Smart Economic Growth - How Do We Educate Fauquier County's Citizens?

TUESDAY, JANUARY 27 2009

Many of us in Fauquier County are focusing our efforts on smart Economic Development and Growth to:

· Protect and retain our existing business base

· To provide needed services for our Citizens and Tourists

· To provide jobs to our Citizens which improves quality of life by keeping us off of Rt. 66 – it’s also better for the environment

· To mitigate future property/personal property tax increases and the implementation of new taxes

My good friend and colleague, Charla Malone from Salon Emage summed it up nicely in a recent meeting when she said: "Our Citizens have not had the benefit of being educated on what smart Business Growth means to all of us, and what it means if the existing business tax base erodes and/or if we don’t grow. They just don’t know how important this is because there is no source of education!"

If we don’t develop a fully executable strategic business development plan with clear accountability, implement it immediately via County staff, and then measure/report our progress to our Citizens and business owners going forward, the end result will be predictable…

What are your thoughts? How can we raise the awareness of the Citizens of Fauquier County and gain their support for business growth that also protects the beauty of our County? We need all the support and positive energy we can muster – this is serious business and so far we have managed to protect our micro-economy pretty well. Let’s continue to retain our businesses while growing smartly! Please post your responses – we want to hear what you have to say!

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