Economic develop work can be expensive, as recent events have shown in Mount Airy and Surry County, but the expense is well worth it if good, long-term jobs result.

On several occasions in recent weeks the city and county governments have been called upon to offer economic incentives to prospective companies. Those incentives have taken the form of deeding land and facilities to new companies, and tax breaks. Offering those incentives, however, have resulted in companies announcing plans to move to the community, or expand existing operations.

The city commissioners are again faced with a request for incentives totally nearly $300,000, most of which involves the transfer of land at Piedmont Triad West Corporate Park to a company local officials are not naming.

The incentives are aimed, according to Mount Airy city documents, at retaining 86 jobs already in existence at a local firm, with another 38 to be added. While most of the recent economic announcements have dealt with new firms coming to the area it is vital local officials work to retain jobs and help already existing firms grow. This request will do just that.

Thursday night, Mount Airy commissioners also voted to have necessary work done at Piedmont Triad park to keep two vacant sites certified by N.C. Department of Commerce standards. The work to do so will cost up to $80,000, with Surry County agreeing to foot half the bill.

Local officials have been quite aggressive, and successful, in recent months with their economic development work, but sometimes no matter how hard local people work, leads on new companies come from the state, and those companies will only look at sites which are state-certified.

It’s a hard pill to swallow, spending that much money, but it is an investment, not an expenditure, and both the city and county are showing a progressive approach to economic development by spending the money.