THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Think of Virginia's Eastern Shore, and you think of farming, seafood and isolation. Each presents problems and promise for the 700 square miles of Accomack and Northampton counties.
The traditional bayside and seaside seafood industry is dwindling. Although the Shore grows 80 percent of the Virginia vegetable crop, agriculture employs fewer than 8 percent of the Shore's 44,000 residents. Two poultry processors are its largest employers.
A group of citizens looking to strengthen the Shore economy endorses greater diversity. Trouble is, much of what's on the wish list of the Eastern Shore Economic Development Advisory Council costs money - and the Eastern Shore is among Virginia's poorest areas.
Yet it is well-placed for thriving tourism. Indeed, some Shore towns have already gotten new life from new tourist business. And happily, appealing to tourists need not be terribly expensive.
Tourism is a ``clean'' industry, ideal for a peninsula with more than 100 quaint towns little affected by the cookie-mold progress of mainline areas. The Shore is within easy driving distance of millions of city dwellers, north and south, who would gladly trade their hectic, traffic-filled pace for the rocking-chair solace of the Shore.
Improved beach access, urged in the advisory council's report, would be an easy first step that could pay off handsomely. The report also advances a ``heritage trail'' in Accomac County, to complement Northampton's.
Regional efforts - perhaps buying into Norfolk's well-received ``Virginia Waterfront'' campaign or piggybacking promotional materials for Virginia and Maryland, the Shore's northern border - could be mutually beneficial to area localities. The sooner the area gets serious about tourism, the sooner money starts flowing into the area to finance other items on the wish list.
Among them is expanding and improving the Accomack County Airport, which adjoins an industrial park and a farmers market that opened last year. County supervisors need to work on that: The airport, close to a landfill, recently lost $1.3 million in improvement funds because county officials did not deal with safety concerns that the dump attracts sea gulls that threaten aircraft. The airport, on the heavy flight path from New York to Florida, will have to deal with that problem.
The Eastern Shore panel is one of 18 regional groups around the state that will present its vision for economic development - and an analysis of its area's strengths, weaknesses and potential for growth. From that compilation will come a statewide economic-development strategy, ``Opportunity Virginia.''
Like the Shore, every other area is sure to come up with projects requiring state funds. The state is best positioned to provide some help with infrastructure needs, but the Eastern Shore, along with all other areas, will have to generate economic growth on its own to make the improvements it needs.
Young Shore residents may continue to move ``across the Bay'' for employment outside of farming and the few Eastern Shore industries. But a vast number of people haven't experienced the joys of the Shore's unspoiled beaches, historic towns, caught-today seafood, down-home hospitality and awe-inspiring Chesapeake Bay sunsets. What potential! by CNB