Windsor Rotary Hears Economic Development Is Working

On Thursday, Steve Biggs, the Economic Development Manager for Bertie County, spoke at the Windsor Rotary Club and provided great insight into the exciting things that are happening in Bertie County.

Steve mentioned that there was a great article in this month's Carolina Business Online Journal, and luckily the article is available for a short period of time here titled "Bertie County Creates A Healthy Economic Future".

[This is the current article link and it will expire at some point. If the article is no longer at that link, I will try to find it in their archive and update the link. Please let me know by email when the link is no longer valid!]

In his presentation, Steve opened with the famous joke attributed to Yogi Berra, "The future ain't what it used to be." For Bertie County it is the opposite of the original meaning, since we used to be a county with little prospect for future growth, and now growth is starting to become a certain part of our future.

Some of the things that Steve talked about are recent successes, such as the new correctional facility. Already the source of 415 jobs for our area, they are planning expansions that will add many more, when medium security and minimum security "pods" are added to the existing "high security" facility. Each expansion will add 75-85 more jobs.

Steve also made note of the growing optimism that the OLF has been diverted from our area and will likely wind up at the existing facility in Ft. Picket, VA.

Innsbrook is a reality, and Bal Gra and Mimosa are looking good. Plus there are rumors of additional developments along the same lines. Mimosa is talking about a major high end shopping center, and another shopping center is a possibility since Chowan County has rejected it. The joke that "Bertie County residents have to leave the county to buy a decent pair of socks", may well become obsolete sometime soon.

There is a lot of hope that our best chance to be part of a long distance freeway, a key to sustained development over the long haul, is still viable despite the opposition of Hertford County to the next piece of it, the freeway link for U.S. 13 from Winton to Powellsville.

All in all, Steve's presentation was a large amount of good news.