As we continued our tour of the Fifth District last week, making dozens of visits in Gretna, Chat-ham, Danville, Ridgeway, Martinsville, Arrington, Lovingston, Palmyra, Charlottesville, Warrenton, Washington, Madison and Stanardsville, we had a chance to visit with many small businesses — some that have long served their communities and others that have just begun to do so. And in talking to both entrepreneurs and employees, we continued to be reminded these small businesses are the backbones of our local, Main Street economies, and we must adopt policies that create favorable conditions for them to succeed and expand.

We went to Camp Friendship in Fluvanna, which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary and has welcomed more than 50,000 kids from more than 90 countries to its grounds in its history. 

We visited Carter Bank, which is headquartered in Henry County and began in 1974 with one branch and eight employees.  It has grown to encompass 123 community branches with hundreds of employees, all of whom are focused on serving their respective communities with both consumer and small business customers. On our tour of the Danville River District and several of its small businesses, we visited the original Biscuitville, first of the 54 stores in the Virginia- and North Carolina-based chain, where they still make biscuits from scratch every morning based on a decades-old family recipe.  And we toured the UVa Innovation Center, which helps take research performed at the University to the marketplace and significantly contributes to the strong entrepreneurial culture in the Charlottesville area. 

These are just a few examples out of hundreds that we have seen in our years of traveling every corner of the district, and I am always impressed by the quality of the people engaged in the Fifth District economy and the variety of enterprises around our region. 

We must continue to make policy that fosters the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of our communities to see more jobs, higher wages and more investment in our area. 

One such issue we have worked on extensively is poised to pay dividends for job prospects in the Danville area. Southern Power announced last week that it plans to make a multimillion-dollar investment to establish a natural gas facility at the Berry Hill MegaPark just west of Danville — the first entity to announce its intention to locate in the park. 

This announcement would not have oc-curred without changes to the Army Corps of Engineers’ policy regarding the permitting process for such economic development activity. We worked with local and state government officials from Henry County, Martinsville, Pittsylvania County and Danville, along with Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, to petition the Corps to reconsider its rules so both the MegaPark and the Commonwealth Crossing Centre in Henry County could move forward and attract major employers to these economic sites. 

This is hopefully the first of many such job-creating announcements, and it is just one example of the approach we must take to cultivate our regulatory environment to invite economic activity. 

Finally, another highlight from our trip worth noting was a visit with Amissville resident and World War II veteran Chilton “Chilly” Raiford. A decorated Navy veteran, Raiford survived a devastating attack by a Japanese kamikaze pilot while serving aboard the USS Randolph. 

We were honored to present him with a U.S. flag flown over the Capitol in recognition of his distinguished service to our country. I am always humbled by the opportunity to thank all of our veterans for the sacrifices they have made in the name of liberty on their fellow citizens’ behalf.

Robert Hurt represents Farmville, Buckingham, Cumberland and Prince Edward in the U.S. House of Representatives. He can be reached at his Farmville office at 434) 395-0120 or by email at hurt.house.gov.