Q&A With Merry Mears: Diverse County Poses Unique Challenges To Economic Development Head

Q&A With Merry Mears: Diverse County Poses Unique Challenges To Economic Development Head
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SNOW HILL — Merry Mears became the new “captain” for Worcester County’s Economic Development when her former boss, Bill Badger, abruptly “jumped ship” in September, opening the door for Mears, the former deputy director, to assume the position as director.

Since her official appointment, Mears has hit the ground running, and says she has received nothing but support from the County Commissioners and members of the county government. We sat down with Mears, who previously served as Workforce Division Director for the Tri-County Council for the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland, this week to talk about her new role, her vision for the county moving forward, and she spoke candidly about the diverse challenges that face the four municipalities that make up Worcester County.

Q: Let’s talk about your new role as director of economic development in Worcester County. Tell me about your vision for the county?

A: In 2012, I was fortunate enough to be hired by Bill Badger to assume the role of deputy director of economic development for the county and I was very excited about that because I’ve worked in workforce development for a number of years and economic development is close to workforce development, but it’s a little different because you work on things like infrastructure projects or you work more closely with employers to help them with things other than their workforce issues. You know, things like permitting or things that they face in their workforce environment.

I was very fortunate to work with Bill for three years. He made it a point to include me daily into everything that he did here. I was able to run the office, which is what I was hired to do, but then I was also able to sink my teeth into various projects that interested me. That was very helpful in my transition. Bill departed Sept. 1, and with the knowledge I had and with the help of the leadership team of the county I was able to continue on and help things move forward.

Q: Let’s talk about Bill [Badger] for a moment, because when he left he said some things that caught my attention. He said “the County Commissioners were supportive but county government was not as supportive of his efforts.” When I was speaking with Commissioner Joe Mitrecic a few weeks ago for an episode of this podcast, he said something very similar. He said Bill was very frustrated and he had been for several months. With all that said, do you agree with that, and if so, how do you plan to navigate through all of that moving forward?

A: I think it’s important to recognize that we are two different people. Bill’s perspective was that and he spoke openly about that. His experience played into that. I think it’s important to realize that Bill has over 30 years of experience in economic development and he has worked on very, very large projects and small projects, and he has a certain way of leading to see those projects through to fruition.

Once Bill departed, I was very saddened because he made the workplace fun and he’s part of the reason that I love doing the work that I do. That introduction into the world of economic development was priceless. But since he departed, I’ve received nothing but support from county leadership. They reached out to me and they all wanted to know what they could do to help. I did lean on folks and it was very helpful, and now I look to the future to find someone to come in and help out.

The transition has been going well, but we are not where we need to be quite yet in this office, but we’ll get there.

Q: Worcester County is a very diverse place. The issues facing the northern end of the county are vastly different than the issues facing the southern end of the county, particularly here in Snow Hill. What are some of the good things that are happening collectively in the county, and what are some things that need to be worked on from an economic development perspective?

A: One of the things I love about Worcester County is how diverse it is. In the northern end, you have the industries such as tourism and hospitality — huge drivers of our local economy — and the further south you go you have things like healthcare (Berlin and Ocean Pines). Then we have our manufacturing base in Pocomoke City. We have a huge industrial park down there with many large manufactures producing lots of jobs and there will be many more to come. So, it’s definitely interesting. It keeps it very stimulating when you look at tourism, hospitality, agriculture, manufacturing, and then I think we have room for one more industry that we should be developing, and that’s aerospace. We sit 15 miles from NASA Wallops Island, and we have opportunities in our incubator for companies interested in contracting with NASA to develop that industry here.

Q: Over the years, there seems to be this big brother/little brother thing in the county. It seems the folks in the southern end of the county look at the northern end of the county, particularly Ocean City and they say, ‘well, you are the rich kids of the county’ and the southern end of the county feels like it’s either not getting enough attention or support because they don’t have that sort of economic wealth. Is there a way to unify the two, or do you not see any divide between the two ends of the county?

A: I wouldn’t classify our county as divided by any means. I think individually, our municipalities and our different areas geographically have their own strengths and they all play off each other to attract visitors, provide jobs for our citizens and improve our quality of life overall. Of course, Ocean City is a huge draw for people to come here.  Over eight million people ride through Route 50 and into Ocean City each year. We still have the healthcare industry, manufacturing and other areas such as aerospace and agriculture that are thriving year-round. So, if we step back and look at it from a macro-sense, we can see all these different pockets of industry kind of complementing each other. And a rising tide like Ocean City lifts all boats.

Q: Berlin has skyrocketed to a level of recognition and activity, economically speaking, that it hasn’t seen, perhaps ever. Contrast that with Snow Hill, where more and more businesses are leaving town, and there are vacancies on almost every street. How can Snow Hill take the success of Berlin and perhaps replicate that to spark its own resurgence?

A: In having conversation with people around here, I hear things like Snow Hill is not Berlin, and Berlin is not Snow Hill, and I would tend to agree with that. Berlin is closer to our beaches, and they receive a lot more traffic from beachgoers in the summer time. Now, Berlin is becoming its own brand, and the town of Snow Hill has recognized that something needs to happen to spur growth here. The mayor is very focused on that, and to his credit, he is pounding the pavement every day to see that it happens. He invites our office to work with him on that, and that is one of my priorities to see a resurgence of business in Snow Hill.

Q: There has been a conversation about the potential of putting an excursion train in Worcester County. It was interesting to read the feasibility study, which essentially found that the Berlin option, or having the train run in the northern end of the county, was a bit more viable than the option that included Snow Hill. How important is that train to spark that type of growth that you were just referring to in Snow Hill?

A: Well, if you add an attraction like that in any area, that’s going to add to visitor counts to the year, or even the season. If you brand an excursion train ‘Polar Express,’ people are going to seek that out and visit the area. It can only help Snow Hill and it can only help Berlin. It can potentially brand Snow Hill or brand Berlin even though Berlin has a lot more things going on right now.

It’s a big opportunity, and the next steps are gathering the railroad, the towns, and any potential non-profits who want to come together and see where we want to go with this. If there is interest in fixing the tracks for passenger instead of freight travel, and the money that is involved in that, all those discussions need to be had to see where we go with this.

Q: How do we take our recent population growth in Worcester County and attract businesses to come and set up shop in both the northern end of the county and in the south too?

A: Since I took this job as director, I really looked at economic development on two tiers.

The first is a renewed focus on our infrastructure here. I’m talking, for large big-box retailers or manufacturers who come in and offer huge job impacts for the people in our area, and larger revenues for the county.

The second is improving our broadband. Larger manufactures that are coming into Pocomoke, for example, they need that last mile broadband connection to communicate with their other manufacturing institutions across the US and beyond. If they don’t have that, they can’t set up here because it’s inefficient. We also have to do a better job at reaching out to the businesses that are already here and offer more support to them as well.

(To listen to the entire conversation, click over to https://mdcoastdispatch.com/?p=59764)

About The Author: Bryan Russo

Bryan Russo returned to The Dispatch in 2015 to serve as News Editor after working as a staff writer from 2007-2010 covering the Ocean City news beat. In between, Russo worked as the Coastal Reporter for NPR-member station WAMU 88.5FM in Washington DC and WRAU 88.3 FM on the Delmarva Peninsula. He was the host of a weekly multi-award winning public affairs show “Coastal Connection.” During his five years in public radio, Russo’s work won 19 Associated Press Awards and 2 Edward R. Murrow Awards and was heard on various national programs like NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, APM’s Marketplace and the BBC. Russo also worked for the Associated Press (Philadelphia Bureau) covering the NHL and the NBA and is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter and composer.