The Harvest Foundation deserves accolades for its advocacy of elevating the New College Institute to a branch status of a major Virginia university. While that outcome has been delayed, the effort of NCI and Harvest leadership was commendable.

Now, with new medical schools planned and funded by the Tobacco Commission to our east in Lynchburg and to the west in Bristol; with Carilion / VT currently operating medical schools to our north in Roanoke, the time has come for Harvest to reprioritize. The Taxpayer Association of Martinsville and Henry County believes that fresh priority needs to be dedicated to the recruitment of industries.

The pipeline of diplomas and degrees is primed. Life’s full journey includes education and a job. Earning a degree is half the race. We need to bring industries and jobs here to cross the finish line. Without a job, education is nothing more than wall decoration; a saddle without a horse. A case can be made that an urgency now exists in the priority recruitment of jobs.

Jobs can lift all boats and they are measureable. Paychecks from jobs create demand for retail businesses. Jobs sow seeds for additional education and training. A job brings access to health insurance. A job can give that recovering drug patient a way to lift himself up. A job can help transition that overweight, unemployed citizen into an active schedule instead of depending on a subsidized program to work off the pounds. A job brings stability to the family household. A job strengthens the self concept in ways than a counseling session for depression cannot.

Having a job leads to a more productive lifestyle, responsible citizenship and long term stability. Putting people back to work is the pathway to prosperity. Prosperity floats all boats.

We believe that Harvest needs to take a more aggressive approach with the MHC Economic Development Corporation to bring jobs here. If that means moving an established company with proven past performance, then use the funds to do so. If that means going big and thinking outside the proverbial box, then Harvest should prime the pump to recruit reliable industries which can bring long term jobs to the area.

Harvest has the funds. It is all about jobs and paychecks first. It always has been. We need to be moving forward recruiting jobs. We must sail, and not drift, to that end. This community needs private sector jobs and we need them now.

Let us not forget the lessons of our generation’s greatest inventor, the late Steve Jobs. For the Apple genius, it was all about iPhone, iPod and iPad. We need to adopt his protocol; to think differently. We place our full faith in Harvest to do just that. For Martinsville and Henry County, it is all about iWork.

Ural Harris, Rick Horton, Randy Scott
Executive Council