At a recent meeting of the Dillon County Council, Economic Development Director Tonny McNeil made a presentation about the Latta Commerce Industrial Park master plan.
What seemed unusual about the presentation is that some council members appeared to be unaware that the project was even a project. Then after the newspaper came out with the article some members of the Dillon County Public-Private Partnership (aka: the Dillon County Economic Development Board) also claimed to have no knowledge of the project.
This lack of knowledge by people who should be in the know does not appear to be the formula for good economic development or good partnerships between the very people who should be working together.
A plan should never have gotten this far, no money should have been spent, and no options should have been agreed upon without the full knowledge of our entire county council. We elect county council to act for the people, and it should be the county council who decides if another industrial park is in Dillon County’s best interest and the best use of the county’s time and resources.
One county councilman said that perhaps the county economic developer’s time would be better spent in recruiting industry for one of the many sites that the county already has instead of focusing on developing more sites. This does seem to be the best course of action because Dillon County needs industry to increase our tax base and to employ our people not more empty fields that we can call industrial parks.
This is the kind of direction that our county council can offer when they are fully informed as to the activities occurring in economic development.
It seems that the first step that needs to be taken is better communication between the economic development office, the development board and the county council. Then with the proper guidance, direction, and communication perhaps the jobs will follow.
