A special economic development Web site is now in development and could be online early next year.
Considered by the chairman of the Person County Economic Development Commission as a priority toward marketing the county to business and industry, the new economic development Web site was sparked in part by a recent assessment of the county’s competitive strengths and weaknesses in connection with the county’s latest strategic planning iniative.
Dr. James Johnson, a leader of the Frank Hawkins Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, is a consultant for the planning effort. And earlier this year he told county commissioners that given today’s reliance on the Internet for business research, Person County is competing for new businesses with 15,000 other communities.
And when business officials research the Internet, Johnson said, “Their goal is to eliminate you, not include you. Your goal is to not” allow them to eliminate Person County.
"Your Web site is your window to the world," Johnson asserted at the time.
The ED Web site now in development is intended to raise the blinds on the window to Person County in terms of the types of information business and industry looks for when it is considering a location or expansion. That information has been available for more than a decade through the Person EDC and related resources, but not as readily and quickly as it will be once the Web site goes online.
The Person Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to discuss the ED Web site development contract at its regular mid-November session on Monday, Nov. 21, at 9 a.m., for which there is a relatively light agenda.
In a memo to commissioners in advance of Monday’s meeting, Person EDC Chairman Phil Baer explained that at its last meeting the EDC discussed at length the “critical need” for a Web site “supporting all aspects of economic development in Person County.” At that same meeting, the EDC voted to use the remainder of its 2005-06 advertising budget to pay for the design of such a Web site and its operation and maintenance. The Roxboro Area Chamber of Commerce also agreed to assist financially, and Baer told The Courier-Times that additional funds were pledged by a private industry.
The EDC also appointed a committee to pursue the project. Members include Baer, EDC Executive Director Glen Newsome, chamber chairman Clyde Kelly, Randy Reynolds and Jean Overton, who the chamber hired this past summer, with city and county funding assistance, to recruit small business.
The committee in turn identified what it considered “key criteria” for the Web site. Consistency with chamber, city and Tourism Devlopment Authority Web sites; links to other Web sites with pertinent information; and graphic and text information on available properties within the county were among them. The panel also wanted, in the first year, for the Web site provider to train one or two people involved in economic development in how to maintain the site. And it desired to keep the cost of designing the site within the funds available.
Ultimately the committee determined that Roxboro Media Inc. fulfilled the criteria and paid the firm an installment to begin the design work.
Baer told The C-T Friday that from his last consultation with Roxboro Media, the preliminary design was “80-to-90 percent complete,” in terms of having a prototype ready for EDC to consider. Baer wasn’t certain when an ED site might go active, but he surmised it probably could be in early 2006.
Other business on the agenda for Monday’s meeting calls for county commissioners to:
• Consider reclassifying certain finance office positions;
• Discuss the function and membership of a solid waste advisory board; and
• Receive the annual statistical report from the Division of Community Corrections relative to Judicial District 9A.