Surry Business

Only two years after completing a $20-million project that added surgical space and imaging equipment, Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital in Elkin has started a three-year-long, $48-million program that will renovate and enlarge the hospital’s emergency room and intensive-care unit, put an addition on the cardiology center, upgrade the comprehensive cancer unit, improve the medical/surgical nursing units and eventually add 30 beds in a three-story patient tower.

A new laboratory will replace the existing facility last renovated in the 1970s. Already under way, that construction is to be completed early in 2008. In the coming months, the hospital also will relocate and improve its technology center and upgrade parking facilities, adding two surface lots. A new parking garage will be constructed by 2010.

Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital’s president and CEO, Steven Pennington, told the Elkin Tribune that the expansion is designed not only to expand Hugh Chatham’s services and capacity, but to maintain its community-hospital “feel.”

“We want to be able to expand services so that patients do not have to travel to receive health care,” Pennington said. “We want to make it convenient for patients to have excellent services and be able to do that right around the corner in Elkin with easy access to parking and to be cared for by their family and friends. We think with our current technology and commitment to excellence from all our employees we have a unique opportunity to blend these together.”

“More rural hospitals are reducing services or joining huge hospital companies,” noted a representative of Alliant Management Services, which provides management services to the hospital, “but (Hugh Chatham Memorial) wants to stay independent and expand.”

“You get a sense of pride here,” said Tracy Byers, assistant hospital administrator. “They are proud of the fact that this hospital has been well taken care of over the years and has been pretty responsible financially. Now patients are deciding to go to the local hospital rather than drive to cities. People realize you don’t have to go to Winston-Salem or Statesville or Charlotte.”

The ER/ICU renovation is a need that has become urgent over the past two years, according to the HCMH Foundation, which is coordinating a fund-raising effort to support the improvement project. Emergency-room volume has increased at a rate greater than 8 percent annually since 2004 and is expected to total 23,000 . With a decline in the number of insured Americans, the trend locally, regionally and nationally is for more patients to use hospital emergency rooms rather than visit private physicians’ offices. The project at Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital will renovate 8,000 square feet of existing space and add 75,000 square feet to the emergency room.

Dr. Jim Harrell Sr., chairman of the hospital foundation, said, “Doctors and employees in both the emergency room and the ICU provide a high level of care. The ability to treat a greater number of patients through the expansions of these areas is reason for our community to thoughtfully and prayerfully consider their gifts to our 2007 annual campaign.”

National health-care analyses also indicate that Hugh Chatham Memorial’s primary service area will grow at a 5.5 percent rate over the next 10 years while the secondary service area is predicted to grow at a 1.3 percent rate. The population in the hospital’s service area, which includes Surry County, already utilizes the emergency room at a higher rate than the North Carolina or national average.

Wayne Farms LLC, the fourth-largest vertically integrated poultry producer in the United States, has once again earned the Vendor Improvement Process (VIP) Cornerstone Award from Gordon Food Service, North America’s largest privately held food-service distributor. The award is the highest honor Gordon gives to its vendors.

“The VIP Cornerstone Award is one of the most comprehensive awards in our industry,” said Elton Maddox, Wayne Farms LLC’s president and CEO. “To again be recognized by Gordon as a leader in service and products is an affirmation that we continue to operate at the highest level of quality.”

Gordon Food Service evaluates its vendors through a program known as the Vendor Improvement Process (VIP). Vendors are compared in categories such as order fill rate; purchase order and invoice matching; on-time delivery; damage and spoilage; customer credits and returns; bar coding of packaging; pallet quality; and inventory turns. The VIP Cornerstone Award winners have the highest total scores.

During the seven years when Gordon has awarded the VIP Award, Wayne Farms has received the honor in four consecutive years (2004-07) and six times in all.

Wayne Farms LLC, formerly known as the Poultry Division of ContiGroup Companies, is the nation’s fourth-largest producer and processor of broiler chickens. Utilizing the many resources within ContiGroup, Wayne Farms’s vertical integration allows control of the process from feed to final (raw or cooked) product, assuring strict product quality and food safety.

