The General Assembly is saving us again with its resplendent economic policies. A beneficent grant, no doubt a sacfrifice out of the legislators’ own hard-earned savings, will create jobs. Don’t ask right-wing questions about if these jobs are part-time or how long they’ll last. Just feel the energy. And, Western North Carolina got its fair share.
Graham County received $400,000 to “conduct an energy analysis and provide a covered storage facility to help a furniture company save and reuse its wood waste to generate energy. The project will retain 468 jobs at the county’s largest employer and create an additional eight to ten.” In the old days, they’d just say, “to build a wood shed.”
If that didn’t warm the cockles of your heart, the Town of Forest City received $48,000 “to renovate a vacant building for reuse as a boutique pet store. The project will create six jobs.”
Also, WNC Communities received $50,000 “to support community development, regional networking, and agricultural and economic development in 19 western counties.”
For a full listing, check out the Citizen-Times article.
The N.C. Rural Economic Development Center is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop sound economic strategies that improve the quality of life in rural North Carolina, with a special focus on individuals with low to moderate incomes and communities with limited resources. The center operates a multifaceted program that includes conducting research into rural issues; testing promising rural development strategies; advocating for policy and program innovations; and building the productive capacity of rural leaders, entrepreneurs and community organizations.
