Looks like Chairman Pyles has taken his show on the road with the help of his "Pocket Supervisors" Karraffa and Pattie in the form of a "Political Breakfast" in Waynesboro. Comments by the "Gang-O-Three" were dutifully reported by the News Virginian but once again failed to seek comment from the remaining members of the Board of Supervisors. It can only be questioned how many readers of the NewsVirginian who picked up their morning paper to read this piece thought it was reporting of a official meeting instead of a "Political Breakfast" gathering.
Supervisors focus on economic development
Expanding businesses have the best hope of improving county finances
By: | News VirginianPublished: September 23, 2012
»
Waynesboro,
Va. --
Whatever is financially ailing Augusta County can be cured or
at least modified by more economic development, a trio of county supervisors
said during the SWAC Political Breakfast on Saturday.
The breakfast was conducted at Waynesboro’s Golden Corral
Restaurant.
The supervisors spoke of how 2012 has included some economic
highlights that will pay dividends to the county, including Mary Baldwin
College’s selection of a Fishersville location for a new campus and graduate
programs, and the recent announcement of McKee Baking in Stuarts Draft adding 78
jobs.
They also spoke of how County Economic Development Director
Dennis Burnett has been given a free hand to aggressively promote and create
more jobs for the county’s economy.
“If we don’t have jobs, we deteriorate,’’ said Board of
Supervisors Chairman Tracy Pyles.
Since a new board took office in January, Pyles said the seven
members have worked to reestablish strong relations with state economic
development officials in Richmond. And Pyles said Augusta County has embraced
the idea of regionalism — working with both Staunton and Waynesboro — to create
jobs that benefit the entire area.
“If we are putting our resources together it works better,’’
Pyles said. He said Burnett and other county officials offered a vision of
Augusta County to Mary Baldwin that helped sell the Staunton women’s college on
the county as a location for their new Murphy Deming College of Health
Sciences.
Pyles said Fishersville is becoming a health center that
already includes a burgeoning Augusta Health and Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation
Center.
And of McKee’s expansion, Pyles said “what Dennis (Burnett)
asked for we provided. If he gets them on the hook, we land them.” The Stuarts
Draft plant was competing with two other McKee locations for the manufacturing
of the company’s mini doughnuts product.
North River Supervisor Marshall Pattie said the early meetings
of the new board last winter involved lengthy closed sessions about new economic
opportunities.
Beverley Manor Supervisor David Karaffa called Burnett “a
tireless worker’’ who labors late into the night looking for more jobs. And he
said the infrastructure for future development is in place at the county’s Mill
Place Commerce Park in Verona.
“We are marketing it aggressively. It is a beautiful place to
put your business,’’ he said.
On a different front, Karaffa expressed great confidence in
the Roanoke area business performing the county’s new reassessment.
He said Wingate and Associates is Virginia’s most experienced
reassessment provider.
Supervisors are also expected to decide on a strategic
fire/rescue plan for the county at Wednesday’s meeting that entails how to
deploy 21 new fire/rescue positions obtained under a federal SAFER grant.
Pattie said the new strategy will assure that the county does
not have the ISO rating problems it had two years ago with the Preston L. Yancey
Volunteer Fire Company in Fishersville.
