Consultants offered more than a dozen recommendations to improve the county’s economic development efforts during a recent joint meeting of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors and the Economic Development Authority (EDA) Board.
The recommendations, presented on August 19, were split into four categories – Economic Development Operations, Business Retention and Expansion, Project Development, and Economic Development Toolkit – and included 18 actions.
Liz Povar, principal of RiverLink Group, one of the consulting organizations, said one purpose of the recommendations is to help facilitate a conversation between the boards about what each thinks needs to be done and potentially facilitate changes. Another goal is to get the boards to decide what Economic Development and Tourism Director James Houchins should focus on with his duties regarding the county’s economic development.
“He needs your help to help focus time, resources, energy, staff support,” she said.
Sanford Holshouser Managing Partner David Denny said the meeting was just the beginning of trying to develop a longer-term vision and get established groups like the county and other stakeholders all working together to come up with the longer-term visions and action items.
“The recommendations that we have, we try to be cognizant of the fact that you can get overwhelmed with too many things to tackle. You get too overwhelmed with too many complex things to tackle,” he said. “So, what we wanted to do is to recommend some very meaningful things that could be done and tackled, but things that are low-hanging fruit.”
Under the Economic Development Operations category, Denny said one thing the county should focus on completing the EDA bylaws.
“The bylaws really are a guideline” to explain how the agency operates and conducts business, he said. “It’s extremely important to have those bylaws finished and implemented,” he said.
Denny said the county should also redesign and implement the organization structure of the Economic Development & Tourism departments. In his work, he noted many rural communities have economic development organizations serve as both, “so, there’s plenty of great models to help with your structure, but it needs to be organizationally restructured or structured” so that it will take “both of those components of economic development and implement them properly.”
The last action is to ensure alignment with the vision and goals of the board of supervisors, he said.
“That’s where I’m talking about collaboration, not lock-step EDA and board of supervisors in particular. There are other groups too, but we need to have whatever comes out of all of this be a vision that you create combined as two bodies as one body,” he said.
In the Business Retention and Expansion category, Denny said the county has great existing companies that it needs to work to keep as well as keep them thriving and create new jobs to their growth.
“We recommend you track all the open projects that closeout at the end of the performance year periods. If there’s incentives that have been given or other things, performance items that need to be completed, you need to track those all the way down to the end and then see what’s next to help them,” he said.
The county also should develop a strategy, and begin to implement a structured business retention program, to include calling local companies and their headquarters, Denny said.
“I’m a firm believer that if you don’t have a structured and written plan, it’s easy to drift on anything that you do. I think it’s important that you do have a structured plan for business retention,” he said.
Recommendations in the Product Development category are centered on major sites in the county that need to be addressed.
He added that when the U.S. 58 project is completed, it will be “a phenomenal way” into the county.
“You’ve already got the Martinsville sign on 58, you got a new gateway coming in” and coming back. “In our opinion, there needs to be a master plan to include Meadows of Dan and Mabry Mill,” he said, adding stakeholder input from the area’s residents and companies are important when crafting the master plan.
The county needs to complete the landscaping, upgrade the utility capacities, and look into water storage tank and gas tap for the Rich Creek Park site, he said. “Review the recommendations. Dewberry did their report about purify certification. Tier 5 is the top of that, but there’s always little things that you can do to enhance that Tier 5, so companies are just ready to come in.”
A development strategy needs to be created for the Martin Road Farm property, Denny said, and with Cockram’s Mill, he recommended a closeout of existing deliverables.
The “hospital site, that’s a big question with a big issue obviously. Work with the current owners to find a tenant or maybe the new owner” that needs the building “and try to turn that valuable piece of property into something,” he said.
The county should also launch the small business incubator site, Denny said, and design and solicit a hotel market study. He believes the county should create and maintain a list of available properties, publicly and privately owned.
“You’ve got your main pieces – the one you’re going to put a lot of money in, but you always need to have a niche. You also need to have some inventory in your back pocket, so you need to know where they are,” he said.
In the Economic Development Toolkit category, Denny suggested the county should review and assess outcomes from the Enterprise Zone to prepare for zone renewal in 2026.
“Develop a Patrick County incentive philosophy, and update and revise the existing incentive program. It’s the old adage that you don’t start” the conversation with a company with incentives. Rather, “incentives are just the cherry on top of the cupcake,” he said.
Denny also believes a budget/business plan for the EDA and a Strategic Economic development Action Plan (SEDAP) should be created, and the county should look at the benefits of developing a tourism zone.
Povar said the boards should use the recommendations as a starting point for conversations about what should be a priority and done in the county.
“Critical elements over the next 2 to 3 months is ensuring that your vision is here, your goals are clear, and that there is alignment between you two governing bodies,” she said. “It’s really important.”
Following Denny’s presentation, Houchins asked the supervisors and the authority to identify the initial things on his list.
“That’s what we’re here for,” Houchins said. “We need data and the facts, not hearsay, not just wannabes just because that’s what we want, but what can we do,” Houchins said, and added the county needs infrastructure to increase the sewer and water to existing properties.
“We need to work closer with our CTE (Career and Technical Education) programs, making sure that we are looking at what the (Patrick County Public Schools are), for the lack of better words, producing through the CTE program. Then maybe we can get businesses that may say, ‘in the year 2026, we are going to graduate X amount of welders or some other technical jobs.’ Maybe then we can actually start to go out and look and see how we can facilitate getting a business because we may have the workforce in place for them to do,” he said.
Doug Perry, chairman, and of the Smith River District, said he thinks the county should do an analysis of its strengths and weaknesses.
“What are our strengths and what are our weaknesses, and then come up with a plan to improve those weaknesses and then those strengths, that’s key points to help market the county as a place of business,” he said.
Perry also wants ways to recognize, appreciate, and celebrate the businesses in the county.
“Even if it means each month as a business reaches a milestone, let’s bring that certificate in front of the board so at a board meeting we can recognize them and present a certificate of appreciation, or just that recognition because as a business looks at relocating or expanding and they’re looking at Patrick County,” Perry said. Then, “look at the news and you see, ‘hey, county celebrates local business milestone’ or something and that creates that positive environment that they would want to be in.”
Jonathan Wood, of the Peters Creek District, said he would like to see a focus on family necessities like affordable housing, medical facilities, and fixing the county’s daycare issue.
“I believe Mrs. Simms told us a couple months ago that the average house sale price last year in the county was over $300,000. I can’t afford that, and there’s very few people in this room that can afford that, especially if we’re trying to keep our kids here after high school. We need some form of housing that is affordable,” he said.
Other recommendations included the preservation of the county’s landscape and farmland, talking to county residents for input, and tackling the county’s unemployment rate.
Southern Virginia Regional Alliance (SVRA) Vice-President of Economic Development Linda Green also discussed how to market the county, and Povar defined economic development.
Houchins provided a presentation on the county’s assets.
