History reveals economic stimulus hints

Nelson Graves
Published: November 19, 2008

Considering what’s going on elsewhere in America, it is just a matter of time before the Valley is affected. During these tough economic times if the gambling and automotive industries had been allowed to locate here, the area’s economic outlook would be a lot brighter.

For years I’ve urged that the DeJarnette facility at the juncture of Interstates 64 and 81 and the Staunton Correction Center, formerly the Western State Hospital, be converted into gambling casinos.

Even if local residents, the Staunton City Council and the Augusta County Board of Supervisors had given their approval, The Virginia General Assembly wouldn’t have. So my discussion at this point is really rhetorical.

When I first made the proposal, Staunton’s residents and government leaders preferred selling the Western State site to a developer to turn the vast property into an upscale housing development. That’s what was preferred and it has begun happening.

Meanwhile, at about the same time, the DeJarnette center sat there falling further into disrepair, steadily overcome by weeds. I again made the same suggestion about it – turn DeJarnette’s into a casino. Needless to say it’s still languishing, though there have been hints of it being used.

Though many people shook their heads in wonderment (and that’s putting it mildly) at my ideas, money was my motive. Most folks – elected representatives and residents – preferred keeping our region aesthetically pure. They like the Valley as it is – quiet, easy-going and with open, green rolling hills.

No way would Staunton or Augusta County residents and officials allow vice and sin and manufacturing to dirty this part of the Valley — regardless of the jobs and taxes gained. It was their preference that real estate tax dollars and profits from the area’s growing tourist trade and housing pay for increased services provided by the respective municipalities.

The same myopia applied to opposition to Augusta County supervisors’ plans to bring a Toyota plant to Weyers Cave.

Residents, many of them farmers and land owners near the proposed factory site, let it be known that they opposed the project.

Others, especially those with children and young recent high school graduates favored having a major corporation here. They visualized the jobs and better lifestyle — both of which would have helped keep young people here.

Recently, representatives of the gaming industry said that gambling profits nationwide are down. And, as I’m sure most viewers of television and readers of newspapers have noticed, even Toyota is offering “zero” interest on its new cars and trucks.

After the 9/11 attacks, when the Big Three carmakers began offering zero-interest vehicle loans, Toyota and other foreign auto manufacturers didn’t. Now automakers and the gambling industries are being hit by the economic downturn.

If casinos were allowed in Virginia and if Toyota had located plant here, they, too, would be feeling a pinch. But remember this: after 9/11, the auto industry led America’s economic recovery and after Hurricane Katrina’s destruction along the Gulf Coast, the gambling industry led that region’s recovery.

Nelson Graves, Western Virginia director of the Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council, writes a weekly column for The News Virginian. E-mail him at .