Council taps new EDA member

Published 10:35 pm Thursday, February 3, 2011

City Council members made one appointment and one re-appointment to the city’s Economic Development Authority Wednesday.

Oliver Creekmore, a former bank executive, was appointed to the Chuckatuck seat on the authority. Cynthia Ferguson was re-appointed to her Suffolk seat.

New City Councilman Michael D. Duman appointed Creekmore to fill his own former seat on the board. Duman had to resign from the EDA when he took his council seat.

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“He knows what businesses have to contend with today to work in today’s economic environment,” Duman said of Creekmore.

Creekmore is the former president and chief executive officer of James River Bank in Smithfield as well as the Citizens National Bank in Windsor. He continues to serve on the board at Citizens National Bank and helps with commercial lending there.

He also formerly served as chairman of the Suffolk division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

“As a bank president, he has significant leadership skills to go along with his finance experience,” Duman said. “He’s very well-qualified to sit on that board and make recommendations.”

The two first met in 1975 when Creekmore was Duman’s first company commander in the U.S. Army Reserves, Duman said. Creekmore graduated from Virginia Military Institute and has lived in Suffolk 14 years.

“I’m very familiar, with my background being in commercial lending, looking at financial statements and talking with commercial customers that the bank has,” Creekmore said. “I can see that applying to what this position would require me to do. I’m looking forward to being able to put my two cents in.”

Ferguson, the wife of Commonwealth’s Attorney C. Phillips Ferguson, represents the Suffolk borough on the board. Her term was up for reappointment at the end of the month.

The Rev. Dwight Nixon’s term also is up for reappointment this month. He represents the Nansemond borough on the authority.

The Cypress borough has gone without representation on the EDA since last March, when former representative Johnnie Edwards died. Councilman Charles Brown has not yet named a replacement.