The company has 11 U.S. facilities, including one in North Carolina: the Dobson operation in Surry County.

Three days of rain last week moved Surry County into the category of “moderate drought” (D1) on the weekly State Drought Monitor map posted Thursday by the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council.

More than half of the state’s counties remain locked in the D3 (extreme drought) or D4 (exceptional) categories on the newest Drought Monitor Map and 82 counties are experiencing severe drought or worse. The Charlotte area is rated D4, much of the Triangle (around Raleigh) is D3 and farther south of us in the Piedmont Triad most counties are rated D2 (severe) to D3. Mandatory water restrictions remain in effect in Guilford County around Greensboro and the Greensboro News & Record reports the outlook for next year is not favorable.

Earlier this month Surry County slipped into the “extreme drought” (D3) category. You should know, however, that the advisory council’s mapping system puts a county into one of the five drought categories if only a small section has less than a certain level of precipitation. In fact, most of Surry County never experienced worse than “severe” drought this summer, though that’s certainly bad enough. The drought stressed crops including tobacco, vinifera (wine) grapes and field grains, but the exceptional Easter freeze last spring actually may have been more costly to farmers. As for restricting water use, city officials in Mount Airy on Oct. 18 asked residents to voluntarily limit water consumption, but the request came more as a demonstration of sympathy for downstream counties’ residents than because of any actual shortage. Elkin also considered voluntary restrictions as early as Aug. 22 when Big Elk Creek’s stream flow slowed, but the town always had a tap into the Yadkin River available as a backup.

You can see North Carolina’s drought develop over the past five months by studying the Drought Management Advisory Council’s archives. What you should notice is that Surry County, throughout the summer, never suffered quite as much as the rest of the state (the eastern coastal counties excepted). The same pattern was seen in North Carolina’s three-year-long drought that ended in 2002-03. Surry County is backed up against the Blue Ridge Mountains and well-washed by the Mitchell, Yadkin, Ararat and Fisher rivers. Within this microclimate, Surry had and has a lot of water on and in the ground.

In its impact on economic development, water is a major consideration for many manufacturers, public facilities and home builders. Mount Airy City Manager Don Brookshire is fond of saying that growth follows the water (and sewer) lines. As one example right at hand, Benny East’s development of Mayberry Campground (see Thursday’s post below) wouldn’t have occurred without Mount Airy’s agreement to extend water lines down U.S. 601 past Interstate 74. Robin Rhyne of the Surry County Economic Development Partnership and city officials in Mount Airy, Elkin and Pilot Mountain all can point to surpluses in treatment capacity as a lure to companies who need dependable sources of water. And those prospective employers aren’t limited to the traditional manufacturers whose needs spurred Mount Airy, Elkin and Pilot Mountain to build their capacious water-treatment systems. Computer data “warehouses” and “server farms,” such as the one Google is building at Lenoir, need huge quantities of water for cooling systems. That’s one of the reasons why Rhyne was in Dallas, Texas, earlier this week; part of her time was spent meeting site consultants at a conference for computer companies. Value-added agriculture is a target for economic development, too, and water is one of the factors that gives the Yadkin Valley American Viticultural Area its unique quality for growing vinifera grapes.

As levers to lift economic development, Surry County’s climate and abundant water are invaluable assets with the added benefit that they than can never be outsourced or moved overseas.

The Surrey Bancorp Board of Directors has approved a special cash dividend of 15 cents per share of common stock. The dividend is payable Jan. 2, 2008, to shareholders of record as of Dec. 10, 2007.

This is the first time the Surrey Bancorp board has declared a cash dividend. Edward C. “Ted” Ashby, president and CEO, said, “The decision to pay a special dividend was made in recognition of the company’s strong financial performance during 2007.”

Surrey Bancorp (SRYB.OB) in Mount Airy, N.C., is the bank holding company for Surrey Bank & Trust. The bank operates full-service branch offices at 145 N. Renfro St., 1280 W. Pine St. and 2050 Rockford Street in Mount Airy; 653 S. Key St. in Pilot Mountain, N.C.; and 303 S. Main St. in Stuart, Va.

