Toria Brown was born and raised in the Brownsburg area of Rockbridge County. She and her husband and children operate a beef cattle farm in the county, and she has a bachelor’s degree in business administration as well as “many years [of] experience as a business owner and entrepreneur” to bring to the table as a candidate for the Walkers Creek District seat on the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors. She told The News-Gazette that running for the Board of Supervisors is something that she “always wanted to do at some point,” but that she “always thought of running in terms of the future until this past year.”
“I want to see our county maintain its core values and natural beauty while also evolving with the times,” she said. “I want this county to be a place that I can retire, sure, but I primarily want it to be a place where my children and grandchildren can thrive professionally and personally. To me, that means a community where livable job opportunities are present and the barriers to start or expand a business are small.”
Brown sees the roles of economic development and zoning regulation not as opposing forces, but as a “symbiotic system” that works for “the same team: the residents of Rockbridge County.”
“The job of economic development is to grow the tax and job base of the county by means of recruiting business to our area and/or encouraging the growth of homegrown businesses [by] using the economic development plan as the guideline for what type of businesses should be targeted,” she said. “Zoning regulation keeps an even playing field for how different development is structured in the county so we can grow with thought and long-term planning. Both of these function to service the community’s needs. As such, they need to be working together to promote the growth the county residents need and want.”
While Brown does have some thoughts about how to address staffing and volunteer shortages in the county’s emergency services, she says her first step toward solving the problem would be to go to the source.
“I’m not a boots on the ground EMS provider,” she said. “To really dive into the core of this, round table discussions with the EMS providers running calls every day is how you figure out how to meet their needs and grow their volunteer base. It’s not my place to push a plan of attack without thorough input from the departments in my district.”
In regards to the long-term solid waste plan, Brown says she doesn’t have an issue with manned sites in principle, but she does have concern over “the order [in which] the manned sites are being instituted.”
“The new sites need to be up and in full function prior to taking away unmanned dumpsters,” she said. “If you want residents using manned sites then get out there and get them up and running. Trash disposal needs to be convenient and easy or people will not dispose of their trash in the proper places. As manned sites are relatively new for our community I’m sure we will need to amend things as we go after hearing community feedback.”
Brown noted that the town of Goshen has “a lot of good things going,” and pointed to the 611 train excursions as “a great example of creating something amazing using what you have available.”
“This is a prime example of home-grown economic development that I would love to see more of,” she said. “The town isn’t slowing down with the train, they are out here getting grants and have plans for new parks … As a supervisor it would be my job to help pave the way for what the residents of Goshen need and want, to facilitate the practical implementation of their plans.”
Localized economic development is something Brown would like to utilize throughout the county.
“Economic development doesn’t have to be flashy to be functional and successful,” she said. “I would like to see a push for homegrown economic development [by asking] how can we help our existing business grow and expand [and] how can we facilitate the folks with really sound ideas get them implemented?
“I also think we can preserve our agriculture, our natural landscape and still grow and evolve,” she added. “We don’t need shoot for the stars economic development that sounds fancy. We need economic development with a sound long term plan that is to the benefit of the collective community.”
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