Stephen Moret outlines his economic agenda for Southwest Virginia at the SWVA Economic Forum, May 10. Photos by Tim Cox Photo/Graphics By Scott Robertson Stephen Moret brought a simple message to the SWVA Economic Forum at UVa-Wise May 10: Southwest Virginia no longer ends at Roanoke in the minds of the Commonwealth’s economic development partnership. Moret, who was named the VEDP’s CEO last November, outli ...

Photo above: Ryan Short receives his white coat at the Lincoln Theatre ceremony May 22. Photo courtesy Emory & Henry College By Scott Robertson Thirty first-year students donned white coats for the first time to inaugurate a one-of-a-kind program at Emory & Henry May 22. The Department of Physician Assistant Studies’ first class will center its studies at the Marion, Va., campus once owned by Mounta ...

Photo above: Officials with Frontier Secure, the Wise County IDA and the Virginia Coalfields Economic Development Authority pose with a $5.6 million check last June in Wise. Photo by Tim Cox Photo/Graphics By Scott Robertson Sykes Enterprises acquisition of Frontier Secure, formerly a division of Frontier Communications, will not affect the repayment of the $5.6 million Virginia Coalfield Economic Developme ...

Photo above: The Micronic Technologies team The second in a series of articles by the United Way of Southwest Virginia Necessity is the mother of invention, and fewer needs are greater than the need for clean water. That need inspired Karen Sorber and her husband Kelly Rock to start Micronic Technologies in 2008. Sorber said, “In 2007, a year prior to marrying my husband, I was in Peru on a humanitarian vis ...

By Scott Robertson I noticed something unusual during Memorial Day lunch. On the TV in the corner of the restaurant, ESPN was running a “breaking news” crawl in the holiday baseball game, and giving credit to another media outlet for the story. There were a couple of things unusual about that. First, ESPN is infamous in media circles for stealing other people’s stories and attributing the news to “sources.” ...

Photo above: The 2017 class of Tribute to Women Award recipients: (Back row, L-R) Brenda Barnicki, Ruth Moseley King, Melody Trimble, Susan Reid, Carol Transou, (Front row, L-R) Tina Camper, Mary Margaret Denton, Muriel Kagan Zager and CeeGee McCord  Photo courtesy YWCA By Scott Robertson The 2017 class of Tribute to Women Award recipients includes several women who have made an impact on the Tri-Cities bus ...

Photo above: Ira Stone of MiniFibers, (right) discusses broadband with Eric Ogle of Magellan Advisors, working on behalf of the Johnson City Power Board. Photos courtesy JCPB By Scott Robertson The Johnson City Power Board (soon to be changing its name to the Johnson City Energy Authority Board) is in the process of conducting an intensive survey of its business and residential users in order to ascertain t ...

Photo above: Tony Vella poses with Cootie Brown’s key lime pie delivery container at Lot 8 on State of Franklin Road in Johnson City. Photo by Collin Brooks By Scott Robertson and Collin Brooks On April 26, as the Johnson City Public Building Authority was considering whether to enter into negotiations with one of three entities (the Chamber of Commerce Serving Johnson City, Jonesborough and Washington Coun ...

Photo above: Patrick Wilson and David Jones discuss runway repair work. Photo by Scott Robertson By Scott Robertson The Tri-Cities Airport Authority continues to move ahead with its plan to create a business/industrial park for aeronautical companies. In its April 20 meeting, the authority unanimously voted to approve the expenditure of $82,000 to conduct a federally mandated environmental assessment of the ...

Photo above: James Curtis Hughes, donor Representative and family member and Emory & Henry President Jake Schrum shake hands after signing the Kathryn Burke Greever endowment agreement. By Scott Robertson One never knows how long one’s impact on others will last. The inspiration for gifts of more than $1 million to Emory & Henry College, for instance, began over 100 years ago, said James Curtis “Cur ...