Taking on a new job during a pandemic could spell rough waters, particularly if the job relies on global commerce.
But the past eight months largely have been smooth sailing for Stephen Edwards, the new CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, which oversees the Port of Virginia.
Edwards came onboard in January, relocating from the West Coast where he was CEO of Los Angeles-based TraPac LLC, which operates container terminals and provides stevedore services in California and Florida. He replaced John Reinhart, who retired in January after a seven-year tenure during which he oversaw major revenue growth and expansion at the port, which had been faltering financially before Reinhart took over.
Stephen Edwards became CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority in January.
Edwards inherited a modernized port that continues to see record increases in shipping volume, despite a challenging year for the movement of goods and services. Also, the port is moving forward with numerous projects to increase its business, with the potential to benefit economic development efforts in Hampton Roads and across the state.
During the 2021 fiscal year, which ended June 30, cargo volume for the Port of Virginia, the fifth largest container port in the United States, was up by 16.8% compared with the prior year. Though cargo volume was lower in July and August 2020 due to the pandemic, the port processed 3.2 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit containers, a standard unit of cargo capacity) during fiscal 2021, compared with 2.75 million TEUs in the prior year.
Also, loaded import TEUs were up 18.6%, compared with the previous year, while rail containers rose 16.7% in fiscal 2021.
Strong e-commerce buying patterns are one of the main factors driving cargo volume increases.
“One of the outcomes of changing behavior during the pandemic has been an extraordinary boom in buying goods,” Edwards says. “There’s been a significant uptick in shipments in home improvements, whether it’s furniture or refrigerators or bathroom improvements.”
Additionally, cargo shippers “are winning confidence in Virginia as a port,” says Edwards. “We have this strong market going, and we have had people choosing to use us because we have been able to provide good service.”
Digging deep
The port’s growing business sets the stage for one of its major projects — dredging the commercial channels that serve the Norfolk Harbor to 55 feet by 2024 to accommodate super-size cargo vessels, as well as two-way shipping traffic. The $350 million project also will widen the channels to more than 1,400 feet in specific areas.
In July, the port authority board awarded a $39.5 million contract to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. LLC to dig on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The contract builds on work by another company, Weeks Marine, which is dredging the west side.
In May, the port welcomed the CMA CGM Marco Polo, thought to be the biggest container ship ever to call in Virginia, at nearly 1,300 feet in length (more than four football fields long) with a capacity of 16,022 TEUs.
Deeper waters are needed for bigger ships.
Deepening and widening port channels “speaks directly to our customers, the ocean carriers,” says Joe Harris, spokesman for the port. “In two years, you are going to be able to bring in bigger ships and bigger ships with more cargo.”
Once complete, the channels would be able to simultaneously accommodate ultra-large container vessels. Making room for two-way traffic will increase shipping efficiency, says David White, executive director of the Virginia Maritime Association, which promotes international and domestic commerce through Virginia’s ports.
In July, the port’s board agreed to lease 70 acres at Portsmouth Marine Terminal to Dominion Energy, which will use the terminal as a construction staging site for its $7.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm. Photos courtesy Port of Virginia
Right now, when an ultra-large container ship calls on the port, the channel is restricted to one-way traffic for three to four hours, he says. Ships sailing in the opposite direction must wait until the one-way traffic restriction lifts before continuing.
Once the dredging project is complete, two-way traffic will be allowed at all times.
Also, this fall, the port will break ground on a $44 million expansion project to double the capacity of the railyard at its Norfolk International Terminals. The bulk of the work will focus on construction of 10,700 feet of new track inside the terminal.
The Norfolk rail operation can handle 368,000 containers annually. In the next decade, the port projects that it will need capacity to process an additional 200,000 containers for export. Edwards says the expansion will add about 80% more rail capacity at the Norfolk facility.
As of October 2020, 34% of the port’s total volume moved to market via double-stack rail service.
A $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2020 Port Infrastructure Development Discretionary Grants Program will help fund a portion of the Norfolk rail expansion.
InterChange Group Inc., a storage and supply chain logistics company based in Mount Crawford, plans to take advantage of this expanded rail capacity. It’s been using the port since 2005 to transport packaging materials, cabinets, frozen fruit, poultry and more via truck and rail.
InterChange has a new cold storage facility, and the company is making plans to ship more frozen foods via the port’s truck and rail services.
As of October 2020, 34% of the port’s total volume moved to market via double-stack rail service. Photos courtesy Port of Virginia
“We expect more rail movements into the future, and the Port of Virginia is a leader in rail movements already,” says Devon Anders, president of InterChange Group.
Plus, moving items by rail keeps trucks off the road, which reduces traffic congestion, he says.
The port has another key goal for the future — to become the hub for Virginia’s developing offshore wind industry.
In July, the port’s board agreed to lease 70 acres at its Portsmouth Marine Terminal to Dominion Energy, which plans to build its $7.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm 27 miles off Virginia Beach’s coast, erecting about 180 wind turbines. The Portsmouth terminal would be used as a staging space to deploy equipment for building the massive turbines, each of which will tower 800 feet above the ocean surface. Dominion has already installed two pilot wind turbines, each 600 feet high.
“It really is an enabling step to help the whole [offshore wind] industry develop in Hampton Roads,” Edwards says.
Hampton Roads is a prime area for this kind of industry to grow because it has accessible ports and employs a workforce that is similar to the one already employed by the region’s maritime and Navy facilities, says Matt Smith, director of offshore wind business development for the Hampton Roads Alliance.
“When we talk about the Port of Virginia, one of our natural advantages is our port infrastructure. We feel like it’s the best and well suited to support the offshore wind industry on the East Coast,” he says.
There will be at least 900 jobs needed to support various stages of developing, manufacturing, installing and operating the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, according to an economic analysis conducted by Glen Allen-based Mangum Economics for the alliance. Also, it’s estimated that for each gigawatt of new offshore wind energy capacity, it will require roughly 3,100 workers in Hampton Roads, and the Dominion wind farm plans to generate 2.6 gigawatts.
“It’s not often that you have the chance to be one of the hubs of the industry that has the potential to create a lot of jobs and new development in the region,” Smith says. “We’re excited about the industry for both of those benefits.”
The Portsmouth Marine Terminal is well positioned to support the Dominion project due to its proximity to the ocean, as well as the fact that there are no bridges that ships must pass under, making it easier to ferry large wind turbine components, White says. “We have tremendous advantages in terms of infrastructure,” he adds.
But all of Virginia, not just Hampton Roads, stands to reap economic benefits from the development of the offshore wind industry. The economic impact of the project has the potential to trickle throughout the state, White says. For example, the Dominion wind farm turbines will need companies to install service elevators for maintenance, White says, and those may come from outside the region.
The Port of Virginia offers numerous benefits for Virginia’s economic development, whether in offshore wind development or other work. But one needed ingredient to help the port continue to grow and boost Virginia’s economy is drawing more large manufacturing companies to the commonwealth, says Stephen Moret, president and CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. He also serves on the port’s board.
“If you imagine, a huge portion of the business of the Port of Virginia is not starting or ending in Virginia,” Moret says. “We are missing out on opportunities that are not in the port’s control. Attracting more of these large projects to locate in Virginia, they would be great customers for the port and maximize the return on investment.”ν
Brought to you by Virginia Business and Bank of America, join us every other month for the Diversity Leadership Series — virtual fireside chats with a diverse group of Virginia business leaders sharing their insights and thoughts on leadership, their career paths, and diversity and equity.
Our series kicked off on July 20 with Brian Robertson, CEO of Mechanicsville-based Marion Marketing Global LLC, interviewing Ron Carey, founder and CEO of Tilt Creative + Production, a Richmond-based agency that produces advertising and promotional content for clients such as Capital One Financial Corp., Walmart Inc. and Audi of America.
Below is an abridged version of their conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Brian Robertson: Under your leadership, you have turned Tilt Creative + Production into a global player in the creative space. What do you attribute to the credit of your rapid growth?
Ron Carey is founder and CEO of Tilt Creative + Production, a Richmond ad and marketing agency with clients such as Capital One, Walmart and Audi of America Photo by Shandell Taylor.
