Gary Walton

Putnam development creating 'good problems'

April 18, 2006

Gary Walton has all sorts of problems, he told Putnam Rotarians today. But most communities would kill to have the types of problems faced by the Director of the Putnam County Development Authority.

Businesses are moving in before the sites are fully prepared, for one thing. And there are more calls for space than there are sites available. The business park in Eleanor is full. Diamond Electric in the Eleanor park has undergone three expansions since locating there, and space for additional growth is at a premium.

The Lottery Commission had planned to move to the Hurricane business park, but the change was derailed by politics. However, the site will soon be home to a Wal-Mart Super Center.

The new store will bring a welcome boost to the Putnam tax base which is mostly residental and agricultural. The Lottery Commission, a state agency, would have paid no taxes.

The new Wal-Mart at Exit 34 will face the Hurricane Creek Road with an entrance roadway beside the Icon/Ghiz building.

Some of the residents in the area are refusing to sell additional acerage needed at the Hurricane business park. The terms are highly favorable to the sellers, Walton told Putnam Rotarians, but there is enough space already to move ahead with plans for construction. "Those not selling may soon be overlooking a Wal-Mart parking lot," said Walton.

Walton has been talking recently with reporters from the Baltimore Sun and from Buffalo, New York.

At a time when auto manufacturing production centers in the northeast are in rapid decline, how does Putnam continue to grow?

"It's location," said Walton. "We have a good location and a good workforce. But we need more flat land."

The interest of European and Japanese companies in West Virginia may signal the end of an era when the rest of this country viewed Appalachia in a negative light.

Development in many areas is assisted by special grants, Walton told the group. The low unemployment in Putnam and its healthy growth economy is a detriment in seeking such grants.

Others would like to have such problems!