FRANKLIN—A few hundred people, many of them employees of International Paper Co. and their families, turned out for the “Community Resource and Education Fair” on Wednesday.
“I think all in all it’s been a positive day,” said Beth Reavis, director of Franklin Department of Social Services and chairwoman of the Western Tidewater Coalition. She estimated that about 200 people attended the fair, which was held at the Paul D. Camp Community College Regional Workforce Development Center. Opportunity Inc. of Hampton Roads, a regional workforce organization based in Norfolk, organized the event.
WALTERS—American K-9 Interdiction LLC, the dog-training company that is relocating its operations from Carrollton to Walters, says it will only be using local contractors to build a new facility on Burdette Road.
The company’s owners, Nigel Rhodes and Paul Roushia, said they wanted to only use local contractors because of the impending closure of the International Paper Co. mill in Franklin and the negative economic impact that closure was going to have on the community.
RICHMOND—Isle of Wight County won’t be instituting a cigarette tax, at least not this year. Legislation that would’ve allowed the county and others across the state to levy a tax on cigarettes was killed in the General Assembly.
Delegate William Barlow, D-Smithfield, argued that cigarette taxes, which he classified as “user fees,” could bring in significant revenue — especially considering state budget cuts.
“The localities are going to suffer tremendous cutbacks in state money coming back to the localities, and this would be a way of them getting some revenue to provide services for our citizens,” he said.
Regardless of political persuasion, every Virginian should be pulling hard for Bob McDonnell in his quest to become the “jobs governor.”
New jobs will cure most of what ails the commonwealth. Gainfully employed citizens will require less public assistance and commit fewer crimes. They will spend more money with Virginia businesses and pay more taxes, alleviating budget crunches for state and local governments and allowing much-needed investment in transportation and education improvements.
© January 25, 2010
By Michael Schwartz | Inside Business
As the story goes, 10 years ago Isle of Wight County decided it was important to “get in the economic development game.”
That’s how the county’s director of economic development, Lisa Perry, tells it.
So a plan was devised to get into the game by creating a giant commerce park, taking advantage of the wealth of land in the surrounding area. Using taxpayer dollars, the county went to work.
Fast-forward to 2010 and the county now believes its Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park carries enough clout that a private
developer will want to come in and buy and build out the park’s 1,000-acre third phase.
A ray of economic sunshine pierced the storm clouds of job loss enveloping Hampton Roads on Thursday.
Smithfield Foods Inc. said it planned to lay off no more than 30 workers at its soon-to-close Smithfield Packing Co. South plant. That’s less than 9 percent of the number – 340 – that the company had predicted it would let go almost a year ago.
And even those 30 might get their jobs back, said Jeff Gough, Smithfield Foods’ vice president of human resources.
With its output of goods and services on the upswing, Hampton Roads continues to rank among the country’s 20 strongest metro areas in economic performance, a major research center said Monday.
The Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News area was one of only six in the nation that regained their peak output by the summer quarter, Brookings Institution said in its latest report on the economic health of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2009
Contact: Mary E. Prier
(757) 305-9064
Tidewater Builders Association will host a Spring 2010 Homearama showcase of homes in Isle of Wight County’s Founders Pointe community May-8-23, 2010.
It will be the first time TBA has hosted a Spring Homearama and the first time Homearama has been held in Isle of Wight County during [...]
By Allison T. Williams
Daily Press, 247-4535
ISLE OF WIGHT – A company that trains bomb- and drug-sniffing dogs for the military will remain in Isle of Wight County.
With little discussion, the Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors on Thursday unanimously approved American K-9 Interdiction’s application to build a 300-dog kennel on 49 acres off Burdette Road, [...]
By Allison T. Williams
November 6, 2009
The Bon Secours Hampton Roads health system wants to open a 15,000-square-foot surgical center, with two operating rooms, in Carrollton, said Lynne B. Zultanky, the company’s director of corporate communications. If the project receives the state’s approval, Bon Secours would open its facility in spring 2011 in leased space [...]
