The Small Business Development Center of Hampton Roads Inc., an affiliate of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, was awarded a $23,000 grant from the Verizon Communications Foundation in March 2010 to help small businesses hurt by the closure of Franklin’s paper mill.
The grant will help the SBDC’s Small Business Recovery program assist the small-business community in Franklin and Southampton and Isle of Wight counties.
A portion of the funds was used to establish the Verizon Business Information Library, which serves as a “one-stop” center for information concerning starting, running or managing a small business. MORE.
Between 2004 and 2008, Economic Development (ED) produced a printed, quarterly newsletter called The Isle of Wight Pages. Well, a few things have changed since then – staff members, the economy and technology. So, we’re changing too. In an effort to stay connected with our existing businesses and development allies, we’d like to introduce you to the first issue of our email newsletter. Our goal is to keep you informed about what’s going on Inside the Isle by featuring local businesses, available properties, and other important developments. Keep Reading. We hope you like it!
ISLE OF WIGHT—In 2009, commercial real estate tax revenue made up only 15 percent of the real estate taxes collected in Isle of Wight County.
That could soon change if the Board of Supervisors approves an economic development incentive policy.
The proposed incentives include review fee waivers, an expedited review process, connection/tap fee reinvestment, proffer flexibility, an economic development incentive grant, the establishment of a community development authority, the establishment of a tax increment financing district and other incentives the board deems appropriate.
On April 30, George F. Hasty made the long walk off the grounds of International Paper’s Isle of Wight paper mill for the last time. Just days before, he was offered a job as a machinist at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Newport News shipyard.
Hasty is one of 133 former IP workers the shipyard hired in the wake of the mill closing. Ninety-four of those workers have started their jobs. The remaining 39 will begin in the coming months.
The Newport News shipyard, which Decker said receives between 8,000 and 10,000 electronic job applications a month, was so impressed by the quality of the IP workers that it set up a separate database to capture their applications to be sure each one was reviewed.
Paper mill closure blamed for rising unemployment
Area unemployment rates are continuing to climb, largely because of the recent closure of the International Paper Co. paper mill in Franklin.
“It is predominantly mill driven,” Nancy Parrish, manager of the Franklin Business Incubator, said Friday of the local unemployment figures. “We knew that with the mill winding down those numbers would grow. Hopefully they should level off and start dipping soon because some of the mill workers have found new jobs.”
About 100 people worked their last day at the International Paper Co. paper mill in Franklin on Wednesday.
“We’re hopeful that as summer progresses we’ll have some answers for folks about where the facility is going from here,” Wadsworth said. “There’s no timeline for this. We’re just right now in the process of evaluating the options for the mill and coming up with the best possible solution for what happens in the future.”
ISLE OF WIGHT – The exodus of International Paper Corp. employees ends today, when the final wave of 100 workers leaves the shuttered paper mill for the last time.
“It will be pretty quiet there after today,” said company spokeswoman Donna Wadsworth. A skeleton crew of 30 will stay on indefinitely to handle facility upkeep and records management, she said.
Approximately 1,100 workers have lost their jobs since the first round of layoffs began Dec. 31, weeks after the company’s November announcement that it would close its southern Isle of Wight facility.
