By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Paul Brown took copious notes during his first Economic Development Commission meeting as the new chairman of the board.
Brown pointed to his long list of ideas after the EDC hosted a lively strategic planning session Wednesday including business and nonprofit leaders from Salisbury and Rowan County.
“What a great way to start my year as chairman, to hear this interaction,” said Brown, sales manager for SLT, a company formed by Taylor Clay Products.
Brown encouraged participants to keep the discussion going in the coming months about how Salisbury-Rowan can better market itself, including spreading the word about Fibrant, the city’s new high-speed broadband utility.
Economic developers rely on feedback from elected officials and other community leaders to set goals, he said.
“The EDC wants to know how we can best use our time and talents to … bring businesses here,” Brown said.
The board of directors for RowanWorks Economic development may dedicate every other meeting to discussing collaboration and hearing from guest speakers who would detail successful endeavors locally and in other communities.
Brown replaces outgoing Chairman James Taylor, who thanked employer Carolina Farm Credit for allowing him to dedicate time to economic development.
Other new officers are Vice Chairman Pete Teague, a certified public accountant and partner at Dixon Hughes Goodman; secretary Bruce Jones, a broker with Rebecca Jones Realty; and treasurer Jim Greene, owner of Greene Insurance Co.
Mayor Paul Woodson said the EDC can help him achieve his goals of making Salisbury more business-friendly and attracting new jobs.
At the Civitans Club meeting Thursday, Woodson said the EDC and RowanWorks Executive Director Robert Van Geons “have taken the bull by the horns” by planning to hire a new marketing manager and retail recruiter.
“They are really working hard,” Woodson said.
The new job has been posted and Van Geons is accepting applications. He told City Council in April the position would pay between $32,000 to $45,000. That money comes from the fund balance and increased contributions to the EDC from local governments.
People in Salisbury-Rowan are still desperate for jobs, Woodson told the EDC. More than 100 people applied for one job at his dry cleaners, he said.
Yet there are signs the local economy is improving.
Interest in Rowan County industrial sites — both buildings and land — is strong, Van Geons said. An international company that would create more than 100 jobs has narrowed its search to Rowan and one other location, he said.
An economic developer for Duke Energy said Rowan has drawn more interest in her eight-county territory than nearly any other.
And for the first time in more than half a decade, Rowan County United Way is preparing to launch its annual fundraising drive without a plant closure to contend with.
“We are going into the campaign without a huge loss of some sort,” Marketing Director Jackie Harris told the EDC. “For the first time in six years, we are not saying, ‘We’ve got to take them out, because they have gone.’ ”
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.