Campbell County tourism effort gains support

By Sarah Watson

Published: November 17, 2008

RUSTBURG — Campbell County supervisors unanimously threw their support behind a regional fishing tourism proposal Monday.

The project would create a regional fishing trail similar to other tourism efforts in the state that lump related attractions together in marketing material, said Campbell County economic director Mike Davidson.

Supervisors agreed that Davidson could use $500 out of the economic development budget for Campbell County’s portion of the project. Each locality involved will give $500 to the project, which will be pooled to create the first round of materials to market the trail to private businesses and get them on board, Davidson said.

The trail would be similar to other marketing programs, such as the Civil War trail that highlights various sites significant to the war, the Crooked Road trail that highlights Virginia’s music heritage and the Virginia Birding and Wildlife trail that highlights some of the best viewing spots in the state, Davidson said.

The fishing trail would be broken down by type of waterway and by fish species because many fishermen have specific interests, Davidson said. “Some folks only want to fish in lakes, some folks only want to fish in rivers and streams.”

In other news:

- County Administrator David Laurrell told the board to prepare for a state revenue cut of at least $2.5 million next year. Laurrell said the county already has begun preliminary budget processes and has asked departments to prepare next year’s budget with at least a 5 percent decrease.

While the full amounts won’t be known for some time, Laurrell said the best estimate is school revenue will be cut by $2 million and the county budget by $500,000.

Laurrell said he believes that there will be a state reduction in money for this budget year, with more significant reductions in the next two years.

However, Laurrell said, the county has been preparing for an economic downturn for years.

“All the years we’ve talked about ‘let’s put some money in the undesignated fund reserve because we may need it,’” he said. “That day has arrived.”