Governor McAuliffe announces grand opening of Birthplace of Country Music Museum

English: Victor Talking Machine Company logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

~ New Smithsonian-affiliated Birthplace of Country Music Museum opened in Bristol ~

BRISTOL, Va. – Governor Terry McAuliffe announced the grand opening of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, VA-Tenn. The Smithsonian Institution-affiliated museum is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the 1927 Bristol Sessions and their lasting influence on American popular music.

The 24,000 sq. ft. space will tell Bristol’s story as the home of the Bristol Sessions through permanent, technology-infused exhibits, a special exhibits gallery, educational programs, multiple film experiences and a theater dedicated exclusively to live, year-round music performances.

In the summer of 1927, Ralph Peer, a producer for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey, saw Bristol’s potential as a hub for country music and decided to hold auditions. Artists such as the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers and the Stoneman Family made recordings in a makeshift recording studio inside Downtown Bristol’s Taylor-Christian Hat Company. Johnny Cash referred to the famous Sessions, often referred to as the “Big Bang of Country Music,” as “The single most important event in the history of country music.”

The grand opening of the museum also featured live music performances by Carlene Carter, The Whistles and the Bells, and country music superstar Martina McBride, who will perform on Sunday.

“Southwest Virginia has a strong legacy of musical heritage,” said Governor Terry McAuliffe, who spoke at today’s opening. “This new museum will educate the public on a significant part of country music’s history with a collection that you can’t find anywhere else in the world. The museum will offer visitors a brand new way to experience Southwest Virginia and a deeper understanding of this region.”

“This opening means great things for the economy in Virginia,” said Maurice Jones, Secretary of Commerce and Trade. “Music tourism brings millions of dollars a year in visitor spending. The museum will bring visitors to this region not only for the museum, but also to explore the other amazing venues along the Crooked Road. This visitation is estimated to have a nearly $50 million economic impact over five years.”

For more information on the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, visitbirthplaceofcountrymusic.org.

LOVE is at the heart of every Virginia vacation. For more information, please visit www.virginia.org.

Governor McAuliffe Signs Legislation Helping Bristol Move Forward on Economic Development Project

A sign welcomes visitors to the twin cities of Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

New law is McAuliffe’s first introduced legislation

Governor Terry McAuliffe today signed the first bill he introduced as Governor, Senate Bill 673, legislation that allows the City of Bristol to use sales tax revenues to help finance qualifying projects.  Without this important legislation, The Falls development in Bristol, Virginia, and its associated jobs, local investment, and planned regional impact would be in jeopardy.

“This legislation will help keep an important retail economic development project on track that could bring thousands of jobs to Bristol and Southwest Virginia,” said Governor McAuliffe. “Virginians send leaders to Richmond to work together and get things done, and this legislation is proof that we are capable of doing just that. I want to thank Senator Philip Puckett for his leadership on this important bill to help generate new economic activity in a region that truly needs it.”

Today Governor McAuliffe also signed House Bill 628, introduced by Delegate Terry Kilgore, gives counties the powers create hospital authorities.  In the wake of the devastating closing of Lee Regional Hospital, this legislation will allow Lee County to form a hospital authority.

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Governor McDonnell Announces $4.75 Million Investment in City of Bristol

English: The state seal of Virginia. Српски / Srpski: Застава америчке савезне државе Вирџиније. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shearer’s Foods will create between 20 and 25 new jobs

RICHMOND - Governor Bob McDonnell announced today that Shearer’s Foods, one of the largest producers of private label salty snacks in North America, will invest $4.75 million to expand its operation in the City of Bristol, Virginia. The expansion will add a tortilla chip line to better serve the needs of customers in the Southeast U.S. Virginia successfully competed against Tennessee for the project, which will create approximately 20-25 new jobs.

            Speaking about today’s announcement, Governor McDonnell said, “This snack food manufacturing operation has served the region for more than 40 years, and employs more than 200 in the City of Bristol. Shearer’s Foods’ multi-million dollar investment to expand and add an additional manufacturing line further solidifies the company’s future as a long-term corporate citizen as it grows and expands its markets. Bristol is a great fit for Shearer’s Foods, and we look forward to the company’s new jobs and continued success in Southwest Virginia.”

            “Since 1968, this plant in the City of Bristol has been producing snacks, and Shearer’s Foods continues to expand the markets it serves,” said Jim Cheng, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade. “The expansion of a thriving operation and new jobs is tremendous news for Southwest Virginia, and we are confident that a new product line and additional warehousing space will ensure success in the decades to come.”

