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By John Tyler Community College CHESTER and MIDLOTHIAN, Va. – Local employers regularly struggle to […]

HOPEWELL and PRINCE GEORGE, Va — A team of six students from Dinwiddie, Hopewell, Prince George and Colonial Heights won the Manufacturing Tech Summer Camp competition on Saturday, July 21. The Hopewell/Prince George Chamber of Commerce is a network sponsor for the camp.

Members of the winning team each received a $500 scholarship to be used for post-secondary education at a qualifying institution.

Sixty-five students applied from three school systems as well as the children of employees of the camp sponsors. Twenty-four were accepted to participate in the three-and-a-half-day Advanced Manufacturing & Technology Camp. The camp concluded on Saturday, July 21 with the four teams competing to safely and efficiently manufacture unique clocks using computer-assisted production methods.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) today announced the acceptance of a Chesterfield County company, STR Software, into its two-year Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program. The VALET program assists companies in the Commonwealth that are committed to international exporting as a growth strategy. To participate, each business must meet both quantitative and qualitative selection criteria. Participating firms are chosen based on their dedication to growing export sales. To date, 316 Virginia companies have been accepted to participate in the VALET program.

A beekeeping couple from Colonial Heights are planning to bring the ancient craft of making honey mead to downtown Hopewell.

Mike and Tonya Haley plan to open Haley’s Honey Meadery LLC this fall in a renovated commercial building at 235 E. Broadway Ave. in Hopewell.

The Haleys have leased 1,200 square feet in the building, which is being renovated for a public tasting room. The tasting room, near the Beacon Theatre, will also have an outdoor patio. An adjacent space about the same size will house a production area for making mead.

ETTRICK — Though they’re on summer holiday, members of Virginia State University’s Trojan Introduction Program (TIP) eagerly joined President Dr. Makola M. Abdullah in the school’s conference room on Tuesday to boast about their beloved university.

Last week, the school took home multiple honors at the HBCU Awards, which is hosted by the blog HBCU Digest, which reports on news from HBCUs across the country. The VSU Board of Trustees was named Board of Trustees of the Year, and rising sophomore Briana Brundick-Kelly was named Female Student of the Year. The school also took home the top prize of being named HBCU of the Year.

COLONIAL HEIGHTS — After several years of multijurisdictional deliberation, impact studies, and community input, a property on the Boulevard in Colonial Heights has been chosen as the Federal Rail Administration’s (FRA) preferred site for a new Amtrak Train Station.

Plans for a new station came about several years ago as the existing station in Ettrick – built in 1955 – is considered under federal standards to be too small to handle even its current ridership levels.

PRINCE GEORGE – One year ago last week, Prince George County, the county’s industrial development board, and Prince George Electric Cooperative all joined forces in a unique private-public partnership with the goal of bringing more residents and businesses online with reliable, fiber-based broadband internet service.

During the Prince George Board of Supervisors’ regular meeting in June, county leaders were briefed by officials with PGEC Enterprises, the subsidiary overseeing the electric cooperative’s broadband internet division, who gave a progress report on how the rollout of their fiber-to-the-home project is going, noting they remain ahead of schedule in regards to the number of new customers brought online through the project.

Chesterfield County-based Shoe Crazy Wine may be coming to a Walmart near you.

Gwen Hurt, founder and CEO of the wine company, was offered a deal at last week’s Walmart annual open call event where more than 400 entrepreneurs pitched their products to the mega-retailer.

Sabra Dipping Co. has filed plans to expand its Chesterfield County food factory, which makes the Mediterranean dish hummus.

The company, based in White Plains, N.Y., also announced Monday it has named a new chief executive officer.

Sabra wants to expand its 220,560-square-foot factory in the Ruffin Mill Industrial Park by adding nearly 38,000 square feet, according to plans filed with the Chesterfield County Planning Department. The proposed expansion would include eight loading dock doors.

Rolls-Royce North America is adding about 100 jobs at its Prince George County manufacturing plant this year.

Employment at the Crosspointe factory should reach 400 or more by the end of the year as it adds production to meet demand in the aircraft industry, said Lorin S. Sodell, manufacturing executive at the plant.

The Rolls-Royce facility opened in 2011 on a 1,000-acre site in Prince George. It makes precision aircraft components such as rotative discs and turbine blades.