Agenda 01/11/2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Revised Enclosure #4 CITY OF MARTINSVILt .E 2000 STATE LEGISLATIVE POSITIONS ADOPTED JANUARY 11, 2000 The Maxtinsville City Council appredates the fireless efforts of its local delegation to the Virginia General Assembly in representing and promoting legislative actions that best serve the interest of this community. We therefore submit the following information to Senator Roscoe Reynolds and Delegates Ward Armstrong, Bamie Day and Allen Dudley 'to help direct their focus on the key issues that we believe will assist us in maintainin.'g and enhancing the quality of life for the dtizens of this great City. ECONOMIC RECOVERY In calendar year 1999 our economic development efforts have taken "three steps forward, and then, two steps backward'~ Despite our best efforts, we saw the year end with a net job loss in the Mar~nsville-Henry County area of 560 jobs. The "backward' movement was exacerbated by the Chapter 11 bankruptcy fding of the City's largest employer, the Tultex Corporation (1,260 jobs lost), coming on the heels of the dosing of Pluma, Inc. (575 jobs los0 which was headquartered in Henry County. Direct assistance from the State is needed ff we are to mount a sustained 'recovery" effort to (1) assist dislocated workers to get back into the job market and (2) foster the location of new industry and the expansion of existing businesses. · The City Council supports the package of legislation authored by our local delegation to provide extended benefits to dislocated workerS; particularly in the areas of health care assistance, retraining, and income maintenance during their transition into new employment; · The City Council supports the proposal made by Senator Charles Hawkins (Chatham) and Delegate Whir Clement (Danville) to create a Rural Prosperity Commission that would develop a plan to help rural communities revive their economies, and be an advocate for those communities at the state level; · The City Council supports the request made by the Henry County Board of Supervisors to Governor Gilmore for a $2 Million Dollar Grant to help underwrite the construction of a state-of-the-art technology incubator and high performance manufacturing facility to be located in the Patriot Centre at Beaver Creek (see Attachment · The City Council requests that a $700,000 grant be made to the City and the City School Board to compensate them for the use of the vacant Tultex Corporate Office Building in Uptown Martinsville, which is the preferred location for a small business incubator program as recommended by the Virginia Tech Economic Development Assistance Center (see Attachment 'B") .