            Founded in 1974 in Brewster, Ohio, and headquartered in Massillon, Ohio, Shearer’s Foods is a family-owned manufacturer and distributor of Shearer's award-winning snacks, one of the largest producers of private label salty snacks in North America. The company currently employs 2,000 people in five different states. The Bristol location presently has 275 employees and produces a variety of tortilla and potato chip products. This site has been making snack foods since 1968 and was purchased by Shearer’s in 2010.        

            “The Shearer’s facility located in Bristol, Virginia was selected as the ideal site to expand operations partially based on the economic incentives provided by the City of Bristol and the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition, we were attracted to the great skilled workforce available in the Bristol area,” said Mark Schwerdtfeger, Vice President at Shearer’s Foods. 

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Bristol and Virginia’s a Corridor to secure the project for Virginia. Governor McDonnell approved a $75,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist Bristol with the project. The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission approved $245,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds for the project. Through its Virginia Jobs Investment Program, the Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide funding and services to support the company’s recruitment and training activities.

            “The City of Bristol, Virginia is proud to be a central part of the Shearer’s Foods family,” said Bristol Mayor Guy Odum. “Shearer’s Foods is a great corporate citizen. To be selected as the site for this expansion is an expression of their trust in our workforce and our partnership.  The City enjoys strong relationships with the Commonwealth, from the Governor’s Office to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade to the VEDP, the aCorridor, the VDBA, and the Tobacco Commission. We even have support from the Tennessee Valley Authority as our energy provider through Bristol Virginia Utilities. These strong, collaborative partnerships are what establish Virginia as the best state for doing business, and the City of Bristol shares in that success. We look forward to even more growth from this fantastic company.”   

            “For the third time in a week, Southwest Virginia can celebrate new employment opportunities for our citizens,” said Senator Charles W. Carrico, member, the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission. “The success and expansion of Shearer's Foods is a victory for the people of this region and is a credit to the leaders and organizations who worked together to make this possible.  I am encouraged by this announcement and others, and I look forward to working with companies like Shearer's Foods to make sure Southwest Virginia continues to move toward an economic resurgence.”

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Governor McDonnell Praises Collaboration, Innovation, Research and Entrepreneurs for Creating Jobs in Southwest Virginia

English: Governor of Virginia at CPAC in . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“This Commonwealth of Opportunity” Tour Visit to WireTough Showcases Growth of Technology Economy in Region

BRISTOL - During a tour of WireTough Cylinders in Bristol’s industrial area, Governor Bob McDonnell discussed the results of his administration’s economic development initiatives that have focused on growing innovation and entrepreneurship all across Virginia, including in Southwest Virginia by companies and organizations advancing energy-efficient and clean technologies.

            Speaking about the visit, Governor McDonnell remarked, “All across the world, innovation is recognized as the premier path to economic expansion and job creation. And the drivers of innovation in our economy are entrepreneurs and workers at emerging, high-growth technology companies – individuals like Amit Prakash and the dedicated employees of his company, WireTough. These companies produce up to 33% of the new jobs being created today. That is why, as part of our economic development efforts, we pushed reforms and investments in seed-stage funding and research commercialization – two areas of innovation that are crucial for entrepreneurship to flourish. Additionally, instead of re-creating new programs, we have leveraged existing resources, such as the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center Foundation and Clean Energy R&D Center, the Secretary of Technology and the Center for Innovative Technology to create a collaborative ecosystem that is fueling innovation and company and job creation in Southwest Virginia.”

            “In addition to recognizing the new technologies and companies, the region is helping create and take advantage of new market opportunities,” Secretary of Technology Jim Duffey said.  “What we are seeing today is that when we unleash the entrepreneurial spirit, we are successful at creating opportunities to support the expansion of private-sector businesses and create new jobs here in the Commonwealth.”

            Working with the General Assembly, Governor McDonnell advanced reforms and additional funding for the CIT GAP Funds and the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF).The CIT GAP Funds make seed-stage equity investments in emerging technology companies with high growth potential.  The Funds rely on an Investment Advisory Board to approve the investment, and then to attract additional private sector investments, sometimes with a leverage of 13:1, depending on the stage of the company.  Since 2010, the Funds have helped 50 companies reach new growth levels, and Virginia saw significant growth in early-stage investments and new startups.

            One of those companies was WireTough, which in 2012 and again this year, received investments from the CIT GAP Funds’ Commonwealth Energy Fund for its proprietary technology that manufactures compressed natural gas (CNG) cylinders that are lighter, safer and increase fuel-efficiency for vehicles.

