Category: Local

A follow-up to my previous post:

Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 31, 2001:

Although Caroline County hasn’t calculated the economic impact the jamboree has on the region, officials say the quadrennial gathering is one of the most significant economic events in the area. On state Route 207 leading from Interstate 95 to Bowling Green, gas stations, restaurants and local businesses prominently display signs welcoming Scouts and visitors to the area – and their business.

The jamboree business boom appears to be good, said Gary Wilson, Caroline’s director of economic development.

“So far, all the information has to be anecdotal, but we could probably use another hotel or two,” Wilson said. “All of our hotels are booked.”

In Fredericksburg, local hotels have been booked for two weeks before and two weeks after the jamboree, apparently from visitors who came early or will linger, particularly to see the Civil War battlefields in the area, said Kathy Beard, director of economic development and tourism in Fredericksburg.

In downtown Fredericksburg, streets are more congested than usual with visitors flocking to visit the antiques shops, cafes and boutiques that line Caroline Street, Beard said.

“The level of this spike does not occur until the Boy Scouts return,” she said. “No other event brings the kind of impact this project does.”

At Main Street Cafe in Bowling Green, owner Maxine Miller has employed family and friends to help her serve the extra customers, and her mother has been working overtime to bake the cafe’s signature homemade pies.

“We’re very pleased,” Miller said. “We love this. We had the Boy Scouts of America band come in the other day. . . . I don’t know what kind of food they have over there, but they ate good. They really enjoyed themselves with the milkshakes.”

At Roma’s, the Amatos hired seven extra workers for the week, rented the building next door to accommodate overflow crowds and added tables to the restaurant. After doubling their food inventory, they found out it still wasn’t enough.

“We can’t keep enough lettuce in the house to make salads,” Josephine Amato said.

But a group of about 20 jamboree youth staff chowing down on mushroom and pepperoni pizzas in the middle of the restaurant didn’t seem to notice. They were just happy to get food away from camp.

“Lunch has been sandwiches all week. Breakfast has gotten to the point where we really don’t get up for it anymore. This is great. And he’s paying the bill,” said Steven Anderson, 19, of Wichita, Kan., as his leader pulled out his wallet.

I threw in the stuff from Kathy Beard just because of the irony of the fact that she now works for Gary Wilson as Tourism Manager or whatever.

Here’s what Gary Wilson had to say about the National Boy Scout Jamboree leaving Caroline County in today’s edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Meanwhile, Caroline County Economic Development Director Gary Wilson said yesterday that the county wasn’t particularly stung by the loss, because the jamboree was self-contained and didn’t add that much to the local economy.

[…]

The jamborees routinely attract 30,000 to 40,000 Boy Scouts and their leaders, along with hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Despite those numbers, Wilson said the jamborees typically have not left a massive economic footprint on the locality, primarily because the participants tend to arrive in buses, go directly to the military post and stay there.

“We did a study after the last jamboree that indicated the actual increase in sales for a two or three-week period every year was about $815,000,” Wilson said. “Caroline County is not particularly feeling any sting from the loss of the Boy Scouts, frankly. A.P. Hill is hermetically sealed, practically, and we just didn’t get very much out of it.”

First, it’s absolutely amazing that the Economic Development Director considers $815,000 to be chump change. Especially as the county is forcing the Sheriff’s Office to give unpaid furloughs to sheriff’s deputies due to budget cuts.

And here’s what Gary Wilson had to say about the National Boy Scout Jamboree after the ACLU successfully sued the Department of Defense on the grounds that the DOD couldn’t constitutionally provide support to the Boy Scouts of America and thus the jamboree couldn’t be held at Fort A.P. Hill (the case has since been successfully appealed and the Boy Scouts could legally hold the jamboree there):

Losing the jamboree would be a serious blow for Caroline, which gets about $1 million in revenue during the event, said Gary Wilson, the county’s economic development director. Events such as model train shows and book fairs are timed to coincide with the jamboree, and local businesses print up promotional material to hand out to Scouts’ families.

Residents work at the event and sell the Scouts raw materials, and guests fill hotels and restaurants.

“Our hotels are booked four years in advance,” Wilson said.

That’s from the July 17, 2005 edition of The Washington Post.

From the May 23, 2004 edition of The Free Lance–Star:

Caroline County, a popular stopover for people visiting Paramount’s Kings Dominion, isn’t expecting a significant increase in visitation this summer. But the numbers should climb next year, said Gary Wilson, the county’s economic development director.

[…]

“We’ll also have the 2005 Boy Scout Jamboree,” Wilson said. “That’s always a plus.”

And then there’s this story from WFLS from September 10, 2003:

Having your name on a Boy Scout logo…Priceless.

Soon Boy Scouts everywhere will be recognizing Caroline County.

The organization is changing its international jamboree logo to include a prominent reference to the county. Economic Development Director, Gary Wilson, says by the year 2005, just in time for the next event, every item related to the Boy Scout Jamboree will say Caroline County, Virginia.

Wilson says this is a thank you from the Boy Scout organization

The recognition is expected to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of free marketing for the county.

And going way back to the October 15, 2001 edition of The Free Lance–Star:

Caroline County made more than $1.25 million in food and hotel-room sales during last summer’s National Scout Jamboree, a new report shows.

The total regional economic impact of the jamboree was expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars, officials from Fort A.P. Hill, which hosts the event, said earlier this summer.

[…]

Caroline’s gross food sales this July were nearly $1.16 million more than for the same month last year, when no jamboree was held, according to the report.

County hotels earned about $128,000 more than last year.

The report also said that gasoline sales were far above typical for July, and that many local contractors and suppliers of building materials were used to prepare A.P. Hill for the jamboree. Exact figures for these two sectors were not available for the report, Wilson said.

I wonder how much sales and gasoline taxes the country is going to lose from buses that used to stop at Carmel Church (Richmond Times-Dispatch):

The Boy Scouts of America may be doing a good deed for Virginia and West Virginia.

The organization announced yesterday it has settled on Goshen, Va., as the permanent home for its national jamboree. The community is in Rockbridge County near the George Washington National Forest.

[…]

Scout officials told the Charleston Daily Mail the decisions come after an 18-month review of possible locations to create a national scouting center. The center would focus on creating a permanent home for the jamboree, establishing a new high-adventure base and creating new training opportunities.

Now, can someone explain to me why the county is paying $200,000+ to the Economic Development Office for Gary Wilson’s expert leadership? Can someone show me a single thing he has done to get any economic development in the county?