Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/20996
STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Crowe editor@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Mary Beth Leiby Marybeth@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Deborah Baughn deborah@upandcomingweekly.com –––––––––––––– GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Soni Martin, D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, Bob Cogswell, John Hood, Shanessa Fenner, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, Heather Griffi ths, Beth Solzsmon-Carpenter –––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a “Quality of Life” publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what’s happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. INSIDE PUBLISHER’S PEN by SHARON VALENTINE Editor’s Note: Bill is out of town this week and has yielded this space to community and business advocate Sharon Valentine. He will be back next week. Redundancy drives me crazy. The myriad of organizations, agencies, educational institutions and non profi ts that employ economic developers, employment counselors, small business developers, directors of private/public partnerships and the volunteers, advisory boards and boards of directors that support these activities have become a major industry. The wasted money, lack of coordination, duplication and general lack of understanding on how to deal effectively in this economy is staggering. Just count the number of economic development programs in Fayetteville/Cumberland County — the Chamber of Commerce, FTCC’s Small Business Center, the Small Business Technology Development Center, Southeastern Economic Development — to name a few. All are committed to the betterment of the community — with some small differences — they all provide the same business development services. In brutal honesty many of these programs are effective only on paper, using infl ated data. It is a refl ection of N.C.’s off-base funding priorities and antiquated economic-development programs that focus on big incentives with little return. I want to focus locally, and while I admit that someone’s ox will be gored, this is not a deliberate attack on the many volunteers and organizations that are earnestly attempting to get their arms around businesses closing their doors, diminishing revenues, disappearing resources and the growing numbers of underemployed and unemployed. I remember referring two ambitious young women to the SBTDC for business advice and now the community boasts Moonlight Productions. I also remember the six years of meetings with the N.C. Technological Development Authority to establish the FSU Business Incubator. We have had our successes. The business landscape is different now. In this area, we have to get some leadership into our economic-development programs. In the past we had a “point committee” from the various economic- development entities that worked to leverage the individual programs through cooperation, coordination and by avoiding duplication of services. This concept will become an imperative in the coming years as money for these types of programs goes away. As a community, we are going to have to rely on our own imagination and talents to leverage limited resources and create economic sustainability. County and city governments need to understand our strengths and develop a plan to capitalize on them. Fayetteville/Cumberland County is dominated by small businesses that have grown up 4 UCW DECEMBER 8-14, 2010 around Fort Bragg. Many of these small businesses are “mom and pop” shops that are still small, but have grown as established community leaders or are the entrepreneurs operating within protection of the Department of Defense. The Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce serves as the designated economic-development organization for the city and county, but it is still struggling to get the “rubber to meet the road” with small business. The dues are too high for the average small business and membership programs that support small business using the expertise of older, experienced business advisors have yet to be developed. Recognition of another “small business person of the year” is just not going to get it. Effective programs to grow businesses within the community or recruit innovation into the county borders are nonexistent. A game plan to deal with the impending 30 percent reduction in DoD contracts over the next 10 years or after the BRAC stimulus is fi nished is still not “in local conversations.” Look to Bladen or Hoke County where prospective businesses can identify the “point person” for economic development. The recent initiative by the Fayetteville Cumberland County Development Foundation to raise capital through the Linda Lee Allan Legacy Fund is to be lauded. But those of us that have already “invested” funds in Fayetteville are still smarting from disastrous losses (i.e. the Festival Park building, Docks). Caution must be exercised with any venture capital or angel fund to be certain that management of the fund is knowledgeable and experienced with these specialized loans. Lumbee River Electric Co-op employs an experienced consultant (a former employee of the World Bank) who is a “point” person for industry. As a liaison between the rural electric co-op and the entrepreneur seeking fi nancing he can objectively advise the co-op executive and board, advocate for the business and serve as a facilitator with the bank. The result: Lumbee River Electric was recognized a few years ago as the top rural electric co-op in the nation, and Robeson County now boasts new businesses. I am not suggesting that Fayetteville/Cumberland County copy these efforts, but that we begin to analyze our opportunities to develop our own point person to lead our economic development. If we don’t get organized and get going, we are going to wallow around in a sea of “redundancy.” As the tide of funding recedes we will fi nd ourselves (as is the state) swimming naked. SHARON VALENTINE, Contributing Writer COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Internet Directory ............................ 12 Calendar ........................................... 14 Concert Connection ........................ 18 TV ..................................................... 17 Movie Review ..................................20 Free Wheelin’ Feelin’ ....................... 22 Classifieds ........................................ 24 News of the Weird ........................... 23 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 23 Games .............................................. 26 Wanted: Economic Development Leadership