An extensive survey of consumer attitudes on COVID vaccinations in the region was shared with members of the RegionAHEAD alliance this week. A survey of 768 consumers in the 22-county region of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia will help the team craft a public service campaign to help those considering a vaccination to be informed and encouraged to be inoculated against the virus. The survey was c ...

Rambler Wood Products will establish a new wood products manufacturing facility in the former Bush Furniture Industries building in St. Paul, Va., creating 73 new jobs in the process. Rambler plans on making an initial private investment of $7.6 million. Within 12 months, Rambler plans to make a total private investment in the project of $21.8 million. In addition, a $2.5 million loan from the Virginia Coal ...

Above: Dale Fair, Grant Summers and Will Barrett Bank of Tennessee has announced the promotion of three top executives. In a release dated Jan. 17, BancTenn Chairman William B. Greene said Dale Fair, Grant Summers and Will Barrett will each be taking on new responsibilities in 2021. Fair, president and CEO, has been promoted to chairman of the board of Bank of Tennessee. He will retain his CEO duties until ...

Above: Dr. Natalie Kuldell (second from right), president of BioBuilder, meets with teachers at MIT. PHOTO COURTESY BIOBUILDER The Niswonger Foundation’s $8 million plan to revolutionize STEM education by Scott Robertson It started with word from the U.S. Department of Education that $185 million in grants would be awarded in December 2020 to school districts, higher education institutions and not-for-profi ...

by Scott Robertson When Will Payne headlined the event introducing InvestSWVA 16 months ago in Abingdon, he talked about creating, “big idea projects.” One of those big idea projects is coming into its own. In economic development terms, it’s known as “Operation Calypso.” In real world language, it’s Appalachian Grains, an attempt to make southwest Virginia a player in the craft beverage supply chain for al ...

Above: McCord testifies at budget hearings. FILE PHOTO Tennessee Commission of Labor and Workforce Development The Business Journal: When you took this job, you had no way of knowing you would end up dealing with the fallout from a pandemic. Now, it falls to your department to help Tennessee citizens and businesses in an environment of relatively high unemployment rates and improvable workforce participatio ...

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Boyd Sports, LLC has announced it will assume the management contract of the Kingsport franchise in the Appalachian League. Boyd Sports, which also owns the Tennessee Smokies, Johnson City Baseball, Greeneville Baseball, and Elizabethton Baseball will assume all business operations of Kingsport Baseball. “We are ecstatic that upper-level baseball will continue in Kingsport with the new look Appy League. We ...

Tennessee State Senator Rusty Crowe of Johnson City will chair the Health & Welfare Committee during the 2021 legislative session. Crowe’s name was on a long list of committee chairs announced by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally’s office Wednesday. “Rusty Crowe’s leadership of the Health and Welfare Committee has been outstanding. Rusty's steady hand and experience will continue to keep the committee on course,” ...

In a Jan. 8 letter to shareholders, Miners Exchange Bank (MEB) President and CEO Charles Ward announced the bank is selling all outstanding shares to Salvosa Group, of Winston-Salem, NC for $49.87 per share in cash. Salvosa will become the bank’s parent holding company. The transaction is unanimously supported by the MEB board, Ward said. Ward told shareholders the transaction would close sometime in Q2, an ...