Workers scurried about, setting up booths, tents, mobile kitchens and the big stage. Most of the work couldn’t be done until today, because many of the locations are on city streets and couldn’t be erected until after the streets were barricaded Wednesday.
As is usual with the Covered Bridge Celebration, the Elk Avenue Bridge is closed. All of downtown is accessible by car, but barricades prevent drivers from going east to the courthouse. The best alternative is to take Broad Street.
Many of the vendors were already in place by midday Wednesday and all of the food vendors were in place but still setting up. Despite the competition, most vendors said they see each other at most festivals in the region and most have become friends. Most have been to the Covered Bridge Festival many times.
This is the third time for Ken Packer of Packer’s Concessions. He specializes in Johnsonville brats and “gourmet lemonade. “My lemonade is made from scratch and it is all made by hand,” Packer said. The drink comes with whole strawberries, raspberries or cherries.
Packer said he always has a good week at the festival and it has a special place in his heart because it was the first big festival he worked.
His friends on the other side of the street, Acie and Star Mullins of Little Delights, have been doing it for a lot longer time. They became food vendors when they retired from their first career. That was 15 years ago and they now do about 25 shows a year. Even with all their experience, they enjoy coming to the Covered Bridge.
“This is a good event,” Acie said. “Its always fun to come to the Covered Bridge.”
They feature some interesting variations on festival fare, including the potato twister dog. That is a potato that has been turned into a spiral by a special cutting machine. The sprial has a hole in the middle which is filled with a hot dog. The whole concoction is fired to perfection.
“You get your meat and potatoes together on a stick,” Star said. Another veteran Covered Bridge food vendor is DNA Concessions, owned by Darwin Booker.
Booker’s specialties include blooming onions, fried green tomatoes, crazy taters, deep fried Oreos and funnel cakes.
Booker said he is hoping for good weather this week. “This is our fifth show of the year and so far, it has rained at every one of them.”
Across the street, at the corner of the bridge stands another veteran, Salt and Pepper/Mama’s Lemonade. They have been in business for more than 20 years and have been coming to the Covered Bridge Celebration for more than 10 years.
They have a wide selection that includes footlong hand-dipped corn dogs, Philly cheese steaks, Polish sausage and deep fried bologna.
There will be plenty of live entertainment to go along with the festival food.
Stephanie McKinney, events and marketing coordinator for the Elizabethton/Carter County Chamber of Commerce said “we have a good lineup every night. Thursday night is Bluegrass Night and we will have The Boxcars. If you haven’t seen them, you really need to, because they can really burn it up.” Click on their website www.careel-tech.com for more information.
2013年5月28日 星期二
Opened Advanced Technology and Academic Center
The Advanced Technology and Academic Center (ATAC) which will be
based in Rochester, New Hampshire, US will offer traditional academic
courses and programmes in advanced composites manufacturing.
The 17,000 square foot ATAC will provide programmes in advanced composites manufacturing starting from 17th June 2013 and Great Bay say the centre is the largest single project under the statewide Advanced Manufacturing Partnership in Education initiative, formed by the Community College System of New Hampshire under a $20M federal grant.
The College say the new advanced composites manufacturing curriculum has been developed to fit the needs of area manufacturers, among those, Albany Engineered Composites (AEC) and Safran Aerospace Composites (SAC), who will be co-locating a new manufacturing plant in Rochester at the Granite State Business Park. The plant is being built by SAC and is expected to add about 500 jobs to the local market. It is scheduled to start operations later this summer.
Debra Mattson, Advanced Manufacturing Program Director and Designer for Great Bay describes the training as structured around a six month tiered programme. "At the end of the six months, full-time students earn a certificate in Composites Manufacturing and are qualified for positions as high level machine- operators with options for continuing into an Associate Degree in Technical Studies. It's a great way to get into the aerospace industry." Students first take three courses; Introduction to Advanced Composites, Applied Math & Measuring for Manufacturing and Technical Blueprint Reading.
At the end that term, they identify an area of interest and start training for positions as high level machine operators/technicians in one of eight areas of specialisation. Specialisations are paint operator; 3D weaving & pre-form finishing technician; resin transfer moulding technician; bonding/finishing operator and quality inspection and laser engraving machine operator, and composites milling/CNC set-up operator. In addition, training for aerospace composites repair technician and high-performance composites fabrication technician career tracks or positions will be offered.
During the programme, students will spend half their time doing hands-on work in the centre's state-of-the art composites lab. According to Mattson, the lab will house the newest equipment for high tech composites manufacturing including a clean room, Autoclave, RTM press, Curing Oven, a 3D weaving loom, a full range of CAD, CAM, 3D printer, CNC and CMM equipment as well as other commonly recognised equipment used in aerospace manufacturing facilities. The lab is slated for completion by the end of this summer.