Ron Carey: First of all, I’ll make a comment that I didn’t … do it by myself. I had a wonderful set of great partners. Stacy Murphy and Dave Trownsell are my business partners in that venture. First of all, we started with a small plan … to try and find a better way of creating content. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure that we could do it with some of the best people in the world creatively as well as just some people who were just good people at their core. That’s really the foundation of Tilt.
Robertson:Briefly, Ron, explain to us how Tilt Creative + Production even came about.
Carey: That’s an interesting story. … This was 2017 and I had been running a small digital agency called Studio Squared. Studio Squared at the time primarily focused on creating content in-store for Walmart. There were some changes in the business, and we had a wonderful opportunity to step back and think about, “Where would we like the business to go moving forward?” That was November of 2017. At the time … one of my senior creatives said [to me], “Chief, you used to have a conversation with the Park Group. Dave and Stacy, they would be interesting. They’ve got some ideas and thoughts.”
From that conversation, started … this notion of what would happen if we took a creative company, Studio Squared, … and [a media production company like] Park Group and we merged it into one thing? At the time it was unheard of that you would have a creative agency and a production company all under one roof, but … we were anticipating that brands would have a need for a content partner, and a way to more easily develop content [and] develop a strategy around it. That started us on the path. We … literally moved across the street down to Park Group, and in January 2018, we started working together. That’s been almost four years now.
Robertson: That’s amazing — wow! — to have that vision.
Carey: I would like to think that was a vision. Some of it was a bit of luck. I think some of it was a bit about just being able to focus on seeing an opportunity. … We often hear business school professors talk about, “Well, what’s the need? What’s the problem to be solved?” … We believed enough in it that we thought, “Let’s go ahead and take the step.” When you can take the step with people that you trust, and you feel they’re going to hold up their end of the bargain, it makes it a lot easier.
Robertson: What has been some of your toughest challenges of being an entrepreneur in a media space that is dominated by people who mainly don’t look like us?
Carey: It’s interesting. Sometimes I’ll say it jokingly, but I’ve been Black 53 years, my entire life. You don’t think about it. … I think you recognize that there’s a transformation that was going on, both in media and marketing and advertising, Richmond, the broader community, as well as the broader business environment. I’m thankful, really, to my parents for this … approach of, “There are just some amazing people in the world. Some of them are going to look like you and some of them won’t look like you.” Some of the folks that didn’t look like me were folks that were incredibly influential on my career.
Brian Robertson is CEO of Mechanicsville-based Marion Marketing Global LLC. Photo by Shandell Taylor
I look back at … what I learned from the Mars family [of Mars Inc.], because I spent 13 or 14 years working for the Mars family. I walked away with a vast amount of knowledge. … On the surface, we might not have had a lot of things in common, but from that experience, I was able to take The Five Principles away, just as one example.
I don’t think I thought about the racial component [in my own business] as much as I thought about, “How do you make payroll? How do you bring your talent along that you need to bring along? Do you really have something that’s compelling, that a client’s going to want to pay for?” Because at the end of the day, that’s what I want to make sure that we do.
The fact that I’m an African American is important, but I want … our clients to feel like the work that we do is amazing work, it’s smart work, it stands up against the work that anyone else can be doing, and for that, you’re willing to compensate us for it. That’s the path that I’ve gone down. I think along that journey … what I realized is I had been awarded this platform because of the success of the business and some of the things I’d done in the community … to be able to speak out about some things and bring awareness to some things, and also share a perspective back. … Maybe there were obstacles there from a race perspective, but quite honestly, I didn’t feel like I had the time to pause and think about it.
I will say this though, I remember … we had closed on the [Tilt Creative] deal [on] Jan. 31st, [2018]. The offices were empty, and I had been so busy that I had forgotten that it was Martin Luther King King [Jr.] Day. My head of finance came to me, and she said, “Wow, this is pretty amazing. You guys got this deal closed. You’ve been able to buy the company, get things started. Oh, by the way, happy Martin Luther King Day.” I was just like, wow. I had been so heads-down that I’ve forgotten what the time was. It was a momentous occasion for me.
Robertson: You work with a lot of global brands like Hellmann’s, Walmart, Audi. Tell us about a rewarding campaign that you worked on for not so much of a big brand.
Carey: I think that’s a really interesting one. A business partner, she thought highly enough of us to reach out to us. It’s a fairly small thing, but again, there were moments in times, there are pivotal moments, when things happen.
She brought us an opportunity for VCPI, Virginia Center for Policing Innovation. They were really looking for assistance on how to think about speaking to diverse communities, and not just African American, but Native American, so they wanted to have a very broad conversation about that. It’s been our pleasure, over the last several years, to find that voice of those communities, to be able to articulate and create a dialogue between the Virginia Center for Policing Innovation that they were working on and this broad set of communities. That’s just one that we took great pride in.
I love the brand work that we have a chance to do, but I also think about …. ChildSavers. It’s [a nonprofit] organization focused on mental health and child development services. We had the opportunity to develop a long-form piece of content to help tell the story around the work that they’ve been doing for almost 100 years, which is just amazing. It was our pleasure to just really get in and be able to tell an emotional story and help during a time where they’re going through a significant capital campaign.
Those are the two things that resonate with me as you start to think about how you take the art of storytelling and then have it impact the world.
Robertson: Tilt mainly creates content for online digital space as well as for television, repurposing it all over the place. Where do you see Tilt growing in the next five years?
Carey: I’ll get to what I think the growth is … [but] I feel like as the keeper of the culture … I think the intent, first and foremost, is let’s make sure that we continue to have a positive impact on the world. That’s the most significant thing. I often tell people, when we started the company, it wasn’t just purely about the profit that could be generated, it was not only about the opportunities, but it was about having a broader impact on the world, in our communities. Providing our folks a living and being able to invest in the things that we feel like make a difference to people, that would be a key driver for us.
That should ground where Tilt is over the next several years, but I see a really bright future. I feel like Tilt and the model that we’ve put together is something that certainly can grow across North America. You mentioned globally, we are already working globally. I think with the right opportunities that present themselves, I could certainly see another presence someplace else in North America … as well as outside, in perhaps Europe. … What’s happened over the last year and a half is we’ve all learned how to work remotely. We’ve made investments in technology. … Now we can shoot and record things out of our production studio and then have clients sit almost virtually anywhere in the world and provide feedback on cuts and edits and things that we’re doing. The business model has shifted dramatically and may not require nearly as much physical structure because you can work from anywhere in the world as long as you’ve got the right connectivity.
Robertson: Absolutely. With a staff of over 40 people, how do you find all of these great creative minds, first of all? And how do you keep them all engaged and happy?
Carey: That’s an interesting challenge, right? Creative people are really interesting, as you know, and unique and special. It’s like harnessing a bunch of superpowers together. It’s like getting a team of the Avengers and trying to get them to all work together, move in the right direction, but I think we do it well. … How do we do that? I think it [goes] back to that bit around the culture that I was talking about — truly being a culture that cares about people, that seeks people who are really good to their core, that’s massive. I can’t teach you that. I can’t give you that gift. I can model it for you, but I think if you have it inherently, then we should attract those kinds of people.
When you look for good people, and you find them, and you treat them well, it starts to attract other people. I think that’s the most powerful talent model that we’ve got. … Once that radiates to the world, there are others that then want to say, “Gosh, that’s something I want to be a part of.” That’s literally what I think my role is: to make sure that we can set up that type of environment and model that behavior, such that others say, “That’s something I want to be a part of.”
Robertson: For my final question, what motivates you each day? What makes Ron Carey care in Tilt?
Carey: It’s something that I would challenge anyone who’s looking at this to think about, and that is understanding what your purpose is. Several years ago, I came to the conclusion that my purpose was to leave this world better than I found it and have a positive impact on the lives of people that I come in contact with. Some of those interactions may be big, some of those interactions may be small. … It’s not about the words you say, it’s about the feelings that you leave people with, and that’s what I want us to continue to do.
