News Article

Lt. Gov. Bolling in Danville to Announce Southern Virginia Regional Alliance

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Ashley Singh
WSET 13

Danville, VA - State officials want the Southside as a region to come together when it comes to marketing for jobs.

Lt. Governor Bill Bolling was in Danville on Wednesday to announce the establishment of the Southern Virginia Regional Alliance.

The state, the localities, and the tobacco commission have combined some of their funds to provide the alliance with $600,000. The goal is to promote the region, combining their ability to bring more industries to the area. The idea, is to focus efforts on bringing jobs to the region rather than to a specific locality.

"If you think about what an individual locality can do on its own and then think about what six localities can do when they pull their resources together, you're able to do more," said Bolling.

Lt. Governor Bill Bolling says that in every economic study they've done, it suggests that when regions market themselves they're are more effective than individual localities.

"You come up with a common message where you're marketing the region as opposed to marketing individual localities and competing with each other all the time," said Bolling.

Local and state officials agree that competition within the region doesn't help people who need jobs.

"The localities know that whatever jobs are created here helps the locality but the citizens don't know that. They go wherever the jobs are," said Del. Danny Marshall.

"With the economy the way it is now, people need to rethink how we do business. no more going it alone. We must pool our resources for the good of our region," said Danville Mayor Sherman Saunders.

By working together, officials hope that localities can focus on helping each other.

"Everybody knows we win together and what helps us, helps everybody else," said Pittsylvania Co. Supervisor Tim Barber.

"Having this Southern Virginia Alliance in place helping us, I think is going be a big shot in the arm," said Bolling.

Bolling says most urban areas in Virginia have had partnerships for awhile now and that this is something the Southside needs. Their plan now is to create a web site and develop other marketing tools to aggressively promote the region.

For additional information contact Ibbie Hedrick at 804-225-2487 or ibbie.hedrick@ltgov.virginia.gov.