Travel Highway 64 to the eastern part of the state and you'll reach an area rich in assets, but challenged economically. Martin County is taking a regional approach to ride out a tough economy and help the community survive.
The philosophy is plant as many seeds as you can and perhaps something will grow.
Laurence Lilley, Chairman of the Martin County Economic Development Corporation and President of Lilley International explains, "There's not a lot of business growth organically, in most places. So we're looking at what we have to sell in Martin County."
Specifically county leaders are focusing on land, water, and trees.
Economic setbacks and changing markets had the area's largest employer, wood fiber company Domtar Plymouth debating a drastic change--deciding to make the material in diapers and feminine hygiene products instead of copy paper.
"We're repurposing our assets to fluff pulp. We'll be producing 100 percent fluff pulp by the end of the year," says Dennis Askew, Mill Manager of Domtar Plymouth.
And what would happen if they didn't make the change? "With the decline of the fine paper market. less people using the product, there’s a very good chance it would have shut down," Askew responds.
About 15 Hundred people used to work at the former Weyerhaeuser Plant. Today the number is closer to 530. And a lot more jobs are linked to the industry, including the 400 or so truck drivers who haul trees here everyday. As Askew sees it, the key to survival is creativity and the ability to evolve.
That line of thinking helped launch the NC Telecenter, a business incubator in Williamston more than a decade ago. The building used to be an old shopping center. Today, the NC Telecenter offers community meeting space, classrooms, and public internet access. But the main goal is to give start up businesses taxpayer subsidized office space and opportunity in Martin County.
"We've had a decline in population. And it’s simply quite a matter of young people move out and go other places seeking jobs and opportunities and we would like to see us stabilize the reduction in population," says Lilley.
Property management isn't what he has in mind when it comes to economic development. But success these days Lilley confides is finding a way to keep what you have.
Four years ago Callie Northern was a laid off worker. With the help at the Telecenter she has started and grown her grant writing and consulting business and now has 7 employees. "I want to become as large as possible when you’re a small business owner the sky is the limit. Don't want to put yourself in a box. I want to grow," says Northern.
When pharmaceutical company quintiles wanted to expand its Research Triangle Park operation, they used the NC Telecenter to conduct interviews and training before locating next door in 2007.
Becky Edwards, Associate Director of Clinical Data Management for Quintiles says, "When you grow up in a small town there are not job opportunities. That's one of the wonderful things this facility has done is bring high tech job opportunities back to Martin County."
A few miles away, the Bob Martin Eastern Agriculture Center is luring people and horses to the area. It brings about 3 million dollars to the county every year.
Together, the land, water, trees equation is helping to sustain one of North Carolina's poorest counties. Lilley recognizes one more important element that Martin County has going for it. Desire: "If they have multiple options and someone out there wants them more than somebody else and they feel they can make a difference there that can be in the final analysis that can be the piece that makes that decision come our way."
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