The month had the biggest spurt in economic activity since last summer.

The companies and LLCs are:

• Atlanta Retail Maintenance Inc., 1810 Frans Road in Westfield, registered by Timothy Burton.
• Crown/Brawley-WAG LLC and Mayhew Development Group LLC, both registered by Charles Patrick Crosby Jr. of The Crown Companies, 121 N. Crutchfield in Dobson
• Crown/Stuart LLC registered by Samuel L. Holder Jr., also of The Crown Companies in Dobson.
• DeSena Commercial Services LLC, 525 Holly Springs Road, Mount Airy, registered by Tom Desena.
• Elkin Creek Bar & Grill Inc., 2001 N. Bridge St., Elkin, registered by Graham Marquis Greene.
• Granite/Snowhill LLC registered by R. Craig Hunter, a principal at Granite Development Inc., 210 Airport Road, Suite 200, Mount Airy
• Heena Corporation of N.C. Inc. registered by Milankuma Shah, 106 Highland Ave., Mount Airy.
• InTrust Investments LLC, 1531 Hicks Drive #11, Mount Airy, registered by Carl Ray Whitaker.
• Joyce Properties of Mount Airy LLC, 136 W. Lebanon, Mount Airy, registered by Tammy Hull Joyce of 161 Guiness Lane, Mount Airy.
• Kirby Enterprises LLC, 913 Reeves Drive, registered by Tony Kirby.
• Kirkman Apartments LLC and Lily’s Land LLC, 1060 S. Main, both registered by Treva J. Kirkman.
• LHF Properties LLC, 564 E. Walker Road, Elkin, registered by Tony Litschke.
• Needham Holdings L.L.C., 508 W. Main, Pilot Mountain, registered by Linda Needham.
• Nightride International LLC, 1673 Old Highway 601, Mount Airy, registered by Bruce Smith Hodges.
• Piedmont Orofacial Myology Inc. registered by Natasha Bruner Sumner, 171 Stevenson Farm Lane, Ararat.
• Rockford Street LLC and Snowhill Drive LLC registered by William W. Juno, 701 W. Pine St., Suite 100, in Mount Airy.
• S&P Sit N Sun Inc., 4015 Reid Road in Tobaccoville, registered by John P. Pulliam, 143 W. Main in Pilot Mountain.
• Sweet Tones Music Inc., 339 Cristi Lane in Dobson, registered by Gerald Jacobsen.
• T.A.E.P. Inc., 4445 Westfield Road, Mount Airy, registered by Tracie Ann Pine.
• TG Golf LLC at Pilot Knob golf course, 450 Clubhouse Drive in Pilot Mountain, registered by Tom M. Gibson III.
• The MAST Group LLC registered by Tammy Ammen, 125 Oak Lane in State Road, with Audrey Adkins of 392 Cedarcreek Drive, also in State Road.
• Vaughn-Miller Enterprises LLC, 279 Hickory St., Suite 600, registered by Marissa V. and Jimmy Wayne Miller Jr. and Grayson G. Vaughn of 229 Emmanuel Church Lane, Mount Airy.
• Willow Floors & Cabinetry Inc., 404 Jarvis Plantation Road in Dobson, registered by Tina H. Swaim.

“They need to expand production,” said Ted Ashby, president of Surrey Bank & Trust and the current chairman of the Surry County Economic Development Partnership Inc., announced during the monthly meeting of the city-county Liaison Committee, a group of Mount Airy and Surry County public leaders who discuss joint projects.

Ashby said the unnamed company will need extra manufacturing capacity if it wins a U.S. government contract.

Ashby also reported that Duke Energy is looking for more sites where it can help local communities attract new businesses. One potential site is the Piedmont West Corporate Industrial Park on Mount Airy’s outskirts.

Ashby said Duke Energy officials plan to visit the industrial park, perhaps in the next 30 to 60 days.

The Surry Messenger reports more extensively on Duke Energy’s interest. Brook R. Corwin’s report is here.

The Surry County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 18 may approve a tax-incentives package to help Bodet & Horst establish a local facility. Similar action by the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners could follow on Feb. 21. Each board is offering $17,700 to $26,800 — the final amount depends on the company’s actual investment — according to Robin Rhyne, president of the Surry County Economic Development Partnership.

The plant initially will employ 10 people, but Rhyne said she hopes it will grow, much as Bodet & Horst’s 23,000-square-foot High Point facility started three years ago with five employees and now has 65.

The proposed Mount Airy plant will make knitted fire barriers for mattresses. Bodet & Horst claims to be “the world’s leading producer of knitted mattress cover materials” for the international mattress industry and also manufactures spacer fabrics, climate belts, service zippers and other mattress accessories.

One of its High Point managers lives in Surry County and knows the availability of experienced textile workers here, a major reason why Bodet & Horst focused on Mount Airy as a site for the operation that will complement work done in High Point. The manufacturer expects to invest $1.2 million to $1.8 million in machinery and equipment here.

Rhyne said company will pay more than $30,000 in property taxes annually, which will be rebated to the company over its first five years as an incentive grant.