What motivates me is looking at my three daughters, two of which are grown now, and putting people into the world who are resilient and thoughtful, and hopefully wanting to have an impact.
Then I look with great pride [at] the 45 employees that we’ve got, that are doing things in the world and being thoughtful and having an impact on both clients and the broader Richmond community. That’s what keeps me going, man. I’m an optimist to my core. I will continue to be optimistic about the opportunities both for Richmond and our business and the broader community. That’s just how I roll. ν
This year was expected to be a rough one for employers, following predictions of a coming tidal wave of costly employee lawsuits and labor complaints powered by the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s racial justice protests.
So far, though, that onslaught of litigation hasn’t materialized. Why not? Partly because the pandemic itself closed courts for months last year in Virginia, so there is a backlog of litigation to work through, say employment attorneys. And lawyers for employers and employees are waiting to see how the courts rule in any active employment-related lawsuits to help them figure out legal strategies. Plus, there are new state and federal laws to sort out.
A wave is likely still coming, though, say employment attorneys, so businesses shouldn’t let their guard down. “While the sky is not falling, I still think there’s a lot of risk for employers,” says Todd Leeson, a partner at Roanoke-based Gentry Locke Attorneys.
For one thing, many employers have gone from offering incentives for vaccinations to mandating that their employees get vaccinated. And while courts have generally been upholding an employer’s right to issue employee vaccination mandates, Leeson says, there are legitimate exceptions that can be carved out for health issues and religious beliefs and that can create some room for disputes around a hot button issue that can trigger strong emotions.
“While the sky is not falling, I still think there’s a lot of risk for employers,” says Todd Leeson, a partner at Roanoke-based Gentry Locke Attorneys. Photo courtesy Gentry Locke Attorneys
“I do think the folks who are not vaccinated who perceive that they’re being singled out unfairly are going to challenge that if they end up getting fired,” says Leeson, who represents companies and employers in labor and employment cases.
Another reason businesses haven’t yet seen the predicted wave of litigation is Virginia’s particular business and legal culture, says Alexandra Cunningham, a Richmond-based partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth, who co-heads the firm’s products liability and mass tort litigation practice group. Virginia juries generally aren’t that tort-friendly, she says, and the state’s purple-shaded politics means less chance of conflict between courts and state policymakers. Virginia also has a less vulnerable workforce than other states, offering more white collar jobs that allowed work-from-home options, she says.
“I also think frankly we had a pretty strong [state] response to the virus, so we don’t have some of the issues that states like New York had,” she says, adding that better control over the pandemic generally means fewer lawsuits. “And we were late to have a surge and the guidance was already in place.”
According to a national database maintained by Hunton Andrews Kurth that tracks state and federal litigation involving COVID-19 claims, the most litigious state, California, had 2,018 pandemic-related legal complaints from January 2020 through July 2021. New York was second, with 1,743 pieces of litigation. During the same period, Virginia tallied just 135 pandemic-related complaints.
Even nationwide, the pandemic litigation count shows no surge in 2021, according to the Hunton database. Nationwide last year there were 7,734 lawsuits related to the pandemic. Through July of this year, there are 3,767 complaints.
Nevertheless, employment attorneys say they haven’t lacked for work amid the pandemic. “Firms have been incredibly busy over the past year,” Cunningham says. “Like the rest of the world, businesses have had to drink from a fire hose to figure out the obligations they have to respond to [in regards to] protecting employees and following mandates — especially at the [pandemic’s] beginning, when those mandates were changing constantly.”
Expected boom is quiet
A major development for employers is the Virginia Values Act, which went into effect in July 2020. It expands the scope of the Virginia Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination in employment and housing based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Leeson says when the act was approved, defense attorneys predicted disaster for corporate defendants, while plaintiff’s lawyers were saying, “This is a new day in Virginia and we’re anxious to start filing these claims.” But “lo and behold,” Leeson says, “there have been very few cases” related to the act.
That’s partly because of the timing — the Virginia Values Act took effect during the pandemic — and partly because of the administrative processes the new law includes. This January, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring created the Office of Civil Rights, which expanded and reorganized his office’s previous Division of Human Rights. Prior to the Virginia Values Act, discrimination claims based on race or gender identity would have been handled exclusively in federal courts. Now there’s a state court option with different rules and an investigation phase that can take months to complete. “There’s probably not a smooth-running machine in trying to process these complaints,” Leeson says. That could push potential litigation even farther down the road, as attorneys for both employers and workers study what the law requires and watch to see how courts respond.
Recent developments such as vaccine mandates, remote work and marijuana legalization may lead to litigation against employers, says University of Richmond law professor Henry Chambers Jr. Photo courtesy University of Richmond
There are plenty of issues that might result in litigation against employers, says Henry Chambers Jr., a professor with the University of Richmond School of Law who teaches constitutional law and employment discrimination. There are vaccine rules, the treatment of remote and in-office workers, and marijuana policies now that recreational marijuana use is legal in Virginia.
Given the social protests related to civil rights that erupted last year following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Chambers predicts workers returning to the workplace will have “shorter fuses, and they will feel freer to discuss issues in the office” that they previously might have avoided.
“It’s difficult because our workplaces can become kind of our second homes, which can be a plus and a minus,” he says. As people return to commuting and to sharing a workplace again, “there are a whole host of human resources issues that might turn into litigation.”
Compliance confusion
There also continues to be considerable confusion among businesses over pandemic-related state and federal requirements. And providing compliance advice is driving a lot of business for law firms. “It’s been that way the entire time,” says Karen Doner, founding partner of Tysons-based Doner Law, which specializes in employment law and commercial litigation.
Virginia, for example, was the first state to pass a workplace safety standard specific to COVID-19, she says. The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry’s “Final Permanent Standard for Infectious Disease Prevention of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus That Causes COVID-19” went into effect in January. Before that, Virginia employers were expected to operate under a “Temporary Permanent Standard” implemented in July 2020.
Depending on the types of tasks employees perform, state workplace requirements for employers to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19 can include a range of requirements for training, protective equipment, and reporting and notification. Virginia employers failing to comply with the state standard are subject to fines up to $12,726 for serious violations and $127,254 for willful violations.
“Many employers are under the impression that the Final Permanent Standard is no longer in effect, but it is,” Doner says. “It’s troubling that the guidance has not been clearer.”
There also continues to be considerable confusion among businesses over pandemic-related state and federal requirements, says Karen Doner with Tysons-based Doner Law. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
Additionally, employers who provide health care services or support services must comply with the federal OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard, which went into effect in June.
Employers remain perplexed over which of the layers of state and federal rules apply to them. Mask requirements, for example, have been hard to follow, Doner says, with differing requirements for certain work settings and rule changes from federal, state and local authorities.
With the rising threat of the COVID-19 delta variant interfering with planned returns to offices, employers can count on uncertainty to continue. And for attorneys who guide employers through the changing legal terrain, there is much to learn. The past year is “the most challenged I’ve been in my whole career,” Doner says.
Much of what’s happening now for businesses and their legal counsel is based around preventing legal liability. Jeremy Schneider, principal with the Washington, D.C., office of Jackson Lewis, represents businesses facing workplace litigation, and his firm also conducts corporate trainings to help businesses avoid litigation in a range of areas, such as diversity in hiring related to age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or other characteristics unrelated to job performance. “We have a lot of employers asking us to do unconscious bias training,” he says. “Now more than ever, employers need to be vigilant and aware of the problems that can arise.”
As courts work through any legal challenges to the new laws, employment attorneys are paying close attention to how courts are interpreting new laws and regulations. “It’s been fun to watch a new area develop,” says Cunningham with Hunton Andrews Kurth. “There’s a lot of new law being developed right now, so it’s interesting.”
Nicole Clark wants the nurses she supervises to do everything they can to keep themselves, their patients and co-workers safe from COVID-19.
That means wearing personal protective equipment, social distancing, frequent hand washing — and getting vaccinated against the disease.
