A-B Tech Honored with Regional Small Business Award
From left: Gordon Greenwood, member of the State Board of Community Colleges and a former A-B Tech Trustee; Lt. Gov. Beverly Purdue, member of the State Board of Community Colleges; Martin Lancaster, President of the North Carolina Community College System; Harry Ponder, former director of A-B Tech's Small Business Center; Russ Yelton, director of A-B Tech's Small Business Center and Small Business Incubator; James Woody, chair of the State Board of Community Colleges; and James Daniels, member of the State Board of Community Colleges and former member of the A-B Tech Foundation Board of Directors, celebrate the recognition of A-B Tech's Small Business Center as the Regional Small Business Center of Excellence.
A-B Tech's Small Business Center was one of three in the state recognized as Regional Small Business Centers of Excellence by the State Board of Community Colleges during its meeting March 18 in Raleigh.
Small Business Center Director Russ Yelton accepted the award for the Western Region from Willa Dickens, executive director of the North Carolina Community College System's Small Business Center Network.
"Our Small Business Centers are providing remarkable assistance all across the state," said Dickens. "These small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and the counseling and guidance they receive at the local SBC enable them to thrive."
A-B Tech's Small Business Center has seen 202 new clients since July 1, a 65 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. It also averages more than 50 direct one-to-one hours of counseling per month. Companies started include cleaning, restaurant, landscaping and newspapers. The Center assists with feasibility evaluation, business plan development and loan preparation.
"With the loss of many manufacturing jobs and facilities across Western North Carolina, small business are the ones who are creating the jobs of tomorrow," Yelton said. According to the North Carolina Rural Center, 92 percent of all new jobs in 2003 were created by small businesses.
"The Small Business Center is providing technical assistance for potential and existing business owners. We assist in evaluating current and possible business plans and assist in networking with other resources in the community," Yelton said. The Center also houses an incubator to help give small businesses a home for those first crucial years of operation.
Among the center's success stories is the home furnishings store Mobilia, located in downtown Asheville. Owner Cynthia Turner says resources from the Small Business Center helped her establish a business plan and find a lending institution for financing. Yelton continues to work with Turner providing plans for staff development and marketing.
The center was also recognized for "Jump Start Day," which brings together as many service providers as possible to share important and free business-related information to start-up companies and existing businesses. Information on many areas including bookkeeping, insurance, legal, and licensing is offered.
The Small Business Center Network is comprised of small business centers at each of the 58 community college in North Carolina. The centers provide counseling and other valuable services to budding entrepreneurs. They also assist companies with 25 employees or less that are already in business, but want to become more successful.
Water Heater Project Gets Presidential Recognition
A-B Tech Chair of Electronics Engineering Technology Frank Micelli and Aaron Ball, associate professor of engineering and technology at Western Carolina University, inspect the heat pump component of the Water Heating-Dehumidifier appliance recently built on campus.
A joint project between A-B Tech and Western Carolina University has resulted in a new energy-saving water heater, earning recognition from President George W. Bush.
The Water Heating-Dehumidifying (WHD) appliance was created and transported to Battelle in Columbus, Ohio, where President Bush was attending an Energy Conference March 9.
"One of the reasons I went to Battelle (Memorial Institute) was I wanted to see what innovative ideas they had about energy conservation," Bush said. "What were some of the true brains of America thinking about when it comes to encourage energy conservation? I saw an efficient, affordable water heater than extracts heat from the air and converts it into energy that can warm your water in the shower. See, that's energy conservation. The Department of Energy is supporting dozens of other creative technologies just like that one that will increase conservation."
U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, who secured the funding for the project, said, "I was delighted that President Bush was impressed with one of the many high-technology products we are working on in Western North Carolina. It is nice to see the national spotlight shine on our region in such a positive way. I fought to bring this program to Western North Carolina because I felt it had great potential for creating some good-paying jobs and it looks more and more promising every day. I am very pleased with the progress."
A-B Tech and WCU collaborated on the project with Etowah-based company American Carolina Stamping, and were funded by a $420,000 contract from Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the Department of Energy. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by Battelle and the University of Tennessee.
The team of four organizations designed, fabricated, and tested the appliance. "No similar product currently exists on the U.S. market. Therefore, an opportunity to do discovery, conduct applied research, and carry out empirical testing for new product development was created," said Aaron Ball, the project principal investigator and associate professor of engineering and technology at Western.
Students at A-B Tech were also involved in the project. "The best thing it provided for the college was the opportunity to involve students in a project that combines many of their skills as students, with challenges in new areas," said Frank Micelli, chair of Electronics Engineering Technology.
Part of the challenge was creating a humid room to test the device. The lab in the Maple Building has very dry air so testing was difficult. Student helped create the stations for testing including making sure the water was 55 degrees before heating, the average temperature for well water.
The WHD product builds upon prior heat-pump water heating technology; however, the additional capability of dehumidification was added. This integrated concept has not been previously developed in the United States, according to Ball.
"Results from laboratory tests conducted during this project have shown potential savings of 50 percent. For this geographical region, this savings equates to approximately $200 annually," said Ball.
Author Ron Rash To Speak At A-B Tech
Ron Rash, author of "Speckled Trout"
A-B Tech will present award-winning author Ron Rash, in honor of the 10th Anniversary of Victoria Press, A-B Tech's literary journal, on April 13 in Ferguson Auditorium on A-B Tech's Asheville Campus.
There will be a discussion with the author at 3 p.m. about his short story "Speckled Trout," and at 7:30 p.m. he will perform a reading of the short story. Following the reading, Rash will be available for book signing. Both sessions are free.
Rash is the recipient of a prestigious O. Henry Prize for 2005 for his short story "Speckled Trout," published in the spring 2003 edition of The Kenyon Review. His is one of 20 stories selected for the prize from more than 1,000 submitted by magazine editors from across North America.
The O. Henry Prize is the latest in a series of awards received by Rash. The Fellowship of Southern Writers recently named him recipient of its James Still Award for Writing of the Appalachian South.
Rash is the author of two critically acclaimed novels based in the Appalachians. His debut novel, "One Foot in Eden," won the 2003 Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year Award and Foreword Magazine's Gold Medal for Best Literary Novel of 2002.
He also penned the recently published "Saints at the River."
A Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, Rash is the John and Dorothy Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University.