From the "comments" section:
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According to a 5-14-2013 news article published in the JONESBOROUGH HERALD & TRIBUNE, local JEHOVAH'S WITNESS LEADER, James Kenneth Ross, president of Jonesborough's Ken Ross Architects , Inc., was recently honored at a meeting of the Johnson City/Jonesborough/ Washington County Chamber of Commerce. Ken Ross is the local tri-cities area Representative for the Brooklyn, New York-based WATCHTOWER CULT.
According to the HERALD & TRIBUNE article, the Chamber of Commerce honored Ross for being the local person responsible for bringing multiple WATCHTOWER CULT District and Circuit conventions to Johnson City for "more than 25 years".
Readers should be aware that there are unanswered questions as to the terms of the multiple unpublicized contracts over the years, as well as questions as to whether the WATCHTOWER CULT has received any FINANCIAL SUBSIDIES from any local governmental entity as its incentive for making members in Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia travel all the way to Johnson City to attend their own state's conventions. Some of these concerns have been voiced in other local TOPIX threads.
Interestingly, according to the website for Ken Ross Architects, Inc., their firm has been employed by the WATCHTOWER SOCIETY to design multiple multi-million dollar projects across the United States. These include a $10,000,000.00 project in Maryland; a $10,000,000.00 project in Arizona; and a $8,000,000.00 project in Georgia. Similar projects in Colorado, Texas, and South Carolina are also referenced
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And there you have it. WT always honors loyal JWs who bring money into the Org; local government honors JWs who bring money to the local economy.
While WT categorically condemns every JW who pursues 'material advantage' in this life, it simultaneously has no problem with a JW who uses their money/influence to promote the WT's interests.