Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 24, 1995 TAG: 9511240082
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
"This really hit out of the blue," said Sybil Atkinson, chairwoman of the Economic Development Board.
Economic Development Director Barry Matherly said that he and part-time assistant Keith Stafford, who works in the office for $5 an hour, would still try to carry out the more than 20 projects the board has taken on. "We'll find some way to do it," he said, adding that the board would seek community support on various initiatives.
But board members were left wondering if they, as a group of volunteers, had the support they thought they had from council.
Mayor Andy Graham urged council Tuesday night to postpone consideration of an economic development specialist slot until members begin planning the 1996-97 budget next spring. Money to sustain the position is not there, he said.
Council voted 4-3 against creating the new position.
Graham said Tuesday he was particularly concerned that interest from the town's Urban Development Action Grant funds was not generating as much money as expected. First-year funding for the economic development effort was to come from that interest. As of the end of October, he said, it had drawn only about $23,000; the economic development budget for the fiscal year is $184,000.
Graham also argued against the need for two full-time economic development employees. The town hired Matherly as economic development director more than three months ago , and Graham said one such employee is more than most towns of Pulaski's size have.
Matherly said the economic development agency spent less than 14 percent of its budget in the first third of the year.
"We're aware that the money is not tracking as it should be. ... We were prudent from the start," he said. "We're trying to do more with less money."
The economic development office has enlisted local business to help advertise the town, for example, Matherly said. The office generated enough local support for the recent Count Pulaski Day festival so the town did not have to fund it.
Council members John Johnston, Junior Black, Alma Holston and Eddie Hale voted against creating the position at this time. Hale is one of the 30 members of the Economic Development Board and, along with Holston, serves on the town's Human Resources Committee which had unanimously recommended the position to the full council.
Bettye Steger, John Stone and Human Resources Committee Chairman Roy D'Ardenne voted for the position. Vice Mayor Rocky Schrader was not at the meeting.
Following the vote, D'Ardenne suggested that the board consider how it might have to scale back planned activities because it will not have the anticipated full-time personnel. The board's most recent project, which involves expanding the town's renovated rail depot building, could be the first to be dropped, he said.
But Matherly said he hopes to continue with that project as well as others, although they might take longer than originally planned. He said a request from the Friends of the Pulaski Theatre to help restore Pulaski's former movie house as a cultural activities center might have to take a back seat for now.
Members of the board's executive committee plan to seek a meeting with the mayor next week.
"If it's an identifiable monetary problem, we need to look at it from that standpoint. If it's a political thing, we need to know that, too," said Wayne Carpenter, the board's vice chairman.
"A lot has been done on a very small dollar amount" already, he said, but it requires some boldness and willingness to take a risk.
"You don't have to go very far to look at what Dublin did when they stepped out and took a couple of chances and bought that Burlington property," Carpenter said. The town of Dublin is using the former Burlington Mills property as an industrial park and will be placing a new town hall and Post Office there.
by CNB