Photo above: Angela Braan Photo courtesy Cassia’s Salon & Spa By Gabriel Logan In a region with a relatively low percentage of young entrepreneurs, fewer female entrepreneurs, and very few minority entrepreneurs, Angela Braan, who is a U.S. Army veteran to boot, stands out. Those uncommon qualities haven’t driven the growth of her two-and-a half year old business, Cassia’s Salon & Spa, though. That ...

New River Hardwoods, Inc. officials recently announced the lumber company will invest $3.8 million in its operations in Roan Mountain. New River plans to create around 25 manufacturing and production jobs in Carter County. The company will install new equipment and convert its Roan Mountain log yard into a lumber manufacturing facility.  “I’d like to thank New River Hardwoods for investing in Roan Mountain ...

Second in a two-part series By Don Fenley and Scott Robertson The only major age category that is seeing notable population growth in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia is the 65+ category. As was pointed out in this space in the April 2018 issue, by 2028, it is projected that one in every four residents of this region will be over the age of 64. Those numbers do not merely reflect the graying of Am ...

Photo above: Jim McGlothlin and Tim Finchem Photos by Dave Ongie By Dave Ongie Fifty-four years ago, a young attorney showed up at Mountain Mission School in Grundy, Va., to help start a basketball team. Jim McGlothlin learned three things that day, and the third lesson has made a lasting impact on countless lives. “First of all, the Mountain Mission kids didn’t know anything about basketball,” McGlothlin s ...

Nine exceptional women who actively better the quality of life for thousands in the region were honored by YWCA Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Nominated by area organizations and chosen by an independent panel of judges, the nine award recipients exemplify those working to enrich the region and were honored in categories which reflect the impact of the YWCA in the region: Nurture, Empower, and ...

By Scott Robertson Back in late February and early March, publications like this one were spilling a lot of ink regarding two bills being considered in the Tennessee General Assembly. The first was a bill put forth in the Senate by District 3 State Senator Rusty Crowe. Senate Bill 2048 (and its House companion legislation, HB 2020) sought to keep the Ballad Health COPA monitor from releasing to the public i ...

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March 2018 Rate Remains at 3.4 Percent Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips have announced the March 2018 statewide unemployment rate for Tennessee remained near historic lows and matched the revised rate from the previous month. The preliminary, seasonally adjusted rate for March was 3.4 percent, which mirrored the revised rate for Februar ...

Bell (formerly Bell helicopter), a division of Textron, announced Monday it had let 120 employees go. That figure includes an undisclosed number from the Piney Flats, Tenn., facility. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the separations, but refused to disclose how many employees were cut from any single location, or whether those employees were line workers, management, or others. Textron recently dive ...

Photo above: Brian Tapp and Tyler Engle     The town of Erwin Tuesday opened its first co-working space, branded "Square One."     "When you combine Erwin fiber and a really cool workspace, you get Square One," said Lee Brown, general manager of Erwin Utilities, which partnered with the Joint Economic Development Board of Unicoi County to create the town's first co-working environment.     "So many people w ...