volume 16 issue 8 november 14, 2009 - columbia business times
TRANSCRIPT
Volume 16Issue 8
November 14, 2009
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8Business ProfileImmunophotonics Inc. brings innovative cancer research to the business incubator.
MU Vet SchoolThe College of Veterinary Medicine expands amidst a national shortage of veterinarians.16
22Hiring TrendsCity unemployment rate passes 7 percent as employers tighten belts and cut costs.
See Page 22
SPECIAL SECTION
Human Resourcesand Staffing
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The First Family of Real EstateElizabeth Mendenhall and her brother, Ford, are running the city’s largest and oldest real estate company, which their father, Richard, took over from their grandparents. Elizabeth is the incoming president of the Missouri Association of Realtors, a role Richard once held. She’ll lead the trade group at an intensely political period as the members attempt to get a constitutional amendment banning transfer taxes on the ballot.
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24Construction UpdateVandiver Drive extension project to improve transportation.
Job PointLocal business trains employees on how to find work in a difficult market.
Albright Heating & Air Conditioning ............... 7Ashland Industrial Park................................ 24Boone County National Bank ...................... 32Business Conference & Showcase ............. 28City of Columbia Water & Light ................... 20Columbia College ........................................ 22Columbia Regional Airport ............................ 7Columbia Turf/Columbia Landscape ............. 8Commerce Bank .......................................... 18Delta Systems Group .................................... 6Hawthorn Bank .............................................. 3Hoss's Market & Rotisserie ........................... 7Landmark Bank ............................................. 2McAdams' Ltd. ............................................ 21Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts ........... 26Moresource ................................................. 27PCE ............................................................. 15Personalized Computers ............................. 12ResCare HomeCare..................................... 30Rickman Center ........................................... 24Room 38 Restaurant & Lounge ................... 23Sandler Training ........................................... 29Shelter Insurance - Mike Messer & Mike Hatchett ....................... 9Socket Internet ............................................ 19Sycamore .................................................... 25The Insurance Group ..................................... 4The Tiger Hotel ............................................ 24Towner Communications Systems .............. 25Triangle Blueprints ....................................... 30Wilkerson & Reynolds Wealth Management 13Willie Smith's Magic Services ..................... 30
ABC Laboratories ................................................ 4, 22 Agents National Title Insurance ............................... 24 Boone County National Bank .............................. 4, 23 Boone Tavern .......................................................... 12 Bucket Media Inc ...................................................... 4Café Berlin ............................................................... 27Caroline & Company ............................................... 22Casablanca .............................................................. 27Chef Connection ..................................................... 27 CM Engineering ......................................................... 4Columbia Insurance Group ................................... 3, 4 Columbia Orthopedic Group ............................... 4, 23 Commerce Bank ........................................................ 4Cornerstone National Insurance Company ............. 23 Dana Corporation .................................................... 22 Emery Sapp & Sons ................................................ 28 Engineering Surveys and Services ............................ 4Equinosis LLC ........................................................... 9Golden Barrel .......................................................... 31 Grote & Associates .................................................... 4Immunophotonics Inc. ............................................... 8Job Finders Employment Services .......................... 23Kelly Services .......................................................... 22Landmark Bank ......................................................... 4Little Dixie Construction ............................................ 4MBS Books ............................................................. 22 Miller’s Professional Imaging ................................... 23Midway Electric Inc ................................................... 4Missouri Bankruptcy Center .................................... 24Missouri Employers Mutual ....................................... 3Newsy ........................................................................ 4Olive Café and Grocery ........................................... 27PetScreen .................................................................. 9RE/MAX Boone Realty ...................................... 12, 13Rogers, Ehrhardt & Weber LLC: ................................ 4Rumors Beauty Salon ................................................ 5Shelter Insurance................................................. 4, 22Simon Oswald Associates ......................................... 4Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars ........................................ 31State Farm Insurance ...................................... 3, 4, 22Tech 2 Consulting ...................................................... 3Terminus Energy ........................................................ 9The Textbook Game ................................................ 27Trabue, Hansen and Hinshaw Inc ............................. 4Trugreen ..................................................................... 4U.S. Bank .................................................................. 4VA Mortgage Center ................................................ 22ValueAg LLC .............................................................. 9Visionworks ............................................................... 4Weaver Manufacturing ............................................ 22 Yogoluv .................................................................... 27
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usinessTimes.comThe Columbia Business Times is published every other Saturday by
The Business Times Co. 2001 Corporate Place, Suite 100, Columbia, Mo 65202. (573) 499-1830.
