Consultant Rich Sampson speaks in Bristol, Va. The good news is: there is a financial justification for extending Amtrak passenger service from Roanoke to Bristol. The bad news is: the railway that owns the tracks will have to be heavily incentivized to come to the table. That was the word from Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) Communications Director Richard Sampson and his team at a p ...

Owner Grant Summers explains renovation details during a November 2018 tour of the former Model Mill building. Photo by Bill Derby, publisher. The Board of Directors of the Chamber of the Chamber of Commerce Serving Johnson City, Jonesborough and Washington County announced a pair of planned changes for 2019. The Chamber plans to move its headquarters to the newly renovated former Model Mill at some point i ...

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Jim McGlothlin stands in front of what he hopes will be the entrance to the new casino in the old Bristol Mall. Photo by Tara Hodges, SweetSnaps Photography By Scott Robertson Clyde Stacy and Jim McGlothlin, two men with a history of starting successful companies, are taking a long-shot gamble with multi-million dollar stakes in Bristol, Va. It’s a necessary gamble, they say, because the city is facing a bo ...

Delegate Israel O’Quinn listens as State Senator Bill Carrico briefs reporters on plans for the bills to authorize a referendum in Bristol on the casino. Photo by Scott Robertson By Scott Robertson Calling themselves the two least likely Virginia state legislators to carry gambling legislation, Delegate Israel O’Quinn and State Senator Bill Carrico announced they would, nevertheless, do just that. At a news ...

Above: Mitzi Sykes, economic development director, Dickenson County; Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA executive director/general counsel; Steven Baker, owner, The Bloom Farm; Geena Phipps, The Bloom Farm; and Tim Blankenbecler, director of the Small Business Development Center, Mountain Empire Community College. A veteran of the coal and oil industries is trading in his energy career for an entrepreneurial venture i ...

Above: Rich Panek Since 2012, Qualuable and AnewCare, two Accountable Care Organizations in the region,  have generated more than $100 million in Medicare savings between them. Recently, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released performance year 2017 results for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). 472 MSSP Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) across the country participated and 159 (or 34 p ...

By Scott Robertson The Ballad Health board unanimously approved plans to create a trauma and emergency care system designed to improve the overall access to services system-wide through realignment of resources. Concurrently, Ballad will offer a new range of pediatric services at Johnson City Medical Center, Holston Valley Medical Center and Bristol Regional Medical Center.                   Alan Levine, Ba ...

by Jeff Keeling A large physician practice group has won state permission to build a $10 million ambulatory surgery center (ASC) in Kingsport. Meadowview Surgery Center will compete directly with Ballad Health, which is sharply limited in its ability to oppose such endeavors. A new company representing Holston Medical Group received a certificate of need (CON) Oct. 24 for the center, in which it expects to ...

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