Benny L. East’s Mayberry Campground no sooner opened for business just outside Mount Airy off Interstate 74 in Surry County than it picked up a glowing recommendation on RV Park Reviews.

“We were one of their first campers,” said an experienced motor-home traveler whose other campground reviews span the nation from California to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to Arizona. “All sites have 50/30/20-amp electrical, water, sewer and cable coming soon. WiFi is also promised in the near future. Campground is set on a rolling, golf-course like setting. There are two ponds and lots of grass. There are no trees yet, but they are installing shelters to keep you out of the weather. The streets are even paved with granite. It is located just outside the nice tourist town of Mount Airy where Andy Griffith grew up and based the TV town of ‘Mayberry.'”

Mayberry Campground earned 10 stars out of 10 on the review posted Oct. 28.

Benny East developed Mayberry Campground specifically for recreational-vehicle travelers attracted to northwest North Carolina and Surry County’s many attractions, including the Mayberry connection, but also the Yadkin Valley Viticultural Area’s vineyards and wineries, old-time and bluegrass music (country singer Donna Fargo also is a native), Pilot Mountain and the Blue Ridge Parkway, the sprawling N.C. Granite Corp. quarry and the home of The Original Siamese Twins, Eng and Chang Bunker (campground visitors can walk to the White Plains Church and see the Twins’ gravesite).

Fourteen RV sites already are open with full hookups. More are planned. The campground also has sites for tent campers. Rates are $25 per night for RVs and $15 for tenters.

Additional services and facilities are coming.

“We are very excited about our future plans,” East writes on the campground’s web site. “We are planning on building picnic shelters, playgrounds for the children, a horseshoe game area, volleyball, campfire pits. Our campground is going to be somewhere you can come camp with us and never leave the grounds; everything you need will be right here! We will have a general store with all the basic necessities, propane, firewood, etc. We also will be offering wireless internet and cable TV. We are also planning on building a swimming pool with a Jacuzzi. If you want to sit back and relax, then you need to come to Mayberry Campground to visit.”

To reach Mayberry Campground from the Interstate 74-U.S. 601 intersection, turn onto South McKinney Road, go approximately 1/8 mile and take the first left onto Rustic Village Trail.

The campground’s address is 114 Byron Bunker Lane (at Bunker Road), Mount Airy, NC 27030. Its telephone number is (336) 789-6199. E-mail: mayberrycamp@embarqmail.com.

The Olympia Restaurant in Mount Airy has moved into its new building at 550 Riverside Drive, next to its former location across Linville Road from Renfro Corp.

The locally owned restaurant, particularly popular for breakfasts and lunches and well-known for its homestyle cooking (turnip greens, macaroni & cheese and cornbread are daily fixtures on the menu), is owned by Dale and Barbara Sechrist of Mount Airy.

New hours are 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and — now offering breakfast, lunch and dinner — 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. The restaurant is closed Sunday. Its telephone number is (336) 786-7556.

Pike Electric Corp. (NYSE: PEC) in Mount Airy, N.C., has added a “2007 Video Annual Report” to the Investor Relations section of its web site.

This new feature shows viewers the highlights of Pike Electric’s accomplishments in fiscal 2007. It includes an overview of Pike Electric and the company’s strategic initiatives. The short documentary also gives stockholders and other interested parties an opportunity to see and hear directly from Pike Electric’s management team.

To watch the video, click Pike Electric 2007 Video Annual Report or, if the Windows Media Video does not open, go to the Investor Relations section of Pike’s web site.

Pike Electric, founded and headquartered in Surry County, N.C., is one of the largest providers of outsourced electric distribution and transmission services in the United States. Its core activities consist of the maintenance, upgrade and extension of electric distribution and sub-500 kilovolt transmission powerlines for more than 150 electric utilities, cooperatives and municipalities. Pike Electric services a contiguous 19-state region from Pennsylvania to Florida in the southeast and Texas in the southwest. The company is a recognized leader in storm restoration services.

Pike Electric’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PEC.

The corporation will report its first-quarter earnings and revenues in a conference call at 5 p.m. (EDT) Nov. 6.

