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Congratulations go out to Alton Ray Melton, owner of Southeastern Drug Testing located in the Whiteville Business Development Center, for being selected as “New Business of the Year”. The award was given at the Columbus County Small Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon at Southeastern Community College on Tuesday, Oct. 18. This luncheon, which was sponsored by the chambers of commerce of Chadbourn, Fair Bluff, Tabor City and Whiteville, as well as the Small Business Center at SCC and the Small Business Center Network, was an opportunity to celebrate the contributions and successes of small business owners in Columbus County.
The “new business” category included businesses that have been in 0peration from one to five years with a record of growth either in number of employees, sales, and/or unit growth along with an illustration of the innovativeness of the product or service offered. Southeastern Drug Testing of Whiteville has been in operation for five years. During this time, the business has grown from servicing one company to 55 companies per month.
Seventy businesses were nominated in four categories, so the judging was difficult. Other awards presented at the luncheon went to: Ashley Electric, Inc. and Whiteville Ready Mix Concrete, tied for “Best Established Business”; to Kramer’s Men’s Store of Whiteville for “Best Family-Owned Business”; and to Cheap Therapy for “Innovative Business of the Year”.
To find out more about SCC’s Small Business Center, contact Mark Council at (910) 642-7141, ext. 419 or by e-mail at mcouncil@sccnc.edu.
Congratulations to Alton Ray Melton and everyone at Southeastern Drug Testing on their achievements so far. We at RCSC are pleased to see them achieving the kind of success that the Business Development Center was designed to encourage.
November,
2002:
Whiteville
BDC in the Spotlight
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Robert
W. "Chip" Leavitt, Jr, CEO and General Manager
of Brunswick Electric, on camera. |
The RCSC Business Development Center program will be in the national spotlight among electric cooperatives. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) came to the Whiteville BDC this month to film for a national video. The video and a matching “toolkit” will be used to encourage other cooperatives to get involved in economic development activities in their community. The RCSC/BEMC program was chosen as an example of the impact that a strong co-op effort can have on the local community. This was quite an honor, as less than ten co-ops out of the 550 national electric cooperatives were selected for the video project.
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Melody
Campbell, President of Carolinas Home Care was happy to
showcase her business, which has grown from 2 employees
to nearly 80. |
The
film crew from Indianapolis came into town after filming another
project in Seattle, WA. On-camera interviews included comments
from Chip Leavitt, CEO and General Manager of BEMC; Fred Tedder,
a Director of both BEMC and RCSC, and member of the Community
and Economic Development Committee for NRECA; and one of our partners
in the project, Beverlee Nance, VP of Continuing Education and
Economic Development at Southeastern Community College.
Phyllis Owen, of the Columbus County Economic Development Office
and Al Leonard, Town Manager of Tabor City also spoke on the positive
impact of the BDC on our community.
Past and present tenants were also featured, telling about how
the BDC helped them start and grow their businesses. Bill Applewhite
of Remote Data Systems, Melody Campbell of Carolinas Home Care
as well as "graduate" Sandy Gore of Coastal Temporaries
graciously helped out with this project. Judy Morris, Facility
Coordinator helped pull the days' filming together.
April 2002:
FIBER OPTIC NETWORK EXTENSION TO
BRUNSWICK EMC'S PEACOCK SUBSTATION UNDERWAY
An addition to
the RCSC Fiber Optic Network in Columbus County wasapproved recently. The project engineering is complete and staking is underway. This extends the network from Whiteville along Hwy 701 to the Brunswick Electric substation at Peacock Road.
