Prince Edward County Economic Development Director Kate Pickett Eggleston recently gave updates on an enterprise zone, YakAttack, several Virginia Growth Alliance (VGA) projects and more, noting how each subject related to the county during the Board of Supervisors’ regular July meeting.

ENTERPRISE ZONE

“2018 state enterprise zone incentives have been allocated, and they were prorated at 74.5 percent, which is pretty much on par with what they’ve been prorated at for the last couple of years,” she said to the board. “They fund the job creation grants first, and then they prorate the real property investment grants based on how much money they have left over in the overall funding for the job creation grants.

She stated that six businesses in Prince Edward County applied for funding.

“The businesses received a total of $532,517 in real property investment grants and $10,551 in job creation grants,” she continued. “That’s a total of $543,068 that were given to businesses in Prince Edward County as state incentives for either locating or expanding their business and creating jobs in the enterprise zone in the county.”

She said the annual report for the enterprise zone was due the next week, which would have been the week of July 14.

“So that’s the next thing that’s part of this topic, and we’re currently working to reapply for our designation as an enterprise zone, because that, as we’ve spoken about in the past, will expire at the end of the year,” she said. “But Mr. (Wade) Bartlett worked with Del. (James) Edmunds to get a bill passed that will allow us to reapply at the end of the year for an additional five years.

She noted that the county is also working on reapplying as an independent enterprise zone.

“We currently share our zone with Lunenburg and Charlotte counties, and we’ll be able to do more if we have an independent zone with just Prince Edward County,” she said.

YAKATTACK

Eggleston then provided a brief update on YakAttack.

“The performance agreement with Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) has been approved by the Prince Edward County Industrial Development Authority and signed by all parties involved last month in June,” she said during the July 9 board meeting. “We’re currently waiting for a final incentive payment from VEDP to give to YakAttack, and YakAttack has started moving into the building. They haven’t moved any equipment yet, but they start their rent on Aug. 1 of this year.”

VIRGINIA GROWTH ALLIANCE PROJECTS

She highlighted a couple of different VGA projects that could have key impacts on the county.

“I previously updated the board on an (information technology) IT company from Washington, D.C., that’s interested in establishing locations throughout the Virginia Growth Alliance region in Southern Virginia,” she said. “After completing many site visits in different parts of the region, including Prince Edward County, and meeting with Mr. Bartlett and other representatives of the county, they chose to use Mecklenburg as the site of their first location, because that’s where Microsoft is located.

“They did however say that they were interested in Prince Edward County being the site for their second location, for their second field site,” she continued. “So we’re working with them, and that’s being facilitated through VEDP, who works directly with Virginia Growth Alliance, and they work with us and the client.”

Lockett District Supervisors Robert M. “Bobby” Jones said, “How many jobs will it create in Mecklenburg County with that?”

Eggleston replied, “They’re thinking that it’ll be about between 30 and 40 jobs. It’s going to take them at least a year or two to get that set up, so it’ll be awhile before they start looking to build a second site here in Prince Edward.”

“Will it be to a similar number of employment?” Jones asked.

“Yes, sir,” Eggleston said. “One thing that’s neat about the company is they’re really interested in working with the community to bring high school students right into the field to work right out of high school or students who are in the community college or at Longwood and working in conjunction with all of those different education systems.”

Another VGA project Eggleston cited the county as working on is the Southern Virginia Food Hub.

“VGA has helped fund the Southern Virginia Food Hub and their Maker’s Market,” she said. “That includes a hundred-plus farmers and food artisans in the region to establish a local food grocery that’s right in the middle of South Hill. That grocery store has take-home meals, a community classroom and also a commercial kitchen for rent from various farmers.

“Some citizens who currently use the Prince Edward County Cannery are part of the food hub, and they’ve been recommending the cannery to others who are at the food hub to come to Prince Edward and to utilize at this time,” she said. “We’re hoping that this project and the grants received from the project and their experience will be a model for other counties and that we can use it to incubate similar projects throughout the region.”

Eggleston also mentioned a site certification process done with VEDP in conjunction with VGA.

“That process is really to identify, assess and improve readiness of potential sites throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia,” she said. “It’s going to give VEDP a comprehensive view of all the different sites they have throughout the commonwealth that could be developed for industrial sites. And so we’re working in conjunction with VGA on that project and also on a similar project with Mid-Atlantic Broadband to begin a study to look for data center sites throughout the region, including Prince Edward County.”

A CERTIFIED WORK READY COMMUNITY

Eggleston said, “I’m currently serving as the representative for the county on the Workforce Development Board and on the Employment Enhancement Committee. We’ve almost completed all the requirements necessary to become a certified (ACT) Work Ready Community. That will allow the county to quantify and improve the skill levels of our workforce through a standardized test that’s given by ACT.”

In a Wednesday interview, she elaborated on this test that is part of the ACT Work Ready Communities program.

“This test, called the National Career Readiness WorkKeys Assessment, has three sections, including applied math, workplace documents and graphic literacy,” she said. “The three sections measure the cognitive foundational skills required for success in the workplace.”

As her July 9 presentation to supervisors continued, she said, “Having a certified (ACT) Work Ready Community will allow us to show that we have a workforce that’s ready to work and has certain skills that employers would like to have in order to choose to move to this area and locate their businesses here. There are three different groups that we test at this level for this program, and those are people who are currently employed, people who are transitioning or unemployed and the emerging workforce who are in high school.”

She confirmed Wednesday that the county has completed all of the requirements to be certified with the “currently employed” and “transitioning” groups.

“The third group is ‘emerging,’ which we will have complete after Prince Edward students take the test in September,” Eggleston said Wednesday.

To the board July 9, she referenced this testing when she said, “We have that scheduled for this fall, and we have enough students to take the test and to pass the test for certification. We also have the amount of businesses for supporters that we need to be certified. We have over 34 businesses in Prince Edward County alone that are in support of this program, and so once we get that certification, that’ll be something that we can all celebrate together.”

CONTINUING EDUCATION

“I’m working to become certified in economic development and earn my certification as an economic developer,” Eggleston said. “It’s a leading industry designation, and it’s through the International Economic Development Council. There’s a little over 1,100 people worldwide who have this certification. Currently, no one in the Virginia Growth Alliance has the certification, and it includes courses in business retention and expansion, workforce development, economic development credit analysis and real estate development and reuse.

She has been taking a course at the University of North Carolina this week that “will allow me to use those credits towards my certification, and I look forward to being able to do that,” she said to supervisors.