Surry County Interim Manager Dennis Thompson said that while the economy is in a down-turn, government officials will continue to work with the citizen’s best interest at hand.
“Undoubtedly, the year 2009 will be a year of intense economic focus for county government as well as all our citizens. We must weather the current recession, and we will weather it. Surry County has a strong economic base, even though we have suffered setbacks in some industrial sectors. In 2009, county government will do all in its power to strengthen the industrial sector, as well as other economic sectors.”
Education and water and sewer upgrades are top priorities on Thompson’s list for 2009.
“We will be working to assure that the currently planned public projects — schools, water and sewer facilities, and others are conducted efficiently and economically,” Thompson said.
“In February, the county commissioners will be reviewing all of county government, and public needs that can be addressed through government, to make plans for 2009 and beyond.”
The first commissioner’s meeting this year will be held on Monday at the Surry County Government Center.
Commissioner Paul Johnson said that he feels the same challenges that faced county officials in 2008 will be the same issues in the coming year.
“I think the challenges ahead for 2009 certainly are going to be the economy and trying to bring jobs and business into the county. I think that will be first and foremost,” Johnson said.
“Second of all it will be the budget that lies ahead with all the challenges of current economy. Thirdly, I think it will be all of the challenges that we have with education and with the building projects we have associated with Surry County, Mount Airy and Elkin schools and making sure we are able to keep those on track.”
Heading into 2009, Johnson said the commissioners need to pay close attention to what taxpayers want from the county government.
“I think we did all we could to encourage industry and business to come into our county and trying to bring it as far as using taxpayers resources and money wisely. I think we did all we could do. As far as education and the other issues that we have been working on. I think we have done more than any other county around us. We’ve been blessed to have good resources. Hopefully we will be blessed in 2009.”
Johnson said he is still interested in promoting agribusiness in Surry County.
“We are working on some projects now that we are not ready to make public, but a lot of that hinges on the Golden LEAF Foundation grants and what happens there. We are supposed to know something on those about the third week in January.”
Johnson said he is in favor of building a prison in the county.
“I think everything is moving well on the prison and I think it’s on track. I just want to make sure that as that process comes about the public has their input. If there is anyone out in the county that has any property they would like to offer up for sale at a reasonable price — it would be good of them to write a letter to the county manager telling us of that. That would help move the process along,” Johnson said.
Commissioner Bill Hamlin said losing jobs in the county was the number one problem in Surry County in 2008. But, he said, one of the highlights of the year was securing FibroWatt.
FibroWatt, a Pennsylvania and United Kingdom based company which utilizes a process that converts poultry litter into usable energy, announced in June it will build a plant near Elkin.
“They will be locating in Surry County and there will be some jobs associated with that, which is great,” Hamlin said.
He said the county has some infrastructure water projects that are in the works that will benefit the county overall.
“That will certainly help a lot of people. It will help a lot of businesses. It will make us stronger as far as our infrastructure goes. It will make it easier for us to recruit business if we have that in place,” Hamlin said.
He agreed with Johnson in that the economy is something the commissioners need to focus on going forward.
“The economy is certainly the number one problem with everyone right now. It effects businesses, the county, individuals — it’s bad for everyone right now. What we have to do is focus on making it better for everyone.”
Hamlin said he also supports building a prison in the county.
“We welcome a prison. We welcome the jobs. We certainly have to work with our economic development folks to make sure we are doing the right things in order to bring new businesses to the county.”
Hamlin said recruiting new business to the area is vital for the growth of the county.
“We just need to work as hard as we can with the Surry EDP to try to bring other businesses into the county, whatever they are, small businesses, large businesses, anyone from two jobs to 500. We will take anything. Whatever we can bring in, we need to do that,” Hamlin said.
Commissioner Chairman Craig Hunter said he feels really good about the accomplishments of the commissioners over the past year.
“One of our goals was to keep taxes low. I think we really did well with that. Another thing we are trying to do is to build confidence in county commissioners. We want the public and citizens and taxpayers to feel like they can have confidence in the county commissioners. It is a work in progress but we feel like the efforts that we made and the transparency that we have worked on — that we have made good strides in building confidence with our citizens,” Hunter said.
He said he is excited about a pamphlet the county is getting ready to run in local newspapers that is an overview of county government and the various departments.
“It will explain everything that we do. We are trying to inform the citizens about what we do, how we do it — where their money is spent and the positive impacts that we made all across the county,” Hunter said.
“We also want to continue public utility efforts across the county. By extending water and sewer across the county, we feel like we have made strides in that as well. We are working on several water and sewer initiatives,” Hunter said.
“The last goal we had was economic development. We have been focused on getting the Assistant County Manager of Economic Development and Tourism Chris Knopf involved in economic development and (the) tourism initiative. We feel like that is a work in progress, but we feel that Chris is making strides in working with all four municipalities and the Surry Economic Development Partnership.
“I think it is important to note the success of FibroWatt the announcement we had this summer and their commitment to build a $160 million green energy plant and bring several hundred new jobs with it,” Hunter said.
Hunter said some of the shortfalls have been in the area of economic development and in a deal to purchase water from the city of Mount Airy.
“I think that we need to continue to work more proactively on economic development efforts both recruiting new industry and working with existing industry. I feel like we need to get better at that. I’ve been disappointed that we have not been able to work out a water and sewer purchase with the City of Mount Airy. We have been working on that for the past two or three years — and just can’t seem to get it done. But in positive light, I think with the new leadership in the city, I feel like we can make some strides in the next few months,” Hunter said.
Hunter said he expects that difficulties in the next year will deal with the economy, job losses, plant closings and business closings. He said there has been an erosion of the business base, not only locally, but on a national level.
He said, in 2001, the state held back sales tax revenues to county and city governments. He said he is concerned about that happening again this coming year.
The chairman said he is in support of a prison as long as it is what the citizens of Surry County want.
“I am in support of prison, if it is placed in the right location. I believe in total transparency for our citizens for this project. They need to be involved in recruiting the prison. They need to help us make decisions on where it will be located,” Hunter said.
Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.
Post a Comment