Valley Health, a nonprofit health system that includes Winchester Medical Center and five other hospitals, as well as urgent care facilities and physician practices, announced in July that all employees, medical providers and contractors will be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“This was just one more thing we could add to our toolkit to protect our patients and our staff,” says Clark, a nursing director at Winchester Medical Center.
Valley Health has about 6,300 employees, and about 72% have received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Valley Health President and CEO Mark Nantz.
In Virginia, Inova Health System, Mary Washington Healthcare and VCU Health System also require staff to receive COVID-19 immunizations. UVA Health requires all new employees to be vaccinated before beginning work. Current employees must either be vaccinated, have had COVID-19 in the last 150 days, or be working remotely to avoid weekly COVID-19 tests.
More than 55 medical groups, including the American Medical Association, issued a statement in July supporting mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for health care workers.
“I think you’ll see more and more [health systems] require it as the days go by,” says Nantz.
That’s not to say everyone was happy with Valley Health’s new policy.
On July 26, the Front Royal Town Council heard from more than 50 residents over a proposed ordinance to prohibit town employers from terminating workers who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The council rejected the measure by 3-2.
Brittany Watson, a registered nurse at Winchester Medical Center, and her girlfriend, Katherine Hart, a nurse practitioner at nearby Valley Health Urgent Care in Martinsburg, West Virginia, planned to lead protests over the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy in early August.
Watson and Hart both fell ill with COVID-19 in 2020. Neither woman plans to get a vaccine. “I believe in natural immunity,” Watson says.
Nantz expects some employees will leave Valley Health over the requirement. Watson and Hart are considering opening an independent practice together.
It’s a price Valley Health System is willing to pay. “I need a vaccinated workforce that’s well-protected,” Nantz says.
Stu Shea, chairman, president and CEO of Herndon-based national security contractor Peraton Inc., is overseeing the integration of two recently acquired businesses that marked some of Virginia’s most significant business deals in 2021.
Shea has been included in both editions of Virginia Business’ annual Virginia 500 issue, a compilation of the state’s 500 most powerful and influential leaders in business, government and higher education. The 2021 edition was published in September.
Earlier this year, Peraton completed both the $7.1 billion purchase of Chantilly federal IT contractor Perspecta Inc. and the $3.4 billion acquisition of Northrop Grumman Corp.’s federal IT and mission support services business, with the backing of Peraton parent company Veritas Capital, a New York-based private equity firm.
Shea says the integration of two longstanding companies with different cultures into Peraton, which was created in 2017 after Veritas purchased then-122-year-old Harris Corp. Government Services, has been a challenge — especially amid a worldwide pandemic. He anticipates that Peraton’s workforce of 22,000 will remain steady and ultimately grow over time. In July, the company reorganized its executive team, hiring a chief information officer, chief human resources officer and chief procurement officer.
“I always had this view: ‘Be unafraid of the impossible,’” Shea says. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
Shea himself is legendary in the field of national security, having designed some of the CIA’s first computer systems in the early 1980s. He also was instrumental in the split of Science Applications International Corp. into Leidos Holdings Inc. and a new SAIC and later became president and chief operating officer for Leidos Holdings Inc.
Virginia Business:How is the integration going, both with Perspecta and with Northrop Grumman’s division?
Shea: First of all, there is the integration of all the people, places and things, and then there’s the integration of the business, the culture, attitudes and those kinds of things. From an integration standpoint, you always have to worry about, “How do I integrate our IT systems?” That’s going very, very well. “How do I integrate our business processes?” — that’s also going very well.
In our case, because we had “heritage Peraton” and then we immediately began to integrate the Northrop Grumman business and then we added to that the Perspecta business, it got a little complicated. Because Perspecta was a publicly traded company that was highly integrated, we are essentially folding ourselves into their systems. From an IT standpoint, we will get the benefit of a rigorous integrated environment.
The challenge is getting the data from Northrop Grumman, for example, because [NG’s systems are] in a completely different form and format. … They have different tools that they use for their business development. We have different tools here.
We had a lot of commonality, so we’ll integrate all the data. Once we integrate the data, you integrate the business processes that surround that. So, what’s your workflow? How do you go about your business? How do you create decisions? We have 700 [or] 800 policies right now that govern all three companies. I’d like to get that down to a couple of dozen.
As you look forward, you’re going to start making choices and [prioritize] one business over another or assimilate businesses.
That also is what unifies people because now they’re all one team, one mission, one fight, in terms of the business.
VB: You’ve had a lot of different jobs in the intelligence sector. How does this period compare with the rest of your career over the past almost 40 years?
Shea:Yes, wow, 40 years. I feel like I’m old. It’s interesting. Early in [my] career, I always considered myself a dry sponge in a wet environment. I wanted to soak up everything. I wanted to learn from people around me. I wanted to really absorb what they did and get a more comprehensive view of things. As a leader today, my responsibility is to help, train, teach [and] provide that experience to others. It’s
about developing leaders as opposed to becoming one.
Each time in your career that you advance to the next level, you take on a new set of challenges. You have more people. When I had 25 people, I thought it was a really big team. When I had 40,000, I had now reached the point where it was a big team, but it didn’t bother me as much because I had very competent leaders behind me in the organization.
Let’s [look at the] three most difficult jobs in my lifetime. The first was taking [Science Applications International Corp.], which was a publicly traded company, $11 billion, 40,000 people, 450 locations throughout the world, and splitting that into two publicly traded companies. That was considered to be an impossible job because very few companies of that size and magnitude can split. I always had this view: “Be unafraid of the impossible.”
I love jobs that are really hard, but that was a really challenging job because it was to take a single unified culture that had been together for 43 years and convince people there’s two paths, right?
The second part of it is when I stopped working at SAIC and Leidos, and I went from the leader of a 40,000-person company to a single consultant who only worked for [myself], that was a really difficult time. It was a challenge because I no longer had that mass of people behind me.
The third biggest challenge was creating something from nothing. If you think about the current Peraton, it was a divestiture from Harris. It had been the island of misfits. It was all the leftover businesses from all their acquisitions. How do you unify them into a single coherent company that could compete head-to-head with anybody? We’re still on that journey of the last four years [in] integrating Peraton.
VB: Why did you decide to make the big acquisitions of Perspecta and the Northrop Grumman division at the same time? Did it just happen that both opportunities came up now?
Shea: Well, first of all, you only buy companies when they’re available to be bought, right?
Northrop Grumman decided to sell that piece of the business. In the case of Perspecta, the board of directors decided to look at strategic alternatives, which had included a sale. We happen to have been able to purchase them because of the great financial backing by Veritas Capital.
We had always talked about having an opportunity to look at national security in a broader way. The belief that we had wasn’t just national security as defined by defense and intelligence. It was homeland security, it was cybersecurity, it was financial security, it was health security, it was the safety of our citizens.
I used to say that career success is all about three things: hard work, luck and serendipity. My belief is that when you build a company, it’s about the same kind of thing.
VB: What does the atmosphere of federal contract competition look like these days?
Shea: First of all, despite the change in administration, despite COVID and everything else that’s happening … the U.S. government, which is our principal customer, moves at pretty much the same pace over a long period of time. It’s a little bit more like a marathon. It’s not a sprint. They’ll put more money in one area, take some money out, but they are basically pretty stable in terms of the things that they fund.
What we had focused on when we [established] the company were really resilient markets, so things like space, intelligence and cyber. Within those markets, we focused on the really resilient parts or subparts of those markets.
In each of the markets we were in, we tried to take the part that had the least amount of impact to the vagaries of an administration change or Congress change or whatever: health business instead of health IT analytics, refocusing on fraud, waste and abuse inside of the health markets.
I think we are pretty well-positioned in the market. We don’t have a high concentration in any one particular [government branch], nor do we have a high concentration in any one particular program.
VB: With the May hack of Colonial Pipeline, we saw how critical cyber-security is to the nation’s infrastructure. How important is that going to be going forward?
Shea: Yes, so a little history is relevant here. In the space market, for example, there were always people talking about threats to space systems, but it wasn’t until 2007 when the Chinese blew up a satellite in orbit that people began to pay attention. It still took us almost 10 years to react to it. Cyber is the same thing.
