Photo above: VCEDA Executive Director/General Counsel Jonathan Belcher, right, presents a ceremonial check for the Apex Leasing project in Buchanan County. From left are Jay Rife, Buchanan County Industrial Development Authority; Joe Gary Street and Pete Savage, West River/Apex Leasing; and Belcher.   On March 29 VCEDA closed an up to $600,000 loan for Apex Leasing Corporation, an affiliate of West Riv ...

Rural broadband service provider Sunset Digital Communications announced recently it will open a new branch office in Tazewell, Va., to house support teams for its Virginia customers in the Tazewell, Russell, Buchanan, Wythe and Bland county areas. The new project in Tazewell is expected to create at least 50 new jobs. The announcement was made by Sunset's Paul and Ryan Elswick at the Tazewell Town Office. ...

The Bristol chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities (SCC-Bristol) is geared up for the upcoming Food City 500 race weekend. SCC-Bristol will hold numerous fundraisers throughout race week to benefit thousands of children in the community. Some of SCC’s opportunities include Track Laps, the annual SCC dinner presented by Tele-Optics, Meade Tractor Cornhole Classic, Bristol Ultimate Experiences Online Auctio ...

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 a ...

Larry R. Estepp has been promoted to president of Citizens Bank, an $825 million (assets) community bank headquartered in East Tennessee. Estepp was previously executive vice president of commercial lending, and has been a business banking officer with Citizens Bank since 2011. Estepp becomes the seventh president of Citizens Bank, and assumes his new position following Bill Dudney’s retirement. Dudney was ...

Mission Health, which operates six hospitals and health facilities in Western North Carolina and competes for medical professionals and patients with Northeast Tennessee-based Ballad Health, has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to merge with Nashville-based HCA. In a letter to Asheville citizens on the newly created missionhealthforward.org website, the Mission Board wrote, “If regulatory requirements are me ...

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe announced today that 25 communities will receive more than $9.6 million in Site Development Grants. Three projects in Northeast Tennessee will receive a total of $2 million of that amount. Sullivan County Economic Development Partnership, Inc.: • Partnership Park II - $1,000,000 – Complete site grading improvements to c ...

On March 20, members of the printing, publishing and paper-producing industries, which employ more than 600,000 workers, have formed "Stop Tariffs on Printers & Publishers (STOPP)", a coalition to fight proposed countervailing duties (CVD) and anti-dumping duties (AD) on imports of Canadian uncoated groundwood papers including newsprint and other papers. These preliminary duties, which were assessed by ...

Six entities bid Monday on the $8.5 million bond issue to finance work at Tri-Cities Airport's Aerospace Park. The result, said Airport Director Patrick Wilson, was a true interest cost of 3.573 percent. "That came in lower than we had anticipated. We had been expecting a rate of around 3.83 percent." The difference between the actual bid and the expected bid is around $320,000 in lower overall interest cos ...

Master Tool & Die, Inc. officials announced this week that the manufacturer will expand in Kingsport. Master Tool & Die plans to invest $557,500 for facility upgrades and create 25 jobs at its operation in Sullivan County. “I’d like to thank Master Tool & Die for its commitment to create 25 jobs in Sullivan County,” Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolf ...