The long, slow march to recovery

The national unemployment rate is finally falling, companies are adding new jobs and the recession that economists said is already over may soon start to feel over.

But people don’t measure economic downturns the same way that economists, politicians and pundits do.

For the Dan River Region, the Great Recession only added to the misery of losing thousands of tobacco and textile jobs. Danville lost more than 5,000 residents in less than 10 years. Already high poverty rates spiked.

The first decade of this new century was tough on a lot of local people, but long before the local economy tanked, Danville and Pittsylvania County were hard at work on remaking the Dan River Region’s economy.

That effort took another big step forward this week when the Tobacco Commission announced another grant for the Berry Hill Road industrial mega park.

This week’s grant announcement was for $6.2 million to grade 230 acres.

To date, the Tobacco Commission has pumped $24 million into the 3,500-acre industrial site in southwestern Pittsylvania County.

"The whole purpose of this is to create jobs," said Delegate Danny Marshall, a Tobacco Commission member.

Job creation is the one issue that always comes up when people talk about what this community needs to do to reverse its fortunes — and it should be.

But it’s one thing to say "we need more jobs around here" and quite another to take the long, slow and methodical steps to bring those new jobs here.

On Berry Hill Road, that means years of work on the ground as well as applying for grants to develop the rolling, wooded acres into the kind of site a company would want for a new factory.

Marshall is part of a small army of office holders, economic developers, business leaders and interested citizens pushing projects like the Berry Hill Road site as a new place for growing companies to locate.

The Berry Hill Road site is unique because of its size, the state-identified economic development zone and its proximity to high-unemployment counties in North Carolina. It’s a prime location for the kind of big project that people have long said they wanted Danville and Pittsylvania County to go after.

It’s hard to counsel patience when so many people have left the Dan River Region because they couldn’t make a living here or they’re still living here but they’re struggling to make ends meet.

This week’s Tobacco Commission grant is another step toward Danville and Pittsylvania County finally developing the kind of economy that can preserve this community and provide for its people.

When the rest of the country finally declares the recession to be over, we’ll still have a lot of work to do. But the work is being done, and the size of the industry we’re fishing for is good news for those who worry about this community’s long-term economic prospects.