As the county’s new economic development director, Ferdinand Rouse has spent his first few months on the job taking stock of all the things that make Vance County attractive to prospective business and industry.

But he’s also digging into the county’s history and the people who have helped to shape it over the years so he can build on what’s been done before he came to town.

“Vance County is in a position of change – and growth,” Rouse said on Tuesday’s TownTalk. With a nod to previous economic development director McKinley Perkinson and interim Harry Mills, Rouse said he chooses “to pick up where they left off and move us forward.”

With one-year, three-year and five-year goals in mind for the county, Rouse said a personal goal is to introduce himself to business and industry owners in the county, and to let them know about a couple of state grants that could be helpful when they’re ready to expand.

One is a building reuse grant, available for businesses that are planning an expansion that will add a certain number of employees to the payroll. A second grant called One NC originates from the N.C. Dept. of Commerce and offsets costs that business and industry use to create jobs.

Although both require local matches, but Rouse said they are “very good grants that I like to spread the news about for larger industries.”

Economic development often is associated with attracting new business – manufacturing, industrial, retail – to an area, but Rouse reminds that a lot of growth comes from the existing industry base within a county’s boundaries.

He does have his eyes on a few spots in the county that could be ripe for development in the future, he said, but it’s too early to predict just how it’ll play out.

As a product of eastern North Carolina, Rouse said he’s familiar with what it means to live in a rural area and the pride associated with those roots.

“It’s a tightrope you have to walk when you’re talking about bringing growth to a rural community,” he said. “Folks don’t want folks coming in from the outside” if they sense that their rural lifestyle is threatened.

Rouse said the Industrial Park, with its shell building ready for a business to come in and finish to its particular needs is one of the county’s biggest assets when it comes to attractive new business. And it’s certainly something he’s sure to point out when he’s networking, or as he said, being “the tip of the spear” when it comes to all the opportunities within the park and the county as a whole.

Another tip of another spear in the county’s quiver could easily be tourism, Rouse mused. People who come to visit – whether it’s the annual car show, boating and camping at Kerr Lake or any of a variety of destinations – can learn first-hand about the county’s amenities.

And when retirement rolls around, some of these tourists can become full-time residents.

With the county’s recent retirement community designation from the state, Rouse said there is great potential for Vance County to gain residents who not only bring a wealth of experience, but disposable income and a desire to give back to their new community.

“They still have money and they still have energy,” he said. “Retirees are a boon and a blessing.”

He said local tourism officials are doing all the right things to support economic growth.

“Tourism…can bring great success to your community.”

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