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REGIONAL
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Lawrence Strouth grew up in Wise County the
son of a coal-mine owner. He graduated from Pound High School in 1991 and traveled 20
miles to attend Clinch Valley College in Wise. But the computer information systems degree
he earned there wasn't immediately marketable in Southwest Virginia. His first job out
of college was shoveling coal in a mine. It took two years for Strouth to find a job in
his field and, more critically, in the region he called home. Now he is a network
technician for Nexus Communications in Clintwood. |
| The 5-year-old company opened Sept. 8 in Dickenson County and plans to hire 550
people. The company describes itself as "the talking yellow pages for
Baltimore." Employees take calls from people looking for a particular business. After
searching a database, an employee directly links callers -- for free -- to the business,
which pays for the service. Strouth is responsible for the operation of the call center's
technology, both the phones and the database. Several of his friends, though, were forced
to move to find work. "I could have moved away and gotten a job [in my field],"
he says, "but I didn't want to leave." |
| Economic developers are working to create jobs, not only for
those new to the work force, but for the 11,000 workers who commute to jobs outside the
region. Many others, like Strouth's friends, leave to start careers and families
elsewhere. Public schools face funding problems because the student population is
dwindling, and people here agree there is no single fix for the ailing coal economy. They
pepper their conversations with talk about the need for diversification. |
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| Coal mining and Southwest Virginia have been one for almost a
century. When coal production began its decline in the early 1990s, so did the local
economy. Much of the region -- which includes the counties of Lee, Scott, Tazewell,
Buchanan, Wise, Russell, Dickenson, Bland and the city of Norton -- relies on coal as an
economic mainstay. But double-digit unemployment plagues the most coal-dependent counties.
The industry that employed more than 14,700 people in 1950 claimed only 6,534 employees in
1997, according to the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech. That
decline was exacerbated three months ago when Consol shut down a mine and laid off more
than 230 people. Apparel manufacturing jobs also are evaporating in coalfield country, where more than 2,000 textile positions have disappeared in less than three years. But the tough terrain in this rural, mountainous part of the state is home to even tougher residents, who are resolved to improve the economic landscape. A net gain of 4,338 jobs in the past decade is testament to their efforts. They lobby hard to attract the state prisons that more prosperous regions don't want, including two maximum security facilities that recently opened in Wise County. Red Onion and Wallens Ridge correctional centers will bring about 800 jobs, and now local officials are pushing for a federal prison. The community also is welcoming another controversial enterprise -- Pittston Coal Co.'s $5 million chip mill being built near Red Onion. Set to open in July, the project has drawn criticism from environmentalists concerned about logging's effect on the company's 150,000 acres. * * * Tom Smith is from Pennsylvania, one of a few employees from outside the area working at Reynolds Wheels International Inc. in Lebanon. Reynolds, the only aluminum net forged wheel manufacturing plant in the world, found a home two years ago in Russell County, where it has created 250 jobs. Smith, the plant manager, estimates that the average hourly wage at the 133,000-square-foot plant is $9.50 -- good money for coalfield country. He says the plant has a 1 percent absenteeism rate and a turnover rate that's under 0.5 percent. Although Reynolds considered six states in its search for the best site, Smith says the coalfield region "really came after us." Now the company is planning a multimillion-dollar expansion of the facility. Charles S. Yates, executive director of the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, says Reynolds represents one of the region's target industries. The authority, funded by coal and gas taxes, recruits auto parts manufacturers, forest products companies, tele-service centers and info-tech operations. The area is home to six call centers, and the city of Norton recently welcomed a seventh for Crutchfield Corp., which sells car stereos and other consumer electronics through catalogs and on the Internet. William Crutchfield, president of the company, says the strong work ethic was one draw. "We had high expectations about the work force, but they exceeded our wildest expectations. They're intelligent, enthusiastic, learn quickly, and just a joy to be around." In coalfield country, he adds, his company was made to feel welcome. In addition to its strong work force, the region offers vast tracts of timberland. But Yates notes that the community wants to attract value-added wood-products companies -- not just run-of-the-mill lumber operations. One example is B.A. Mullican Lumber & Manufacturing Co., one of the world's largest manufacturers of unfinished hardwood flooring. Its $10 million plant in Wise County generated 316 jobs. |
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| Government | 22 percent |
| Retail | 20 percent |
| Services | 19 percent |
| Mining | 11 percent |
| Manufacturing | 11 percent |
| Transportation, public utilities, communications | 5 percent |
| Construction | 5 percent |
| Wholesale | 4 percent |
| Finance, insurance and real estate | 3 percent |
| Other | 1 percent |
Largest Private Employers4
| ABB Service Buchanan General Hospital B.A. Mullican Lumber & Manufacturing Christiansburg Garment Clinchfield Coal Consolidation Coal Dickenson County Medical Center Island Creek Coal Lebanon Apparel Lonesome Pine Hospital Norton Community Hospital Paramount Coal St. Mary's Hospital Super Sack Virginia Teleflex Automotive Wal-Mart |
Average Manufacturing Wage3
$428 per week
| 1 - 1990 census data 2 - January 1999 3 - 2Q 1998, nonagricultural employment 4 - 1Q 1998, 250 or more employees |
The economic development authority works with companies that offer at least 25 jobs, but small businesses are getting attention these days, too. Ron Flanary, executive director of the Lenowisco Planning District Commission, which serves Wise, Lee, and Scott counties as well as the city of Norton, says economic leaders realized that passing out brochures and telling people to get in touch with the Small Business Assistance Center was not enough. So on April 17, they opened the region's first business incubator -- the Pioneer Center for Business Opportunity.
