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Op-Ed about economic development, and the future of commerce in Stafford County, by Tim Baroody; for Viewpoints Date published: 4/18/2010
COMMUNITIES, businesses, and citizens across the nation have suffered immensely as a result of the deepest recession in many decades. It is likely that recovery--as far as job opportunities, commercial investment, tax revenue to localities, home appreciation, and spending by consumers--will not get back to "normal" for several years--maybe longer. This is no grand revelation, but our region has not just stood by as markets tumbled, the housing bubble burst, and storefronts closed. Our region was fully engaged in moving forward to build a better community. In Stafford County, we have made great strides in public safety, economic development, and tourism. We opened two new fire and rescue stations; built a new state-of-the-art public-safety communications system; greatly improved fire and rescue response times; and facilitated the location of Stafford's first hospital. We've worked hard to make Stafford a business-friendly community, and have welcomed several million square feet of new commercial space. The second building at the University of Mary Washington's Stafford campus has opened, and we facilitated the opening of the Germanna Community College center in Stafford. The community passed transportation and parks bond referenda, strong complements to our economic development efforts. We continue to build up our tourism, creating way-finding signage, developing and constructing trails at historic Government Island and Falmouth, and achieving National Park Service Underground Railroad status for Aquia Landing. It is important to note that the public-sector work was accomplished even as staffing and budgets were being reduced. In fact, Stafford's government non-public-safety employment is down approximately 15 percent over the past two years. Stafford has the lowest general government spending per capita when seen against comparison localities such as Spotsylvania, Loudoun, Prince William, and Fauquier counties. Our community has maintained a strong AA bond rating. Some of the most important work Stafford has done was to proactively take on the redevelopment master-planning work of four key gateways to our community. This grew out of the 2006 Economic Development Strategic Plan, which included visions for quality development in the Boswell's Corner and courthouse areas. Falmouth and U.S. 17 both east and west of Interstate 95 were soon added.
Date published: 4/18/2010
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