Waynesboro needs to lead

News Virginian
Published: June 20, 2007

When 44 business and civic leaders from around the state descend on the Shenandoah Valley later this week as part of the Lead Virginia program, they will have dinner at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton.

They will tour downtown Lexington, its two universities and the Virginia Horse Center.

They will hear from economic development officials from Staunton and Winchester.

They will visit a business in Bridgewater.

They will tour Bridgewater College and James Madison University.

They will have dinner at a Mennonite home in Dayton.

They will visit Blue Ridge Community College to hear from top educators from Harrisonburg and JMU.

It's a jam-packed 44-hour agenda that will give the visitors a good overview of the issues and opportunities in the Valley.

But one location is not represented: Waynesboro.

Waynesboro is as big as Staunton (bigger in terms of retail sales now) and bigger than Lexington and Bridgewater. The failure to include Waynesboro in the visit this week should not be blamed on Lead Virginia organizers. They have a lot to pack into a short period of time.

Rather, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

The failure to include Waynesboro should tell us that we don't have anything to show these business leaders that will be worth their time. It should tell us that we have not done an effective job in marketing this community to the rest of the state. It should tell us that Staunton and Lexington are ahead of us on the list of must-see destinations.

And it should worry us because these are business leaders who make relocation and investment decisions, and when they think about the Valley, they won't be thinking about Waynesboro.

We don't want to reopen wounds, but that is why we supported the city's investment in projects such as the Wayne Theatre renovation. Thanks to that project and the additional investment it should spur downtown, perhaps when Lead Virginia returns to the Valley in five years or so, we'll have something to show off.

And we won't be bypassed again.