A committee will meet in Gloucester next week in hopes of making the county more business-friendly.

A small business focus group, made up of several members of the board of supervisors, along with county staff and local business representatives, will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Department of Information Technology conference room. The purpose of the group is to listen actively to the people who, day to day, must do everything they can to survive in this tough economy and in Gloucester, Abingdon district supervisor JJ Orth said.

"Gloucester must compete with its neighboring communities for businesses and to do so we must do everything we can to make Gloucester as business-friendly as possible," said Orth.

Orth has been a major advocate for small business growth in the county since taking office in January.

"Gloucester has a number of challenges to overcome to attract any business and the only way we are going to break many of these barriers is to listen to what businesses ...