Taylor joined the commission's staff in 1970, a year after it started. By 1980, he had become its executive director, a position from which he will retire at the end of the year. "This has been a labor of love," he said recently.

The planning district covers the counties of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe and the cities of Bristol and Galax. Other parts of Virginia are covered by 20 other districts. The creation of planning districts was intended partly to foster cooperation among contiguous localities.

Today, planning district commissions sign off on regional projects to make sure no conflicts exist, apply for grants to fund many of them, and provide behind-the-scenes services now taken for granted.

It was not always so. For example, Taylor recalled a water project at Rocky Gap in Bland County that drew so much initial opposition that none of the county supervisors showed up at a community meeting for commission staffers to explain it.

"They came back and wanted to quit," Taylor said of the staffers. But today that water system has been extended past Rocky Gap to Bastian and created economic development in its corridor, he said.

After graduating from East Tennessee State University and serving for three years in the U.S. Army, Taylor landed a job in Brevard County, Fla.

Early Mount Rogers commission meetings covered such topics as regional health care, housing, recreation and water quality, Taylor recalled. The sessions brought attention to weaknesses the region had in competing with other parts of the country.

A commission named for its chairman, Chuck Lacy, a House of Delegates member from Wytheville, was set up to study those weaknesses by Gov. Gerald Baliles, Taylor said. "He was one governor who came to Southwest Virginia and promised to do things for Southwest Virginia, and backed it up with action," Taylor recalled.

In recent months, a new study commission started mapping out initiatives for Southwest Virginia. History is repeating itself.

Economic development, telecommunications, libraries and even a revolving loan fund for industries have grown out of the planning district's work under Taylor.

"And of course I'm not finished yet," he told planning district commission representatives last month. No successor has been appointed yet. Taylor said he hoped to see more projects through to fruition "before I hang it up and go to the house."

On the Web:

www.mrpdc.orgTom Taylor's vision for the Mount Rogers Planning District within 15 years includes:

U.S. 58 improvements from Stuart in Patrick County to Gate City in Scott County

Fiber-optic infrastructure available to every business

Wireless broadband available to every resident

Natural gas available from Hillsville in Carroll County to Independence in Grayson County

Two new industrial facility authority sites open for business in Carroll and Wythe counties

Maglev passenger rail from Atlanta to Roanoke

High-speed passenger rail from Roanoke to Washington, D.C.

No more than 10 percent of the workforce without a high school diploma or GED

Tele-medicine capabilities at every medical center