Copyright The Business Times Co., 2008. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of any editorial or graphic content without the express written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Third-class postage paid at Columbia, Mo. The annual subscription rate is $39.95 for 26 issues.
OUR MISSION STATEMENT:The Columbia Business Times strives to be Columbia’s leading source for timely and comprehensive news coverage of the local business community. This publication is dedicated to being the most relevant and useful vehicle for the exchange of information and ideas among Columbia’s business professionals.
Writers in this issue: Marilyn Cummins, Chris Dieterich, Kathleen Pointer, Abby Rogers, Jason Rosenbaum, Jonathan Sessions, Robert ThomasColumnists in this issue: Chris Belcher, Al Germond, Patricia Lensmeyer, Lili Vianello
Chris Harrison | General Manager | Ext.1010David Reed | Group Editor | Ext.1013Alisha Moreland | Art DirectorSarah Handelman | Graphic DesignerJennifer Kettler | Photo Editor | 573-529-1789Cindy Sheridan | Operations ManagerBetsy Bell | Marketing RepresentativeBecky Beul | Marketing RepresentativeJoe Schmitter | Marketing RepresentativeAshley Meyer | Creative Services
(573) 499-1830 | (573) 499-1831 [email protected]
CBT CAlenDAR of eVenTS - noVeMBeR 14-28, 2009
14Women’s network Homemade Holiday Gift Party1-4 p.m., 300 South Providence RoadThe Women’s Network is inviting area women to bring their scrapbooking, knitting and other craft items to the Columbia Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 14. www.columbiamochamber.com or call 874-1132.
16City Council Meeting7 p.m. (5:45 p.m. pre-council meeting) City Building, 701 E. BroadwayThe pre-council meeting topics include the city’s snow removal plan and the Ewing Business Park. According to a letter that will be presented at the pre-council meeting, the city has a territorial right to serve the Ewing Business Park, and though the City doesn’t have competitive electric rates, it will enter into a supply arrangement with qualifying projects. More information: 874-7222.
17ePIC lunching outside the Box “Social networking Success Stories”11:45 a.m.-1 p.m., Country Club of Missouri, 1300 Woodrail Ave.This professional development seminar will focus on using social networking to improve businesses. Jonathan Sessions, owner of Tech 2 Consulting, and Jen Reeves, the new media manager at KOMU 8, will give tips on using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Cost: $10 online, $13 at the door. Lunch is included. Chamber members will receive a $3 discount for registering online. More information: 874-1132.
19Women’s network luncheon-“It's not Right or Wrong, It's Just Different"
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., PeachTree Catering & Banquet Center, 120 E. Nifong Blvd. Ste. DThe luncheon will focus on the diversity of the generations in the workforce and will help managers find ways to engage each group. A business trainer and consultant from the Missouri Training Institute, Rae Lee, will speak at the luncheon. As part of her professional background, Rae Lee helped develop and deliver the State of Missouri’s Career and Vocational Education programs. Cost: $18 or $15 for Chamber members, minus $3 for online registration, which is open until Nov. 17. 874-1132.
20Board of Directors of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce meeting11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Walton Building, 300 S. Providence RoadThe Board of Directors is expected to vote on the priorities during the next session of the Missouri General Assembly. The board reviews and evaluates the results of committee action toward accomplishing Chamber goals. More information: 817-9109.
24economic outlook Conference1-5:30 p.m., University of Missouri-Columbia’s Trulaske. College of BusinessThe 2009 Economic Outlook Conference will focus on the insurance industry. Representatives from Columbia Insurance Group, Missouri Employers Mutual and State Farm Insurance will speak at the conference. Economic expert Jim Moody will present an economic forecast for the state as well, and there will be presentations about Columbia’s potential in the animal health industry. Cost: $40 for Chamber members who register online, $43 for non-Chamber members and participants who mail or fax in registrations. Registration deadline: Nov. 20. More information: 817-9108.