A full time instructor, a lab technician as well as five adjunct faculties has been hired for the new training programme. During the course development phase and lab installation, they will be supported by internationally recognised composites expert Andre Cocquyt. In addition, the programme will take advantage of on-line course content such as offered by SME owned ToolingU, an on-line education provider. This will provide future alignment with the SME certification programme.
To make the public more aware of the composites industry and aerospace composites manufacturing at Safran and Albany, as well as job trends, Great Bay will be hosting free informational session on Advanced Composites Manufacturing on 7th and 8th June at the new ATAC in Rochester. At the event Andre Cocquyt will provide information on the composites industry and representatives from SAC and AEC will be on hand to talk about their companies, the aircraft engine components they are manufacturing in Rochester, and the job opportunities at their new plant opening this summer.
The 17,000 square foot ATAC will provide programmes in advanced composites manufacturing starting from 17th June 2013 and Great Bay say the centre is the largest single project under the statewide Advanced Manufacturing Partnership in Education initiative, formed by the Community College System of New Hampshire under a $20M federal grant.
The College say the new advanced composites manufacturing curriculum has been developed to fit the needs of area manufacturers, among those, Albany Engineered Composites (AEC) and Safran Aerospace Composites (SAC), who will be co-locating a new manufacturing plant in Rochester at the Granite State Business Park. The plant is being built by SAC and is expected to add about 500 jobs to the local market. It is scheduled to start operations later this summer.
Debra Mattson, Advanced Manufacturing Program Director and Designer for Great Bay describes the training as structured around a six month tiered programme. "At the end of the six months, full-time students earn a certificate in Composites Manufacturing and are qualified for positions as high level machine- operators with options for continuing into an Associate Degree in Technical Studies. It's a great way to get into the aerospace industry." Students first take three courses; Introduction to Advanced Composites, Applied Math & Measuring for Manufacturing and Technical Blueprint Reading.
At the end that term, they identify an area of interest and start training for positions as high level machine operators/technicians in one of eight areas of specialisation. Specialisations are paint operator; 3D weaving & pre-form finishing technician; resin transfer moulding technician; bonding/finishing operator and quality inspection and laser engraving machine operator, and composites milling/CNC set-up operator. In addition, training for aerospace composites repair technician and high-performance composites fabrication technician career tracks or positions will be offered.
During the programme, students will spend half their time doing hands-on work in the centre's state-of-the art composites lab. According to Mattson, the lab will house the newest equipment for high tech composites manufacturing including a clean room, Autoclave, RTM press, Curing Oven, a 3D weaving loom, a full range of CAD, CAM, 3D printer, CNC and CMM equipment as well as other commonly recognised equipment used in aerospace manufacturing facilities. The lab is slated for completion by the end of this summer.
A full time instructor, a lab technician as well as five adjunct faculties has been hired for the new training programme. During the course development phase and lab installation, they will be supported by internationally recognised composites expert Andre Cocquyt. In addition, the programme will take advantage of on-line course content such as offered by SME owned ToolingU, an on-line education provider. This will provide future alignment with the SME certification programme.
To make the public more aware of the composites industry and aerospace composites manufacturing at Safran and Albany, as well as job trends, Great Bay will be hosting free informational session on Advanced Composites Manufacturing on 7th and 8th June at the new ATAC in Rochester. At the event Andre Cocquyt will provide information on the composites industry and representatives from SAC and AEC will be on hand to talk about their companies, the aircraft engine components they are manufacturing in Rochester, and the job opportunities at their new plant opening this summer.
2012年12月27日 星期四
The lowdown on 2012's startups
In July, BizSense covered Steve Haas, a staple at the local farmers markets who forages for wild mushrooms in the woods of Central Virginia. Last time we chatted, Haas was working on a salad dressing product to get on grocers shelves.
"Now that the farmers markets are done with, we're going to focus on getting the dressings to the grocery stores," Haas said.
In November, Haas went to Maui to pick mushrooms, and he's ginning up plans to lead foraging forays on the Hawaiian island for tourists. He's also in discussions with the Cooking Channel to shoot a pilot that follows him on mushroom forays.
In September, we talked to Michael Hild, the head of the Midlothian-based Live Well Financial who spends almost every second of his free time running his other business: Anderson's Neck Oyster Company, based in King and Queen County.
