Jon Bowerbank visits the area

Martinsville Bulletin

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Democratic lieutenant governor hopeful Jon Bowerbank’s visit to Martinsville and Henry County on Wednesday was overshadowed by news that a local company will close this fall.

The Martinsville GSI Commerce site at Patrick Henry Mall will close at the end of September when the company consolidates four sites into three, officials said Tuesday. Nearly 300 jobs will be eliminated.

Although unfortunate, Bowerbank said the timing of his visit “could not have been better” because the closing illustrates the need for a jobs plan such as his.

It also “emphasizes the importance of these research and development facilities,” Bowerbank said Wednesday after a tour of Red Birch Energy, a biodiesel producing facility in Bassett Forks.

Gary Sink, president of Red Birch Energy, told Bowerbank his company has partnered with a Chesapeake-based company called Retriever in hopes of building a processing center to make canola oil for restaurants, then collect used cooking oil and use it to make feed stock.

There also are plans under way to convert glycerin, a by-product of the biodiesel production, into energy and re-sell it to an electric grid, Sink said.

Another option is branching out into the health field, and Sink said federal funds are available for the project in which the state selects an area and designates it as a research center.

For five years, only canola oil could be used in cooking among a test group, Sink said. Participants would be monitored to determine if they had declines in conditions such as high cholesterol, obesity and diseases such as diabetes.

The Red Birch biodiesel facility mirrors undertakings outlined in a job creation plan Bowerbank unveiled Monday.

The 28-page document focuses on transforming the economy by encouraging the development of alternative energy industries such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, biofuels and others.

Based on his experience, Bowerbank said the new economy will be driven by a public/private partnership.

“From my perspective, it will take folks who have a business mentality getting involved with politics” to get the ball rolling, Bowerbank said.

“I first came to Virginia in the early ’90s” with the assignment to develop and expand the alternative energy industry and particularly natural gas in the Appalachian region, Bowerbank said in his plan.

He then decided to start his own business — an energy infrastructure company, Bowerbank said, adding he quit his job, mortgaged his home and cashed in his 401(k).

“We started from zero” employees, and that increased to about 220 people, mainly in the southwestern portion of the state, Bowerbank said. “Economic development is what I’ve done in southwest Virginia.”

To jump-start the economy, he favors rebuilding infrastructure, especially in Southside, he said.

Bowerbank also supports an incentive program that would encourage the use of Virginia companies/contractors for that rebuilding, “especially in areas where unemployment is acute,” Bowerbank said.

While the short term is bleak, Bowerbank said the future holds promise.

The Henry County-Martinsville area “obviously has got labor, a ready work force,” Bowerbank said. He said he believes the area would be ideal for manufacturing facilities to retool vacant warehouse space and make products for use in the manufacturing process for renewable/alternative energy sources.

Bowerbank, who lives in Russell County, is an at-large member of that county’s board of supervisors.

Jody Wagner and Mike Signer, both Democrats, also hope to win the party’s nomination in the June 9 primary.