Home Chris Graham: Jumpstart Waynesboro another way
Local

Chris Graham: Jumpstart Waynesboro another way

Contributors

I thought about pitching an idea at the Jumpstart Waynesboro event last week. First, for those who missed out on what Jumpstart Waynesboro even is, it’s a partnership with the Staunton Creative Community Fund using $20,000 in state grant money to help push creative, sustainable entrepreneurship ideas in our River City.

waynesboro2editsOK, so my idea to pitch to Jumpstart Waynesboro was to get a grant to build a website better promoting Waynesboro’s growing arts, music and culture scene. I’m not a big fan of any of the current websites out there that at best sort of do this (including one that I built on a low, low budget basis for the Waynesboro Cultural Commission several years ago).

To me, there’s something missing, and a good website, with good content, including video content, search engine optimized to draw traffic from locals and out-of-towners, could help bring more business to our city.

Then I thought about it. Is that a business, or am I just asking for money to build a website?

The answer to me was clear. Of course I think what I was envisioning would benefit the city, but in and of itself, it’s not a business; I’d just be asking the city for money to build a website.

So I didn’t sign up.

Lots of other people pitching ideas that have nothing to do with business went ahead and pitched their ideas, as it turns out. Two people (friends of mine!) pitched ideas related to holding running events. Another idea thrown out there would involve building a website (!) to engage students and parents with information about K-12 education and options post-graduation.

A downtown art gallery proposed by an artist interested in showcasing her work was the closest thing to a business plan that we saw from the most recent Jumpstart Waynesboro event.

As somebody who actually runs a small business, it bothers me big time that one of these ideas is going to get $7,000 toward the germination process, and that this money comes from a state grant that ostensibly comes from our taxpayer money.

(Right? Because it has to come from somewhere.)

Funny that I think of myself as a Democrat who backs government involvement in promoting economic development and then I have a problem with this. I still think government needs to be a player in pushing economic growth by backing macro projects to bring investment, jobs and visitors with money to leave while they’re here.

As my internal struggle with ultimately deciding against pitching my own idea as a guide, I also think that government has no business just throwing money at any idea that comes down the pike with hopes that it might work.

I get it that this may only be $20,000 that we’re talking about here, but $20,000 is a lot of money to somebody.

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.