By Taylor Boyd
A recreational center, senior citizen center, and securing a business in the former Food Country space were the three top priorities identified by the Patrick County Board of Supervisors at its annual board retreat on Thursday, March 26 at Primland Resort.
“I’m not economic development, but I can tell you in speaking with” Economic Development & Tourism Director James Houchins, “we have some real good possibilities for fulfilling that goal and filling that building,” County Administrator Michael McGuinness said.
“We have some great things coming up in economic development and some pokers in the fire. I think our county’s going to start seeing some things, hopefully in this next year, that will really make an impact for our citizens,” he said.
Noting it was his first retreat, McGuinness said the priorities developed by the board “keep us all pulling in the same direction.” The strategic planning segment gave everyone a clear cut vision on where to start looking and doing, especially in terms of economic development.
The board also talked about Envision Critz and its goal of creating a park and community center in the Critz area.
“There’s not a park in that area, and they asked if we could start spending more time and effort in looking at the park and some of the things that Envision Critz has already started,” McGuinness said.
Andrew Overby, board chairman and of the Dan River District, said other priorities included reviewing the fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) study that was conducted a few years ago.
“One of my priorities is to look into that a little further to see what we can do as far as improving funding options for our fire and EMS system, and helping out the volunteers,” he said.
The board also discussed the mobile health unit and how it can be deployed in the future for emergency situations and special events, “and possibly deploying it to areas within the county on a periodic basis to help with health needs throughout the county,” Overby said.
Economic development opportunities — like improving and expanding the county’s water and sewer system, a water tower study completed at Rich Creek Corporate Park, and a natural gas tap study — were also discussed by the board.
“We’re doing a natural gas tap study to see if it will be beneficial to us to tap onto the existing natural gas line that’s going through the county to see if there’s opportunities for use for that,” Overby said, and added that he plans to combine notes from the retreat and present them to the board to ensure all members can have their collective goals and objectives in writing.
The board also received a short briefing from all of the county’s constitutional officers at the retreat.
“I think the constitutional officers appreciated the opportunity to interface with us, talk to us, and express things that are going on in their offices that we need to be abreast of. It was a good opportunity for them to sit down with us in a little bit more informal setting where we could discuss things and answer questions and they could answer questions for us, so that was definitely good,” Overby said, adding that he believes everyone was pleased with the retreat’s outcomes.
“I think overall it was very successful. We got good input from all the supervisors and I think that county administration has a better vision of what we’re looking for as far as improving things within the county and moving us in a forward direction,” he said.
