Local officials in Richmond County are looking for the focus to be on small business and job creation when two Democratic U.S. Representatives join forces Monday to host an event at the Laurinburg-Maxton Airport Monday.

U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell, who represents the eight district including Richmond County, will be joined by U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre for the Kissell-McIntyre Federal Resources Summit. It will run from 9:30 a.m. until noon.

The purpose of the event is to bring leaders from seven counties in North Carolina’s Southeast region “together to with federal and state agencies to address the persistent poverty, double-digit unemployment and significant loss of industry” they share, according to a Kissell press release.

“What I’m hoping for (to come from this meeting) is pretty straight-forward and pretty direct — I’m hoping to hear ideas from Washington on how to help rural America,” Richmond County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kenneth Robinette.

As well as chairing the county’s highest elected body, Robinette is its appointee on the county’s economic development team. He said the county’s interest will be represented at the summit.

“I’m hoping for ideas about how to help Richmond County and other counties like us,” he continued. “It’s nice that they will be talking about job creation and get off the healthcare plan that’s only going to cost money. They’ve been so focused on healthcare, we haven’t heard much about job creation.”

Robinette said he is often in contact with Kissell’s office, and specified his critique was directed at Washington, D.C. in general rather than the freshman congressman in particular.

He also said he hopes federal agencies can share ideas to help grow small business.

“We really hope so, and that’s what I’d like to see come from this,” Robinette said. “I hope they bring ideas to help support small business, because small business is the backbone of rural America - it’s what creates the economic development opportunities, tax base and collection and job creation in these communities.”

The seven counties to be represented at the summit are Richmond, Scotland, Anson, Montgomery, Robeson, Bladen and Columbus.

“These communities are suffering from some of the highest unemployment in our nation,” Kissell is quoted in the release. “I believe this Federal Resources Summit is a good way for the stakeholders in these communities that have been disproportionately affected by high unemployment and poverty to build relationships with state and federal agencies. We all need to work together to help get folks back to work.”

In the latest release of county unemployment statistics, Richmond County’s jobless figure shot up an entire percentage point during the month of October to reach 14.2. It peaked at 15 percent earlier this year.

McIntyre said his number one focus is “jobs, jobs, jobs!” in the release, mirroring statements Kissell made in the buildup to the Hamlet stop on the White House’s Rural Town Hall tour in August at Cole Auditorium.

“This summit will help our communities identify resources to help provide economic opportunities for our citizens,” McIntyre said. “Working in partnership, we can move forward with progress and prosperity for all.”

For newly elected Rockingham City Councilman Travis Billingsley, the rhetoric is all too familiar.

“I would expect to hear the same things we’ve been hearing out of Washington,” he said Friday. “What the message coming out of Washington is missing is support for the small businesses that are carrying our communities.”

Billingsley said he hopes to see small business interests and regional chamber of commerces at the table for any discussion of economic development, but isn’t sure it matters what stakeholders have a chance to speak.

“We’re not hearing any real solutions, we’re still going to see them stifle small business in Richmond County,” he said.

The release says federal agencies attending the meeting will include the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Small Business Administration as well as the Small Business Programs Mission & Installation Contracting Command Center-Fort Bragg. Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.