Area officials hoping to eventually land a state prison in Surry County recently unveiled a new Web site dedicated to promoting the county as a good location for such a facility.

As many of you know, Mount Airy Commissioner Dean Brown, along with others in the city and the county governments and business community, have been courting the North Carolina Department of Correction for the prison, because such an institution would mean more than 400 jobs. And these jobs would be stable, decent-paying positions with good benefits, the kind of jobs a person could use to help support a family.

The biggest snag Brown and those with him have hit is the economic downturn, which has sapped the state’s treasury and delayed the construction of any new prisons. Still, the state projects it will need 6,000 new prison beds within the next decade, and putting inmates on floor cots will address the need for only a limited time.

That is where the new Web site comes in. The site probably will not do much, by itself, to attract a prison. But, the fact that our leaders are continually coming up with new ways to market the community to the Department of Correction, and those new tools give local officials another reason to contact state leaders on the issue, shows a tenacity other localities may not possess.

And the fact that Brown and others here continue to hammer away at the project, knowing full well it might be a year, or two, or even five, before those efforts could result in the awarding of a prison to Surry County also shows a long-term, patient approach that is needed to rebuild the area economy.