Market voices: County managers John Crumpton, County Manager, Lee County Rick Hester, County Manager, Johnston County Dan LaMontagne, County Manager, Chatham County

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.

Rick Hester

County Manager Johnston County

Dan LaMontagne

County Manager Chatham 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.

Ryan Combs

Executive Director – Research Triangle Regional Partnership (RTRP)

From an ecosystem standpoint, we already have strong engineering schools at both NC State and Duke. We do think that is going to amplify what they are doing there. Our community college system is also one of the greatest assets in the region. The customized workforce training programs that we put together for companies is second to none. These developments are going to speed up and lead to more tech-based programs from our community colleges to train the next generation of workers. IBM was the first company to move to the Research Triangle Park when it opened in the 1960s. Now, we’re home to companies like Bandwidth, Pendo, Red Hat and SAS. We have some great homegrown companies, but, now, we are seeing all these companies from places like New York and California taking a serious look because of our workforce development programs with our community colleges and the strong talent coming out of the universities.

The Triangle area has a vibrant nightlife scene that revolves around big concerts, energetic night clubs, intimate music venues and modest wine bars. ( ) Given that the hardest-hit sectors during the pandemic have been mainly in small or medium businesses and in the hospitality and leisure sectors, all eyes have been on the government to evaluate what kind of support will be available going forward.

One of the measures put in place both to address the employment gap and to supply businesses with the human talent they critically need is the establishment of Partnership Raleigh. The goal of the initiative is to employ young adults between 17 and 21, providing experience in the working environment, training and life skills. The recommended candidates from the program meet a strict set of criteria, including having worked in the Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program for two full summers and having completed development training.

The region also offers a host of organizations and resources that can help small businesses recover and thrive, including the Carolinas Small Business Development Fund, Council for Entrepreneurial Development and the Women’s Business Center of NC. NCIdea is an organization that provides grants and training programs to small businesses and entrepreneurs to help them develop their businesses.

Looking ahead With the continuing influx of population from all ( )