Pickett Taking Next Steps On Industrial Site Evaluations

Pickett County expecting an answer in mid-January about which sites might be suitable for industrial development.

County Executive Stephen Bilbrey said the county received grant funding to evaluate approximately eight sites across the county. He said the state and a consulting group visited the sites and are currently evaluating each one.

“Of course, everybody doesn’t want to work in the tourism industry and not everybody can work in the tourism industry,” Bilbrey said. “So you’d like to have some industrial opportunities for folks to work.”

Bilbrey said an estimated 55 percent of the county’s workforce population goes elsewhere to work each day. He said they want to give those folks an opportunity to stay home.

Bilbrey said they might not only be able to keep locals close to home for work, but also draw individuals from the surrounding areas into Pickett County. He said when they’re in the county working, they would also contribute the local economy through eating meals and buying gas.

“So you need to be diverse in your goal as far as tourism and industrial development,” Bilbrey said. “You need to kind of be diverse. I think that just makes it work a little better to have that diversity and have opportunities for multiple kinds of people.”