Hild was trying to get the myriad of permits required to sell oysters for human consumption. He was also trying to get permission from various regulators to create floating oyster nurseries called "oysterplexes" crucial to scaling up his business.
Today, Hild's oysters are in restaurants all over town, including the Roosevelt, the Magpie, Mezzanine, 525 at the Berry Burke and Bistro Bobette. And, in December, Hild received approval from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to start building his floating nursery, although he still has a few more hoops to jump through.
Also in September, BizSense told you about Jason Lefton and his laser-etching business, Big Secret, which he had just moved to a storefront in Jackson Ward. Along with the bigger space, Lefton had ordered a much larger laser-engraving tool.
Lefton had his $50,000 laser tool delivered Nov. 30, and business has been blowing up like the Death Star at the end of Return of the Jedi.
"We're booked through January 15," he said. "We've got the holiday rush and some things we are working on for the ad agencies and art directors around town. It's been great."
Lefton said he is still working out the kinks with the new laser – it uses different software than his other, smaller laser – but overall, he's thrilled with the results.
In July, we got to know Valerie Paul, an Ashland native and dog trainer who had just signed a lease on a building off of West Broad Street for her business, Impawsible Pups.
Paul runs her training and dogsitting service out of the location, and business is growing about as fast as she had anticipated. She ran a Living Social deal but is trying to figure out how to turn coupon users into repeat customers.
"Obviously we'd like to be full every night, right from the get-go," she said. "But we are about where I expected to be. I think if we continue to grow at this pace we'll be where we need to be in six months."
It's been about six months since former VCU field hockey coach Kelly McQuade hung up her whistle and launched ZingerFit, a personal training business aimed at women in the Tuckahoe Shopping Center off of Ridge Road in the West End.
She started the business in November out of another gym with two clients, and by the time she opened her location it had grown to 35.
McQuade said the business continues to grow. She now has more than 60 clients, mostly women from the neighborhood.
"I could always use an extra client or two," she said. "But I'm happy with how it's grown. I made a personal commitment that I wasn't going to give myself a raise until I've saved up three months' rent."
"Now that the farmers markets are done with, we're going to focus on getting the dressings to the grocery stores," Haas said.
In November, Haas went to Maui to pick mushrooms, and he's ginning up plans to lead foraging forays on the Hawaiian island for tourists. He's also in discussions with the Cooking Channel to shoot a pilot that follows him on mushroom forays.
In September, we talked to Michael Hild, the head of the Midlothian-based Live Well Financial who spends almost every second of his free time running his other business: Anderson's Neck Oyster Company, based in King and Queen County.
Hild was trying to get the myriad of permits required to sell oysters for human consumption. He was also trying to get permission from various regulators to create floating oyster nurseries called "oysterplexes" crucial to scaling up his business.
Today, Hild's oysters are in restaurants all over town, including the Roosevelt, the Magpie, Mezzanine, 525 at the Berry Burke and Bistro Bobette. And, in December, Hild received approval from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to start building his floating nursery, although he still has a few more hoops to jump through.
Also in September, BizSense told you about Jason Lefton and his laser-etching business, Big Secret, which he had just moved to a storefront in Jackson Ward. Along with the bigger space, Lefton had ordered a much larger laser-engraving tool.
Lefton had his $50,000 laser tool delivered Nov. 30, and business has been blowing up like the Death Star at the end of Return of the Jedi.
"We're booked through January 15," he said. "We've got the holiday rush and some things we are working on for the ad agencies and art directors around town. It's been great."
Lefton said he is still working out the kinks with the new laser – it uses different software than his other, smaller laser – but overall, he's thrilled with the results.
In July, we got to know Valerie Paul, an Ashland native and dog trainer who had just signed a lease on a building off of West Broad Street for her business, Impawsible Pups.
Paul runs her training and dogsitting service out of the location, and business is growing about as fast as she had anticipated. She ran a Living Social deal but is trying to figure out how to turn coupon users into repeat customers.
"Obviously we'd like to be full every night, right from the get-go," she said. "But we are about where I expected to be. I think if we continue to grow at this pace we'll be where we need to be in six months."
It's been about six months since former VCU field hockey coach Kelly McQuade hung up her whistle and launched ZingerFit, a personal training business aimed at women in the Tuckahoe Shopping Center off of Ridge Road in the West End.
She started the business in November out of another gym with two clients, and by the time she opened her location it had grown to 35.
McQuade said the business continues to grow. She now has more than 60 clients, mostly women from the neighborhood.
"I could always use an extra client or two," she said. "But I'm happy with how it's grown. I made a personal commitment that I wasn't going to give myself a raise until I've saved up three months' rent."
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