Anyone looking for the start of Rowan County’s current political climate might reasonably start with the election of Greg Edds, Jim Greene and Judy Klusman to their first term in 2014.

Edds and company sought to bring “positive leadership” to the county board in a not-so-subtle rebuke to the folks that preceded the new crew.

Nearly five years later, that positive leadership has produced good results, including the fact that there has been good news about businesses expanding or relocating seemingly every other week. The more than 1,200 jobs to be brought to town by online pet product retailer Chewy.com was especially significant because it was a once-in-a-generation job announcement.

As an example of the positive leadership by local folks, consider the significant work required by elected and appointed leaders from city hall to the state legislature to enable Kannapolis to complete the satellite annexation of land at the new Old Beatty Ford Road interstate exit, extend water lines for future economic development there and eliminate any remaining debt the two-county city owes on the Kannapolis Intimidators’ old stadium.

It’s important to continue recent momentum. That requires elected and appointed leaders to create and maintain working relationships with one another and maintain good channels of communication. It also requires cooperation on big and small projects alike.

That’s why it was strange to hear the suggestion this week that the city of Salisbury should “develop its own prospectus” to make use of opportunity zones, which enable developments in low-income or economically distressed areas by offering tax breaks to investors.

There’s strength in numbers, and that’s why it’s better for Rowan County and the municipalities within its boundaries to approach economic development collectively. That includes opportunity zones.

Creating a new marketing document for economic development in city of Salisbury when another well-qualified entity — the Rowan County Economic Development Commission — already is working on the same for the entire community, is duplicative. That’s especially true if the project requires additional city staff time and because Rowan County has one of the best economic development professionals in the nation — Rod Crider. Under his leadership, the county earlier this year landed the largest economic development announcement in Rowan in terms of total jobs.

The city has budgeted to pay the Rowan EDC $114,088 in fiscal year 2019-2020. It should ensure it gets the most out of that money and put the EDC to work in creating a “prospectus” — a word that Scott Turner, executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, used last week to describe a marketing package to give to investors.

And to be clear, Salisbury can wield outsized decision-making power on a “prospectus” for opportunity zones in the county. It can lay claim to all or part of four of the five opportunity zones in the county, with four census tracts designated as such in or adjacent to its limits. The fifth covers China Grove and some of the neighboring countryside.

But that outsized influence should not result in two separate documents. We cannot find ourselves back in a situation where cooperation between elected and appointed leaders is a rarity rather than the norm. The suggestion during this week’s council meeting and the response from the EDC that Salisbury can take its information out of the “prospectus” if it wants sounded too much like quotes we might hear in 2013 instead of our community’s newfound spirit of cooperation.

The city of Salisbury could, for example, work with the EDC to hold a public input session at City Hall with graphics and information about what’s in the “prospectus.” City council members might also want to brief EDC staff about ongoing projects in opportunity zones. The China Grove Town Council and county commissioners might want to do something similar.

Our community and this opinion column are talking about opportunity zones solely because of the work by Mayor Al Heggins to organize the recent visit by Turner. She sent an email on Sept. 23 to folks at the White House asking for a visit. On Oct. 1, William Crozer, special assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, responded with a date and time suggestion.

But to produce results from that visit, our community needs to collaborate around a vision for economic development and focus on finding investors in opportunity zone developments.

Opportunity zones are only a tool, not the key, to successful economic development. The best way to sharpen that tool is to create a “prospectus” for the entire county. And it makes sense for Salisbury to have a loud voice in that process.

Josh Bergeron is editor of the Salisbury Post.