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Gibbens
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SuccessionJeff Maclellan, CEO of Landmark Bank, will retire at the end
of 2009. Chief Operating Officer Kevin Gibbens will succeed him. MacLellan has been with the bank since 1987. He started as president and CEO of First National Bank, which recently changed its name to Landmark Bank. MacLellan later became president of the Landrum Company, the bank’s holding company.
As CEO, MacLellan combined First National Bank and Trust in Columbia with First National Bank in southern Missouri and Landmark Bank in Texas and Oklahoma. Now Landmark Bank has 10 Columbia locations as well as branches in other areas in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The bank’s assets rose from $250 million in 1987 to $1.4 billion in the past year, loans grew from $160 million to $1.1 billion and deposits grew from $210 million to nearly $1.2 billion.
MacLellan will maintain an official role at Landmark Bank for the next three years and will help with the transition and with business development in the Columbia area.
Gibbens came to Columbia to run First National Bank in 1997. Prior to that position, he was the senior vice president and credit policy exec-utive at Nations Bank in Charlotte, N.C. Gibbens was named holding company chief operating officer in 1997.
HiringsNewsy.com hired two Missouri School of Journalism graduates:
Pam Maples is Newsy.com’s vice president of editorial, and Jim flink is an editorial advisor. Maples previously served as managing editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com. The Post-Dispatch won several national awards for online and video news while Maples was managing editor. Flink worked as a news anchor and reporter for Kansas City’s ABC affiliate KMBC-TV prior to taking a position with Newsy.com. He anchored a newscast that won the national Edward R. Murrow Award.
Columbia College hired Jennifer Jolls as the associate director of marketing for the college. Jolls had worked as the interim senior director of public relations at the college for 10 months. She also worked as a public relations coordinator at Columbia College for four months prior to becoming the interim senior director.
Columbia College hired Kaci Smart as a graphic designer for public relations creative services. Smart has been working as a part-time free-lance designer for the college since August 2008 and was a graphic design intern for Columbia College prior to that.
Columbia College has added Jessica Royston as a public relations associate in the division of editorial services in the public relations department. Royston previously worked as a public information spe-cialist for the Department of Natural Resources.
ownership ChangeBrent Beshore, CEO of Pure Marketing and Media, purchased the
membership interest of Erik LaPaglia, who co-founded the company
with Beshore in February 2008. LaPaglia’s departure from the organiza-tion was the result of “significant differences of business philosophies and corporate core values,” according to Beshore, the sole owner of the organization and its subsidiaries. “I take very seriously the recruitment and retention of talented individuals who share Pure’s core values of honesty, integrity and innovation.”
AppointmentsThe Columbia Chamber of Commerce has selected the members
of the 2010 Leadership Columbia program. Leadership Columbia is a 12-session program that allows participants to join nearly 500 Chamber members who have completed the program since 1986. The University of Missouri’s Robert J. Trulaske Sr. College of Business is sponsoring this year’s program. The participants are: leslie Anderson, Services For Independent Living; Kara Barker, State Farm Insurance Companies; Rich Blattner, Trugreen; Jami Dennis, State Farm Insurance Companies; Judy Donnell, Columbia Insurance Group; Sarah Dubbert, Commerce Bank, NA; Ryan euliss, Boone Electric Cooperative; Scott Gibson, Columbia Independent School; Renee Graham, City of Columbia; Ross Kasmann, Engineering Surveys & Services; Barb King, Visionworks Marketing & Communications; Leighanne Lamb, Landmark Bank; Sara leMone, Little Dixie Construction LLC; Jessica Macy, Boone County Council on Aging; Jasen Matyas, Rogers, Ehrhardt & Weber LLC; elaine McCoy, ABC Laboratories Inc.; Jill nabors, ABC Laboratories Inc.; Annie o'Toole, Grote & Associates Inc.; Bill oreskovich, Shelter Insurance Companies; Jason Philips, U.S. Bank; Polly Reynolds, Landmark Bank; David Rielley, University of Missouri; Krista Shouse-Jones, City of Columbia; Michele Spry, Midway Electric Inc.; Dawn Stephenson, Boone County National Bank; Jocelyn Tipton, Bucket Media Inc.; Tom Trabue, Trabue, Hansen and Hinshaw Inc.; Paula Williams, Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital; Deronne Wilson, Boys & Girls Club of Columbia; and lindsay Young lopez, Columbia College.
