You don’t have to commit a stupid crime to be featured. Government officials can have dumbass ideas.
Regional economic director a possibility?
(Although I’m sure somebody named “Bob” would like to be developed, I’m thinking that the header should be “Job Development”)
As a Danville city resident, I think about this idea and run away screaming. You can hear “Oh Hell No” repeatedly in the distance.
It sounds good… until you realize that the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors is a completely dysfunctional group of nutballs. This is the same group that’s now in Round 3 of financing a dead in the water fight about them leading off meetings with their own prayer. I believe they’re up to about $70K in legal expenses that they have to pay now and that bill’s going to go higher with the next loss in the appeal process. This is the group that booted Brenda Bowman out as chairman simply because they didn’t like how she flipped the balance of power away from the southern end of the county. This is the same board that has James Snead busted for growling at a rescue squad for their audacity to simply ask for reimbursements of their expenses. It’s also the same board that sent a good county administrator packing for whatever reason that they chose.
Pittsylvania County not only doesn’t have an economic developer, they don’t even have an economic development department. This bunch of idiots wiped out the whole department in an act of retribution against Brenda Bowman. The previous economic developer was Ken Bowman, Brenda’s husband. That’s no reason to wipe out the entire department especially during this economic downturn. Ken Bowman knew how to play the game and was doing a good job before the board sent him packing for retribution.
The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors is recovering slightly by electing Jessie Barksdale as their chairman but that’s just the first step on a long journey to re-establish their credibility. I give high credit to Barksdale for saying that the county is “almost in crisis mode” because of their actions. The late Marshall Ecker said that about a year ago and was promptly met with denial from most of the board members who had their heads up their asses.
The Regional Industrial Facilities Authority partnership between the city and county has worked well because there’s a joint revenue sharing agreement, and the industrial parks that they manage are in close proximity to Danville. It’s also worked because there’s a joint power-sharing agreement with most of the Pittsylvania County idiot supervisors not being involved in the decision-making process of RIFA.
Pittsylvania County has no county administrator and no economic developer and it’s all because of the idiotic Board of Supervisors’ actions. Danville should not even think of a general economic development partnership with Pittsylvania County until the county gets their forward-thinking caps back on straight. Besides that, let’s just think about if this merger happened. Let’s say that the new regional director lands a nice industry and it goes into the old Burlington Industries plant outside of Hurt. What does Danville get out of that? Diddly-squat, except the bill for their share of that work. Pittsylvania County is the largest county in Virginia in area and Danville doesn’t come close in comparison.
This is a great idea for Pittsylvania County but a horrible idea for Danville. I hope that the Danville City Council realizes what they’d be getting into bed with and decide to run away screaming just as much as I am when I think about it.
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