Natives never want to leave, and newcomers like Heinmiller and Kuban often decide to stay. What they saw as they drove along the highway were blue mountains, rolling hills and vast tracts of farmland. All are in different stages of development, yet all are committed to preserving the rural qualities that unite them. They want clean businesses like Heinmiller and Kuban's Omnet, a provider of Internet services. Of course, almost every community in the country says it wants to recruit clean technology companies, but the valley is in a position to be more selective than many other rural regions.
Technical infrastructure is vital, but access to higher education is equally important.
I can't get along without a really good library, and universities provide those. In Harrisonburg, JMU hopes to foster economic growth through its new College of Integrated Science and Technology. The university is betting that high-tech opportunities will keep some of its 13,000 students around after graduation. We can now target high-tech companies who want to take advantage of that work force. The College of Integrated Science and Technology is a good fit with the city's proposed 25-acre technological business park, but the valley's colleges do more than complement development initiatives.