The city of Columbia appointed Greg Jones to the board of New Century Fund Inc. The New Century Fund is a nonprofit organization that acts as a liaison for tax-deductible gifts and grants for the city of Columbia above the normal role of city government. Jones is a partner with Jones & Watkins LLC, which is a law firm that focuses in estate planning, business and contract law.
HonorsColumbia College’s newly renovated Missouri Hall received LEED
Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The $3.9 million project was designed by Simon Oswald Associations and CM Engineering and constructed by Reinhardt/Wilson. Missouri Hall was originally constructed in the 1920s and is now around 38,000 square feet. The building, which served as a women’s dormitory, now holds admissions, enrollment and the registrar, among other services. As part of its new sustainable rating, the building has improved indoor air
(continued on Page 6)
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PEOPLE YOu SHOulD KNOW
AGE: 38 YEARS LIVED IN COLUMBIA: 38 ORIGINAL HOMETOWN: Columbia, Mo.
JOB DESCRIPTION: I manage the day-to-day operations of the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center, a 12,000-square-foot facility on the MU campus; manage the GOBCC budget; plan activities and events to disseminate black culture; do diversity speaking and training; collaborate with campus and community entities to support and promote diversity and cultural competency; and assist with student leadership and development.
EDUCATION: I attained a bachelor’s degree in social work from Columbia College, a master’s degree in non-profit administration/social work from the University of Missouri, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy analysis.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMET: I am the co-founder of the First Ward Ambassadors, co-founded Youth Empowerment Zone, co-founder of Black Parents Association of Columbia Public Schools, Heart of Missouri United Way Board Member, and I sat on the police chief selection
committee. I also try to work with various individuals, groups and entities when I am able to. My mother once told me that I was a born social worker, and so I do what I can to help.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND: I have worked extensively with at-risk youth for more than nine years in various contexts such as an adolescent mental health program, recreational program and mentoring programs. I now
work in the Department of Student Life at MU, and I serve as an adjunct faculty member in the School of Social Work and teach a class called Working with Minority Youth.
A COLUMBIA BUSINESSPERSON I ADMIRE AND WHY: I admire Sarah Brown, owner of Rumors Beauty Salon. I admire Sarah because, like most business owners, Sarah started her business with a dream but without the
resources and the financial support that many businesses in Columbia are fortunate to have. Instead she came to church one Sunday after I spoke at St. Paul AME church, and we prayed together, and from
there she began her business trusting in God and her God-given abilities.
WHY I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT MY JOB: I am passionate about my job because I am able to have a minor influence on some of the best minds in black America. Seeing what I see from some of the students when they begin to comprehend the messages that the staff in the Department of Student Life and others have been trying to get them to understand is priceless. I also admit that I like playing the role of broker in which I have some resources at my disposal to provide
information and “edutainment.” (The combination of education and entertainment.)
IF I WEREN’T DOING THIS FOR A LIVING, I WOULD: Be working on my doctorate full-time or working for a grassroots non-profit such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Missouri.
BIGGEST CAREER OBSTACLE I’VE OVERCOME AND HOW: Balancing everything and not burning myself out. I have overcome this by realizing when I am about burned out and needing a break from everything that I can actually break from. This is a requirement for anyone in social services, and early on in my career I was not aware of when I was getting burned out.
A FAVORITE RECENT PROJECT: The Mizzou Black Males Initiative, in which the goal is to foster leadership and professional development among young black males at MU. I really enjoy
seeing young black males achieve academically and socially because this is something that the media doesn’t talk about often.
WHAT PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS PROFESSION: This is not an 8-to-5 job, and if that is what you are looking for, do not work in student affairs. Also realize that students are in many ways like your own children; they can frustrate you to no end and in the blink of an eye make you so incredibly proud.