People have been complaining about the risk to critical infrastructure like pipelines, electrical grids, waterways, all of those things … for the better part of 15 years, but today, it’s front of mind because of the Colonial Pipeline incident. It’s front of mind because [of] the North Koreans’ [2014] hack into Sony.
It’s an area that’s going to get increased attention, but the reason it’s important today is because it’s not about protecting the system. It’s about protecting our way of life that results from the loss of that system. If somebody hacks a satellite and you lose the ability to use your credit card because all credit card transactions go across satellites, all of a sudden you can’t buy food at the grocery store and you can’t buy gasoline at the gas station because everything that we do is computerized. Everything is all integrated. When you affect our way of life, it becomes important to people.
VB: How do you think robots are going to be part of our lives moving forward, and will they displace human workers in some situations?
Shea: Robots in some form have always been there in some way for the last 25 years, and I think you’ll see a lot more of that. Do I think I’m going to see robots walking through my house and serving dinner anytime soon? No, but I think for many things, I think it’s about replacing things that are just repetitive, menial.
The other thing is the dangerous things. For example, we produce a robot that is used by law enforcement and others for explosives. Robots are good for that because you can always buy another robot. You can’t buy another brother or sister.
Now, it really gets down to the risk and the cost. Is it risky to do? If it is, is it cost-efficient to do it that way? You can build a robot to do anything, but is it cost-effective?
VB: What is your larger goal for Peraton in the next five years?
Shea: What I always wanted to create was a company that was incredibly well-respected, did the very best job, the most important jobs that had to be done, the company that everybody had to count on to be there to do missions of consequence. In other words, if we don’t get it done right, somebody will die.
Whether that’s an emergency system to dispatch ambulances in a major metropolitan area or making sure that our satellites are safe or providing our best cyberdefenses in the world or managing the communications of the president of the United States, those are all things that matter.
I also want a company that is fun to work at, a place that is safe to work at, a place [where] you feel respected and rewarded for being there, and you just love being part of that larger team. If you have this feeling of coming to work every day where the things that you do matter, you love working in the environment that you’re in, you work in a good competitive environment, you’re taken care of as a family member, you’re in a safe work environment.
VB: What’s your office environment right now? Have some people returned to work in person?
Shea: We shut down all our offices [during the pandemic], except for basically people that had to be there because they work in a lab environment or a vault or something. We shut everybody else out because we wanted to protect the few that had to go into work, and everybody else went remote. For example, me, I’m sitting in my basement. This became my home office.
We’re going to start rolling back in people. We’re also going to recognize that this is a new way of life, working remotely. We’re going to actually keep some of our team off-campus. Let them continue to work from home and do that. It obviously becomes a cost savings to us.
Because of the three companies coming together, we clearly have an excess in facility space, so we’re going to do some consolidation, which will [take effect] over the next six to 18 months. I think we’ll be a better place because of it. We’ll have an integrated environment, smaller number of facilities, a lot of flexibility for our employees and [be] a safer place.
VB: Is there anything you’re excited about as you consolidate the three companies?
Shea: Well, first of all, from a cultural standpoint, we have three companies with really long traditions and history. I think bringing those three cultures together is pretty exciting. This will be a very different place because of that legacy.
We can build. We can innovate. We can have the two smartest people in the world come up with some new capability, and then we can drag that capability through subsystems to systems to major defense programs and implementing something on behalf of an entire department or agency because we have the enterprise IT skills. We get to see concept to reality from the core kernel of an idea to having it [become] a way of life for a larger organization. There are very few people that can do that.
I guess I would just say that Peraton is a company that’s like a brand-new startup that’s 125 years old.
Businesses aren’t the only organizations finding it difficult to hire employees. Amid dropping state unemployment rates and a nationwide labor shortage, Danville and Pittsylvania County have been seeking new ways to interest people in working for local government.
Pittsylvania’s Board of Supervisors approved $1,000 employee referral and sign-on bonuses in July, says Holly E. Stanfield, the county’s human resources manager. “We knew we needed to do something different to attract people to this area.”
This summer, Pittsylvania County had about 30 openings to fill, mainly in the social services department and the sheriff’s office. The county’s unemployment dropped to 4.1% in May, while the national unemployment rate was 5.8%.
Additionally, the county launched an ad campaign aimed not at specific job positions, Stanfield says, but at “people who are eager to learn, work and make an impact utilizing their skills and talents.”
Meanwhile, Danville was working to fill almost 45 job openings, according to Sara Weller, the city’s director of human resources. The city was having trouble recruiting police officers as well as unskilled and skilled labor positions, including commercial drivers license holders, mowers and mechanics.
Danville adopted a new pay rate system last year, after conducting a compensation study in late 2019 “to ensure our pay rates are consistent with average market pay in other localities of similar size, which increases our recruitment and retention,” Weller says.
But Virginia’s minimum wage rose to $9.50 an hour in May, as part of the commonwealth’s phased approach to increasing the rate to $15 by 2026, pending General Assembly approval.
As a result, Weller says, “we’re working with the consultant to work up to that $15 to see what that looks like.”
To attract job applicants, the city also has increased the amount of annual leave employees earn and the number of paid holidays, she adds.
Both the county and city are using health and wellness benefits as recruiting tools. “We have an outstanding wellness program and do offer a wellness incentive,” Stanfield says. “If an employee gets an annual exam, which most insurance plans cover, we pay $125 if they participate in that.”
And in Danville, “we offer an onsite employee health center that provides primary care to all employees at fees ranging from free to $25,” Weller says.ν
Soon after Todd Wolford became executive director of community revitalization nonprofit DowntownWytheville Inc. in 2015, he began seeking pictures of the Soda Shop, the Main Street hotspot his grandfather owned in the late ’50s and ’60s.
After locating a couple photos of his grandfather’s packed establishment, Wolford had an epiphany: His job was to bring back that vibrant downtown community his grandfather had once helped to create. “I got really motivated about doing it for the family,” he says.
Wolford went on to oversee a $4.2 million streetscape improvement initiative that has brought improved lighting and sidewalks, new street furniture and a sound system to the downtown area. “That really got things ready for business,” Wolford says.
Since then, two craft breweries and a bakery opened, and an art school expanded. “It really changed the landscape of downtown,” he says. “Then things started to pop up around it.”
The next step for downtown Wytheville’s revitalization is reopening The Millwald Theatre on Main Street, a project essential to downtown Wytheville’s future, Wolford says.
In July, board members of the nonprofit Millwald Theatre Inc. announced they’d closed on a federal New Market Tax Credit allocation provided by national asset management firm Enhanced Capital, as well as a bridge loan to allow construction to begin on the $4.5 million theater renovation, according to Mark Bloomfield, chairman of the group’s board of directors. If construction goes smoothly, the theater could reopen by September 2022.
Once the town’s “cultural and social center,” the 1928 theater hosted vaudeville performances, movies, pageants and town debates, according to its website, before it closed in 2006.
Wytheville’s town government started the ball rolling on the renovation in 2018, allocating $600,000 to purchase the theater. Organizers assembled the rest of the funding via historic tax credits, private donations and grants, including $500,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
When completed, the Millwald will offer seating for 500 patrons, with updated sound and lighting, classrooms and administrative space.
About 2,000 hotel rooms sit near the intersection of Interstates 77 and 81, minutes away from the Millwald, Bloomfield points out. He wants the theater to offer movies, concerts and performances six days a week to draw visitors downtown.
