Hank Dewald | For rrspin.com
Shortly after national news agencies issued more dire economic projections, many Roanoke Valley officials and business people gathered for lunch at the Kirkwood Adams Community Center in Roanoke Rapids.
They were there for the annual Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce State of the Community luncheon and the overall mood of the large group was surprisingly upbeat.
Chamber CEO Allen Purser even donned his Ducky Derby hat while introducing the invited guest speakers as forks and glasses were still clinking throughout the large hall.
Purser pointed out some of the area politicians, school and business leaders and several others before reporting, as he did at the same meeting last year, that Halifax County Tourism has grown again by 5 percent.
The guest speakers for the luncheon were, in order of appearance, Will Mahone, CEO of the Halifax Regional Medical Center, Halifax County Board of Commissioners Chairman James Pierce, Roanoke Rapids Mayor Emery Doughtie, and Pattie Cotton, chairperson of the Weldon City Schools Board. Anitra Collins, vice president of mill operations at KapStone Paper Company in Roanoke Rapids, is the current chairperson of the Chamber Board and her closing remarks were presented on a large projector screen behind the speaker’s podium.
HRMC
Mahone was the first to give his remarks concerning the state of the community and he sees how the healthcare issue affects the Roanoke Valley.
Mahone said he is constantly asked how the healthcare reform issue is going to affect HRMC. “The answer is we don’t know,” Mahone said. “At this point all we can do is be a little reactive.”
He said the issue is not so much healthcare delivery reform as it is healthcare insurance reform. Citing some statistics, Mahone said despite having the highest cost per patient in the world, the U.S. ranks only 36 in the world healthcare delivery.
Mahone quoted NC Hospital Association President William Pulley, saying, “We have the world’s best ‘sickcare system.’ If you want to be healthy, go to another country.”
After Mahone’s list of dire statistics, he moved to a more upbeat message saying, “We’re optimistic though and we’re going to work together in ways that we’ve never done before. We’ve had meetings just in the last month, with health departments, world health groups and providers in the local community and we’re going to find ways to measure health and measure the quality of care; and improving them in a way that you’ll see when you go to a doctor’s office.”
Pierce
Pierce, who opened with a joke, followed with a litany of problems the Halifax County Board of Commissioners has had to deal with in the past two years, especially the Department of Social Services, but also in delivering the basic county services on a day-to-day basis.
Following a trend the speakers would use, Pierce ended on an upbeat note.Pierce sited the new Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport and ongoing upgrades to county infrastructure that will allow future growth and jobs. As Purser had stated earlier, Pierce again pointed out that of the eastern counties, only Halifax had shown growth in tourism.
Doughtie
Doughtie took the podium next and delivered the same basic message Pierce did, with just a few new wrinkles. “As I speak to you as the mayor of Roanoke Rapids, I believe the citizens of our community are better off than twelve months ago.”
He discussed the city’s current $15 Million budget saying, “This was a budget not of wishes and dreams, but a budget that was carefully adopted; a plan that called for no new taxes on you property.”
He listed many grants that have been sought out to help keep different departments running and improving services at little expense to the city, but the wishes and dreams comment came up again as he closed discussing the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.
Doughtie said the $23 Million theater debt is the result of a vision of previous leaders. “The vision did not go as planned. That is all in our past. We cannot dwell on it; there’s nothing we can do about it.”
He said it is up to current leaders to take the hand they’ve been dealt and to make the most of it. He said once the theater is under control, there will be an aggressive and immediate plan to, “Breathe new life onto the stage of that venue.”
Doughtie said when that happens the area around the theater, the now stagnant Carolina Crossroads project, will be developed and the theater will be sold.
Cotton
Cotton followed Doughtie with a speech about her views on the current state of education in the county and in particular, the small Weldon City Schools District that is part of the three separate systems still operating in Halifax County.
As all the speakers before her, Cotton pointed out the many challenges facing all educational systems in these hard economic times, but she took an approach similar to a cheerleader, urging the audience to participate in exercises she has the Weldon City Schools Board use in their monthly meetings.
Finale
Finally, Purser cued a prerecorded video Collins had made. Collins broke away from the bad news-good news format and in a very upbeat tone, told the audience about all the good things the chamber has accomplished in the past year.
She touched on educational and governmental programs the chamber brought out during the past year, but moved on to important issues facing the chamber now.
In particular, she mentioned plans currently on the table to make Interstate 95 a toll road, about which she gave the impression the R.V. Chamber Board, was against and working hard to prevent.
Collins’ closing statement was an upbeat one and probably sent everyone on their way feeling just a little better than when they listened to the national news earlier that morning.
She said, “No one is going to make our community better or work any harder to make positive changes in our community than those of us in this room. There is no knight in shining armor that is going to come and save the day for us. We all have to continue to work together and collectively share our ideas to make our community stronger each day.”
