A plea: Get city moving

As the sheen beams brighter in the mecca known as Waynesboro’s West End, gloom thickens downtown. In another couple of years, a 12-screen cinema, homes and offices likely will tug more people away from a place they seldom go already. Opportunities will wane or die. And officialdom will watch with eyes closed and hands stuffed in pockets. Unless someone demands otherwise and a response follows.

So let us demand. Again.

And let us start by setting aside for the moment the quarrels that lately have prevailed in the public discussion. The city’s tax rate likely will remain at 70 cents per $100 of assessed value, rather than lower to offset the reassessment increase. Agencies and groups of every stripe are coping with large budget cuts. The council is divided and so, too, one of its factions. Angst abides over ex-City Manager Doug Walker’s forced resignation. So be it.

What of downtown? What of the city’s future? More important, what ought city officials elected and appointed do now?

Here is what we suggest:

First, hire an economic development director to replace the departed Meghan Williamson. She left in August. Few, if any, positions in city government are more important than this one. Williamson’s replacement should be someone with proven ability to generate development, and if extra pay is needed to reel in the right candidate, the city should find the money. The city has candidates. It’s time to hire.

Second, appoint a river area economic development committee, as we’ve already suggested in this space. Assign a staff member to this group and then find four to seven others to serve. Set goals and deadlines for the group. Ensure that its members are people who understand development and have a stake in the community. Do this within the next month.

Third, identify a single city staffer to research the city’s assets and liabilities from an entrepreneur’s perspective with the objective of answering the question: Why Waynesboro? Get the answers by talking to business leaders here and elsewhere. Look for criticism. That’s far more helpful than praise. Produce a plan for capitalizing on the assets and minimizing or eliminating the liabilities. Set a deadline of two months to finish this project.

Fourth, determine how best to market the city utilizing as models other cities that have successfully transformed their downtowns. Identify people who will be responsible for producing a plan and then executing it. Set a deadline of two months for this and be prepared to begin work immediately thereafter.

Recognize the peril of doing nothing and the extraordinary benefits of doing something, which we’ve identified in this space repeatedly. As we’ve done so, the city has watched as plans to build a minor league baseball stadium – a project that could make over this town and trigger prosperity spanning generations – have crumbled apart for simple want of city action. Who knows how many other projects have met similar fates?

We don’t know whether the stadium idea could be revived but we know that it won’t be without the city taking the initiative. We urge the city to do this. Identify a city council member or staffer to reach out to the key players in the ballpark project, determine whether interest remains or could be resuscitated or a new coalition could be built, and, if so, produce an action plan for making it happen. Then do it.

Finally, we say to the City Council: Enough with petty banalities. Enough with inane rivalries. Your city needs men and women who recognize the imperative of bold, forward-thinking economic development. Your duty is to drive this. Get to it. Show us and your city a plan. Then pull hands from pockets and get to work.