Market voices: County managers
John Crumpton County Manager Lee County
We have become a life science hub with Pfizer growing here. When they bought Bamboo Therapeutics three years ago and moved into the gene therapy business via a $160 million investment followed by another $600 million, it put us on the map for gene therapy. We have two other life science companies now, Audentes Therapeutics and Abzena Holdings. There are significant numbers of life science companies in Research Triangle Park and we’re starting to get a spillover here. Several other life science companies have asked for development proposals. That’s a good business to be in, especially with our proximity to three major universities: Duke, NC State and UNC Chapel Hill. In addition, Campbell University is just down the road from us. Along with our Community College presence we have the resources here to help grow these workforce sectors.
The Board of Commissioners is focused on and committed to planning for the future. The Board recently initiated a year-long update to our comprehensive land use plan. This will likely be the most important task of the year, as future land use decisions will be guided by this document. Johnston County will continue to grow and it is our responsibility to prepare for the many infrastructure needs, such as drinking water and wastewater treatment. The North Carolina Department of Transportation has many exciting projects slated in our county. There will soon be three designated interstate highways in Johnston County. Also, the county works closely with Johnston County Public Schools and Johnston Community College to assist with their capital improvement needs. We also work closely with the 11 towns as well as our regional partners. I must add that we are very proud of the large and diversified agricultural presence here. The overall annual economic impact of agriculture in Johnston County is hundreds of millions of dollars.
Dan LaMontagne County Manager Chatham County
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Rick Hester
County Manager Johnston County
We see the economy here as just booming. COVID really did not impact us as much as it did other places. We’ve been very fortunate. Our developers continue to expand. In fact, development really started kicking in as COVID emerged. We’ve been planning for this development for years, and when COVID hit, it didn’t slow anything down. Coming out of the pandemic, one can only imagine how much faster it will grow. Part of our budget this year is planning for a lot of that growth and adding a lot of staff. We are expecting for it to really take off. They can’t build houses fast enough here. Preparing for that — installing utilities and infrastructure — has been part of the effort to handle that influx.
| Invest: Raleigh-Durham 2021 | ECONOMY
