Two local citizens are helping represent Mitchell County and Western North Carolina as a whole with the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.
Bill Slagle, a former county commissioner and economic development director, has been working with the EDPNC for nearly six years as the Director of Statewide and Northwest Existing Industry Expansions.
Keith Holtsclaw, a former county commissioner and the retired President/CEO of Blue Ridge Regional Hospital, joined the EDPNC’s Executive Board in October of last year.
While their roles within the organization are different, their goals are quite similar: bring economic development and expansion to Western North Carolina.
The EDPNC is a public-private partnership formed under Governor Pat McCrory’s administration in 2014.
“We are a public-private partnership, so that gives us the ability to go raise private funds to do certain things and then they are a prime vendor to do five things on behalf of the Department of Commerce,” Slagle explained.
Those five things include recruiting new businesses to the state, supporting the needs of existing businesses, connecting exporters to global customers, helping small business owners get their start and attracting tourists and visitors from all over the world.
While Holtsclaw has only been on the board for a few months, he said he’s been impressed by the operation the EDPNC has going on.
“By setting this up, they have helped commerce garner private funds through that public-private partnership and I think it’s a great model,” he said. “I’m super impressed with what they do and the people they have on the board and in leadership positions are some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met.”
Holtsclaw added he hopes he can help represent Mitchell County’s interests on the board.
“It’s nice for Mitchell County to have representation and it’s nice to have a seat at the table,” he said. “I hope I’m able to provide some valuable input and help them be cognizant of what small areas can provide in terms of economic development.”
There are eight prosperity zones in which the 100 counties of North Carolina were split into and Slagle is in charge of the Northwest Region, which includes Mitchell County, and he also oversees the other prosperity managers as statewide director.
“Anytime we have an existing company that has particular needs or interest, we’re the conduit to them accessing state funds,” Slagle said. “When they’re looking at expansion, we’ll meet with that company and we’ll discuss the needs and then we’ll direct them based on their priorities.
“For example, I have the furniture capital of the world with Hickory and Morganton, so what comes with that is a lot of furniture, a lot of supply chain from the textile to the frame building, so we will help them put all of that together.”
While Slagle’s focus is not solely on Mitchell County, it is included.
According to Slagle, the EDPNC has helped the county with the Mitchell Works endeavor, the recent expansion of Bombardier and the health clinic expansion in Bakersville.
However, Slagle said small counties like Mitchell tend to struggle with economic development because they are often losing population.
“I think a common problem in a lot of the smaller counties, and there’s no surefire solution to this, is they continue to lose population and it has a negative effect in a multitude of ways,” Slagle said. “I mean, if you just look at the projected enrollment in the high school...an industry looks at that. If that base is not growing, it’s hard to get places to develop there.”
Slagle said the solution is to grow the tax base, but that’s not a simple fix.
“One of the things that I’ve learned and been amazed at since I’ve been in this position, is that Economic Development Groups are one of the few governmental agencies that have an opportunity to grow the tax base,” he said. “If we can have a growing tax base, that shows a healthy economy and a healthy community and that allows for county and town boards to reinvest.
“Where you run into problems is when there’s no capital investment in the community and so they can’t reinvest in themselves.”
While economic development can often be seen as the pretty ribbon cutting, it goes much deeper than that, Slagle said.
“I think also there’s a perception from the public, and I understand this because it’s a perception that I had, is that everyone wants to see a ribbon cutting,” he said. “That’s economic development, yes, but you’ve got 11,000 other communities that are looking to do the same thing. Having a broad base of economic development activity is the key to success.”
That broad base includes basic infrastructure plans and development for people and businesses to recognize and build on, Slagle said.
“You have to have good housing, you have to have good education, you have to have good healthcare, good transportation logistics, a good looking community,” he said. “Reinvesting and doing a workforce development plan or a housing development plan, those aren’t the bling of economic development, but they sure are the core principles that people are going to look at.”
Holtsclaw added a focus on tourism is also important to help grow the economy in places like Mitchell County.
“Mitchell County citizens are always talking about how much they hate Floridians, but the thing is, they come here and they buy and build houses, they pay taxes, they pay for the school system and for the infrastructure and they’re only here for four or five months out of the year,” Holtsclaw said. “From an economic development piece, that’s huge.”
Holtsclaw noted the ongoing pandemic has seen a trend of people moving to more rural areas, like Mitchell County, so things may be looking up for small communities because of that.
“COVID may have changed things, though, because people are buying houses here now and they want smaller, more rural places to live,” he said. “COVID has accelerated to where people can work remotely from anywhere. So, that may be a good thing for rural counties in growing their tax base.”
However difficult it may be to expand economic development, Holtsclaw and Slagle are both working to promote investment in Western North Carolina.
“Anything we can do in Western North Carolina, and particularly here in the mountains, having a seat at the table is so important,” Holtsclaw said. “I’m hoping I can represent these smaller communities’ interests in that seat.”