Aretha Ferrell-Benavides to soon begin as new Martinsville City Manager

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (WDBJ) - Martinsville’s new city manager is preparing to enter into the role this week.

The Martinsville City Council recently announced the appointment of Aretha Ferrell-Benavides as its new City Manager.

Ferrell-Benavides has been in the field of public service for about 30 years.

“I saw some of the things that they were going through,” said Aretha Ferrell-Benavides, Martinsville City Manager. “I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to return to a place that I want to be in Virginia, but also an opportunity to help a city and be of support to the community.”

She previously served as the City Manager in Petersburg, Virginia where she gained experience working with a city that also faced a similar reversion situation.

“Having both county and city functions is an exciting opportunity for the city, but it also has some complex characteristics like supporting your school system and your Sheriff’s Department. But, it’s an advantage. What we have to do is take that advantage and build on it,” said Ferrell-Benavides.

She plans to focus on redeveloping some of the abandoned properties that are already in Martinsville.

“I’d like to focus on, especially in communities that are landlocked, looking at where are partnership opportunities to redevelop some of our former strip malls where you had in the past that were major development corridors. We want to create that new community and some live, work, play opportunities,” added Ferrell-Benavides.

She also wants to highlight and bring new businesses into downtown Martinsville.

“I want to make sure that we’re focused on getting the businesses there. Not just getting them there, but sustaining them. A lot of times you have businesses to come, but we’ve got to make sure that we have the things in place to ensure that they can stay. We’ve got to make sure that our processes, whether it’s permitting and other things, are at ease for them,” said Ferrell-Benavides.

Ferrell-Benavides will begin her duties as the new city manager on October 6.