“It’s going to make all the difference in the world in terms of future sustainability for the downtown business district,” he says.ν
Apex Clean Energy is appealing a decision that it ran out of time for its Rocky Forge Wind project in Botetourt County, a proposed complex of 14 mountaintop wind turbines atop North Mountain that would stand about twice as tall as the Wells Fargo tower in downtown Roanoke. Apex informed the county in early August that it would appeal. A public hearing will be held within 90 days after which the county’s board of zoning appeals will have 60 days to make a decision. In July, the county’s zoning administrator determined that
Apex had missed a May 26 deadline for county approval of a site plan. (The Roanoke Times)
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Tom Barkin visited the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce on Aug. 9, offering encouragement about the economic recovery. The combination of suppressed spending, pent-up demand and excess savings means people have money to spend, Barkin said, and he doesn’t see the delta variant derailing the economic recovery. He also said the Fed has the tools to manage inflation, should it become more exacerbated, and they are watching it closely. (WDBJ)
On Aug. 13., a federal judge declined to block the blasting of bedrock on Bent Mountain for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon says she lacks authority to step into a dispute over the natural gas pipeline because a Bent Mountain landowner already had sought action from federal regulators. Roanoke County property owner J. Coles Terry sought a temporary injunction against the company as part of an ongoing eminent domain case, citing alleged damage to the aquifer. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and pipeline officials have said they’ve not seen evidence of the potential harm described by Terry. (WTRF, Virginia Mercury)
The Patton Logistics Group will invest $11 million to expand its trucking, logistics and warehousing operation in the New River Valley Commerce Park in Pulaski County, creating 63 jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam announced in August. The company will add 150,000 square feet to its 250,000-square-foot logistics center. The expansion will include a trucking operations and maintenance center that will provide infrastructure to support a future investment in electric trucks. Patton Logistics Group is composed of three affiliate companies that employ more than 150 people in Virginia. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
During an uncertain year when colleges were facing financial challenges due to the pandemic, Virginia Tech raised a record amount of money in gifts and commitments over the last year. Supporters gave $200.3 million during the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, according to the university. The university cited unprecedented participation from donors, including nearly 12,400 people contributing on Virginia Tech’s annual fundraising day in February, as the driver of the 8% increase in gifts and commitments over the previous fiscal year. The university’s undergraduate alumni giving percentage increased from 15% to 20%. (The Roanoke Times)
PEOPLE
Virginia Tech has hired Charlene Casamento as its associate vice president for enterprise administrative operations, the university announced in August. Casamento will work alongside Virginia Tech’s leadership, serving as the university’s chief administrative officer and executing university operational initiatives. She reports to Dwayne Pinkney, the university’s senior vice president and chief business officer. Casamento previously served as chief financial officer for Central Connecticut State University. She has also held roles with the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Northern Virginia
Capital One Financial Corp. pushed back the reopening of its offices by two months to November, citing surging COVID-19 cases, CEO Richard Fairbank said in August. And when its thousands of employees do return to the McLean headquarters and elsewhere, vaccines will be required for those who want to work on site. In a letter to employees, Fairbank said the plan to reopen Capital One as a “hybrid work company” on Sept. 7 will wait until Nov. 2. Employees who choose to work on a Capital One campus or in a bank office, in addition to all contractors, vendors and visitors, will have to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated. (Washington Business Journal)
Reston-based software company Clarabridge Inc. is being acquired by Utah-based data analytics firm Qualtrics International Inc. in a nearly $1.13 billion all-stock deal, the companies announced in August. Founded in 2006, Clarabridge has customers that include United Airlines, General Motors Co. and UnitedHealthcare. Qualtrics will acquire Clarabridge through purchase of a fixed number of class A common stock shares with a share price of $37.33. The two companies’ boards have approved the deal, which is expected to close Dec. 31. Qualtrics reported 2020 revenue of $763.5 million. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Dumfries Town Council scheduled public hearings on Sept. 13 and 21 on Colonial Downs Group Inc.‘s proposed Dumfries gaming resort, dubbed The Rose. Colonial Downs, which runs a Rosie’s Gaming Emporium in town, announced in February plans for the $389 million gaming resort. It would include a 50,000-square-foot gaming space, a 250-seat sports bar, eight other bars and restaurants, 7,000 square feet of event space, 200 hotel rooms and a 1,500-seat theater. The company wants to rezone 93.5 acres at the Potomac Landfill to planned mixed-use development and obtain a conditional-use permit. (Inside NoVa)
Commercial real estate brokerage KLNB is the choice to market the Landmark Mall redevelopment to retail tenants, now that Alexandria officials have approved preliminary plans and bond financing for the 4.2 million-square-foot mixed-use redevelopment, which will be anchored by a 1 million-square-foot Inova Health System hospital. The redevelopment, to be rebranded under a new name, is slated to include around 285,000 square feet of retail off Duke and Van Dorn streets. (Washington Business Journal)
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has signed an agreement to redevelop the West Falls Church Metro Station site for a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use development to include apartments, townhouses, retail and public green spaces, the authority announced in August. Construction is expected to begin in 2023. The agreement was reached with FGCP-Metro LLC, a joint real estate development partnership involving Falls Church-based Rushmark Properties, Maryland’s EYA LLC and Washington, D.C.’s Hoffman & Associates. The project is the result of several years of work among Metro, the developers and Fairfax County, which approved a comprehensive plan amendment in July to support the project. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
PEOPLE
Sol Glasner is retiring as head of the Tysons Partnership. He will stay on as the group’s president and CEO through the end of the year, but in July and August he began informing the partnership’s board members and Fairfax County elected officials of his plans to retire. He’s held the position for roughly four years and served as chair of its board from 2012 to 2014, shortly after the partnership was founded. The partnership is negotiating with local businesses, property owners and county officials about how it should be run and funded going forward, with the possibility of becoming a full business improvement district, the county’s first. (Washington Business Journal)
Southwest Virginia
Abingdon Town Council allocated $2 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding to finish the town’s sports complex, which is expected to open by June 2022. The complex has four baseball fields, two multipurpose fields, a concession stand, a splash pad and access to the Creeper Trail. The town will use the funding to add lights, a second concession stand and a field house with bathrooms at the soccer section. Big Stone Gap-based construction firm Quesenberry’s Inc. is handling the project’s roughly $7.6 million construction. (SWVA Today, WCYB News 5)
Ballad Health announced in August that it would defer all elective, nonemergency surgical cases requiring overnight patient stays, due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus. Based on the rate of growth in hospitalizations, projections of community spread and few mitigation efforts, Ballad Health estimates that inpatient hospitalization numbers could reach as high as 500. The number of inpatients the system already has is straining resources. Postponed procedures may include cardiac, orthopedic and other surgeries determined not to be emergencies. (Bristol Herald Courier)
The Bristol Chamber of Commerce revealed its “Bristol 2040 Visioning Strategic Plan” at its Aug. 11 State of the Cities event, held at the Bristol, Virginia, train station. To counteract economic growth barriers like an aging population, low wages and a brain drain to larger cities, the plan recommended focusing on eight issues: arts and tourism, the music economy, a competitive workforce, entrepreneurship, housing, leadership and collaboration, downtown Bristol and targeted business. (Bristol Herald Courier)
Mountain Empire Community College will receive almost $363,400 in federal grant money from the U.S. Department of Education to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds with financial, academic and career counseling. The college’s foundation received a grant for up to $100,000 to increase workforce development and training. In August, the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority approved the funding, which will go toward scholarships, training instructional costs, retraining costs and assessments as well as customized workforce training for area businesses. (The Coalfield Progress)
The Ecotourism in Nature’s Wonderland project received $2.25 million from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy’s Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization program to help establish a healthy habitat on 2,500 acres in Buchanan County. The project, run by Southwest Virginia Sportsmen and Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, will turn 350 acres of a historic surface coal mine into a wildlife habitat. Located near Poplar Gap Park, the project is expected to create jobs, increase tourism to the county and help educate visitors about native wildlife. (SWVA Today)