WHAT I DO FOR FUN: I watch or go to sporting events for fun.
FAMILY: My grandparents both have large families, so I am kin to several people in Columbia. Additionally, my grandparents had 13 children, so I have several aunts and uncles who have had kids, therefore my extended family is huge. My immediate family includes my wife of five years, Demetria Stephens, and our blended family of seven children, whose ages range from 7 to 24.
FAVORITE PLACE IN COLUMBIA: St. Luke United Methodist Church. I always feel the love and support of my church family even when we disagree. I have a pastor in Rev. Raymond Hayes who provides encouragement, mentorship and prayer for me as I do the things that
I do in Columbia.
ACCOMPLISHMENT I’M MOST PROUD OF: Graduating from MU with my master’s degree would be my answer here. I am the first in my family of Columbia natives to do so, and now I have four cousins on
the Mizzou campus.
MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THAT: Most people don’t know that I am deathly afraid of snakes to the point that I will accidentally hurt someone trying to get away from the tiniest one.
Nathan StephensDirector/Senior Coordinator — Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center/
Department of Student Life at the University of Missouri
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PEOPLE On ThE MOVE...Continued
quality and has a controllable thermal level to create a healthier work environment.
Columbia Police Department Sgt. Geoff Jones accepted the Midwest Gang Investigators Award for Excellence in late September. He was nominated for the award because of his work in the investigation into the “Cut Throats” gang in Columbia. The investigation lasted 18 months and involved the FBI. The U.S. Attorney’s Office was able to indict 16 people because of the investigation. Jones, who was recently promoted, received the award during an awards ceremony in Springfield, Mo.
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Presiding Judge Gene Hamilton received the Permanency Award from Supreme Court Judge Mary Russell on Nov. 5 on behalf of the entire circuit. The Permanency Award is given to circuits that successfully hold timely hearings in child abuse and neglect, in which children are removed from their homes and are to be reunited with their families or placed in another permanent home. Boone County associate circuit judges Christine Carpenter and Deborah Daniels were presented with the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource.
On Nov. 2 the Missouri Association of Mutual Insurance Companies inducted Columbia Insurance Group Chairman and CEO Bob Wagner into the MAMIC Hall of Fame. Inductees are recognized for their leadership and contribution to Missouri’s farm mutual insurance companies and the farm mutual insurance industry in general.
The American Chamber of Commerce Executives named Sherry Wohlgemuth, director of special projects for the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, one of “40 under 40: Rising Stars of the Chamber World” in Chamber Executive magazine. Wohlgemuth managed the Columbia Chamber’s Total Resource Campaign and reached the goal of $475,000. Starting this fall, Wohlgemuth will serve as President of Chamber of Commerce Executives of Missouri.
MU Health Care staff members were honored by Children’s Hospital for their impact on pediatric patients. Dr. Daniel Hoernschemeyer is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in pediatrics and was honored with the Healing Hands Award. Dr. Barry Gainor is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hand and wrist injuries and was honored with the Champion of Hope Award. Carolyn Williams is an administrative assistant for the Department of Child Health at the MU School of Medicine and was honored with the Strive for Excellence Award. Jeanne Campoli is an operating room unit clerk at University Hospital and was honored with the Community Hero Award. Zimmer Radio Group was also presented with the Miracle Maker Award.
University Hospital’s Medical and neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit won the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence. This is the first time the award, which recognizes the top hospital intensive care units in the country, was given to a hospital in Missouri. The award has been given to about 200 of the 6,000 intensive care units in the U.S. since 2003. The staff at University Hospital’s Medical and Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit is made up of 100 medical experts, and the unit has 18 beds for acutely ill patients.
