Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 20, 1993 TAG: 9309200054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Del. Ward Armstrong said the loss of nearly 700 jobs at the DuPont plant last week was just the latest in a series of serious cutbacks throughout Western Virginia.
Armstrong, D-Martinsville, said DuPont once employed 5,000 workers. With the latest cuts, the plant will be left with 750, he said.
Speaking to the Appropriations Committee of the House of Delegates, Armstrong said state officials must recognize the need for economic growth in the western region.
"We are approaching a situation of near-crisis proportions," Armstrong told the House's money committee.
Another legislator, Del. Richard Cranwell, said the state also needs to provide more aid for schools, tourism and other projects for this area of Virginia.
Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, said the formula for providing aid to localities is morally, if not legally, wrong because it penalizes students in poor and rural localities.
The state should adopt a formula that provides children in Western Virginia the same educational opportunities as those elsewhere in Virginia, he said.
Cranwell said the state needs an educational system that helps provide a labor force in the western region that is equipped for the jobs in the global economy.
The Appropriations Committee's trip to Roanoke has symbolic value, because it shows the state's concern for Western Virginia, he said.
The committee's two-day meeting in Roanoke is part of a policy of a traveling to various areas for regional sessions.
Del. Robert Ball, chairman of the committee, said the regional meetings are designed to make the legislators accessible for those who can't travel to Richmond easily.
And what the committee heard was a plea for more state money and incentives to help create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership, said there is a desperate need for job growth in the Roanoke Valley and Western Virginia.
She told the committee that most nearby states have incentive programs that help the regions that need it most. Virginia needs a similar program, she said.
Doughty said the need for such a program became evident when Roanoke lost an opportunity for a business to move into the vacant Gardner-Denver building, because North Carolina offered greater incentives to the company.
"Other states are becoming more aggressive and offering more incentives. It is costing us jobs," she said.
A study by the Southern Industrial Development Council last year showed Virginia was last in industrial development from new plants and next to last in new manufacturing jobs, she said.
Western Virginia offers the greatest potential for future development in the state, Doughty said.
April Young, director of the Virginia Department of Economic Development, said Western Virginia has lost more than 3,000 jobs, including 1,713 at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, because of cuts in defense-related industries.
Young said she believes manufacturing jobs are important to the state, and writing them off would be a mistake.
Gerald Carter, president of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the committee that the state needs to do more to advertise and promote tourism in Western Virginia.
More money is need for regional marketing, signs and a low-band radio station to lure travelers off Interstate 81 and the Blue Ridge Parkway, Carter said.
Statewide, the travel industry keeps growing, with expenditures at $8.6 billion in 1992, up from $8.1 billion the prior year, said Pat McMahon, deputy director of the state Economic Development Department.
by CNB