Plans to use U.S. 70 to recruit industry
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 26, 2017 12:00 AM
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An effort is underway to designate sections of U.S. 70 from Wayne County through Craven County as a "North Carolina Aerospace Corridor" in an attempt to market the area to the aerospace industry.
Crystal Gettys, Wayne County Development Alliance president, Tuesday asked for and received support for the project from Wayne County commissioners.
As part of the WCDA efforts to recruit new industry to Wayne County, we must market the assets that we have in our community and the communities that surround us," Mrs. Gettys said. "Aerospace and aviation is a natural sector that we focus on just because the assets that we have in Wayne County as well as what we have in Lenoir and Craven county.
"I have been working with those counties in the last six months to try to devise a plan that we can collaborate and market our assets together. In doing so we have come up with a list of opportunities that we might be able to market to the aerospace industry."
The assets also include the local transportation network and accessibility to Wayne County and the Global TransPark in Lenoir County which is also serves as a federal trade zone that encompasses Wayne County, she said.
The Global TransPark is a 2,500-acre, multi-modal industrial park located at the Kinston Regional Jetport.
Craven County is home to the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, Mrs. Gettys said.
'So we have our military installations, and we also have a nice cluster already started of aerospace companies within the three counties," she said. "We feel like our efforts to pull together in a collaborative effort to market a certain area of our three counties would work to our benefit in growing that cluster of aerospace and recruiting companies that provide additional tax base for us and good-paying jobs in that field."
The Hwy. 70 Commission has provided a letter of recommendation of a resolution to the state Department of Transportation for that designation, she said.
"We are also in the process of establishing a memorandum of understanding between the three counties and/or our economic development organizations on how are going to market that," Mrs. Gettys said. "How we are going to handle the leads that come in and any expenses."
A one-page website is being developed to identifying the assets in the counties and that would direct traffic to the individual county websites.
"This is a long time coming," Commissioner Ray Mayo said. "Wayne County can be a very huge part of the puzzle in eastern North Carolina development. Over the last year or so, I have also gotten involved with the Global TransPark, and I have seen the finances of the Global TransPark get better, more self supporting.
"Along with Wayne County, the Global TransPark, and this is just my synopsis, we have a diamond in the rough there at the Global TransPark that can set the stage for aerospace development in eastern North Carolina, and I am including Wayne County as part of that."
The issue was discussed at length during the recent Hwy. 70 Commission meeting, Commissioner Wayne Aycock said.
"Everyone that I talked to from Craven County were on board, and we can work together as a group and get a whole lot more done together working as a group than we can as a stand alone county."
The plan ties in with Wayne Community College and advanced manufacturing center as well, Chairman Bill Pate said.