THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 25, 1995 TAG: 9509230185
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Talk of the Town
TYPE: Opinion
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Hampton Roads relies less on the U.S. government now than in the '80s.
Yes, the federal payroll remains crucial on the Peninsula and the southside. Washington showers about $88 million a week worth of paychecks on the Tidewater economy.
Of the nearly 800,000 employed people on the Peninsula and the southside, about 48,000 work in federal agencies, 49,000 are military personnel based permanently in Tidewater, and another 80,000 in the military are stationed here, including ships at sea and air crews deployed abroad.
Block the federal pipeline even one week and the disrupted payroll equals what would be lost to the region if Ford's pickup truck assembly plant in Norfolk laid off 2,000 workers for a year.
A government shutdown could hurt those on the federal payroll, especially someone whose rent payment, say, is late.
But two factors would diminish the overall impact on Hampton Roads' economy.
Paychecks would be postponed, not canceled. In the long run most if not all of the federal payroll would continue flowing into the economy. What's more, the federal presence is less significant than it once was. The federal civilian payroll represents 12 percent of the total civilian payroll in the region, down from 17 percent a decade ago.
Tidewater remains a government town, but it's also become a place with a vital service economy.
While federal agencies have shed 7,000 civilian jobs since '84, a decline of almost 13 percent, there's been a rise in other sectors of the economy: 3,000 stores and 4,000 service businesses opened across the region, adding 87,000 jobs between '84 and '94.
NuevoWood: Environmental Solutions Inc. of Richmond plans to mold peanut shells, waste plastic and glue into NuevoWood. ESI invented the high-tech lumber and intends to fashion it into pallets beginning next summer in a $2 million plant planned in Suffolk.
Birdsong Peanuts in Suffolk will provide 6,250 tons of shells and buy some of the 250,000 pallets produced each year, said marketing manager Paul Baker. The new plant will employ 15.
EPA update: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contends Virginia's air pollution permit program fails to meet federal requirements. EPA wants to take over the permit program.
Business could pay the EPA as much as $70 per ton of pollution, compared to about $30 a ton under Virginia's program, said Virginia Manufacturers Association general counsel Carol Wampler.
Tenneco today: Tenneco, owner of Newport News Shipbuilding, the largest private employer in Virginia, will pull up roots from the Houston oil patch and transplant them in the lush charm of suburban Connecticut. Heard about the new digs?
Tenneco's $20.8 million headquarters nestles among winding roads, manicured lawns, country clubs and estates barely visible behind iron gates, stone walls and fences. The building, part of a 43-acre compound, is the 88,000-square-foot mansion once owned by Time magazine founder Henry Luce.
Fast ship saga: Marine interests in Philadelphia want to build the world's fastest ocean freighters to jet between Europe and the City of Brotherly Love. But FastShip Inc. backers reportedly are talking divorce. They're bickering with co-investor Thomas Holt Sr., a wheel on the Philadelphia waterfront.
``With any new enterprise, there are obviously going to be growing pains,'' said FastShip president Collister Johnson. ``Issues rise about the future course of the company, and there is not always agreement. We are working these things out.''
Meanwhile, the Delaware River Port Authority is short on money, despite pledging $75 million to help build the special terminal that would use trains to unload the ship faster than conventional container vessels. ``We trust the DRPA will be able to perform up to its commitments,'' Johnson said.
FastShip recently found smoother sailing in Washington. With several prospective shippers in tow, FastShip wanted to make sure construction funds are available.
``If it works like it's supposed to, we'll be very interested in FastShip,'' said David Movsky, worldwide manager of maritime transportation for Eastman Kodak Co. of Rochester, N.Y. by CNB