No site for the Mount Airy facility has been announced.

They say the region is in transition.

Robin Rhyne, president of the Surry County Economic Development Partnership, points out companies who have opened their doors in recent months.

“We have seen fabricated metal work coming here,” Rhyne said. “We’ve got a company that is starting up in the county that makes armored personnel carriers.”

Surry County also is wooing Fibrowatt, a company that generates electricity by burning chicken litter. And there’s been growth in the local health care, wine and tourism industries.

Rhyne says it’s too early to name names, but other companies are looking closely at Surry County — companies she refers to as “advanced manufacturers.”

“They’re highly automated and their processes are using new kinds of materials and they’re expecting their employees to be pretty educated,” she said.

News 14 Carolina’s web page includes a written summary of the story and a link to the actual video.

“I expect we are going to feel it here,” Don Jud, professor emeritus of business administration at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, told the newspaper. “The pattern is that the Triad economy tracks the nation pretty closely. For example, building permits nationally are down 24 percent. Here, we are down 25 percent.”

Two major Triad em­ployers with ties to Surry County already announced job cut­backs this month. Ashe­boro-based Klaussner Home Furnishings will close furni­ture Plant 5 in two months, laying off 130 workers, and Hanesbrands Inc. intends to close textile plants in Da­vie and Randolph counties, eliminating 120 jobs.  Klaussner in September selected Salem Logistics, which has a 350,000-square-foot distribution hub in Pilot Mountain, as its exclusive contractor for transportation and logistics. Hanesbrands manufactures women’s hosiery at its Mount Airy plant, 645 W. Pine.

The slump in the national economy will catch up to the Triad “if there’s a general downturn in consumer spend­ing,” said Mike McCully, eco­nomics instructor at High Point University. One risk fac­tor for the Triad is that many key employers, such as Dell Inc. and furnishings compa­nies, depend on big-ticket pur­chases by consumers, he told the High Point Enterprise. “If the economy is not do­ing well, that’s often the stuff that people will cut back on,” McCully said.

As SurryBusiness.com reported previously, a shortage of welders and other metal fabricators is preventing or delaying several companies’ expansion in Surry County. The college offers welding classes, but has had trouble attracting prospective students.

The problem of finding welders came up again earlier this month at the economic summit in Mount Airy — ironically, a meeting held just three blocks away from metals-fabricator Ottenweller Company, one of the manufacturers mentioned in Corwin’s article.

The others are Granite Tactical Vehicles in Pilot Mountain, one of several U.S. firms developing specialized, hardened vehicles for use by military troops and security contractors; CK Technologies of Mount Airy, which manufactures truck parts for Volvo and Freightliner; and Tampco of Elkin, which manufactures stainless steel fittings for marine uses. All, like Ottenweller, have unfilled job openings.

All need workers trained in precision welding.

“It’s very delicate work,” said Chad Bledsoe, dean of SCC’s business, computer and engineering technologies. “When you think of welding you often think of slapping things together. Those days are gone.”

The demanding curriculum led some students to drop out of a fall welding course offered through the college’s Corporate and Continuing Education Division. However, with many industrial welding jobs now paying $60,000 a year or more, Vice President George Sappenfield says he hopes the new classes offered this semester will attract plenty of interest.

“We hope, now that the information is out there, people will realize that with welding there are jobs where you can make a pretty good living,” Sappenfield told Corwin. “These are solid industries looking for welders. They are not going to fold anytime soon.”

Surry Community College offers one-semester courses and one-year diploma programs that prepare students for welding certification tests.

The corporate and continuing education division this month will begin two classes designed specifically for Granite Tactical’s needs. Each requires 75 hours of classroom time.

Convened by newly elected city commissioners Dean Brown and Deborah Cochran, the session at the Olympia Family Restaurant attracted a standing-room-only crowd of about 100. Many were business people. City Manager Don Brookshire led a large contingent of city department heads. Both newspapers and the local radio stations covered the meeting. Speakers included people directly involved in economic-development, such as Surry County Economic Development Partnership’s Board Chairman Ted Ashby and President Robin Rhyne, but many others talked about their own entrepreneurial efforts and how those successes might be encouraged.

Many floated specific proposals to stimulate economic development and create jobs.

One of the constraints on growth is Surry County’s workforce, I pointed out. Only three blocks north of the Olympia, AES (formerly Applied Electronic Services), SouthData and Ottenweller all want to expand their companies, but have had trouble finding suitable workers. AES needs electronics technicians and machinists, Ottenweller needs welders and metal fabricators and SouthData needs workers for packing, distribution, printing and sales. They’re not alone in the hunt for more workers; many companies in Surry County also need people who have certain job skills that don’t necessarily require an advanced education. I said a large part of the economic-development focus must be on improving workers’ skills and education.

Robin Rhyne said Surry Community College is aware of some of those needs. It has prepared facilities to train welders, for example. The college’s problem has been attracting students interested in such careers.

