Business View City & Municipal | August 2022

98 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7 now because of higher demand, maybe those areas could see development that could be impactful.” So much has changed in Lynchburg over the past year, it’s hard to imagine that things could change even further. But Benda says he’s just getting his “sea legs.” “I’m encouraged by the city council and its vision and its expectation on me for how we can make sure that Lynchburg is part of the conversations,” he says. “I’m going to use a sports analogy: Wayne Gretzky said he didn’t play to the puck, he played to where it was going to be. We need to take some of these characteristics and do the best we can. And some of that involves risk. We need to make informed decisions that might have a bit of a risk, but keep the momentum going for the City of Lynchburg.” PREFERRED VENDORS/PARTNERS n Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance www.lynchburgregion.org n The Virginian Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton www.thevirginianhotel.com