            Amit Prakash, WireTough CEO, said, “WireTough’s economical and safe tanks accelerate acceptance of natural gas vehicles while reducing a dependence on foreign oil. I am grateful to the McDonnell Administration’s focus on emerging technology companies like mine, and for the CIT GAP Funds’ investment that gives the opportunity to generate these unique technologies and to grow our company. ”

            Governor McDonnell noted that in addition to making seed-stage investments, “innovation requires commercialization. Although Virginia has been fortunate over the years to receive billions of federal dollars, including research investments, the investments in accelerating the commercialization of that research has been episodic and uncertain. That is why we also worked to reform and invest in the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund.”

The CRCF is administered by CIT to facilitate research commercialization to build new companies and create jobs.  To prioritize those investments, the McDonnell administration and General Assembly created the Research and Technology Strategic Roadmap (the R&T Roadmap), a strategic planning tool aligned with the CRCF that links investments to regional industry sector priorities with commercial promise that are worthy of institutional focus and economic development. Lastly, they also established the Commonwealth Research and Technology Investment Advisory Committee (RTIAC), a body of public and private sector research experts, that advises the Board of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority (IEIA) on CRCF investments.  Altogether, these programs outline a strategic direction that aligns the Commonwealth’s strengths with short- and long-term goals; drives smart investment decisions and innovation; and creates future job and company creation, and higher wages.

            Since FY2012, the first fiscal year the reforms took place, 89 awards have been executed totaling $8.8 million in investment from the CRCF. The projects varied, from cybersecurity to modeling and simulation applications for homeland security to biolife technologies and therapies for the early detection and treatment of cancer.   The Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center Foundation and the Clean Energy R&D Center received a $100,000 CRCF award, the first for Southwest Virginia for a project entitled “Tazewell County Renewable Natural Gas.” 

            Governor McDonnell further remarked, “These investments show that innovation and entrepreneurship are strong, and alive and well in Southwest Virginia, and we need to make sure that we have the tools in place to help companies like WireTough and research at the Clean Energy R&D Center and the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center Foundation, which will bring new economic opportunities to the people who live and work here, and who are trying to create a better life and future for their families.”

Governor Bob McDonnell Announces “This Commonwealth of Opportunity” Statewide Tour

English: Governor of Virginia at CPAC in . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Will Travel Virginia from Bristol to Machipongo to Fairfax

***Tour Highlights Virginia’s Successes During McDonnell Administration***

RICHMOND- Governor Bob McDonnell will embark this Friday on a week-long “This Commonwealth of Opportunity” tour of Virginia. The tour, which begins in Salem and concludes in Leesburg, will highlight Virginia’s successes over the past three and a half years including a falling unemployment rate, rebounding shellfish industry, transportation breakthroughs, open space conservation achievements, increased agricultural exports, and educational innovations to benefit Virginia’s students, teachers and parents. The tour will take the governor, and members of the cabinet, from Virginia’s highest bridge in Buchanan County in the mountains of Southwest Virginia to a vineyard located between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean on the Eastern Shore. Along the way the tour will be stopping everywhere from Civil War battlefields to growing research universities to 21st century technology companies.

            Speaking about the upcoming tour, Governor McDonnell noted, “This is a Commonwealth of Opportunity. Over the past three and a half years, through bipartisan cooperation, Virginia has taken tremendous steps forward. Our unemployment rate has fallen from 7.3% to 5.5% and is the lowest in the Southeast, and far below the national average. Since the beginning of our administration, Virginia has added 172,600 net new jobs. Agricultural exports have reached record highs. At the same time we’ve posted four straight revenue surpluses, more than doubled the state’s Rainy Day Fund, and dramatically reduced the future unfunded liabilities in our pension system. State workers have received their first pay raise in 6 years. We broke a nearly three-decade long standstill on transportation funding to put in place a bold new plan that will pump nearly $6 billion in new revenue into roads and rail around the state over the next five years. We’ve made college more affordable and accessible for Virginia students, and added thousands of new slots for in-state students at our colleges and universities. And our K-12 system is stronger than ever with the implementation of new reforms and policies that will ensure all students get the world-class educations they deserve. In short, the last three and a half years have witnessed significant progress being made in addressing the challenges facing our citizens in their daily lives. Virginia has more jobs; Virginians have more opportunities. I look forward to traveling the state in the days ahead to see some of these successes first-hand, and to learn more about what we can continue to do in Richmond to improve the lives of all Virginians.” 

