Dickenson County present as Amazon tours region; 'Better together,' says administrator

ST. PAUL — Gov. Ralph Northam and more than 30 local officials hosted executives from Amazon for a visit to the region Monday.

The governor hosted a roundtable discussion at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise’s Oxbow Center that included legislators, educators and community leaders from Southwest Virginia. Dickenson County Administrator David Moore and county Industrial Development Authority Executive Director Mitzi Sykes were among those at the day’s forum representing Dickenson County.

Amazon recently announced it has chosen Arlington, in Northern Virginia, as the site for the company’s second headquarters.

There was no direct talk Monday of Amazon opening any facility in Southwest Virginia. But since Amazon is establishing a presence in the state, the company wants to get familiar with the workforce.

Southwest Virginia “needs to work together on this one and many other opportunities,” Moore said later. Monday’s tour was organized by the governor’s office and part of an effort to take Amazon officials to see all 95 counties in Virginia.

Moore said the roundtable focused on education, local talent, creating jobs to keep local talent and infrastructure, such as broadband expansion.

“SWVA is only going to get it right if we learn and apply the Better Together strategy,” Moore said later. “One thing this job has taught me is that there is far too much I, me, my, mine and not enough us. Time will tell.”

Among those in attendance were UVa-Wise Chancellor Donna Henry, state Sen. Ben Chafin, state Del. Terry Kilgore, Wise County Administrator Mike Hatfield, Mountain Empire Community College President Kris Westover and St. Paul Mayor Kyle Fletcher.

“The challenge in Northern Virginia is that companies are literally competing for talent,” said Northam. “If you go to the Eastern Shore where I’m from or here in Southwest Virginia, we have talented people that are competing for jobs.”

Northam stated that the lack of jobs in this region is something that needs to be focused on.

One of the main topics of the discussion was the outward migration of young professionals from the region and the need for jobs. According to Donna Henry and a survey conducted by UVa-Wise, 80 percent of alumni with technology degrees who have left the area said that they would come back if there was employment available.

Wendy Marquez, chief executive officer of Wize Solutions, an IT company located in Abingdon, stated that young people have told them they are forced to leave because there are no opportunities.

Dario Marquez, Wendy’s husband and business partner, stated that a major issue is that many local companies want a recent college graduate to have at least three years of experience.

“Young people have to leave to get experience,” he stated.

Another discussion involved broadband access. The governor boasted about the amount of talented and educated people found in the region, but lack of broadband access keeps some people from seeking higher education and also keeps business from coming to the area.

Ardine Williams, who is in charge of Amazon’s workforce development at the Arlington headquarters, was asked what would make Southwest Virginia appealing to the company.

“This is a listening tour for me,” said Williams. “I’m not part of the economic development team. My focus is really around understanding the working force in this state, and we look at the pieces that are here.”

She continued: “You’ve got great collaborations across city and county lines, that from pre-K all the way through college there is early exposure to STEM because it’s no longer ‘STEM or’ it’s ‘STEM and.’ We are HR folks. We expect them to understand data structures and algorithms because they are working in an environment that requires them. Those are the kind of things we look for.”

Before the St. Paul stop, Amazon officials toured sites in Bristol. After the St. Paul event, they were to join Northam for a visit to a nearby Spearhead Trails recreation site.