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 ...

Automobile insurance rates are at an all-time high nationwide. In the Tri-Cities (Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol) metro area, rates are up 34% since 2011. 
A recent study by the website The Zebra revealed current average annual auto insurance premiums for: • Tri cities metro: $1,150 • Virginia: $901 (2nd least expensive state in the U.S.) • Tennessee: $1,315 (29th most expensive state) • U.S.: $1,427 Even ...

Moody's Investors Service has assigned an initial Aa2 rating to Tri-Cities Airport Authority’s $8.5 million Aerospace Park Bonds, Series 2018 (Federally Taxable). The proceeds will be used to fund construction, site development, infrastructure, paving and utilities for the Aerospace Park project. Proceeds will also be used to pay capitalized interest on the Series 2018 Bonds during construction. The bonds a ...

Above: Members of the Mountain Home VA Medical Center leadership team and staff join with those who helped complete the new 13-room ICU project for a ceremonial ribbon cutting. PHOTO BY DAVE ONGIE By Dave Ongie It’s been a long time coming, but the new 15,000-square-foot Intensive Care Unit unveiled inside the Mountain Home VA Medical Center last week appears to be well worth the wait. Members of the staff ...

England Furniture, a New Tazewell, Tenn.-based manufacturer of upholstered furniture, will establish a manufacturing operation, at the 32,000-square-foot Lee County Industrial Building, in Lee County, Va. The project of the La-Z-Boy affiliated company is expected to create 79 new jobs.  “We are delighted to expand our operations into the great state of Virginia,” said Terry England, president, England, Inc. ...