A regional economic development organization has been formed to focus on economic enhancement efforts within the localities of the Middle Peninsula. A committee of elected supervisors and town council members from area localities have partnered to organize the EDO to help create more and higher-paying jobs for residents in the area. Each locality has until July 1 to decide if it will formally join the organization.

The group met April 13 and included individuals from the private sector, local elected officials, government agencies, State Sen. Ryan McDougal (R-Hanover), Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones, and Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore.

According to Lewie Lawrence, executive director of the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission, which is helping to oversee the EDO, the cost to each locality to join EDO is $5,000. He said all of the leaders of the Middle Peninsula localities (town mayors and county boards of supervisors chair...