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EDA doesn't want to wait for final plan
BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
 | | The Highland Economic Development Authority is setting its own agenda for the coming year, due to the lack of a finalized comprehensive plan from the board of supervisors and the feeling that the plan's objectives and strategies are little more than a set of suggestions, some reasonable, some not so reasonable, and some just too hard to achieve. From left are Trent Burkholder, Dave Smith, Betty Mitchell and Clay Hamilton. (Recorder photo by James Jacenich) |
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MONTEREY - Members of the Highland County Economic Development Authority said the list of goals and objectives in the draft comprehensive plan submitted to supervisors in August and earmarked for EDA action did not necessarily match the EDA's own goals and objectives. Nonetheless, the EDA agreed to list in order of priority the goals, strategies and objectives of the comprehensive plan draft in January.
"I'm not sure how many of these will be approved by the supervisors," said Trent Burkholder of the Highland County Economic Development Authority Tuesday. "I'm concerned about getting bogged down. We talked about our goals. We probably should define those. If the supervisors adopt these, we'll try to accommodate them. All these ideas came from people. It will be given its due."
"We have three simple goals: maintain existing businesses, help them grow, and attract new business," said Burkholder. "The call plan is the vehicle for existing and expansion of business. We don't have a vehicle for attracting businesses. That is my interest - to come up with an action plan. We need to decide for ourselves what we want to pursue."
The call plan is a list of all Highland County businesses EDA members are visiting to find out their business needs.
Member Dave Smith said, "It seems we ought to narrow it down. If the results of the call plan identify some areas that we think are worthwhile, that can be accomplished, we should concentrate on those areas. One thing that has come up with people I have talked to is a concrete plant. Contractors are having difficulty getting delivery of concrete. That is something we can focus on to see what we can do to get somebody in here."
Concrete comes from Augusta County and West Virginia, Smith said. A contractor can't get small quantities and availability is a problem; some Highland work sites have had to wait several weeks to get a shipment delivered.
"If we can narrow our call plan to three or four items, maybe we can achieve something," said Smith.
Smith supported asking county civic organizations what they thought the top priorities ought to be and what they thought the EDA should focus on. The comprehensive plan draft includes a strategy to invite all community organizations to share their long-range plans and identify areas of technical assistance they need.
"Maybe we should go through this list and see if they are frivolous or we don't want to touch them at all," said member Bryan Obaugh.
Member Clay Hamilton recommended tabling the list until supervisors decided what they were going to change. "Should we give it our time only to turn out we were spinning our wheels because it was altered?" Hamilton asked.
"If they (supervisors) look at them and don't see them as important, that doesn't mean we don't see it as important," said chair Betty Mitchell. She said economic development and community development go together. Roanoke, for example, is trying to attract businesses that would attract the kind of people they'd like to have living there, she said.
"How are we going to turn an idea into action?" asked Burkholder.
"We have a model - the meat processing facility," said Hamilton. "Its goal is to use the strengths of Highland County. We need employment that uses the products of Highland County. This concrete plant is a fair example of that. We have the base and raw materials to support that kind of activity. If it employs one person, that is good."
"But the agricultural center has taken four years to evaluate," Mitchell noted. "I don't think the EDA can take that kind of time."
Hamilton said his point was that the agricultural center was based on important criteria. "We need to think in terms of attracting new business and expanding existing business using the resources of Highland County," he said. "The agricultural center relies 100 percent on things that already exist in Highland County. It has a potential to raise income and ease overhead costs for anyone that raises some kind of (livestock)."
"We already have ideas," said Burkholder. "It's a matter of putting it into motion."
"If you look through the (comprehensive plan) list, you find examples of things that will take a long time to do," said Hamilton.
"The comprehensive plan is a road map," said Obaugh. "It has no bearing. We can prioritize that list."
"We had experts come in and tell us, at that time, it was not feasible to have a senior care/child care center. Economically, it is not going to fly," said Smith. The comprehensive plan draft proposes directing the EDA to work on a study to determine the need for a child-care center and independent living and assisted living facilities.
The EDA agreed to look more closely at the draft comprehensive plan and list the items assigned to the EDA for action in order of priority. For the long-term, though, the EDA is thinking of ways to go beyond the comprehensive plan to find its own list of priorities.
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