 |
| Butch Church |
The reason given by the person talking to me was that Church didn't want anything controversial happening in his district (Catawba) before the November elections. He is in a vigorous campaign fight for his seat with, among others, the popular Carter Turner.
Goodman said this morning, "It is not true."
Church was the subject of a front page story in a local daily Sunday accusing him, in effect, of using his influence to get a county employee fired because he didn't like working with her. Backcountry.com's fulfillment center went to Montgomery (which was delighted to get the 200 jobs). Montgomery likely would have won it with or without Roanoke County's efforts, from what I understand.
I'm told that Roanoke County recruiters talked to Backcountry.com officials at a trade show some time back and established a relationship which led to recruiting efforts. My guess is that the reason Backcountry.com might be considered controversial is that it is a fulfillment center with relatively low wage jobs and the site being discussed for its building was near Lock Haven Country Club in a distinctly residential area.
(Photo: joebutchchurchsupervisor.com)
The side story to this is that Montgomery Co./Backcounty.com will be accepting money from the state as part of the enticement to locate here. That is the same hook the county hung its court suit against the Commonwealth on -- that it is wrong for the state to give money to private companies, in an effort to block Norfolk Southern from building the intermodal terminal in Elliston. Even Dave Nutter (who is now promoting himself as a bringer of jobs) backed that effort as a delegate. So far, there hasn't been any mention of how this "how can you have it both ways?" issue will impact the pending case before the State Supreme Court, but it could end up screwing the taxpayers who just flushed a bunch of money away (and nevermind the jobs that the terminal could have already brought to the county, in addition to improving the tax base).
ReplyDelete