Surry Business

John S. Clark Company, LLC, of Mount Airy has formed a new Building Improvement Division, succeeding and expanding its former Special Projects group.

Vice President Bill Sinclair will head the new division located at 11 Brookstown Ave. in downtown Winston-Salem. Sinclair joined the company in 2005. He has 15 years’ experience in commercial construction in the local market area, including six years running his own company.

The Building Improvement Division will focus on tenant upfits, renovations and additions in the commercial, industrial, retail, medical and institutional markets across the Triad. Its staff includes project managers, superintendents and administrative support personnel.

Jim Walker, president of John S. Clark Company, said, “We have seen our strategy to seek more renovation and upfit work exceed our expectations and, with the other growth in our company, we found ourselves with a challenge: providing adequate space for future growth and enhancing the identity of the group. Bill Sinclair now has a fully functioning staff that will be a full division in John S. Clark Company LLC and, since the work done is always an improvement on a new or existing facility, we want to designate it as the Building Improvement Division. This identity and our location in downtown Winston-Salem will continue the momentum currently under way.”

This type of work at John S. Clark Company has grown from nothing to more than $7 million in less than two years, including dozens of projects such as Dioli’s Italian Market, Marley Drug and additions to Dell Manufacturing. The division is especially proud of the repeat client work such as Breugger’s Bagels, BB&T and Truliant.

Current Building Improvement Division projects include Café Prada at 4th and Broad streets in downtown Winston Salem, relocating Loomcraft Textiles to Westpoint Stevens in Burlington and a 10,500-square-foot addition to Burton Signs in Mount Airy.

John S. Clark Company is the largest Triad-based general contractor. The company has fully integrated design/build capabilities. The firm operates full-service offices in Surry County, Winston-Salem, Greensboro and Wilmington. In addition to the Building Improvement Division, the company has core competencies in industrial, retail, multi-family, health sciences and commercial construction.

Smith Phillips Building Supply, a Winston-Salem distributor of building materials, is closing its Elkin sales branch, The Business Journal of the Greater Triad reports.

The move will cut about five positions, the firm said. Some employees will have the opportunity to transfer to other Smith Phillips Building Supply locations.

“Consolidation of the facility has been a move to adjust infrastructure in light of continued market challenges in the housing industry and shifting housing demographics in the area,” the company said in a press release.

Smith Phillips said it will continue to serve Elkin and Surry County through its locations in Winston-Salem and Statesville.

The firm specializes in the distribution of millwork and wood products to the professional contracting industry.

Casey A. Vedder has opened White Sulphur Springs Physical Therapy at 2994 Riverside Drive just north of Willis Gap Road outside Mount Airy.

The clinic shares the building also occupied by Dr. Robert W. Hower’s White Sulphur Springs Chiropractic Center.

Vedder earned a bachelor’s degree at St. Johns University in Collegeville, Minn., and his master’s degree in physical therapy at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn. He was the director of the ProHealth Rehabilitation Department at Northwest Medical Partners from 2002 through 2007. He is the director of the physical therapy assistant program being developed at Surry Community College in Dobson.

Kristin Mills, a licensed physical therapist assistant who at ProHealth Rehabilitation, has joined Vedder at White Sulphur Springs Physical Therapy. She is a 2003 graduate of Wytheville (Va.) Community Collegea and experienced in orthopedic and neurological rehabilitation.

Regina Combs is the clinic’s office manager.

“We pride ourselves in providing aggressive physical therapy with compassion, caring and a commitment to quality,” Vedder said. His philosophy is that physical therapy can and should be a life-changing event that helps people maximize their potential in various aspects of life.”

“We also believe that physical therapy does not have to hurt to be successful,” he said. “We will find the most effective and pain-free manner to help you achieve your goals.”

White Sulphur Springs Physical Therapy accepts most major insurance policies. Its telephone number is (336) 783-9400.

Because construction work on the new Surgical Services building is about to begin, Northern Hospital of Surry County has closed its main public, patient, and visitor parking in front of the Martin Memorial Building on Rockford Street in Mount Airy.

Motorists will be redirected to the Worth Street parking lot. Signs will be posted. A full-time shuttle service will begin Thursday and operate Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. There will be pick-up and drop-off locations at the shuttle bus stop shelters in the Worth Street parking lot, the public Emergency Department entrance, and the Main Entrance.

Other shuttle locations may be added and will be announced at a later date.

In a news release announcing the hospital’s plans, CEO WIlliam “Bill” James said, “Northern Hospital of Surry County appreciates the public’s patience with the current and upcoming changes as construction begins on the Surgical Services Relocation Project.”

Sherry Youngquist of the Winston-Salem Journal described details of Northern Hospital’s $22-million renovation and expansion program in her Jan. 6 article, “Surry hospital to start expansion this month.”

“We can change,” the emerging theme for this year’s presidential election, could be the slogan for Mount Airy, judging by comments Tuesday at an economic-development summit meeting.

Convened by newly elected city commissioners Dean Brown and Deborah Cochran, the session at the Olympia Family Restaurant attracted a standing-room-only crowd of about 100. Many were business people. City Manager Don Brookshire led a large contingent of city department heads. Both newspapers and the local radio stations covered the meeting. Speakers included people directly involved in economic-development, such as Surry County Economic Development Partnership’s Board Chairman Ted Ashby and President Robin Rhyne, but many others talked about their own entrepreneurial efforts and how those successes might be encouraged.

Many floated specific proposals to stimulate economic development and create jobs.

