunities.

Those interested in accessing the replay for these webinars can visit elevaterapidcity.com/ govcontracts.