THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505070048
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EDENTON LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Influential Albemarle community leaders are writing their own agenda for the Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission to prod the sluggish pump-priming group into action.
For two years, county officials and concerned northeastern citizens have contended that the commission has failed to produce a plan that would properly use the $2 million appropriated by the General Assembly for area improvement.
The frustration reached a point last week where several county officials, local industrial developers and reportedly at least one member of the Economic Commission itself decided to come up with an action-plan and present it to the commission for action.
``We don't want to lose the money the state gave us for community use. And that will surely happen if there isn't a more coordinated plan,'' said Hal Walker, executive director of the Albemarle Commission in Hertford.
Walker's Albemarle Commission is one of more than a dozen northeastern agencies, including various Chambers of Commerce and industrial development organizations, that for many years have performed at least part of the work that the Economic Development Commission is supposed to do.
``We have skills in management, skills in development, and know how to put money where it will do some good,'' Walker said Friday. ``So it seemed like a good idea for us to review our community needs and then jointly prepare a practical program that will get the commission moving.''
The idea of forcing the commission into action by handing it a full blown, pre-empted agenda developed almost simultaneously in several of 16 northeastern counties covered by the planning group. Much of the initial impetus came from Edenton, where Richard Bunch, head of the Edenton-Chowan County Chamber of Commerce, began cataloging worthy projects.
``We think we can give the commission workable plans and then provide a lot of the help needed to implement them,'' said Bunch.
In Elizabeth City, Randy Harrell, Pasquotank County Industrial developer, has been asked to compare notes with several other Albemarle county officials to help establish priority proposals for the commission, Bunch said.
Walker said the ad hoc planning group hopes to present the program to the commission in the form of detailed projects, each supported by funding requirements and money sources; engineering specifications, and management and labor needs.
``That may not be a bad idea,'' said Charles Ward, a Hertford businessman and commission member, who has privately criticized the commission's sluggishness in producing results.
Charles Shaw, a retired Edenton oil executive and a member of the commission, has also frequently commented on the board's failure to move forward since the General Assembly created the commission in 1992.
County managers in most of the commission's operating area have been informed of the plans of the ad hoc group. They include William Richardon, Currituck County manager; Randy Keaton, Pasquotank manager, and Cliff Copeland, Chowan County manager.
From the time in 1992 that the 15-member commission was created by the General Assembly, one of six statewide, the northeast economic group has been plagued by management problems. Unlike the state's other regional pump-priming groups, the Albemarle panel has a separate tourist division that functions independently of the main economic board.
Even with two $57,000-a-year directors who are supposed to manage the two divisions, the 15 unsalaried but controlling members of the commission have frequently been caught in a nasty political crossfire between the tourist body in Elizabeth City and the regular panel in Hertford.
The 15 board members are appointed, five each, by Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., the speaker of the House and the president pro tem of the Senate.
The commission's executive committee met Thursday in Plymouth and decided to hold the next regular meeting of the full commission on May 25 in Washington, N.C. by CNB