Photo by Catherine Hardee / Neuse News

Lenoir County business, education and government leaders gathered at Lenoir Community College last week to get an outside perspective on the economic future of the county.

Keely Koonce, Lenoir County Economic Development Interim Director, organized the seminar, which brought in economic strategists from Sanford-based Hayes Group Consulting to provide insight into the pluses and minuses of Lenoir County’s economic situation.

Charles Hayes and Dan Parks of Hayes Group used the morning session to help those present identify some of the main areas that is holding back economic growth in the county. Those issues included the available workforce, the crime rate and a lack of strategic planning.

They also discussed strengths, such as the Global TransPark and a strong manufacturing sector, the county can build on moving forward.

Participants in the morning-long session included county commissioners Linda Rouse Sutton and J. Mac Daughety, Kinston city council member Joe Tyson, Richy Huneycutt and Reid Taylor with LCC, John Marston with the Lenoir County Committee of 100, Harold Thomas and Jim McClain with Lenoir County Economic Development, Dan Sale of Sale Auto Mall, Ely Perry with Perry Management, Jess Edwards with Kinston Realty Group, Amanda Conner with the Global TransPark, Dean Baker with the Kinston Country Club, Skip Greene with Group III Management and Rose Mary Jones with Crown Equipment.

Sutton said for her, the session emphasized the county’s need for a strategic economic development plan, something that has been in talks for while. She said the lack of a county manager has hampered the creation of a plan, but she hopes once the new county manager gets settled in it will be first up.

“That’s one of the first things we will do, is sit down and create that strategic plan,” Sutton said.

Taylor, the director of industry training for LCC, said the insights from the Hayes Group gave him a different perspective on the county’s economic outlook. Taylor believes LCC will have an important role in the development of any strategic plans going forward.

“It’s important that we develop relationships with the economic entities in the area of Jones, Greene and Lenoir counties so that we can better serve our populations,” he said.

Koonce said she was pleased with the turnout, and believes the seminar will be the start of bigger things in Lenoir County.

“To have the players that we did around the table today, in this conversation with these consultants, I think will give us a better understanding of how to move forward with economic development in Lenoir County and have it continue to be successful. It got some conversations started that needed to happen,” she said.