Delegate Riley Keaton Leads Charge for Rural Industrial Site Development

Contact riley.keatonwv@gmail.com for more information

Charleston, WV – Delegate Riley Keaton (R-Roane) plans to introduce strong legislation to open up the state’s Business Ready Sites program to rural communities.

“Our state is way behind many others in terms of preparing ready-to-go industrial sites to attract manufacturing and other heavy industry,” Keaton said. “It’s time we fix that.”

The legislation proposed by Delegate Keaton would:

· eliminate the minimum acreage requirement to qualify for investment under the Business Ready Sites program;

· grant local economic development agencies access to the Business Ready Sites program for launching development in their communities; and

· remove the cap on Business Ready Sites to allow small counties to complete on a level playing field

Delegate Keaton highlighted the way each piece of his legislation would open up more of the state to investment under the Business Ready Sites program.

“Attracting industrial investment to rural communities is critical for creating good jobs our people can thrive in,” Keaton said, “I believe expansion of our Business Ready Sites program is a key part of getting started.”