The Patrick County Economic Development Authority (EDA) discussed the possibility of providing funds to the Patrick County PCVA Business Builders program.
Rebecca Adcock, executive director of the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce, said the program is an eight-week entrepreneurship start-up program that the chamber hosts. The program is operated by Patrick & Henry Community College (P&HCC).
The program was funded “through a federal EDA grant that the community college applied for,” Adcock said.
The program must be operated for three years, and last year included the first cohort, she said.
“We had four individuals go through and complete the program and get to pitch night, where they did a two-minute elevator pitch on their business and were awarded cash money. We had a pot of $10,000” with which to make the awards, she said.
An estimated $6,500 in award funds remain because some of the individuals have not yet gotten their business to the stage required to receive the funds, Adcock said, and asked the EDA to contribute to the program again.
The added incentive, she said, is “a good carrot to hang out to people to get them to go through the program.”
Ron Haley, who serves on the EDA board, said he supports the EDA contributing to the program, but he feels the agency should wait to see what the cohort looks like before making a financial commitment.
“I’m certainly in favor of the idea of it. This is one of the best ways to grow something homegrown,” EDA chairman Bill Clark said. However, he also felt like the group should wait to see how many people will be involved in the program before committing funds.
Adcock said she should know the number of people that will be involved in the program in August or September.
In other matters, the authority:
*Paid the bills.
*Approved the autopay policy as amended.
*Discussed the Rich Creek Shell Building.
*Discussed the SoVA Housing Summit.
*Approved the May 25, 2022, meeting minutes.
Debra Shelor and Glenn Roycroft did not attend the meeting.