            A full tour schedule is listed below.

Governor Bob McDonnell’s “This Commonwealth of Opportunity” Statewide Tour

August 9^th – August 15^th

Friday, August 9, 2013

Salem - 1:00 PM

Governor McDonnell Announces Strategic Compensation Grant Recipients

Andrew Lewis Middle School Library

616 South College Avenue

Salem

Roanoke – 2:45 PM

Governor McDonnell Joins Transit Leaders for Announcement about Amtrak Service to Roanoke

Pedestrian Walkway between the Roanoke Convention Center and Hotel Roanoke

710 Williamson Road

Roanoke

Bristol – 5:00 PM

Governor McDonnell Visits the Birthplace of Country Music Museum

520 Cumberland St‎

Bristol

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Bristol – 11:00 AM

Governor McDonnell Tours Wire Tough

14570 Industrial Park Road, Suite C

Bristol

Breaks – 2:30 PM

Governor McDonnell Takes Part in U.S. Route 460 Connector Phase I Project Briefing

Phase I Project Site (off Route 80 adjacent to Breaks Interstate Park)

627 Commission Circle

Breaks

Galax – 5:45 PM

Governor McDonnell attends Old Fiddler's Convention “Poor Man's Supper”

Felt's Park

601 S. Main Street

Galax

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Blackstone –2:30 PM

Governor McDonnell Visits Virginia National Guard Units at Fort Pickett and Tours Facilities

Fort Pickett

Blackstone

Monday, August 12, 2013

Lynchburg –10:00 AM

Governor McDonnell Participates in Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Governor’s STEM Academy

Central Virginia Community College—AREVA Technology Center

3506 Wards Road

Lynchburg

Release: https://www.governor.virginia.gov/news/viewRelease.cfm?id=1472

Lynchburg – 11:30 AM

Governor McDonnell Takes Part in Odd Fellows Road Interchange Project Briefing

VDOT Training Center—Ramey Memorial Auditorium

4303 Campbell Avenue (Rt. 501)

Lynchburg

Release: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/news/viewRelease.cfm?id=1907

Danville –2:15 PM

Governor McDonnell Tours Precision Machining Center at Danville Community College

Danville Community College—Charles R. Hawkins Engineering & Industrial Technologies Building

Boswell Street

Danville

Ringgold - 3:30 PM

Governor McDonnell Participates in Groundbreaking Ceremony for Dan River Plants, LLC

Dan River Industrial Park

2311 Cane Creek Parkway

Ringgold

Release: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/news/viewRelease.cfm?id=1891 

Martinsville – 5:30 PM

Governor McDonnell Hosts Cook Out for State Employees

Virginia Museum of Natural History—Great Hall

21 Starling Avenue

Martinsville

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Virginia Beach - 10:30 AM

Governor McDonnell Visits Sugar Plum Bakery

1353 Laskin Road

Virginia Beach

Portsmouth – 1:00 PM

Governor McDonnell Participates in Conversation about Virginia’s New Restoration of Rights Policy

Tidewater Community College—Portsmouth Campus Building A

120 Campus Drive

Portsmouth

Release: https://www.governor.virginia.gov/news/viewRelease.cfm?id=1895

Chesapeake – 2:30 PM

Governor McDonnell Makes Major Economic Development Announcement

*Details to be announced closer to event.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Machipongo – 9:00 AM

Governor McDonnell Tours Chatham Vineyards and Winery

9232 Chatham Road

Machipongo

Weems – 11:00 AM
Governor McDonnell Tours Kellum Seafood’s Oyster Harvesting, Shucking and Packing Facility

Kellum Seafood

96 Shipyard Lane

Weems

Fredericksburg – 2:15 PM

Governor McDonnell Tours Intuit and Meets with Employees

110 Juliad Court

Fredericksburg

Woodbridge - 4:15 PM

Governor McDonnell Participates in Roundtable Discussion on Veteran Issues

VFW 1503 Dale City

14631 Minnieville Road

Woodbridge

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Alexandria – 9:30 AM

Governor McDonnell Participates in Roundtable on K-12 Education Reform

*Details to be announced closer to event.

Fairfax – 11:00 AM

Governor McDonnell Discusses Higher Education Policy Reform and the Path Forward

George Mason University

4400 University Drive

Fairfax

Leesburg – 12:30 PM

Governor McDonnell Makes Major Civil War Battleground Preservation Announcement

Ball's Bluff State Park

Leesburg