I learned, in a recent national conference for County Commissioners, that economic development can be "anything you want it to be". This reinforced my opinion that we are doing it wrong, not just in Beaufort County, but in the entire state of North Carolina.
Some counties are taking almost all of their grants and running them through an economic development department. Some heath services grants are being combined with other grants to help justify new medical facilities in blighted areas. In the rust belt, some incorporated towns and villages as large as 15,000 people have lost as much as 84 percent of their population when manufacturing moved (over seas). In some of these communities only the young and old remained because of the lack of jobs. To these areas, money to tear down abandoned commercial buildings and dwellings has been important. Removing these buildings provided open ground, and an opportunity for new development. Grants coupled with "Brown Fields" regulations allowed derelict factories to be removed, and turned into green open space while providing a new plant site.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Economic development...What is it?