Goodwill Industries will open its new 13,000-square-foot facility at 1986 Rockford St. (on U.S. 601) in Mount Airy at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7.

The building has 9,000 square feet of retail space, 1,000 square feet for future workforce training and development services and much more room for processing, repairing and storing donated items. The new facility replaces one at 208 Moore Ave., which will be closed. The new store will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday — two hours later than at present — and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. The staff size will be doubled. Jerry Johnson will continue as the store manager.

“We are very excited about the new Mount Airy store,” said Goodwill’s director of marketing, Jaymie Moore. “…A larger location, the addition of a donation drive-through and extended hours offer a more convenient and pleasant experience for our shoppers and donors.”

Goodwill Industries sells donated items to underwrite its costs for career-development and training programs that help people find jobs.

GARANCO Inc. of Pilot Mountain built the new store. Construction superintendent John Wayne Flippen noted that the new location should bring the store more customers, because it’s on heavily trafficked U.S. 601 between Cookout and Scenic Ford.

Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina is a private, nonprofit organization that has been serving the community since 1926.

“At Goodwill, we believe that all people, regardless of situation, should have access to meaningful employment,” said Moore. Through workforce development programs, we help individuals develop the skills they need for today’s job market.”

Goodwill Industries serves more than 15,000 people by providing employment and workforce development in northwest North Carolina each year.

School district and individual schools’ report cards for 2006-07 have been posted on the web at NCSchoolReportCard.org by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

The annual reports provide information about school enrollment (by gender and race or ethnic background), students’ performance on standardized tests, teachers’ qualifications, safety and security, sources of funding, access to computers and the internet, parental involvement, graduation rates and other aspects of education.

There are three public school districts (also known as local education agencies or LEA’s) in Surry County. They are the Surry County Schools, Elkin City Schools and Mount Airy City Schools. The NCDPI website also as the annual report card for the county’s only charter school, Millennium Charter Academy.

Surrey Bancorp, the Mount Airy-based bank holding company that owns Surrey Bank & Trust, today announced third-quarter earnings of $742,758, or $.21 per fully diluted share. The earnings are 1.3 percent higher than in the third quarter of 2006.

The higher earnings resulted from increases in net interest income and non-interest income that narrowly outpaced an increase in the provision for loan losses and higher expenses. More net interest income came from growth. The increase in non-interest income is primarily the result of an increase in servicing fees for government guaranteed loans sold by the bank and of increased revenue from the insurance and brokerage divisions of Surrey Investment Services Inc., a Surrey Bank & Trust subsidiary.

The increase in the provision for loan losses is attributable to the effects of net charge-offs in the third quarter of 2007 compared to net recoveries in the third quarter of 2006. Non-interest expenses increased primarily due to increases in FDIC insurance assessments and compliance cost associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Total assets were $206.5 million as of Sept. 30, 2007, an increase of 14.5 percent from the $180 million a year earlier. Net loans increased 10.7 percent to $161 million compared to $145.7 million at the end of 2006’s third quarter. Asset quality remained strong with delinquency levels and loan losses in line with industry averages. Loan loss reserves were $2.62 million or 1.60 percent of total loans as of Sept. 30, 2007. Total deposits increased to $165.3 million at the end of the third quarter, a 14.4 percent increase from the end of the third quarter of 2006.

Surrey Bancorp (OTB: SRYB) has offices at Surrey Bank & Trust’s main office, 145 N. Renfro St., Mount Airy, N.C. The bank also operates full service branch offices at 1280 W. Pine St. and 2050 Rockford St. in Mount Airy; 653 S. Key St. in Pilot Mountain, N.C.; and 303 S. Main St. in Stuart, Va.

Surrey Bank & Trust is engaged in the sale of insurance through its wholly owned subsidiary, SB&T Insurance at 199 N. Renfro St.in Mount Airy. The bank also owns Surrey Investment Services Inc., which provides full-service brokerage and investment advice through an association with UVest Financial Services, and Freedom Finance LLC, a finance company at 165 N. Renfro St. in Mount Airy.