Focus | Getting the economic ball moving forward

Waynesboro still in limbo on economic-development position

Story by Chris Graham
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Sixteen months and counting. That’s how long it has been since the city government in Waynesboro had its economic-development director post filled.

Things seemed to be winding down on that until the news started circulating in City Hall late last week that the city’s first choice from a recent round of applicants for the job had turned down an offer to take the position.

“It was unfortunate that we didn’t get our first pick. We want someone who will be able to give us their undivided attention for a while,” Mayor Tim Williams told AugustaFreePress.com today.

Williams said it is his understanding that the city administration is currently negotiating with others from the round of applicants regarding the position. City Manager Mike Hamp, in an e-mail to AugustaFreePress.com, indicated only that the city is reviewing other applications from the recent pool submitted to the city.

The job has been open since August 2008, when Meghan Williamson resigned following a shakeup in City Hall in the wake of the May 2008 city elections that had included the forced resignation of Doug Walker from the city-manager post.

The post has been open for an uncomfortably long time given what has been going on in the local economy the past several months, with cutbacks in the manufacturing sector at Invista and Mohawk pushing the city unemployment rate into double-digits territory earlier this year.

“Things are quiet right now, but we need to be out there right now while things are quiet,” City Councilwoman Lorie Smith said today. “Everybody’s in a planning mode now, but once the market starts picking up, we’re that much further behind if we haven’t been out there aggressively making contacts and getting in front of business and industry as they make decisions about where they’re going to be once things pick up.

“This is where we need to be planning as well as a city,” Smith said.

Economic Development Authority Chairman Tom Reider agrees with Smith that “in these kind of conditions, with the losses we’re seeing in our manufacturing, those high-paying jobs, we need to be out there looking into things, seeing what the different facilities need, seeing if there’s anything we as a city can do to help them.”

Reider and the EDA are working on strategies involving the Waynesboro Redevelopment and Housing Authority to cover the city’s economic-development bases in the short term.

“It’s a disappointment to me that we have gone almost a year now without having filled the position. The backside of that is you don’t want to hurry and not get the kind of qualified person you want,” Reider said.

“I think in the interim period of time, while we’re waiting for this qualified person to emerge, we ought to be utilizing them. They have a good staff over there. We could use them to get some of the plant visits and other things going that we need to get going,” Reider said.

“I’m enthusiastic about getting the ball moving forward,” Reider said.