While unemployment rates remain high, at least some regional employers are creating new jobs.
Sitel plans to add 60 workers over the next few weeks at its call center facility in South Asheville. The company said it recently signed a contract with a financial services company that will result in increased call volume. The expansion will raise Sitel’s employment at the center to 600, up from 300 in 2008.
According to the N.C. Employment Security Commission, the metro area that includes Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Haywood counties added 300 net jobs in June, although the unemployment rate for the region rose to 8.2 percent, up from 7.7 percent in May.
In Upstate South Carolina, BMW announced plans to hire 100 white-collar employees at its Spartanburg plant as the company launches a new recruitment program, BMW Scholars and a $5 million Associate Family Health Center.
BMW said it needs to fill a variety of positions, including engineers, IT professionals and product management associates.
BMW is partnering with Spartanburg Community College, Greenville Technical College and Tri-County Technical College to create the BMW Scholars program, which will provide work experience to students interested in a skilled manufacturing career. The apprentice program will help students gain a range of skills while obtaining a two-year college degree. They also will gain the chance to be considered for full-time employment at BMW.
The company’s new health center will be available to BMW associates, their dependents and eligible retirees. The center includes medical and primary health care services, along with vision, dental, occupational health and physical therapy services.
The center, which also includes an associate family pharmacy, is expected to reduce healthcare costs by allowing BMW to better manage employees’ healthcare.
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BMW Manufacturing Co. announced plans to convert landfill gas into hydrogen that it can use to power the entire material-handling fleet at its Spartanburg County plant.
The company, since 2003, has used methane gas collected from a local landfill to supply more than 50 percent of the plant’s energy needs. In 2009 BMW invested $12 million to further enhance its landfill gas program, which it estimates has reduced carbon emissions from the plant by about 92,000 tons per year and saved the company about $5 million annually in energy costs.
Last year, BMW installed a hydrogen storage and distribution area and began using hydrogen fuel cells to power about 100 material handling vehicles at the Greer plant.
The new project will allow BMW to expand its landfill gas conversion to a full-scale system that can support the largest single-site deployment of fuel cell material handling equipment in the world.
Josef Kerscher, president of BMW Manufacturing, said the project will allow BMW to test technology and determine whether locally sourced hydrogen can be used to expand the company’s hydrogen fuel cell fleet.
BMW is also collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop efficient storage of hydrogen for use in future motor vehicles.
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Fehrer Automotive, an international supplier for the automobile industry, plans to invest $14 million and create 130 new jobs at its plant in Spartanburg County over the next five years.
The company said it’s partnering with state and county agencies on the project that will better position it for future growth at its expanded Duncan plant.
Fehrer Automotive produces a wide range of supplies for the automotive industry, including car seats, arm rests, side bolsters, headrests and trim panels.
Lewis F. Gossett, president and CEO of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, said Fehrer’s expansion “is another strong endorsement of South Carolina’s growing international leadership role in the automotive industry.”
Fehrer, founded in 1875 in Germany, plans to begin hiring additional workers for its Duncan operations in September.
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Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations has announced plans to invest $135 million and create 122 jobs at its Aiken County facility in South Carolina.
Beginning in the second quarter of 2013, the company plans to produce an additional 4,750 passenger and light truck tires per day at the plant to meet increased demand.
Bridgestone’s facility in Aiken County began operations in 1998 and earned LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2009. The Aiken plant is one of only three tire plants in the country that are recognized as a Voluntary Protection Program Star site, the highest honor given by OSHA for safety and health management.
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The North Carolina Eugenics Task Force has recommended that victims of a forced sterilization program be compensated by the state. The task force recommends payments to each of the approximately 2,000 victims who are still alive. The task force did not specify an amount, although the state’s Industrial Commission previously suggested $20,000 to each victim. One state legislator previously recommended $50,000 to each victim. The task force did not recommend compensation to the families of deceased victims.
The state estimated that about 7,600 people were sterilized under the program that ended in 1974. The program was started by the state in an attempt to reduce the public cost of welfare. Some of the victims were criminals or patients in mental institutions, while others were poor.
Social workers threatened the loss of public assistance if some women declined to be sterilized. About 85 percent of the victims were women or girls.
The panel’s recommendation was part of its draft report to Governor Bev Perdue. A final report will be issued next February.
