Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 18, 1993 TAG: 9302180444
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WHITHER WILDER'S RURAL INITIATIVES?
SCHUYLER, a wide spot (population 400) on a Nelson County road, once had a soapstone plant that employed 2,000 people. Once it even had its own hospital. The soapstone plant, the town's only industry, is still there, but its employment is down to 15. Like many rural communities in Virginia, Schuyler seems to be withering away.So what's this? CBS News and People magazine sending reporters to Schuyler? Visitors coming from as far away as London? Indeed, by pluck and luck, the little Blue Ridge town may become a tourists' destination.
The luck is that it has a famous native son: Earl Hamner Jr., creator of the fictional John-Boy, and the still-popular TV show, "The Waltons." It was based loosely on the Hamner family's life in Schuyler.
The pluck is that the community conceived the idea of a Walton's Mountain Museum to draw tourists and rescue its faltering economy. It won a state grant of $30,000 to help finance the project.
The museum, housed in an old elementary school that was abandoned when enrollment dwindled, has been closed for the winter months. But in the short time it was open in 1992, it attracted about 300 tourists each weekday, 500 a day on weekends. The museum will re-open for the tourist season on March 6 with a staff of eight.
That's eight jobs Schuyler didn't have this time last year. Meanwhile, proceeds from the nonprofit museum continue to support town projects that Schuyler otherwise couldn't afford.
Of course, other distressed rural communities in Virginia don't have a John-Boy to parlay into a revitalization effort. But most rural communities have a surprising number of underexploited homegrown assets and innovative thinkers with excellent ideas for improving their communities' lot. In many cases, a little boost from Richmond could help.
In his 1989 campaign for governor, Doug Wilder promised that boost. To his credit, he convened - during his first year in office - a high-profile conference in Roanoke to explore rural economic-development strategies. Remember that event?
As recommended by the conference, Wilder established the state's Center on Rural Development and the grant program that helped Schuyler get its museum. The program has provided seed money for innovative projects in several poorer rural communities looking for development opportunities.
Now, however, the grant program is out of money. Demand has been great. In its first year (1991), 94 applications came in, seeking a total of $2.4 million. With only $350,000, CORD could approve only 16 requests.
Last year, CORD asked $700,000 for the current two-year budget period. The legislature cut the amount in half. With 64 applications for more than $2 million, CORD basically spent its entire two-year appropriation to fund 13 rural-development projects last year.
At this point in the '93 General Assembly session, it appears that Wilder will need to make a special pleading to House-Senate budget conferees to find a modest $300,000 or so to keep CORD's grant program going.
He shouldn't hesitate. It is, thus far, the most tangible and visible result of his promised rural "initiatives." At the very least to keep faith with rural communities, Wilder needs to go to bat for it.
With the state's population and political economy shifting, legislators from rural areas no longer enjoy the influence they once exercised in Richmond. As a result, Virginia's governors will have to play a bigger role looking after rural communities' interests. This is not unreasonable. The state, along with the communities, benefits from rural development.