Page County 2004 Plan Wrap Up

I’m finishing up the series of posts on the Page County economic vision from 2004 today, so I will take just a quick look at a second goal in the document – existing business retention and growth – before going back to think about some other opportunities.

This section begins with the statement “…Page County’s diversified economy, based on the four ‘legs’ of manufacturing, tourism, retail and agriculture, provides an excellent foundation for growth.” There are two key ironies to beginning this section with a statement like this:

• Elsewhere in the report is a note about the lost jobs in the manufacturing sector; in fact, this labor pool is part of ‘being ready’ for future new business arrivals; and
  
• This strategic goal merits only a page and a half of the study, and two objectives, compared to the coverage of attracting new businesses and the lamentations about transportation infrastructure.

Addressing the recent – at the time, although they have continued since 2004 – job losses in the manufacturing sector, this plan reports, “…the strength of Page County’s local economy has allowed the County’s agricultural, housing, tourism, and retail sectors to continue to grow…”, partially offsetting the impacts. Then there is the bottom line – the requirement to come to an understanding of the needs of existing businesses.

We spent a three day weekend out at the Hawksbill Cabin last weekend (looking forward to spending the 4th out there, too), and having just read this plan I kept my eyes open for details on some of these issues. Some of the things I heard:

• You know, if they’d open up a commuter rail line from here, people would commute into DC to work.
  
• A lot of money was spent here to attract the Wrangler plant, but its closure as a manufacturing center left a bad taste in people’s mouths.
  
• The big company agriculture approach has really taken advantage of the small farmers here. Those people have mortgages to pay.
  

These points, overheard in casual conversation, ring true. There have been a lot of DC commuters from the area (although there have been a lot of job casualties among this group, too). And the manufacturing jobs at the plant were still shipped out to Mexico despite the County’s incentives (another irony – Wrangler jeans are one of the branded products you can buy at Wal-Mart). The poultry processing plants are the subject of any number of cost savings initiatives (and recent bankruptcies) that all go back to location theory, discussed briefly the other day.

As a business person, I’ve found that sometimes the highest payback comes from doing just a little more with the investments already made. It’s different from a “good money after bad” concept – if the fundamentals for success are there, sometimes the little extra of a renewed approach, new tools and technology, or simply, new management, are all it takes to break loose profitability. So I guess I would have liked to see more attention paid to this section.

The strategies listed here are good ones, although I wonder if there was ever any follow-up: undertake a survey of local businesses to ascertain needs, problems, and general perceptions of the business climate; and survey supplier locations and products purchased, using the information to ascertain the feasibility of recruiting common suppliers to the region.

This is where I would start – from strengths. The tourism sector, while taking a bit of a shot during the recession, has remained robust. I’ve never seen the parking lot at the Caverns as it has been this summer, and on Friday I saw no less than four camping families arriving with the tell-tale rectangular cylinder of a tent strapped onto the luggage racks. They are coming here for recreation – make sure they have the highest quality experience. Outfitters and groceries are complimentary – make sure these are the best they can be (we have great outfitters, so I mainly am talking about the groceries here!).

Then there is agriculture. Family farms have really suffered and have been in a bad state for decades, but lately there are some new approaches that seem to work – I’ll write about them soon. A county agricultural marketing extension could develop a plan that builds on the sustainability and “buy local” trends that are hot in the big cities right now. Page County is ideally located to serve DC, Richmond, Roanoke, Charlottesville, Baltimore, Charleston, WV, and even Philly and Pittsburgh. Targeting grocers like Giant, Whole Foods, Wegmans, and Harris Teeter with micro-ag, and seasonally fresh crops, seems to me to be an opportunity.