Virginia Tourism Corp.‘s Recovery Marketing Leverage Program, which helps tourism projects recover from the pandemic, awarded $147,000 to 11 Southwest Virginia initiatives in August. Recipients included: Abingdon Convention and Visitors Bureau; Abingdon Main Street Alliance; Abingdon-based Barter Theatre; Discover Bristol; Gate City; The Martha Washington Inn & Spa in Abingdon; Lee County-based Old Virginia Hand Hewn Log Homes Inc.; Pennington Gap; St. Paul; Scott County; and Virginia Creeper Trail Club in Abingdon. (Kingsport Times-News)
PEOPLE
Scott Robertson became the director of marketing and communications for the Abingdon-based United Way of Southwest Virginia on Aug. 9. Robertson will direct strategic marketing and promotions, provide communications project management and oversee digital services. He was previously the managing editor of The Business Journal of Tri-Cities Tennessee/Virginia. Robertson has been involved in regional workforce and community health initiatives such as Region AHEAD (the Appalachian Highlands Economic Aid Directory). (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Southern Virginia
A two-phase project will bring changes to Danville Regional Airport to accommodate increased traffic anticipated from the Caesars Virginia casino expected to open in 2023. Work will include widening the taxiway, construction of a new taxi lane and aircraft parking to support a planned new t-hangar building, a jet aircraft parking ramp and a parking lot. Additionally, Danville has a $3.05 million crosswind runway rehab project planned, which will likely be paid for with a bond issued by the city of Danville. Planned work at the airport for the next two years will cost about $8 million. (Danville Register & Bee)
Patrick & Henry Community College is the new name of what was formerly called Patrick Henry Community College. The change is small — adding an ampersand between “Patrick” and “Henry,” — but it is meaningful to the two counties the college serves. The school’s namesakes are Patrick and Henry counties, not the former governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry. It isn’t the only school changing its name. John Tyler Community College will become Brightpoint Community College and Lord Fairfax Community College will become Laurel Ridge Community College. (WSLS 10 News)
In early August, Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston announced tightened visitation rules at the hospital as the area saw a rise in COVID-19, tracking surging caseloads as the delta variant spreads rapidly among unvaccinated individuals. The Virginia Department of Health reported 1,403 new cases of COVID-19 in the state on Aug. 3, the highest total since mid-April. Under the updated policy, no visitors are allowed except in specific situations, such as emergency room and maternity ward visits, and the hospital is requiring guests to wear masks inside the building. (SoVaNow.com)
South Boston Town Council in mid-August voted down a permit for a solar power project to be built by Atlanta-based Dimension Renewable Energy on 53 acres along U.S. 360 near Edmunds Park. Council members rejected the 5.4-megawatt facility on the grounds that it would go at the wrong location at the gateway into South Boston. Stuart Rutledge, the owner of the land, said he had been trying to market the land for nearly 20 years and this was the first offer he saw as being feasible for the town. It was estimated that the solar panels would have contributed $230,000 in local tax revenue over 25 years.(South Boston News & Record)
After being open for a few months, the TAD Space in Martinsville had its grand opening on Aug. 6. Owner Wayne Draper refers to it as a playground for all creatives. The goal is to give businesses a space and the resources to get on their feet and eventually start a more thriving business community in Martinsville. What was once an antique mall in Uptown Martinsville is now home to a grand ballroom, five executive conference rooms, multiple private office suites, a professional recording studio and a podcast studio. Businesses pay daily, weekly and monthly rates to use the building. Other services include business marketing and strategy, branding, leadership training and development, and website development. (WSLS 10 News)
The 2020 U.S. Census showed a decline in the population of Danville, but the decrease may be slowing down in the longer term. Danville’s 2020 population fell from 43,055 in 2010 to 42,590, according to figures released in mid-August by the U.S. Census Bureau. There was also a drop in Pittsylvania County’s population. In Danville, the drop from 2010 to 2020 was smaller than the drop from 2000 to 2010, when the population fell from 48,411 to 43,055. (Danville Register & Bee)
Eastern Virginia
Hampton University is raising its minimum wage on campus to $13 an hour. The pay raise went into effect July 1 for the university’s hourly employees. The pay rate far exceeds the current minimum wage in Virginia, which is $9.50 an hour. The state minimum wage was raised for the first time in more than a decade this May and is set to increase again — to $11 an hour — in January 2022. Then, in January 2023, the rate will be $12 an hour. (WAVY)
Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ Technical Solutions division won a contract worth up to $346 million to provide personnel recovery and casualty evacuation services for the Department of Defense’s U.S. Africa Command, it announced Aug. 3. The task order has a one-year base period with extension options. HII will provide aircraft and operational support services. Buoyed by Newport News Shipbuilding’s more than $150 million swing back to profitability, HII reported a more than 140% increase in second quarter profits, with second quarter net income of $129 million and quarterly revenue rising 10% to $2.23 billion. (VirginiaBusiness.com, Daily Press)
Developers are teaming up with celebrities like musician Pharrell Williams and former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith to compete for the chance to redevelop Norfolk’s Military Circle Mall. Crossroads Partnership LLC, made up of 10 companies, envisions a mix of retail, offices, a hotel, a park, and a 15,000-seat arena among other facilities. Norfolk M.C. Associates LLC calls its proposal The Well —with 477,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, 864 housing units and more than 159,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space. Wellness Circle LLC proposes green space, an arena, 1 million square feet of office space and a hotel. (The Virginian-Pilot)
Carter
Newport News’ airport in July got a boost in its yearslong effort to get flights to Washington Dulles International Airport to connect to a third major international gateway. Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport has been working to establish flight service to Dulles airport for more than three years. And it’s getting closer to that goal, having won a $847,646 U.S. Department of Transportation grant to support service to Dulles for up to two years. Local governments have pledged a total of $600,000 for the effort and the airport itself will spend $150,000 on marketing. (Daily Press)
PEOPLE
Angela Blackwell Carter is Norfolk Tourism Foundation‘s new director. The foundation is an adjunct agency to VisitNorfolk, a nonprofit organization that promotes the city as a destination for travelers, meetings and conventions. She was the Hampton Roads Chamber’s vice president for leadership programs and
Bowen
executive director of LEAD Hampton Roads, the region’s oldest and largest leadership organization, for more than two decades. (Inside Business)
Norfolk Airport Authority Executive Director Robert S. Bowen will retire effective March 1, 2022. Bowen has been working at the airport since summer 1974, when he started his career at Piedmont Aviation (later Piedmont Airlines). He joined the Airport Authority in 1988 as its director of operations and was named executive director in 2016. During Bowen’s tenure, the airport has initiated 120 capital improvement projects and introduced three new ultra-low-cost airlines. The Norfolk Airport Authority Board of Commissioners is conducting a search for his successor. (WAVY)
Evolve Manufacturing, a Winchester-based specialty composite manufacturer founded in 2013, announced in August that it will invest $1.25 million to enlarge its plant in Frederick County. The company, which plans to expand its Evolve Stone line of artificial stones that are face nailed, will add a second production line, triple its facility space and increase production for its major customers, including Home Depot. The project is expected to create 84 jobs. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
The Harrisonburg Planning Commission voted to recommend that Harrisonburg City Council deny Skylar & Talli LLC’s request to change 16,000 square feet of the ground floor originally slated for commercial use to residential space, adding about 60 beds in the Apartments at Peach Grove, near James Madison University’s Sentara Park. The developer’s representative cited buyers backing out and a lack of businesses wanting to move in, while the commission cited increased traffic. The city council will address the request on Sept. 14. (Daily News-Record)
The Valley Milk Products plant in Strasburg ceased operations in early August following a July 30 boiler explosion. The plant will be closed for six to 24 months while repairs and an investigation occur, although all 18 employees are still working there, with some taking on security roles. The building has been deemed structurally sound. Maintenance documents showed standard repairs were made to one of the plant’s two essential boilers in July. The U.S. Department of Labor and insurance companies with policies for the boiler, the plant and a neighborhood shopping center damaged from the blast are involved in the investigation. (The Winchester Star)
The Warren County Board of Supervisors is tabling the proposed two-mile Appalachian Trail Connector that would connect the south end of Front Royal to the Appalachian Trail because of its estimated $3.03 million cost. For the first phase of the project, the county hoped to use grant money from the federal Transportation Alternatives Program run by the Virginia Department of Education. It would receive $527,088 from the fund and pay $131,772. The county set aside about $167,000 in its special projects fund, but it would still need to pay the remaining nearly $1 million. Warren County Planning Director Joe Petty told the board that the county could use the money to create a park or toward its plans for other local trails. (The Northern Virginia Daily)
Waynesboro City Council approved a grant application for a plan to defuse stormwater drainage issues. The city plans to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution by creating a wetlands system in the Hopeman Station subdivision, which the Waynesboro Stormwater Program identified as having the most potential for reducing pollution. The city will apply for a grant through the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund, managed by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The grant would pay for half of the project, $525,000, and the city
