The Kingsport Chamber and Downtown Kingsport Association (DKA) announced grants Tuesday for eleven Kingsport restaurants to help alleviate some of the financial challenges brought on by COVID-19. Funded by the Kingsport Economic Development Board (KEDB) and administered by the Kingsport Chamber, the Kingsport Outdoor Dining Enhancement Mini Grant Fund assists with expenses to restaurants looking to enhance ...

Heath Guinn (left) and David Nelson The City of Johnson City has formed a partnership with Sync Space Entrepreneur Center and FoundersForge to bring entrepreneurial encouragement and empowerment programming to Johnson City. The new partnership provides funding from Johnson City and matching funds from Sync Space to bring FoundersForge’s Startup Bootcamp and other resources to the entrepreneurial community. ...

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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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