Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 1, 1990 TAG: 9006010290
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The visitors saw how Lee, Scott and Wise counties and the city of Norton had worked together to establish a successful industrial park at Duffield, he said.
And when they heard about the low employee turnover and absenteeism at Smyth County's Merillat Industries plant, he said, "you talk about setting people back on their feet. . . . You go to other areas and try to find 1.2 percent turnover and 55 percent perfect attendance."
Framme will head for Pulaski County today, where he will tour the AT&T plant which has been closed.
"It's hard to sell a facility that big, but it's a great facility and we will sell it," he said. Meanwhile, he said, he would be making an announcement about something that would help a little in boosting Pulaski County's economy.
The tour is scheduled for 9 a.m., and the announcement for about 10:15, when Framme meets with the New River Valley Alliance. He will be accompanied by Hugh Keogh, director of the state Department of Economic Development; Virginia Employment Commissioner Ralph Cantrell and others.
Framme said earlier stops had included one 1,500 feet underground in the Beatrice-Pocahontas Mine near Oakwood, where he watched a longwall mining operator at work. He realized that, if he had seen the operator above ground covered with coal dust, he would have figured he was just another miner, when the man was actually a highly trained technician handling complex equipment.
Such a worker could easily work a computer, Framme said, but he doubted that many computer operators could operate longwall mining machinery. It reinforced the point of the tour, he said, which was to spread an image of a high-tech Southwest Virginia ready for new industry.
Framme said the region does have problems, one of the toughest being its illiteracy rate at a time of technological industry. That is why educational improvement must be part of any strategy to bring in new industry, he said.
The state officials attended a dinner hosted by the Wythe County Joint Industrial Development Authority here Thursday and met with state Sen. Daniel W. Bird Jr., D-Wytheville, and representatives of the authority and of the towns of Rural Retreat and Wytheville. Incoming Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe, who attended Washington and Lee University with Framme, was among them.
Framme said the Northern Virginia group said before flying home Thursday afternoon that they wanted to maintain contacts with this region and wanted Southwest Virginians to visit their part of the state.
Many Northern Virginia high-tech industries have no room to expand where they are but could put branch operations at any location with access to telecommunications outlets, Framme said, "and if they're going to move 'em, by gosh, here is where they ought to be."
Framme said Gov. Douglas Wilder has made rural economic development one of his three major priorities, as shown by the rural development conference planned for the Roanoke area in the fall. "He understands that, if our rural areas don't develop, then the whole state suffers."
He said a study commission put together to study the economic problems of Southside Virginia is patterned on the Lacy Commission, which successfully outlined and suggested solutions for many of Southwest Virginia's economic woes.
"That is the Lacy Commission over again," he said.
by CNB