One of the constraints on growth is Surry County’s workforce, I pointed out. Only three blocks north of the Olympia, AES (formerly Applied Electronic Services), SouthData and Ottenweller all want to expand their companies, but have had trouble finding suitable workers. AES needs electronics technicians and machinists, Ottenweller needs welders and metal fabricators and SouthData needs workers for packing, distribution, printing and sales. They’re not alone in the hunt for more workers; many companies in Surry County also need people who have certain job skills that don’t necessarily require an advanced education. I said a large part of the economic-development focus must be on improving workers’ skills and education.

Robin Rhyne said Surry Community College is aware of some of those needs. It has prepared facilities to train welders, for example. The college’s problem has been attracting students interested in such careers.

Subsequent discussion led to three of the many concrete proposals for changes and improvements in Surry County’s economic-development efforts:

• A Surry-specific “job bank” to connect companies and employees.
• More vocational training in the college and high schools and more career-oriented extracurricular activities such as DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), SkillsUSA-VICA (Vocational-Industrial Clubs of America), HERO (Home Economics-Related Occupations) and Junior Achievement.
• A city-sponsored task force, primarily composed of business leaders, to promote and encourage job-development in Mount Airy and the surrounding area.

Rhyne and Ashby said SCEDP is working on a number of economic-development efforts that haven’t drawn much publicity. For example, the partnership recently sent out 2,500 marketing packages to targeted industries (plastics and packaging, logistics and distribution, value-added food processors and others) in New England. The partnership followed up with direct calls to those industries. Those efforts require both manpower and money; for this initiative alone the partnership needed to hire a special consultant.

More than one speaker said all economic-development efforts in Mount Airy will require a greater investment of money and manpower than has been committed to date. Several said the partnership should be the focal point for economic-development efforts. (In a related development this week, SCEDP revealed it will have to relocate to a new office, because Surry Community College needs SCEDP’s existing site for development of its viticulture center. See news reports here and here.)

There was a lot of optimism and a positive, proactive spirit at the meeting, which Brookshire said afterwards are the kinds of attitudes that need encouragement. Citing John M. Schultz’s “Boomtown USA: The 7-1/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns,” Brookshire pointed out the No. 1 key is, “Adopt a can-do’ attitude.”

Tom Joyce covered the meeting for The Mount Airy News. His article, “Citizens serve up economic ideas,” quotes a number of people who spoke Tuesday — at least 20, by his count.

Brook Corwin reported by story for the Surry Messenger. See “City economic summit draws about 100.”

Related to that news coverage, several people talking after the meeting discussed ways to expand efforts (such as SurryBusiness.com) that will publicize business activity and economic-development opportunities in Surry County. As one possibility, local media and the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce might share their articles and information about new and expanding businesses, products and services and put more of those stories online.

So what happens next?

“After the meeting, commissioners Brown and Cochran said their appetites for progress were satisfied by the turnout and the various proposals offered,” Joyce reported. “Brown said a core group will be developed from the gathering to explore some of the ideas further. “

An “economic summit” where citizens can offer their suggestions for economic development in Mount Airy will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8, in the Olympia Restaurant on Riverside Drive at Linville Road.

City commissioners Deborah Cochran and Dean Brown set up the meeting. Both campaigned last year on promises to stimulate economic development and bring more jobs to the city. Both told local newspapers that they hope Tuesday’s meeting will generate new ideas and positive suggestions.

Anyone may attend.

The Olympia normally is closed Tuesday nights. Restaurant owner Dale Sechrist made it available without charge.

“Debbie is a longtime friend and customer,” Sechrist told The Mount Airy News. “I like the whole idea of what she’s trying to do and I have no problem with it at all. And who knows? Something good may come of it.”

Insteel Industries of Mount Airy will webcast its first-quarter 2008 earnings conference call at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 17.

The company will release its first-quarter financial results at 8:30 a.m. that day.

The conference call can be accessed on the company’s website where it will be archived for replay.

Surry County’s unemployment rate fell 0.1 percent in November while employment remained near its high for the year.

The North Carolina Employment Security Commission said 33,077 people in the resident workforce had jobs — only 64 fewer than in June when seasonal employment swelled the labor market.

There were 2,077 people seeking work and receiving unemployment benefits — 5.9 percent of the workforce — and though that was a slight improvement from October, when 2,108 were jobless, the number of idled workers was the third-highest total since February 2006.

Twelve months ago, in November 2006, 33,430 residents of Surry County had jobs and 1,748 (5.0 percent) were unemployed. Since that time there have been several major layoffs at textile and apparel plants in Mount Airy, but growth across the county in retail, service and government employment.

Elsewhere in the Piedmont Triad region of northwest North Carolina, local unemployment rates moved plus or minus 0.1 percent from October to November but were lower than in November 2006 or, in the Winston-Salem metropolitan area, unchanged.

Caswell and Montgomery counties had the region’s highest November unemployment rates at 6.3 percent; Forsyth and Yadkin had the lowest: 4.3 and 4.2 percent respectively.

Claudia Stowers, owner of Surrey Emporium in Mount Airy, is the Downtown Business Association’s new president.

She succeeds Twyla Sickmiller, co-owner of the Maxwell House Bed & Breakfast, who steps down to vice president.

Brandon Billings was re-elected treasurer.

Amy Slate, owner of Scarlet Begonias, and Sickmiller were reelected to the executive board. Joining them are new board members Mark Spencer of CyberGear and Stowers.

The DBA has about 60 members. The group promotes the downtown business district and sponsors activities such as the Holiday Open House.

Richard Vaughn of Mount Airy, chairman and CEO of John. S. Clark Company Inc., has received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Old Hickory Council of Boy Scouts of America. The council gives the annual award to an individual from northwest North Carolina who best exemplifies the ideals of Scouting through contributions to the community, state and nation.