Cornett-Scott
would pay the other half. (News Leader)
PEOPLE
On Aug. 1, the Rev. Andrea Cornett-Scott became Mary Baldwin University‘s first chief diversity officer, responsible for campuswide diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and resources. Cornett-Scott has been with Mary Baldwin since 1996, when she became its director of African American affairs. She was most recently the associate provost for inclusive excellence, during which time she established a leadership program for women of African descent. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Central Virginia
In August, Richmond Circuit Court approved Richmond City Council’s petition to place a referendum on the November ballot for city voters to weigh in on the Urban One Inc.-backed ONE Casino + Resort project. It’s the next step in the process that started early this year with the city’s request for proposals for a casino resort. If approved by voters, the proposed $562.5 million casino would be approved to start construction in South Side Richmond near Interstate 95 on 100 acres owned by Altria Group Inc. It would be the only casino under Black ownership in the country. Urban One, which owns and operates 55 radio stations and the TV One cable network, has partnered with Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, owner of Colonial Downs Group and the Rosie’s Gaming Emporium franchise. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced in August that all city employees will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, becoming the first Virginia locality to mandate vaccination. It was followed the next day by Gov. Ralph Northam‘s declaration that state employees will be required to show proof of vaccination by Sept. 1 or be tested weekly, as the delta variant has led to rising cases. Universities, businesses and other workplaces in Virginia have put in place similar requirements of employees in recent weeks as infections, hospitalizations and deaths spread among unvaccinated people. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia Commonwealth University Health System is raising its minimum wage to $15 per hour in September. The roughly 1,700 employees and contract workers affected provide food and nutrition, environmental and valet services, among other jobs. They represent about 10% of the Richmond-based system’s workforce. The move follows the University of Virginia and Sentara Healthcare’s minimum wage increases to $15 earlier this year. The state raised its hourly minimum pay from $7.25 to $9.50 in May, and on Jan. 1, 2022, the wage will increase to $11. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Virginia State University in Petersburg and Virginia Union University in Richmond are among more than 20 historically Black colleges and universities that used federal Higher Education Emergency Relief funds to cover unpaid tuition, fees, room and board and dining, according to the United Negro College Fund. Universities were required to direct a large percentage of federal funds toward students. They could use the rest to offset revenue lost during the pandemic,but many HBCUs went further by using university money to forgive student balances. The two Richmond-area HBCUs directed nearly $8 million to the initiative, helping about 2,500 students.(Richmond Times-Dispatch)
PEOPLE
In August, Caley Edgerly took the wheel as president and CEO of Lynchburg bus dealer Sonny Merryman Inc., as former CEO Floyd Merryman III moved into his new role as executive chairman of the family business started by his father 55 years ago. Edgerly previously served as president and CEO of North Carolina-based school bus manufacturer Thomas Built Buses for six years. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Former Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring has been appointed managing partner of McGuireWoods‘ Richmond office, the law firm announced in August. After
13 years as the city’s prosecutor, Herring became a partner at McGuireWoods in 2019. He specializes in commercial litigation, government investigations and white collar criminal defense. Herring also is an adjunct professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Depending on who’s in charge in Dee Cee, plans alternate on what is best for the U.S. economy. The choices are seemingly reduced to tax cuts versus government spending, but things are rarely as they seem. More accurately, these choices are two different sides of the same dollar — or trillions of dollars to be more exact.
Government dollars have one vexing thing in common: They are deficit dollars. Despite being politically savvy in a populist kind of way, tax cuts have never paid for themselves through economic growth, nor have they been offset by reduced spending. Similarly, higher spending is rarely accompanied by taxes to cover new costs.
Fiscal responsibility? For the most part, that’s just the sound of political lips flapping.
The backbone to balance budgets has always been lacking. The result is an increasing federal deficit. Still, it is a mistake to consider both tax cuts and increased spending as no more than two different flavors of the same political Kool-Aid.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) passed under President Donald Trump was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to come in at a cost of roughly $2 trillion over 10 years. Republicans were all for it.
Similarly, the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) negotiated by President Joe Biden’s administration and passed by the Senate last month will likely be increased by an additional $2 trillion or more in “human infrastructure” spending. In fairness, not all of this is new spending. Some of it may be covered through higher taxes and some probably not. Democrats are all for it.
Fiscal responsibility? Maybe that starts with understanding that government plays a legitimate role; spending for the common good is what government should be doing. To think otherwise is to be absorbed by individual self-interest. U.S. spending for highways, bridges, airports, the power grid, broadband and even education and mental health has been well short of what’s needed for decades. It’s time for the U.S. to catch up.
The culture of American exceptionalism looks backward more than half a century to the boom following World War II. If the proposed new spending looks anything like the cost of that war, it will be well worth it and much needed, especially coming on the heels of a pandemic that took an even greater toll on American lives.
While both tax cuts and spending programs have fueled federal deficits, they are not equivalent in terms of economic outcomes. Tax cuts have led to significant inequities in income distribution. The wealthy have never been better off. It’s a telling anecdote that the richest men in the world are now spending their money on space flights, something that only the richest nations used to be able to afford.
Alternatively, government spending builds roads, bridges and other projects for the common good. The jobs created put money in the hands of working-class families who spend it on local goods and services. They pay taxes and support a growing economy, as compared with billionaires who pay little or no income taxes while spending more on personal investments and unparalleled luxuries like space flights.
When it comes to federal contracting, Virginia benefits more from federal spending than any other state in the nation. The commonwealth has the second-largest federal payroll of any state. On a per capita basis for total federal spending, including contracts, grants, payroll, retirement and nonretirement benefits, Virginia places first in the nation.
Tax cuts have been tilted toward the ultra-wealthy and have failed to trickle down money into either the common good or the hands of families needing it the most. Federal spending, on the other hand, is good for infrastructure and jobs, good for families and good for Virginia. It’s just good business.
For decades, conservationists have lobbied for the Chesapeake Bay to become a national park.
During the past year, a new twist on that old idea has gained momentum: establishing the Chesapeake Bay as a national recreation area, stretching from Hampton’s Fort Monroe north to Annapolis, Maryland.
National recreation areas extend federal protections to preserve recreational activities in places with significant natural or scenic resources. In this case, the Chesapeake Bay National Recreation Area would be managed by the National Park Service, with the designation linking dozens of existing parks and public lands in order to protect access to outdoor activities such as hiking and boating.
Boosters hope the designation could raise the Chesapeake’s profile and increase tourism in Virginia and Maryland. Last year, both states’ governors endorsed a proposal from the Chesapeake Conservancy to seek the federal designation. Two Maryland congressional representatives established a working group this year to examine the idea, which is supported by Virginia’s U.S. senators.
Impacting roughly 140 miles of the bay, the proposal has generated concern over the potential for new regulations on land use and commercial fishing. However, while commercial fishing is heavily regulated in waterways managed by the National Park Service, the Chesapeake Bay National Recreational Area’s footprint would be entirely land-based and limited to a handful of tourist sites.
Reed Perry, manager of external affairs with Chesapeake Conservancy, says the designation would link communities on both sides of the water and support bay preservation — including commercial fishing, which “is a big part of the heritage of the bay. It is a primary goal to celebrate that heritage.”
And while the project wouldn’t open the spigot for federal dollars, it would make the region eligible for some environmental grants.
If the idea becomes reality, the National Park Service will be purchasing to-be-determined land parcels to improve public waterway access. Fort Monroe, which is already partially under National Park Service management, would be the site of a possible welcome center.
Localities will have final say on land-use determinations in the designated area, says Parker Agelasto, executive director of the Capital Region Land Conservancy.
The ultimate hope is to draw to the region visitors who will return home with appreciation for the bay and those who make their livings from it.
“If people care about someone else’s workplace, they’ll work to preserve it,” Agelasto says.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Sign In
Free Newsletter
