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The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Revitalization Commission at its September 27th meeting approved a grant to the Southside Virginia Community College (SVCC) Foundation for training of our workers in advanced manufacturing and other technical skills. The grant in the amount of $456,756 would provide additional equipment at several SVCC locations to expand the existing technical training at those facilities.
One small but very important component of the grant award is a $40,000 initiative to develop modern curricula for advanced manufacturing occupations, specifically, welders, precision equipment operators and industrial maintenance technicians. These occupations were identified in a major study completed by Boston Consulting as being needed to support the projected employment in advanced manufacturing throughout the region.
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Through the SET planning process, the desire to create a collaborative regional strategy for small business development was outlined. In 2012, a pilot program was started with United Virginia, a nonprofit with a goal to connect aspiring entrepreneurs with the training, connections, and resources they need to grow successful businesses in Central and Southern Virginia. This initiative has evolved into leveraging of resources to continue a training program for implementation across the region. Through a partnership with VGA, the training coordinator, Cassandra Smith, has transitioned to the Longwood Small Business Development Center.
United Virginia uses Technology to Tap Local (and Not-so-Local) Capital
United Virginia was selected by Capital One Financial Corporation to be a trustee in working together to connect Kiva lenders to entrepreneurs that they know and trust in their communities. With the impending changes in securities trading allowed by the Jobs Act, the rise of crowdsourcing, and an increased emphasis on building local economies, it's no surprise that Virginia's micro-enterprise development organizations are exploring the power of the world wide web to go local.
KivaZip allows for person to person lending. While you can't currently own part of a company, you can as an individual, can go online and provide capital to entrepreneurs who you think are playing an important role in a community.
In South Hill, mortgage broker Bruce used a KivaZip loan to grow his business. Bruce tapped KivaZip after enrolling in United Virginia's entrepreneurship course. United Virginia endorsed his loan application for investment in Southside Mortgage Corporation. In addition to the partnership through a micro-enterprise development organization, an important element of KivaZip is the entrepreneur's story. This is what connects people to the aspirations of the business owner and the community benefits of the business. Here is an excerpt of Bruce's story.
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New high-bandwidth sites now established in Washington, DC and Richmond, VA
Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC), a successful wholesale open-access network transport provider, announced today its network expansion in the mid-Atlantic region with connections in Washington and Richmond, Virginia.
MBC has expanded the reach of its advanced open-access transport network with new Points of Presence (POP) locations at the CoreSite data center at 1275 K Street in Washington, DC and the QTS data center at 6000 Technology Boulevard, Richmond, Virginia. These expanded POP locations will enable MBC to provide wholesale transport services to its carrier customers as well as enable additional connectivity options.
MBC has extended their robust Infinera DTN network into these new interconnection facilities. MBC's Infinera network enables rapid provisioning for high bandwidth transport services, and provides low latency transport connections to southern Virginia and MBC interconnection facilities in the Carolina's and Georgia.
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RICHMOND - The battle lines were clearly drawn on plans to build the Dominion Virginia Power Brunswick County Power Plant. The State Corporation Commission began hearings on Dominion Virginia Power's application for the project on Wednesday, April 24 and supporters of the project and groups that oppose the project packed the courtroom. The courtroom could not accommodate the crowd so an auxiliary room was used and proceedings were transmitted via video. The SCC is not expected to make a decision on the application until the fall. Supporters of the påroject say that it will create jobs, increase the counties tax revenue, produce new economic development opportunities and provide clean reliable electricity to customers in the state. Opposition to the project centers around the process to remove the natural gas from the earth called fracking and support for more solar and wind facilities.
Earlier County Administrator Charlette Woolridge said if approved by the SCC, Dominion's proposed $1.1 billion Brunswick County Power Station would be built on a 200 acre tract off of U. S. Route 58 about seven miles east of Lawrenceville. At the peak of construction, more than 600 workers will be on site. When completed in 2016 the station would have more than 30 employees. The station would be fueled by natural gas and provide enough electricity for about 325,000 homes. Annual tax payments for the station to the county would be up to $4 million a year.