Jobs in Pocahontas County

The Q&A below concerning jobs in Pocahontas County originally took place on etater.com, where the users "Voter" and "Tom" asked pertinent questions. My response follows:

Hi Voter and Tom,

I apologize for the delay. Things are getting pretty crazy as Election Day approaches. :-)

Voter asked:

"I too would like an answer from Mr. Fleming about what his goals are for Jobs in the county?"

and Tom stated:

"You can forget about bringing good paying jobs to Pocahontas County. It is not going to happen."

Well, I can't allow myself to think it's "not going to happen." But to focus on the negatives a moment, one might argue that job creation is primarily the domain of the Greenbrier Economic Development Corporation (GVEDC) as opposed to the Pocahontas County Commission. Yet again, one might think that governmental services don't or can't do much to stimulate a small business climate, so why bother?

I feel that as the overseer of the county's approximately $6M budget, the commission should view itself as being in a leadership role, and participate when and where possible in the combined effort to create business and job opportunities in Pocahontas County.

No doubt, it is hard to carve out a living here. Being self-employed I feel this first-hand, yet as a website designer I have found a way to use my computer skills to make a small income working from home. Using that as inspiration, I want to seek out opportunities to bring technology related business and jobs to Pocahontas County.

I would also like to see us create partnerships between local development efforts and our farmers and craftsmen/craftswomen. Getting area builders and artisans/producers on the same page could create a market of "locally crafted" and "locally farm raised" products. I believe this would prove very attractive to buyers.

I know of two examples, related to this, which are inspiring to me. In the northern end of the county, Wayne's Restaurant in Boyer (one of my favorite area cheeseburgers, by the way) purchases beef from Kinder's Market in Durbin. In the southern end of the county, Stompin' Crick Farm produces and sells meat to Watoga's Pretty Penny restaurant. These kind of local partnerships serve as inspiration to me on how we can work together to bolster our own businesses, so I think any further opportunity along these lines should always be encouraged and pursued.

To summarize, I feel that the county commission should engage in dialog aimed at stimulating and creating both technology related business, as well as business founded upon our unique local talents and our production and farming capabilities.

It might be true that the days of creating a hundred jobs in one fell swoop are gone from Pocahontas County. But I have come to believe, through my own experience and that of others, that the days of creating a few jobs at a time still lay ahead.

I think there are a lot of people in this county with good ideas, and I find it exciting when I hear them. My hope is that we can increase our efforts in realizing this potential. My hope is that it is going to happen. For a commissioner to think and feel otherwise would be a disservice to constituents.

Thanks for your question Voter, and again I apologize for the delay in replying.

Take care. :-)

DF