THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 21, 1995 TAG: 9508180673
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Talk of the Town
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Tidewater's peak, says Money, was in '92. That's when the personal finance magazine's annual ranking of the best places to live placed Hampton Roads 51st among 300 metro areas. Then the region tumbled: 63rd in '93, 224th in '94, 283rd in '95.
Are we destined to join bottom dweller Yuba City, Calif.? Hardly, says Hampton Mayor James L. Eason.
``That's reflective of sort of the changes we are going through in changing from a defense-related to the nondefense-related economy,'' Eason said. ``That made people maybe a little more cautious. Now, a lot of signs would indicate that we're stepping out beyond that.''
Indeed, civilian jobs in Hampton Roads totaled a record 633,700 in May, about 14,500 more than in May '94. That 2.34 percent increase placed Tidewater in 123rd place among 288 metro areas tracked for job growth by Arizona State University's Economic Outlook Center.
``Since January 1994, for almost a year and a half now, this region has been adding jobs faster than the national average,'' said John W. Whaley, economist at the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
``When people are asking where the jobs are being created, the answer has been the same for 10 years. We're creating retail jobs. We're creating service sector jobs,'' Whaley said. ``Part of the concern is we're destroying jobs in higher paying sectors and creating them in lower paying sectors.''
Two major Virginia companies, Chesapeake Corp. and Dominion Resources Inc., plan to jointly develop 800 houses on the edge of Hampton Roads in James City County. The 875-acre Stonehouse project, off Interstate 64 at Toano, reflects the optimism about developing the I-64 corridor between Williamsburg and Richmond, said Donald Priest, president of Dominion Land Management Co.
Voice-mail pack rats, beware! Bell Atlantic-Virginia has notified customers of its Answer Call message service that it will automatically delete stored messages after 30 days. Previously, Answer Call customers could save messages indefinitely.
The change affects messages recorded after July 23. Bell Atlantic has heard a few complaints. But the change is justified, says Paul Miller, a company spokesman. ``Saving messages uses a tremendous amount of computer memory,'' he says. ``People have been saving messages and forgetting about them.''
GTE-Virginia has a more stringent policy. It lets customers of its Personal Secretary service store messages for only 15 days.
The Port of Hampton Roads loaded about 200,000 tons of tobacco on ships last year. Of all the commodities flowing through the port, only coal and timber products - logs, lumber, paper, paperboard - exceeded the tobacco tonnage. Tobacco's prominence in the export mix is little wonder.
Pressured by America's anti-smoking mood, U.S. cigarette companies have made exports soar 35 percent in the last four years. U.S. companies shipped more than 220 billion cigarettes abroad in '94.
International Family Entertainment Inc.'s Ice Capades subsidiary - which IFE said last week it is selling to DelWilber & Associates of McLean - plans to move its administrative offices from Scottsdale, Ariz., to Las Vegas.
Virginia Beach-based IFE will continue to have a major interest in the Ice Capades because it retained the right until 2005 to assume a majority position in the ice show and the other assets of DelWilber.
The Ice Capades is also getting into the costume business and into the business of renting portable ice rinks, in addition to its touring ice shows, said Earl Duryea, president.
When the new season starts in October, Ice Capades will have one skating company performing ``Cinderella.'' Duryea said the Ice Capades may add touring companies, including one for Europe, the following season and is talking with Dick Clark Productions about new show themes.
Virginia Power meter readers in Hampton Roads are doubling as test-car drivers. The utility recently put five electric-powered Chevrolet S-10 pickups into its southeastern Virginia fleet. by CNB