Subsequent discussion led to three of the many concrete proposals for changes and improvements in Surry County’s economic-development efforts:

• A Surry-specific “job bank” to connect companies and employees.
• More vocational training in the college and high schools and more career-oriented extracurricular activities such as DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), SkillsUSA-VICA (Vocational-Industrial Clubs of America), HERO (Home Economics-Related Occupations) and Junior Achievement.
• A city-sponsored task force, primarily composed of business leaders, to promote and encourage job-development in Mount Airy and the surrounding area.

Rhyne and Ashby said SCEDP is working on a number of economic-development efforts that haven’t drawn much publicity. For example, the partnership recently sent out 2,500 marketing packages to targeted industries (plastics and packaging, logistics and distribution, value-added food processors and others) in New England. The partnership followed up with direct calls to those industries. Those efforts require both manpower and money; for this initiative alone the partnership needed to hire a special consultant.

More than one speaker said all economic-development efforts in Mount Airy will require a greater investment of money and manpower than has been committed to date. Several said the partnership should be the focal point for economic-development efforts. (In a related development this week, SCEDP revealed it will have to relocate to a new office, because Surry Community College needs SCEDP’s existing site for development of its viticulture center. See news reports here and here.)

There was a lot of optimism and a positive, proactive spirit at the meeting, which Brookshire said afterwards are the kinds of attitudes that need encouragement. Citing John M. Schultz’s “Boomtown USA: The 7-1/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns,” Brookshire pointed out the No. 1 key is, “Adopt a can-do’ attitude.”

Tom Joyce covered the meeting for The Mount Airy News. His article, “Citizens serve up economic ideas,” quotes a number of people who spoke Tuesday — at least 20, by his count.

Brook Corwin reported by story for the Surry Messenger. See “City economic summit draws about 100.”

Related to that news coverage, several people talking after the meeting discussed ways to expand efforts (such as SurryBusiness.com) that will publicize business activity and economic-development opportunities in Surry County. As one possibility, local media and the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce might share their articles and information about new and expanding businesses, products and services and put more of those stories online.

So what happens next?

“After the meeting, commissioners Brown and Cochran said their appetites for progress were satisfied by the turnout and the various proposals offered,” Joyce reported. “Brown said a core group will be developed from the gathering to explore some of the ideas further. “

City commissioners Deborah Cochran and Dean Brown set up the meeting. Both campaigned last year on promises to stimulate economic development and bring more jobs to the city. Both told local newspapers that they hope Tuesday’s meeting will generate new ideas and positive suggestions.

Anyone may attend.

The Olympia normally is closed Tuesday nights. Restaurant owner Dale Sechrist made it available without charge.

“Debbie is a longtime friend and customer,” Sechrist told The Mount Airy News. “I like the whole idea of what she’s trying to do and I have no problem with it at all. And who knows? Something good may come of it.”

The North Carolina Employment Security Commission said 33,077 people in the resident workforce had jobs — only 64 fewer than in June when seasonal employment swelled the labor market.

There were 2,077 people seeking work and receiving unemployment benefits — 5.9 percent of the workforce — and though that was a slight improvement from October, when 2,108 were jobless, the number of idled workers was the third-highest total since February 2006.

Twelve months ago, in November 2006, 33,430 residents of Surry County had jobs and 1,748 (5.0 percent) were unemployed. Since that time there have been several major layoffs at textile and apparel plants in Mount Airy, but growth across the county in retail, service and government employment.

Elsewhere in the Piedmont Triad region of northwest North Carolina, local unemployment rates moved plus or minus 0.1 percent from October to November but were lower than in November 2006 or, in the Winston-Salem metropolitan area, unchanged.

Caswell and Montgomery counties had the region’s highest November unemployment rates at 6.3 percent; Forsyth and Yadkin had the lowest: 4.3 and 4.2 percent respectively.

Other sites with useful information include Work.com, which has more than 1,700 how-to segments covering a multitude of issues confronting small businesses; E-venturing run by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; and About.com’s small business and entrepreneur sites.

StartupNation offers advice through video segments augmented by written information and also provides forums and groups where entrepreneurs can share information. Bplans has more than 100 free sample business plans and offers advice and other planning tools. CCH Business Owner’s Toolkit has templates to help examine financial issues as well as other model business documents, checklists and government forms.

North Carolina’s Business ServiCenter, operated by the N.C. Department of Commerce, may help you untangle the web of state licensing requirements. Or, instead of relying on the web, you can call 1-800-228-8443 and talk directly with a Commerce Department specialist.

Also utilize the free, but invaluable resources here in Surry County. The Small Business Center at Surry Community College in Dobson provides help and advice and also sets up regular seminars where you can meet other people working on small-business startups. The Surry County Economic Development Partnership, also based in Dobson, specializes in helping companies involved in manufacturing and distribution. The local chambers of commerce (Greater Mount Airy CoC in Mount Airy and Yadkin Valley CoC in Elkin) can help you plug into the retail community. The Mount Airy city government’s web site has an excellent FAQ on municipal, county and state business licenses.

And, of course, you can write to us here at SurryBusiness.com and let us know about your new company.