Former North Carolina Governor Mike Easley apologized in 2002 to victims of the program, but the state did not move forward with compensation at that time.
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Red Fox Country Club in Polk County is among five golf courses in Western North Carolina that are currently for sale, according to golf course broker Brett Miller of Miller Management Associates.
Miller, interviewed for a story in the Asheville Citizen-Times, said the list also includes Etowah Valley Resort & Country Club, a 27-hole club built in 1967. Linville Falls Country Club, north of Marion, is up for sale again after it was purchased out of foreclosure last year by Marc Gooden, owner of Crooked Creek Golf Club in Hendersonville. Also available for purchase are the Maggie Valley Club and the Springdale Golf Club, both in Haywood County.
Frank Todd Sr. said his family decided to sell the Etowah Valley Club after it was hit hard by the economic downturn and forced the family to use its own funds over the past three years to keep the club going. He said his family hopes to sell it for close to the most recent appraisal of $8.5 million.
Red Fox, an Ellis Maples designed-course, is listed for $2.2 million. If the courses are sold they will join a list of several courses sold in the region during the economic downturn.
Cleghorn Plantation in Rutherford County was sold last year for $4.75 million to Challenge Golf Group of the Carolinas. Reems Creek Golf Club in Weaverville sold for $1.9 million in 2009 and Broadmoor Golf Links in Fletcher sold last year for $3.8 million, both going to California-based Warrior Golf.
Gooden purchased Linville Falls last year in foreclosure for $1 million.
The Citizen-Times reports that the economy continues to impact some area courses, noting that both the Asheville Municipal Golf Course and Black Mountain Golf Course incurred losses in the past year of between $100,000 and $150,000.
Despite the difficulties for some clubs, golf course broker Miller said there are buyers interested in acquiring existing courses, particularly because it’s expensive to acquire and prepare sufficiently large tracts for a new course. He adds that 11,000 people a day are turning 65, adding to the potential number of regular golfers in the future.
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Firefighters from across the region traveled to Asheville this week to mourn the loss of one of their own, Capt. Jeffrey Bowen of the Asheville Fire Department.
Bowen, 37, died of cardiac arrest last week while battling a four-alarm fire in a medical office building.
Bowen was placed on Fire Engine 1 to lead a procession that extended for miles toward his final resting place. More than 2,400 people, including the Western North Carolina Patriot Guard, attended the two-hour memorial service at Biltmore Baptist Church.
Bowen is survived by his wife and three children. The fire last week in the medical office building injured 10 firefighters, including some who remain hospitalized.
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The Conservation Trust for North Carolina and 10 local land trusts will receive $2.7 million in funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byways Program. The funds will be used to permanently protect land along designated scenic byways, such as the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Margaret Lillard of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina said the funds will help make up for the loss of funding in the state’s new budget. She said funding for North Carolina’s four natural resource trust funds was cut by about 85 percent in the new state budget.
The Drovers Road Scenic Byway land acquisition project, administered by the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy and the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, will be one of the projects to benefit from the federal grant. The byway runs through Hickory Nut Gorge.
The federal funds also will be used to preserve 128 acres at the Heffner Gap Overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The privately held land near Spruce Pine will fill a gap in the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.
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The Land-of-Sky Regional Council has received a national award for its Linking Lands and Communities in the Land-of-Sky Region initiative.
The National Association of Development Organizations Research Foundation gave its 2011 Innovation Award to the Land-of-Sky initiative, which helps communities plan for growth and development while protecting healthy natural systems.
The Land-of-Sky Regional Council worked with more than 40 local and regional partners on the project, which identified natural and cultural resources in the region and ways to link them in a region “green infrastructure” network.
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Jennifer Pharr Davis, 28, of Asheville has set a new record for the fastest through-hike ever on the Appalachian Trail.
She completed the 2,181-mile trail in just 46 days, 11 hours and 20 minutes. To do so, she had to average 46 miles a day, burning up to 7,000 calories a day. Pharr hiked for 15 to 18 hours each day without running or jogging.
She was supported by a small team, which included her husband. The team provided food, water and a tent at certain points along the way.
Davis previously set the female hiker time record in 2008. This year she beat that time by 11 days and topped the male hiker record set in 2005 by one day.
She began her journey on Mount Katahdin in Maine on June 15 with a 56-mile day.
Pharr said the trail has always been a very special place for her and she wanted to “go back and see how quickly I could do it.”