ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke City Council approved four new full-time positions targeting transportation, tourism, sustainability, and grant management. They come with a price of more than $500,000 or half a million added to the city budget.
Mayor Joe Cobb said, “All of these to me are about strengthening some of our key priority areas in the city and I think they will all be beneficial to our work, I would say within the next 2-5 years.”
The new roles include a grants manager to oversee grants and reduce reliance on local tax dollars, a transit director to improve the city’s transportation system, a tourism specialist to support the local economy, and a sustainability manager to lead environmental responsibility efforts.
“When we have a person dedicated to a particular kind of work, it becomes a priority,” Cobb added.
The four positions will add more than half a million dollars to Roanoke’s payroll. However, the mayor emphasized that the funding will not come from new money or cuts to other programs.
“The important thing to know is that we are not spending new dollars here, we are repurposing these funds that are already within these vacancy savings,” Cobb said.
Local business owners expressed cautious optimism about the new positions, hoping they will help boost the downtown economy but also wanting to be included in ongoing conversations.
Pauline Wood, owner of Shades of Color, said, “I think that may help us a little bit because we do need to have people coming in so if we have someone actually working on that to get them down to city market, it’s a wonderful thing.”
Manisha Thapa, owner of Serenity Treasures, added, “You know we need tourism, advertisement, those kind of things downtown to boost our business, restaurants, everything, so I think it will be very beneficial.”
Wood also expressed a desire for more engagement from city administration. “But you know I would like to see the administration interact with us down here a little bit, we would like to see them come down just to greet us, just to meet us to find out about what we’re going through down here.”
These new positions are expected to be filled by early next year. Updates will be provided as the city moves forward with hiring.