Carol Siem of the University of Missouri’s Sinclair School of Nursing will serve on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Technical Expert Panel on nursing home quality mea-sures. The group will meet in Baltimore, Md., to discuss quality measures for nursing homes, which can be used in an online comparison tool to help the public find and compare nursing homes. As part of the Quality Improvement Program of Missouri, Siem is one of five nurses who helps the state’s nursing homes improve the care they provide, and she serves as chairwoman of the American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordinators. v
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ECOnOMIC InDEx
ReCeIPTS 1% Sales Tax Receipts August 2009: $1,730,697August 2008: $1,791,711Change (#): -$61,014Change (%): -3.4%Fiscal Year-to-Date 2009: $17,589,244Fiscal Year-to-Date 2008: $18,232,297Change (#): -$643,053Change (%): -3.5%
4% Hotel Tax Receipts September 2009: $148,989September 2008: $167,208Change (#): -18,219Change (%): -10.9%Year-to-Date 2009: $1,260,040Year-to-Date 2008: $1,401,338Change (#): -141,298Change (%): -10.1%
lABoR Columbia MSA labor force September 2009: 91,052September 2008: 91,270Change (#): -218Change (%): -0.2%
Missouri labor force September 2009: 3,002,052September 2008: 2,994,321Change (#): 7,731Change (%): 0.3% Columbia MSA Unemployment September 2009: 5,776September 2008: 4,194Change (#): 1,582Change (%): 37.7% Missouri Unemployment September 2009: 278,611September 2008: 186,624Change (#): 91,987Change (%): 49.3% Columbia MSA Unemployment Rate September 2009: 6.3%September 2008: 4.6%Change (#): 1.7%*lowest unemployment rate in a Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area
Missouri Unemployment Rate September 2009: 9.3%September 2008: 6.2%Change (#): 3.1% ConSTRUCTIon Building Permits – Residential October 2009: 68October 2008: 70Change (#): -2Change (%): -2.9% Value of Building Permits – Residential October 2009: $5,966,555
October 2008: $5,573,942Change (#): $392,613Change (%): 7.0%
Building Permits – Detached Single family Homes October 2009: 23October 2008: 25Change (#): -2Change (%): -8.0% Value of Building Permits Detached Single family Homes October 2009: $3,832,000October 2008: $4,903,000Change (#): -$1,071,000Change (%): -21.8%
Building Permits – Residential Additions/Alterations October 2009: 42October 2008: 43Change (#): -1Change (%): -2.3%
Value of Building Permits – Residential Additions/Alterations October 2009: $1,329,555October 2008: $570,942Change (#): $758,613Change (%): 132.9 Building Permits – Commercial October 2009: 27October 2008: 15Change (#): 12Change (%): 80.0% Value of Building Permits – Commercial October 2009: $10,061,321October 2008: $79,262,233Change (#): -$69,200,912Change (%): -87.3%
Building Permits – Commercial Add./Alterations October 2009: 26October 2008: 14Change (#): 12Change (%): 85.7%
Value of Building Permits – Commercial Add./Alterations October 2009: $9,981,321October 2008: $79,062,233Change (#): -$69,080,912Change (%): -87.4%
HoUSInGBoone County detached single-family homesMonths of InventoryOctober 2009: 8.24October 2008: 12.85Change (#): -4.61Change (%): -35.9%
Units Sold October 2009: 177October 2008: 129Change (#): 48Change (%): 37.2%
foreclosures in Boone County October 2009: 24October 2008: 17Change (#): 7Change (%): 41.2%
foreclosures in Boone County Year-to-date 2009: 247Year-to-date 2008: 253Change (#): -6Change (%): -2.4%
NEW BuSINESS lICENSESOctober 2009: 51October 2008: 48Year-to-date 2009: 544Year-to-date 2008: 550
ColUMBIA ReGIonAl AIRPoRTPassengers on Arriving PlanesSeptember 2009: 1,989September 2008: 1,529Change (#): 460Change (%): 30.1%
Passengers on Departing PlanesSeptember 2009: 2,081September 2008: 1,517Change (#): 564Change (%): 37.2%
uTIlITIES Water Customers October 2009: 44,577October 2008: 44,241Change (#): 336Change (%): 0.8%
electric Customers October 2009: 44,991October 2008: 44,791Change (#): 200Change (%): 0.4%
Sewer Customers – Residential October 2009: 40,212October 2008: 40,147Change (#): 65Change (%): 0.2%
Sewer Customers – Commercial October 2009: 3,523October 2008: 3,524Change (#): -1Change (%): 0.0%
Contributors include: Lori Fleming, Karen Johnson, Sean Moore, Linda Rootes, Sarah Talbert and Carol Van Gorp
Compiled by David Walle
ColUMBIA’S eConoMIC InDICAToRS
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BuSInESS PRofIle
Biotech firm moves into business incubatorBy Chris Dieterich
The latest start-up company to move into the University of Missouri’s business incubator is developing an innovative cancer treatment: using lasers and immunotherapy to help boost the body’s natural defenses.
