At its regular monthly meeting Thursday, March 19, the Anson Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) elected new officers and directors to its board, and spent much of the hour-and-a-half-long meeting discussing the current economic situation and its effects on Anson County.

Don Scarborough was appointed chairman, Chuck Horne, vice chairman, Elbert Marshall, secretary, and Dana Maness, treasurer. Emmett Patterson and Fred Sparger were also elected to at-large positions. In addition, Dale Nelson and Steve Coggin were appointed to the board of directors.

After the election of the officers and appointments to the board of directors, the group entered into a roundtable discussion on the current state of the economy.

The discussion began when the question arose whether or not Anson County may be able to market itself to potential businesses with some of the federal stimulus money that has begun to trickle down to local municipalities.

Wadesboro town manager John Witherspoon reported that the only stimulus funds he knew for sure the town was getting is $27,449 for the police department through the Justice Assistance Grant. He added that he has heard that the town could get loans for the money it needs for various projects but "it won't help us because we would still have to pay the principle."

County manager Vance Gulledge added that the county has requested approximately $8.6 million but the county has also been told that it would have to get loans.

The Division of Water Quality is asking for "shovel-ready projects," Gulledge said, and has more than $2 billion in requests but only $68 million to spend.

"We've bombarded state officials all we can," Gulledge said, adding that much of the stimulus money is slated to be spent on transportation needs.

"There is some support money to improve communications with police and fire," he said, which includes upgrading radio communications to 800 MHz.

In response to a later question about how the county is faring in the current economic crisis, Gulledge stated that the budgeting process will be different this year. "We're starting with mandatory programs and working back" to find out which programs and services will have to cut, he said. "We're going to be half a million dollars short this year," he added. "We may be $1 million short next year."

Revenue is expected to be down, which will lead to the shortfall.

"On the administrative end, what people normally think of the county doing— budgeting, tax collection— is shrinking," he explained. "We are running a bare bones county structure. The only thing in the government that is growing right now is the court system."

Anson has a small administration, he pointed out, giving the example of how Union County recently cut eight positions from its tax office. "We only have eight people in our tax office," he said.

It will be necessary for some programs to be cut, however, he admitted. "We don't want to have to raise taxes 10 cents. The public won't stand for that."

He also pointed out that the county has been without a tax collector for a while, which has caused the collection rate to go down. Right now, it's at 92 percent, when it should be at 98-99 percent, Gulledge said.

"I'm afraid we're going to be at an even lower percentage this year. One reason is the economic situation; another is the disorganization of that office."

When asked about the town's perspective on the economy, Witherspoon said, "Ditto."

Last month's sales tax revenue, he said, was "good but the sales tax is an indication of what's going on in the economy."

The town hasn't frozen any of its positions, he said, but hiring is slow.

AEDC chairman Don Scarborough asked Witherspoon if the town may have to cut some of its programs, like the county will probably have to. "We don't have any programs like they do," he replied. "We may have to cut some services. For example, like garbage pickup one day a week."

The town is also not hiring for one of its vacant police officer positions, although a new chief was hired this month. "We may not fill that position," Witherspoon said, "which would be bad considering the crime rate."

Economic development director Misty Harris gave an update on several recruiting projects, stating that there are nine companies currently interested in locating to Anson County and she is in regular contact with all of them.

Janine Rywak, director of Anson County Cooperative Extension, who's also a member of the AEDC, reported that there are some visits coming up that seem promising. "We have some folks that want to work with us," she said.

The AEDC will next meet on Thursday, April 16, at 7:30 a.m. at the Anson County Chamber of Commerce office, 107-A E. Wade St., Wadesboro.