About 75 attend Angelou meetings

Project Manager Sean Garretson of AngelouEconomics opened his comments during a special public meeting last Thursday night with an apology before giving an encore of an economic development presentation first made on Aug. 14.

At that earlier meeting, Garretson had used pointedly extreme examples to explain how the community would need to be accepting of newcomers. One example he used was atheists, another involved people with purple hair and body punctures.

Of his comments at the first meeting, Garretson said they were a mistake, noting, "I realize what a mess it has made."

He also said he grew up as the youngest in a family of seven and had a Catholic upbringing and did not mean to offend anyone.

"I never ever want to recommend something that would wreck your way of life," he said. He said the examples he used in discussions at the earlier meeting were poor ones.

With that out of the way, Garretson proceeded to review the presentation, which was attended by about 30 people the first time and by about 63 last Thursday (Oct. 2). The presentation was entitled "Target Industries and Benchmarks for Alleghany County."

Garretson said Angelou has been working on a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) since January of this year. The business will be finished with its work by the middle of November, he said. Garretson also noted that the work by AngelouEconomics will provide preliminary strategies, but the local residents will need to "take the ball and run with it."

After the presentation, Woodie and Garretson fielded a variety of questions, ranging from help for local youths getting started here to questions about local industries.

Local resident Scott Craven asked if the implementation of the program would be a ‘part B'.

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