The Shadow
COVINGTON, Va. (VR) – The third installment of the Alleghany Highlands merchant meetup brought together around 50 local business owners, community leaders, and elected officials on Friday, Jan. 24 at the Discovery Center in Covington. The re-occurring events are organized by the local chamber of commerce and are aimed at fostering collaboration and cross-promotion among merchants across the Alleghany Highlands.
“There’s well over 50 people here, it seems like. Yes, so standing room only. We’re very thankful for your support and just thank you for buying into this idea that we’ve had and the many people for really adding value to it for our local business, community, nonprofits, and really everyone in general,” said Josh Taylor, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce and representative leading the event. The agenda included business spotlights, updates on a shared community calendar initiative, and remarks from local government leaders like Covington City Manager Alan Dressler.
Jack Mason’s Tavern, a brewery and restaurant in Clifton Forge, was a featured business. Owners Michael and Ann Foster discussed their journey of purchasing the establishment two and a half years ago and the accolades their beers have won. “Our beers have won some awards of late in the Virginia Craft Beer Festival, which is pretty notable,” said Michael Foster. The couple also highlighted their “Hometown Mondays” program, which spotlights local nonprofits and donates 10% of Monday food sales to support their work.
Another spotlight shone on K. McConnell Legal, a veterans disability law firm that recently expanded to a larger office space in Clifton Forge. Attorneys Kristen and Ron shared plans to open complementary businesses in the building, including a coffee shop, hot dog eatery, and wine and cheese shop. “Since moving in there, we’ve doubled our staff and pretty much our clientele as well. So that’s been helpful, and now we’re working on, as everybody knows, we’re working on the downstairs to do the coffee shop,” said Kristen.
A key focus of the meetup was the development of a shared Google Calendar that local event venues, restaurants and other businesses can use to coordinate their schedules and cross-promote. Michaela Nobles, the chamber’s events coordinator, manages the calendar and encourages participation. “We’re making sure we don’t have four events on the same day. If you own a, B and B, and you have people in town, you can look at it and be like, well, there’s going to be these four things going on this weekend. There are all kinds of different ways that we can use this to very much cross promote,” explained Josh Taylor.
Covington City Manager Allen Dressler emphasized the importance of regional collaboration, noting the city’s efforts to work closely with neighboring towns and counties on economic development initiatives. “We are the Alleghany Highlands. Okay, we’ll always be Iron Gate. We will always be clipping forwards; we’ll always be Covington and we’ll always be Alleghany County. But we are us. We are the Alleghany Highlands,” Dressler said. He highlighted joint projects like the Covington Music Square, which features events and live music, as well as infrastructure improvements made possible through partnerships. “We’ve done some of the same things here in Covington. I think my artist is here Cheyenne, Cheyenne Marcus, I met her at a coffee shop. We had an enjoyable conversation, and we struck a deal that she will paint and make Covington prettier, and I will continue to plant stuff and make it look nice,” Dressler said.
The Discovery Center, which hosted the meetup, also took center stage. Director Paul Linkenhoker offered a tour of the facility, highlighting its hands-on science and technology exhibits, 3D printing capabilities, and potential for hosting corporate events and community gatherings. “This isn’t just Discovery Center; it’s a technology Discovery Center. We have so many things here and upstairs that can be done. If you want to, we have 3D printers, do you want to do a 3D printer club? Get together, contact me. We will get with Mike and some others and make it happen,” Linkenhoker said, encouraging attendees to explore the underutilized space.
Throughout the event, speakers emphasized the importance of supporting small businesses and fostering a collaborative, regional mindset among the Alleghany Highlands communities. Attendees were encouraged to network, share business cards and get involved with local initiatives and organizations. “We care about small business. We get the fact that the world rotates around small business. Okay, for those of us, Chuck, Jeff, Tom, Susan, and myself that participate in promoting the economic development of things, sure, we’d like to hit a grand slam, but I think we would agree. We would be just as happy to have three or four businesses that employed 50 than one that employed 500,” Dressler said.
As the meetup concluded, participants were invited to tour the Discovery Center and continue networking over refreshments provided by local sponsor Bruce Gardner of Alleghany Insurance Services. The chamber plans to hold the next installation of the merchant meetup in Clifton Forge next month, continuing its efforts to unite the Alleghany Highlands business community.
L-R: Josh Taylor, Ann Foster, Michael Foster (David Hodge photo)
Covington City Manager Allen Dressler (David Hodge photo)