Tom Heath, a former chemist, is one of the incubator's first tenants. For 20 years, Heath's parents have owned and operated two Chevron convenience stores in Bristol. They are only minutes apart on the same road, but one is in Virginia and the other is in Tennessee. For 14 years, the stores have sold Heath's mother's chili. Without any advertising, they sell 30 to 60 gallons of MaMaw's Chili each week. Heath expects that a newly hired distributor and a spot in the 46,000-square-foot Pioneer Center in Duffield will shoot those numbers past 30,000 gallons a week.
Heath knows about the economic development game of "smokestack chasers." When a large chemical plant left his hometown in the '70s, 40 percent of the population was out of work. So he believes economic stability comes, not with big businesses, but with clusters of small ones. Although his business will provide only about five jobs initially, he sees growth potential. And if the company does get big someday, Heath says its strong community ties will keep it in coalfield country.
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Fred L. Ramey is assistant city manager for the commonwealth's smallest city: Norton, population 4,247. After introducing the cast, Ramey sets the scene: "We're in a central location for the region. ... Two major highways intersect here, U.S. 23 and 58." |
The convergence of four-lane highways is rare in coalfield country, where only one county -- Bland -- has direct interstate access. The entire region is laced with roads tracing mountain footprints. One local says some hairpin turns are so tight you can see your own taillights. And it's not unusual to drive a road flanked by a single house on either side with a few feet of back yard fit snugly against sheer rock. So when the Virginia Department of Transportation spends millions of dollars to widen highways here, the whole community celebrates.
But cutting through solid rock makes road construction difficult and expensive. The state spent $17 million to widen just one mile of U.S. 460 in Buchanan, and it plans to spend $14 million more to widen another section of the road there. "It will certainly enhance the economic development of the area," says Brenda Waters, public affairs coordinator for the Virginia Department of Transportation's Bristol district.
Waters says VDOT also is widening Route 19, a critical north-south corridor. In addition, the state has spent between $120 million and $130 million to build several bypasses and has teamed up with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work on a flood control project in Grundy that will relocate the town's business district and widen U.S. 460. In Lee County, seven miles of U.S. 58 are being widened, with another 20 miles already completed as part of the U.S. Route 58 corridor development program. The program began in 1989 and eventually will improve the road in Wise and Scott counties, too.
The Coalfields Expressway -- which could cost as much as $900 million -- is the most anticipated project to date. Now in the study phase, the 65-mile, four-lane divided highway could ultimately link Route 23 near Pound with West Virginia as it travels through Wise, Dickenson and Buchanan counties. The proposed highway would create a thoroughfare between Interstate 81 at Kingsport and Interstates 77 and 73 north of Bluefield.
Expectations include increased tourism to Breaks Interstate Park in Dickenson and Buchanan counties. The park, which opened a conference center in May 1997, also plans to add more lodging facilities. But the greater hope is that the Coalfields Expressway will bring higher-paying jobs. Congressman Rick Boucher, D-9th, says the road "will greatly enhance our ability to attract new manufacturing and information-industry jobs."
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Almost every region of Virginia is trying to double-click on the info-tech industry, but the Wise County Industrial Development Authority is putting its money where its mouse is.
The authority is leading an effort to launch Lonesome Pine Regional Business and Technology Park adjacent to Lonesome Pine Airport in Wise. Unlike a traditional business center, this park's primary focus is info-tech service industries. Sites in the 195-acre park range from 1.5 acres to 20-plus acres, and plans call for gracious green areas and a tony town center. Carl R. Snodgrass, an economic development official in Wise County, says it will take $7.5 million to build the park's water, sewer and road systems, but the project has strong political support.
Attracting info-tech companies may seem like a stretch for Southwest Virginia, but already the area has gone high-tech in unexpected ways. Jack Kennedy, clerk of the Circuit Court in Wise, is leading the state in automating his office's operations and getting court records online. And, in a business venture outside his clerk duties, Kennedy is on the board of directors for Norton-based E-Commerce Today Ltd., which sells cigarettes online. Kennedy says he and his colleagues are constantly seeking other Internet-based business ideas, and they hope to create jobs in the process.
Kennedy is also a leader in the Wise Community Technology Project. The joint venture between Virginia Tech and Wise County uses a Web site to draw 50 community leaders together to discuss ways to create jobs in the county. The Web site also is the main focus of the Wise County Information Technology Task Force, a group that is working with Virginia Tech to bring wireless technology to the county. Wireless technology could help support a workport at the technology park. The workport concept is meant to capitalize on unfilled info-tech jobs in Northern Virginia by sending the work electronically to high-unemployment areas.
Kennedy says coalfield country is ready to gamble on technology jobs by investing in its labor force. Already the region's community colleges, Mountain Empire and Southwest Virginia, are building more technology training into their curricula. "It will not happen overnight," Kennedy says. "We must be diligent in our efforts, because others are doing the same thing and we must compete."
© JUNE 1999, Media General Business Publications Inc.,
publisher of Virginia Business Magazine