Cobras are known for striking hard and fast, but the same kind of quickness has not accompanied a local economic-development project named for that snake which affects almost 100 jobs.
Project Cobra is a code name assigned to the endeavor to keep secret the name of an existing local company involved due to competition for the expansion by other states.
It involves plans by that entity to consolidate its warehouse/distribution operations at one of the three locations in the running. including a site in Mount Airy and two others in South Carolina and Alabama where the company also has operations.
While that project would involve the creation of 35 jobs, the consolidation would result in the loss of 63 jobs already here if another site besides Mount Airy is picked.
After both Mount Airy and Surry County officials approved incentive packages in November, including grants to the company, to entice it to remain here, a local industry recruiter working with the project speculated that this action might trigger a quick decision.
But a month has passed since Todd Tucker, then the president of the Surry County Economic Development Partnership, offered that outlook. He since has left that post, in early December, for a new job, with Project Cobra a loose end remaining.
An Elkin-based firm, Creative Economic Development Consulting, has been contracted to oversee operations of the Surry Economic Development Partnership until a replacement for Tucker is hired.
Questions about the status of Project Cobra were referred Thursday to Crystal Morphis, who formed Creative Economic Development Consulting in 2012 and is serving as interim CEO of the county partnership group.
“There is nothing new to report,” Morphis said in regard to Project Cobra.
When then asked if this specifically meant no decision had been made about where the consolidation will occur, Morphis repeated that there was nothing new on the situation and offered no further comment.
County government spokesman Nathan Walls had the same response when contacted Thursday.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com