The local business and community leaders that make up the Anson Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) met on Thursday, Jan. 21, for an open and frank discussion on pumping up the county's economy.

It was part of the group's retreat, which spanned two hours Thursday afternoon at Wadesboro's Lockhart-Taylor Center.

After dividing into three focus groups, small groups came up with priorities and ideas to improve Anson County's economic situation. The three top areas for discussion were compiled by Cooperative Extension director, Janine Rywak, who asked AEDC members to contact her with their top priorities for economic development. Those priorities were defined as: business retention and expansion, business and industrial recruitment, and partnering for creative leadership.

Don Altieri chaired the first group, which focused on business retention and expansion. That group came up with several top priorities under the business retention and expansion umbrella, including: expanding power generation in Anson County, expanding the work the current business retention and expansion committee is doing, working with South Piedmont Community College, finding and identifying businesses that are not currently part of the Chamber of Commerce and encouraging them to join, creating an extensive database that people can go to if they are considering opening a new business, reworking the county's economic development Web site, and investigating more tax incentives for new and existing businesses.

The second group, business and industrial recruitment, was chaired by Wadesboro Town Manager John Witherspoon. This group came up with a plan that economic development director Misty Harris could easily use as her business plan for the next year, if she wished, Rywak said.

"We'd really like to have more resources for the economic development office," Rywak added. "We'd like to develop a quick-response team that we'd able to call on when Misty may be busy with other entities."

The county also needs more "shovel-ready sites or empty buildings" that would be ready for businesses to locate to immediately.

In addition, the group plans to work on tweaking county zoning to make it more business- and industry-friendly, and work on ways to stimulate the economy for tourism.

The third group, partnering for creative leadership, aims to get a more diverse group of people participating in economic development activities. "We've got all the pieces of the puzzle," Rywak pointed out. "We need to do a better job of working together."

Rywak chaired this discussion group, which focused on making the Chamber a central resource for new and existing business in town. "We would like to keep the communication lines open between local government, the Chamber and local businesses," she said. "We'd like to create a one-stop source for all of the county's resources. The Chamber is the best entity for that, since whenever somebody calls the county for information, the first place they call is already the Chamber."

The biggie, however, is that the county needs a more diverse group of leaders in all its community organizations. "We need more diverse representation on all of our committees and boards," Rywak said. "And the current leadership realizes that we are missing some very valuable resources. We're not just talking about racial diversity; also socioeconomic diversity as well."

Don Scarborough, chair of the AEDC, said he felt good about the group's accomplishments at the retreat. "When I show people around, I'm very proud of how beautiful this county is," he said. "I really believe our best days are ahead of us."

New businesses look at Anson

Prior to Thursday afternoon's retreat, the AEDC held its regular meeting that morning, during which Harris updated the group on recent economic development activity in the county.

She reported that EntoGenetics, a company that makes worm silk, is interested in moving into the former Dan River plant. The company could potentially have 1,200 employees, doing very labor-intensive work.

"What they do is plant mulberry trees," Harris explained. "Then they feed the worms from the trees. The silk they make is supposed to be tougher than Kevlar and would be used to make body armor."

Altieri added that the project the company is working on includes injecting a gene from spiders into the silk worms to make the strong silk, which would be half the weight of Kevlar.

"This is the kind of industry and small company that would make sense for us," he said. "These jobs do not require a high level of technical training."

Another company is looking at a 100,000-square-foot site, such as the AEDC's site, to locate a plastic company that would employ 25. Harris said she is working with the owner, Eric Pike, on several incentives and grants.

The AEDC will next meet at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 18, in the Chamber of Commerce office at 107-A E. Wade St., Wadesboro.