Federal Loan To Aid Fiber Optic Service To Homes, Businesses

Sixteen communities in Raleigh and Fayette counties are set to receive fiber optic high-speed broadband services thanks to a $37 million federal loan. The loan will be provided to the Beckley Service Area Company’s ITown Communications project.

The loan, which will be repaid over 17 years, will be used for the construction of an open access Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) system in which fiber optic cables will connect homes and businesses to a broadband network. When completed, the ITown Communications Project estimates that 12,624 homes and 1,124 businesses in the region will have high-speed internet access -- but has the capacity to expand and provide over 33,000 homes and 2,200 businesses with broadband access. Funding for this project comes from the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program.

Toyota Truck Company Picks Wood County For New Assembly Plant

West Virginia's burgeoning automotive industry is getting bigger. Hino Motors, a Toyota truck affiliate company, announced June 25 that it will build a vehicle assembly plant in West Virginia. The company said it will invest $8.6 million to upgrade a now-vacant plant in Wood County and install manufacturing equipment. Hino said that when operations begin in November, the 194,000-square-foot plant will employ about 80 people. They will build 2,500 trucks annually.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Gov. Joe Manchin joined Hideichiro Chikahiro, president of Hino Motors Manufacturing U.S.A. Inc., took part in the announcement that Hino will assemble medium and heavy-duty trucks at the former Walker Systems plant off W.Va. 14.