Business

HILLSVILLE — Former model homes have a new lease on life and will contribute to the flow of commerce around Interstate 77’s Exit 14.
Businessman Jim Dixon has set up an office of Blue Ridge Mountain Home Center in the former AmerLink log home sales center after winning the remainder of the 99-year lease at a January bankruptcy auction.
Dixon has renamed the three homes “the log mall” while restoring the exterior and catching up on the long-delayed maintenance from the time when AmerLink finally collapsed due to its financial troubles.

By TINA E. VAUGHN
Staff

INDEPENDENCE — While the economy makes it difficult for community banks to make money, financial conditions overall are improving, according to recent reports from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
For the Twin Counties, this national trend is mirrored in the area’s only locally-owned financial institution, Grayson National Bank, and leaders plan to present those findings during an annual meeting May 8.