For the Record – Southern Virginia, October 2013

Published September 27, 2013 by Virginia Business

 Averett University  has been named in The Princeton Review’s 2014 Best Colleges: Region by Region. Averett is one of 138 institutions in the Southeast to receive this ranking. Including the 138 Southeast colleges and universities, a total of 643 schools made the Princeton Review’s national list of best schools. These institutions represent about 25 percent of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges and universities. (The News & Advance)

The State Corporation Commission has given Richmond-based  Dominion Virginia Power  permission to build a 1,358-megawatt, natural gas-fueled power station in Brunswick County. The company said the $1.3 billion natural gas-fired power station near Lawrenceville will help it meet rising demand for electricity while replacing aging coal-fired power stations that are being retired. Dominion plans to start construction immediately. Commercial service is expected to begin in 2016. (VirginiaBusiness.com)

Workers approved a four-year labor contract with  Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.  that affects about 8,000 employees at six U.S. plants, including the one in Danville, and protects against closures at those facilities, union officials said in August. United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard said the contract “improves income, retirement and job security” for workers at Goodyear plants in Akron, Ohio; Gadsden, Ala.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Topeka, Kan.; and Danville. (The News & Advance)

 Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County  and Danville Regional Medical Center plan to establish a regional health-care delivery  system intended to improve their services. The hospitals, owned by LifePoint Hospitals of Brentwood, Tenn., are not merging. Both will continue to have a great deal of autonomy as well as separate boards, chief administrators and executive leadership teams. The roles roles of certain administrators, however, will expand. (Martinsville Bulletin)

Patrick Henry Community College is set to buy the Arrington Manufacturing Inc. land and buildings to expand its motorsports facility and house some other workforce development programs offered by the college. Arrington Manufacturing owns almost 13.5 acres and two buildings in the Patriot Centre Industrial Park in Henry County.  (Martinsville Bulletin)

Virginia Uranium Inc., a Pittsylvania County company that unsuccessfully pushed to end Virginia’s decades-old ban on uranium mining, was by far the biggest spender on lobbying at the state legislature during the past year. Lobbyist disclosure reports show the company spent more than $572,000, almost twice as much as the nearly $300,000 spent by second-place Dominion Resources. (The Associated Press)

Swedwood is changing its warehouse space, moving into the 152,000-square-foot former eToys building at 240 Factory Lane in Danville. The company had been leasing three former tobacco warehouses totaling 190,000 square feet, but water leaks prompted a move, said Wayne Southern, Swedwood’s finance manager. The former eToys space is two miles from the Swedwood plant at Cane Creek Centre, allowing the company to significantly save on transportation costs. The previous warehouses were nearly a dozen miles from the plant. (The News & Advance)