Phenix City’s business development program impresses Gov. Bentley

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley walked away impressed Thursday by a program being championed by Troy University’s Phenix City campus to help start-up business develop and grow.

The governor, despite the fact that his lottery legislation was hanging in the balance during a special session of the Alabama Legislature, was in Phenix City for the second annual Governor’s Day hosted by Mayor Eddie Lowe.

Frank Braski, the founder of ColumbusMakesIT, and Troy University Vice Chancellor David White outlined the RiverCity Foundry program that started this summer and hopes to help more than a half dozen entrepreneurs launch their business ideas into viable enterprises.

“This is similar to our program, Accelerate Alabama,” Bentley said in the third-floor classroom at the Troy Riverfront campus. “The first thing is to recruit industry from out of state. The second thing is the retention of old businesses. It sounds like what y’all are doing. An idea becomes a product; then you begin to sell the product; then you develop a company.”

The program started last month and is a partnership between ColumbusMakesIT, Troy University-Phenix City, Alabama Power Co., SCORE, Columbus Technical College and the River Valley Regional Commission.

“Our idea is to get the business model into place,” White told the governor.

White then assured the governor there were about six companies that could come out of the business acceleration program.

Braski and White spent an hour explaining the program to Bentley and looking for ways the state could help these start-up companies.

While the governor may have been in Phenix City for most of the morning, he was paying close attention to the happenings in Montgomery where his lottery bill was facing a Senate vote. Bentley is proposing a statewide lottery to help ease the state’s growing budget issues.

“This is not about the lottery, it’s about the people,” the governor said during a press briefing. “There are a half a million children born into poverty. What is more immoral, buying five lottery tickets or allowing a child to die or an elderly person not to be taken care of?”

Bentley also spoke to a luncheon of the community leaders from Phenix City and Columbus. He stuck with the lottery theme.

“Say a prayer,” Bentley said. “I can’t believe I am saying this, but we are praying for a lottery.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Phenix City’s business development program impresses Gov. Bentley."