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Updated: 9:06 AM Oct 16, 2009
Page County Residents Upset About EDA's Clover Project
Page County Page County residents let the Economic Development Authority know that many of them don't agree with the Clover Project.
Posted: 8:33 PM Oct 15, 2009Reporter: Josh Knight Email Address: jknight@whsv.com |
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2 Comments 
At a public meeting Thursday afternoon, many Page County residents are voicing their opinions about a land purchase the Economic Development Authority made last December.
The authority purchased more than 200 acres for about $7 million last year to create the Clover Project.
The county plans to turn the area into an industrial park and hopes to bring new businesses and jobs to the area.
However, more than 1,800 Page County residents have signed a petition saying they disagree with the county's plan.
"The disagreement isn't whether we want to bring jobs here. It's whether the county buying land at three times market value will cause businesses to locate here," says Alice Richmond, an upset and involved citizen.
Residents also say the timing is terrible because of the current state of the economy.
"They signed it in December of 2008 and it couldn't have been signed at a more ridiculous time," says Erik Lerche, a Page County citizen who prepared packets of information for everyone at the meeting.
However, the chairman of the EDA, Lowell Baughn, says the plan began years ago.
"We started this project before the bottom dropped out of the economy, because the Economic Development Authority's job is to project things years in advance," says Baughn.
The EDA believes the project could help unemployment in Page County.
"We do believe it will bring jobs, because we've got interest from people who have just heard about the project and we're not even ready to deal yet," says Baughn.
However, many residents, who have to pay for this through taxes, say this isn't the answer.
"We've lost a lot of businesses in Page County, but we didn't lose them because the county doesn't own land, and businesses won't come here because the county owns land," says Richmond.
Latest Comments
No one is against the county bringing in any businesses. The problem is how the proposal was done. There is some issues that needs to be resolved as well. If the land was already a turnkey like the new businees park in Rockingham county fot the same price, then noone would be saying anything. We are being told the "several" business wants to settle here. Who? Noone can say. PTS was supposed to have a facility already built by this year but two things help that up. One, that land at the time had not been rezoned ant two, PTS has no money, even after they were given a $300,000 grant to build a new complex in which they couldn't if they could because the EDA dragged their feet to have the land rezoned. No comprable site study has been done on the land. Then there is the potential conflict of interest. Small minded? nah This time we citizens are actually taking notice. If you read the actual contract, optimist, then you would know what the fuss is about.
The county is paying too much and should renegotiate the price, but many of the opponents are small minded and don't know how business works. It is a slap in the face to the county workforce when they get up at these meetings and say no business wants to come to Page County. We have a lot to offer but we need a place for businesses to locate. The reason things become so expensive is that we keep putting them off until later.