Immunophotonics Inc. moved into the Life Science Business Incubator in early September and will base its business operations in
Columbia. Immunophotonics is the seventh tenant to occupy the Providence Road facility since it opened in January.
So far, Immunophotonics in Columbia is a one-man operation. Chairman and CEO Tomas Hode is honing the company's business plan and working to attract investors from his desk in the “launch pad” wing of the incubator, where $300 per month buys budding entrepreneurs furnished workspace, shared office equipment and access to mentoring resources pro-vided through the Missouri Innovation Center.
The cancer treatment his company is developing — laser-assisted immunotherapy — is based on 15 years of academic research done primarily through the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Hode said. It works by combining two types of treatment. First, a laser is used to heat up and damage the
tumor. Laser light either can be administered directly through the skin or guided with a optical fiber to reach most tumors inside the body, so the procedure is relatively noninvasive. Secondly, immunotherapy is administered to condition the body's own immune system to fight the cancer. Combining the laser with the immunotherapy is what makes Immunophotonics' method a novel treatment for human and veterinary cancer patients.
Immunphotonics holds six patents for its method and owns the rights to related research.
“The initial data we have is indicating that we might be onto something entirely new, something that can educate the body and create an immunity to the tumor,” Hode said.
A product launch is still a few years away, but Hode said that Immunphotonics will look in the near future to hire local talent with skills in business development and scientific research to assist with tasks such as con-sulting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and marketing.
Hode, who holds a doctorate in astrobiology, started Immunophotonics in 2008 as a joint venture between Irradia USA, a medical laser manufacturing company, and a team of researchers. He is co-founder and director of science and education of Irradia USA.
Although the business side of Immunonphotonics is based in Columbia, research is conducted through various universities, and prototypes for the cancer laser have been developed in partnership with Irradia, which is based outside Charlotte, N.C., Hode said.
The support of local business development organizations and a little serendipity led Hode to Columbia and ultimately to the business incubator. Immunophotonics first connected with members of the Kansas City Area Development Council about locating to St. Joseph.
But in July, Hode's wife, Marlo Goldstein Hode, was accepted to the dispute resolution program at the MU School of Law, and St. Joseph was out of the picture. After the two had already decided to move to Columbia in August, KCADC suggested Hode meet with leadership from the Missouri Innovation Center. Hode was impressed and, after receiving a grant from REDI, decided to sign a lease at the incubator.
As his business grows, Hode said that he's com-mitted to hiring locally.
“I think it's a matter of reciprocity to try to stay in the region and create jobs,” he said.
Quinten Messbarger, vice president of the Missouri Innovation Center, said Immunophotonics has the makings to become an exemplar for what the Missouri Innovation Center is trying to accomplish at the incu-bator — growing start-up, high-growth businesses that can eventually put down roots in Columbia.
“Our job is to work hand-in-hand with entrepreneurs to establish and grow their ventures to a point where they can be viable on their own,” he said. “In three to five years... they graduate from the incubator and expand by leasing or building space at Discovery Ridge or some other suitable mid-Missouri location.” v
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BuSInESS PRofIle
In addition to Immunophotonics Inc., the MU life Science Business Incubator at Monsanto Place currently houses six companies.
Equinosis llC uses technology developed by Mu professor Kevin Keegan to diagnose lameness in horses, a more objective method than prior techniques.
PetScreen is the only company in the world that offers the Canine Lymphoma Blood Test, which finds cancer-indicating proteins in the blood. MU researchers will work with the company to find biomarkers in humans and animals.
