Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Barry Matherly, who was special projects manager at the Tech center, will come to work in August after completing some tasks at the university.
It will be a new venture for the town, as well. The idea for an economic development board grew out of a series of discussions last year by a cross section of the community. Councilman John Stone had proposed the discussions to find ways of improving the town's economic climate.
Some 30 citizens, from across the community, were named to an economic development board and the town began advertising nationally for a director to lead the program. Roscoe Cox, who had headed the town's Main Street program for several years, served as interim director until the end of June.
Fifty people applied for the job. Seven were chosen to be interviewed by the town's Human Resources Committee, which recommended Matherly to Town Council at its meeting Tuesday night.
Mayor Andy Graham told Matherly he would face many challenges, including generating enough new business for the town for its revenue to make the economic development effort self-supporting. It is being largely funded this year from interest generated by the town's Urban Development Action Grant fund. The fund makes loans to help new businesses and is replenished by loan repayments from those businesses.
Enough new businesses could receive town loans so that the remaining funds would not generate enough interest to sustain the new program.
"We believe you have the skills and the motivation and the enthusiasm to meet these challenges," Graham said. "The ball is in your ball field now. ... We look forward to your making a lot of home runs."
Sybil Atkinson, chairwoman of the economic development board, said she had been impressed with Matherly in an interview. She and board Vice Chairman Wayne Carpenter had been involved in the interview process with the Human Resources Committee.
Before assuming his position with the Economic Development Assistance Center, Matherly was a graduate teaching assistant and a research assistant in economic development at Tech. Prior to that, he worked for seven years in management for the J.C. Penney Co.
His job with the Economic Development Assistance Center gave him experience in working with communities throughout Southwest Virginia on economic strategies, market studies, grant proposals, tourism development and downtown revitalization plans.
He is a member of the New Century Council, which recently released ambitious plans for linking the Roanoke and New River valleys to enhance economic development for both. He has worked with diverse community groups and helped them reach consensus on economic development goals, has gotten good results from grant proposals he has written, and developed economic plans that have won awards from economic development organizations.
Matherly is a graduate of James Madison University and has a master's degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Tech.
He and his wife have two children, and live in Roanoke. He plans to move to Pulaski as soon as possible. He already has family members living in the New River Valley, and his father is a Dublin High School graduate.
by CNB