Recapping Tuesday’s governor and cabinet visit…

Whew. It took 2 days to totally complete all the additions to our LIVE! coverage, but it was worth it. SouthsideCentral brought you everything we could about Tuesday’s events and we really appreciate the kind words about our coverage. You’ve now got the most photos of any local media and you saw them first during our LIVE! coverage. Let’s recap what happened on Tuesday…

First thing, let’s get a list of links to our LIVE! coverage articles that now have lots of photos added to them. Big Board #1, please.

• “State of the Region” Address – LIVE!
• Governor’s Cabinet Meeting – LIVE!
• Governor’s Economic Development Roundtable – LIVE!
• River District Tour – LIVE!
• Secretary of the Commonwealth Meeting – LIVE!

Whew. That list makes me tired all over again. Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll do a Big Board on each of these events, recapping what happened and offering some thoughts & observations. Let’s get it started.

“State of the Region” Address – LIVE!

• This may be the 400th time I’ve said it, and I’ll say it many times again. The Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce can not do anything wrong. Laurie Moran, Lynnette Lawson, Kate Farmer and Donna Ashworth are a well-oiled machine when it comes to getting the job done.
• Speaking of “can’t do things wrong”. The Institute sure knows how to set up and host a big event as well. Leslie Dobbins and Michael Duncan were quality checking every last detail up until the last minute.
• Danville City Council members seem to have been assigned to accompany most of the cabinet members. Eight councilmen were there, with Buddy Rawley getting an excused absence because he was in Finland. James Snead, Jerry Hagerman, Brenda Bowman and Jessie Barksdale were there from the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors.
• Jessie Barksdale, chairman of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, “Gets It”. He’s a great asset to the county. He knows what to say and how to say it.
• Sherman Saunders also had a good non-controversial speech.
• Both leaders’ speeches focused on workforce development, which just so happened to be the main push of the governor. Convenient. I wonder what the speeches would have been like on any other day.
• You could easily tell that they were stalling for time when the Governor finally arrived. He was supposed to just be at the Goodyear gate for the shift change but ended up taking a quick tour of the plant.
• McAuliffe made it clear that the worst was yet to come to Virginia because more federal government cutbacks were on the way.

Governor’s Cabinet Meeting – LIVE!

• In between the “State of the Region” event and the cabinet meeting, the governor stopped by the orientation and welcoming meeting for new Danville Public Schools teachers. Talk about a surprise. We’ll have bonus coverage of that meeting soon.
• The cabinet meeting was ready to go as soon as the governor got there. I wasn’t sure what to expect and it turned out to be presentations from local leaders on their efforts.
• I was very impressed by Steve Bridges (Southern Virginia Regional Alliance). I wished I could have stayed for New College Institute president William Wampler’s complete presentation, but I had to set up for the next event at RCATT.
• Most of the cabinet members kept their attention on the presenters but a few kept checking their phones. Shame.
• As I left for the RCATT meeting, I stopped by the atrium and went through the expo that Danville Public Schools had set up for the new teachers. Again, highly impressed with DPS and the local businesses that turned out. We still heart Juliet Jennings and Mona Whittle (haha)!

Governor’s Economic Development Roundtable – LIVE!

• If  many people don’t know what happens at the Institute, even fewer know what happens at RCATT. RCATT is a training facility that can adapt itself to whatever employees need. There’s plenty of space there to get the equipment needed to train workers for any industry needs.
• It ain’t easy to set up for a 40+ person roundtable, but they made it happen. They even had a sound system which was sorely needed since we were meeting in a giant industrial classroom that was an echo chamber.
• That being said, the moderator of the event talked so fast that I was unable to understand what he was saying 60% of time. Ugh.
• There was good representation of business and industry heads there. I was highly impressed that a large Halifax County delegation was there, including Matt Leonard, Nancy Pool, Nettie Owens and Ed Owens.
• Julie Brown “Gets It”. This upcoming 7th and 9th grade career fair at the Old Dominion Agriculture Complex is a huge undertaking and a new concept in getting school kids looking forward to entering the labor market.
• Although nobody said it directly, I believe that the “college isn’t for everybody” is finally taking hold. The mindset seemed like some degree of post-secondary training is almost required now, but vocational and specific labor skills education is an equal substitution for 2 of 4 years in a college.
• DCC President Bruce Scism also highly impressed me. You’d never know that he was relatively new in that position by his words and knowledge.
• Andrea Burney and her DCC media relations team made things run super smoothly. Yes, we heart Andrea Burney too.

River District Tour – LIVE!

• Now this was fun. It started out not fun as it was closed to the press. Boo. We like to eat too, you know.
• The governor’s security people are awesome. They know how to smile while doing their job amazingly.
• Transportation Director Marc Adelman was the driver for the trolley. Man, can he whip that thing around the streets perfectly!
• Corrie Teague was an awesome tour guide. She even answered any questions I threw at her without having to think about them.
• When we did a pitstop on the Danville Transit Center, you could tell the pride in Marc Adelman’s voice when he talked about the building and how well that it’s worked.
• Governor McAuliffe wasn’t just there for the tour ride, he was actively looking around, noticing things and asking about them. Again, Corrie Teague was right there with any answers.
• At the Main Street Coffee Emporium pitstop when we all got out, Terry McAuliffe went into his “work the crowd” mode. It was fun to watch him actively engage the customers and employees and talk to them. Love him or hate him, he’s got that skill.
• When he learned about Rippe’s, he said “Hey! Let’s go there!”. It was quite fun to watch his security detail immediately change directions and do the advance work needed.
• The clock ran out on the governor there and he had to go. He took the time for a few more press questions and then he was gone. We kept the tour going without him and enjoyed it.
• The new fire/dispatch center is really taking shape and is huge.
• Finally, there’s a lot of people who live downtown now.

Secretary of the Commonwealth Meeting – LIVE!

• Jake’s on Main is nice, but I didn’t know that they weren’t open for lunch.
• Steven Gould could host any event perfectly.
• No other “local media” coverage of this event. Hmph.
• Levar Stoney is an entertaining and outgoing person.
• Less than 5% of the public knows what the Secretary of the Commonwealth actually does.
• Although the majority of people in the audience were young, boards and commissions are for all ages.
• Stoney did an excellent job with his presentation.
• Finally, Jake’s on Main’s food is good. Very good!

And there we go. Our complete recap and thoughts on Tuesday’s activities… and the best coverage of any of these events around.

More coming up on SouthsideCentral!