Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 24, 1990 TAG: 9003242342
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Southwest bureau
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It is the only Virginia county to get such a Farmers Home Administration grant this year, according to Travis Jackson, regional FmHA manager.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said the grant will allow the county to buy 63 acres and install the necessary facilities to prepare it for industry. "Virtually all of Southwest Virginia's localities today have publicly owned industrial parks that make those counties and cities more attractive to industry," he said.
The only exceptions are Bland, Craig and Grayson counties, which have lacked the tax base to fund industrial parks or even to put up matching funds for other types of grants. "But with the grant that we are presenting today, we have solved that problem for Grayson County," Boucher said.
Boucher also announced that Grayson County has decided to join the Mount Rogers Development Partnership, being organized for localities in the Mount Rogers Planning District to market themselves for new industry.
That leaves Wythe County the only locality among the district's six counties and two cities that has not joined "and discussions are under way with Wythe County even as we speak," Boucher said.
Boucher said a capital funds campaign for the partnership venture will start next month with contributions being sought from business and industry. It could have its director and be ready to recruit industry early next year, he said. "That's certainly our hope."
"Grayson County has worked long and hard to reach this point in the development of the Grayson County Industrial Park," said Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve Shaffner. "I believe it is a giant step that we have taken here today."
Herbert Andersen, vice mayor of Independence, said the town would go along with whatever is necessary in working with the county to supply water and sewer to the park.
The property being bought lies next to the county's recreation park, about one-third of a mile east of Independence on U.S. 58.
"The monies will also ensure the provision of electric power to the site, and they will ensure the installation of an 8-inch water line over approximately 1,800 feet from the town of Independence's water main to this site," Boucher said.
Due to matching grant requirements and other financial barriers, Grayson did not compete in the recent round of $1 million state grants for industrial development, he said. "So the only potential source of funding for building industrial parks in Grayson County was from the federal government."
About half of Grayson's work force works in apparel jobs. Boucher said the
by CNB