NORTH WILKESBORO — Wilkes County and Vaya Health have announced plans to use $1.4 million in state funding to expand and add new services at a North Wilkesboro crisis center that provides mental health and substance use treatment to individuals living throughout northwestern North Carolina, …

ASHE COUNTY — Agriculture contributed $120 million to the Ashe County economy in 2018 — representing a $10 million industry increase from 2017, according to the Ashe County Cooperative Extension program impact report, which was distributed at the extension’s advisory board meeting Thursday, …

Ashe County real estate sales soared to an unprecedented high in 2018, with 608 properties sold — a 79 percent increase above the 2012 sales total of $61.2 million, with Regency Properties of downtown West Jefferson at the forefront of those sales, according to owner and broker-in-charge And…

WEST JEFFERSON — Regency Properties has two new agents — Ashe natives Brandi Hurley and Melinda Poe, according to the realty office in West Jefferson.

Less than a year after finding new ownership, Blue Ridge Theater & Events Center has re-established itself as a premier location for Ashe County concerts, conferences, festivals, dances and — in 2019, and for years to come — even more, according to owner Steve Mochen.

JEFFERSON — Blue Ridge Theater & Events Center Owner Steve Mochen appeared before the Ashe County Board of Commissioners to give an update on the Blue Ridge BBQ & Brew Festival scheduled for Aug. 30-31.

For more than 60 years, the capacitor manufacturing facility located along New River’s gently flowing North Fork in northwestern Ashe County has been an anchor for the area’s economy. Identified for the past 27 of those years as United Chemi-Con, the local plant began in 1953 as Sprague Elec…

LENOIR — Ashe County resident Bradley McNeill is retiring from the Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation Board of Directors after 15 years of service, and the cooperative will select another Ashe resident to fill his seat, according to a news release from BRE Public Relations Director R…

WEST JEFFERSON — At the West Jefferson Aldermen meeting Feb. 4, ABC store general manager Haskell Mcguire reported on the most recent fiscal quarter and the continued growth of the store’s economic footprint and size. The months covered in the report were October, November and December, the …

JEFFERSON — With nowhere in Ashe County to sell livestock, local farmers transport their herds off the mountain on selling day, grazing profits and shepherding money away from the local economy, according to Ashe County N.C. Cooperative Extension Livestock Agent Micah Orfield.

WEST JEFFERSON — 10-year-old Chloe Henson mailed a check last week to a school in Pender County to help get the students new carpets. The check is worth $1,000 and it comes from Henson’s “Little Trees,” a home-grown business that has blossomed around Ashe County.

JEFFERSON — Along with 10 other stores across the state, Tractor Supply Co. on South Main Street in Jefferson was fined by the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Standards Division for excessive discrepancies between prices listed on store shelves and prices paid at the re…

JEFFERSON — Bojangles' is coming back to Ashe County, as the new location in Jefferson will open its doors to the public at 5 a.m. Monday, Dec. 31. The previous location closed Oct. 22 after construction of the new building began in July.

WEST JEFFERSON — The Ashe County Chamber of Commerce held its monthly Member Blast at the Ashe County Arts Center Thursday, Dec. 20. The event featured fun, food, news and a raffle drawing; and brought together dozens of representatives from the chamber’s member organizations.

WEST JEFFERSON — Butch Phillips felt there was a need in Ashe County, a need that he wanted to fill with a Hole Lotta Doughnuts. The new doughnut shop will be opening its doors to the public Jan. 3, 2019, but rave reviews are already circulating.

Cindy Price has been appointed to the Ashe District seat on the Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation board of directors, filling the seat left vacant when Kenny Greene retired from the board after 30 years of service, according to BRE Public Relations Director Renee Whitener.

WEST JEFFERSON — New River Conservancy is $30,000 closer to the outright purchase of old Elk Shoals United Methodist Camp thanks to corporate donations from three local companies, according to NRC President George Santucci.

RALEIGH — United Chemi-Con received a $100,000 state grant to support the renovation of its 216,000 square-foot building in Lansing, the N.C. Department of Commerce announced Dec. 14.

Regency Properties has added Amy Ballou to its team of agents. According to Regency, Ballou has been an Ashe County resident for 15 years, and has been in sales most of her life. Ballou said she enjoys the small community and hometown feel of West Jefferson, and is devoted to customer service.

WEST JEFFERSON — New River Brewing is moving from Lansing to downtown West Jefferson, and proprietor Greg Hershner said his family-owned beer fermentation operation is expanding in the process.

LENOIR — Blue Ridge Energy has named Alan Merck as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, according to the member-owned electric cooperative serving 76,000 consumers in northwest North Carolina.

Eva Jordan wins gift basket

WEST JEFFERSON — While seasonal Ashe County residents spend winter off the mountain, Mountain View Home Management offers its services keeping an eye on vacation homes, according to owner Jessica Parker.

WEST JEFFERSON — Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday is a newer holiday with a lot of meaning for West Jefferson. With a downtown area teeming with small, locally owned businesses surrounded by acres of family-owned Christmas tree farms, it seems to be t…

WEST JEFFERSON — At businesses around West Jefferson, visitors can see a decoration with a good cause behind it. They’re called “Little Trees,” they’re made by 10-year-old Chloe Henson and the money they raise is going to help Pender County’s hurricane relief.

ASHE COUNTY — As Thanksgiving approaches and yuletide joy increases, people from near and far have begun flocking to Ashe County to choose and cut their Frasier fir for the season.

WEST JEFFERSON — Choose-and-cut season is back, which means a nice economic bump for Ashe County. The county’s Christmas tree industry is something that people take pride in, and paychecks from.

WEST JEFFERSON — All doors were open at the Great Southern Gothic Apothecary for its Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting ceremony Friday, Nov. 16, but it will not be so easy to open the doors of the newly opened, out-of-this-world escape room in the back of the store.

Boondocks owner Gary Brown is interviewed for a national television commercial for Texas Pete Hot Sauce. According to Brown, the commercial is highlighting businesses that use Texas Pete in interesting ways. In Boondocks’s case, they use a dry, powdered version to give their Texas Pete Porte…

WARRENSVILLE — Nearly two months since firefighters quenched the flames at LifeStore Bank in Warrensville, the future of the bank’s northwestern Ashe County branch remains uncertain.