Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301260424
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY ECONOMY PAGE: 20 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SCHOOLS BEGIN TO SEE RESULTS OF BOND ISSUE
Slowly, the sagging economy in the New River Valley has been turning around.Teaching jobs at colleges, once frozen, have been filled, the salaries paid with money from tuition increases.
And construction, spurred by a $613 million bond referendum that proponents have said would jump-start the economy, is starting in Southwest Virginia. With that construction, new jobs are coming - but again, slowly.
Economists had estimated that the construction in higher education, parks, recreation and mental health would bring about 3,600 jobs statewide over the next five years.
And that could be a conservative number, said Larry Hincker, a spokesman for Virginia Tech.
Southwest Virginia, which will get $120 million from the referendum, probably will get as many as 700 jobs over the next five years, Hincker said.
The New River Valley has no large commercial contractors that would be likely to bid on campus projects.
But the first local building to go through the process, an addition to McConnell Library at Radford University, went to a Roanoke contractor, Branch and Associates.
Construction is scheduled to begin in a couple of weeks.
And some of the subcontractors likely will be local, said Wes Hurt, an estimator with Branch.
"We're not sure how many we're going to use yet," he said.
Locally, the construction industry has felt the squeeze of the recession, Hurt said, though his own company has been lucky.
"There have been some periods of down time, but most of our clients are consistent."
Some of his staff probably will commute to Radford while the project continues. Others will move, temporarily, to the New River Valley. Their money could filter down into apartments or hotels, food and supplies.
And the companies will need materials, Hincker said, steel and concrete.
Tom Johnson, a professor of agricultural economics at Tech, punches numbers into a computer to see how things will filter down when significant events hit the New River Valley.
When AT&T closed, for instance, he looked at the smaller jobs that would disappear - jobs at fast-food places that would have fewer customers because people would leave the area.
So when money for construction comes in, he looks at the short-term and long-term effects.
In the short term, there will be jobs.
"People will have money in their pockets and that creates a bit of optimism that can be as important as the actual dollars," Johnson said.
The smaller the area, the bigger the splash that could be made by something like this referendum, Johnson said.
The new jobs will be spread across the state, "but they will stimulate the economy . . . the money will create activity and get things done here."
When the dust clears, people will forget the importance of a few jobs in construction and focus on the ways those buildings made the area more attractive and productive, he said.
"The important thing about these projects is the long-term implication, and that's harder to get your hands on," Johnson said.
But the new buildings may increase a university's chance to get research grants, and people will need to work in those buildings, which will mean more jobs.
"It improves the quality of the education of the students," Johnson said. "It's hard to put a price on that."
But for now, the community is in a holding pattern, Johnson said, and the valley is filled with unemployed, but highly employable, people.
At Tech, bids for an $8.4 million veterinary project opened on Jan. 14. The big project, $25 million for architecture and engineering buildings, won't get under construction until 1994, so the jobs will be spread out.
New River Community College just hired an architect to expand its library, and an economic development building will go out for bid in March.