Terminus energy offers low-carbon distributive generation and solid oxide fuel cells. The company works with both Mu researchers and Missouri university of Science and Technology researchers.
Value Ag llC is an agribusiness services and technology spin-off from the College of Agriculture, Food and natural Resources.
Centennial Investors, a Columbia-based, 53-member investor network, will also occupy space as a "strategic tenant" and will be used as a source of seed-capital funds for current and future incubator tenants.
executive Assistant Service is a “strategic tenant” that provides financial, accounting and grant administration services to companies, including some of the tenants of the incubator.
photo courtesy of university of Missouri business incubator
PetScreen opening in DecemberPetScreen Inc., the U.S.
subsidiary of an animal health care company based in Britain, will move into the MU Life Science Business Incubator in December, according to PetScreen Ltd. co-founder Kevin Slater.
Tariq Shah will be the chief executive officer of the local laboratory, which will also function as the entire company’s research and development headquarters. The company is moving some laboratory equipment from its facility in BioCity Nottingham to the Columbia lab, according to Jake Halliday, president of the Missouri Innovation Center, which operates the incubator.
Shah will hire a lab director and lab technicians. PetScreen said in February that it planned to create more than 30 jobs in Columbia over the next five years.
PetScreen focuses on developing novel detection and treatment tools for the major
diseases related to aging in dogs and cats, such as cancer and renal disease. The company plans to use the incubator as laboratory space to conduct cancer detection tests.
The Missouri Technology Corp. agreed in January to lend PetScreen $250,000 to help with start-up costs, and the terms were agreed upon this month, Halliday said. v
Kevin Slater and Graeme Radcliffe, founders of PetScreen, in the Nottingham laboratory.
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Superintendent’s View
Consumer-driven health careDo you know the cost of an office visit to
your physician? Can you state the differ-ence in cost between a name-brand drug and a generic? Do you compare rates for blood tests, diagnostic tests or simple procedures? I could not give an affirmative response to any of these questions. I have become accustomed to allowing the doctor’s office to submit a bill to the insurance company. The insurance com-pany, in return, pays an agreed upon rate for a service to the doctor, and I get a statement that shows what the doctor charged, what the insurance paid and what I might owe. I have just assumed this was in my best interest.
Columbia Public Schools spends nearly $11 million dollars each year to provide health care coverage to our full-time employees. This benefit helps us to attract good candidates for both certified and non-certified positions. The district has struggled, like many businesses, to control the increase in health care costs over the years. In fact, our health care cost has increased 167 percent over the past 10 years.
Beginning Jan. 1, CPS will begin offering a health care option that will encourage our employees to become more cost-conscious in
their consumption of health care services. In return, they will be provided more flexibility in the management and use of their health care dollars.
Several years ago, Congress passed legisla-tion that allowed for Health Savings Accounts in conjunction with a high deductible health care plan. This allows individuals to put up to $3050 per year of pre-taxed dollars into a per-sonal and portable account to save for medical costs. The money can grow tax-free and is spent tax-free for allowable medical costs, which saves the consumer about 25 percent on income taxes.
In theory, the high deductible plan causes first dollars spent on health care to be the responsibility of the individual. This in turn will lead to the individual taking more respon-sibility for health care spending. This should result in more prudent use of services and a reduction in claims.
District employees who choose this option will receive the difference in premiums of the new high deductible plan and the more traditional plan deposited in their HSA. They can also make their own contributions if they
choose. The individual is then responsible for the first $1,200 in medical costs. Then 100 per-cent coverage is provided by the plan. In short, the employee has excellent financial protection for long-term or catastrophic illnesses in return for managing their short-term medical needs.
Time will tell if this model lives up to expec-tations. However, imagine an environment where all individuals shop for health care the way they shop for televisions, computers, cars and food. This could lead to more transparency in health care pricing and create a better-edu-cated consumer.
I am not betting on the government to bail CPS out of escalating health care costs. I am placing my money on the individual consumer. CPS employees are certainly capable of making informed health care choices and deserve the opportunity to manage their own money. Furthermore, the more we control health care costs, the more funds become available for competitive salaries and other district needs. v
Belcher is superintendent of Columbia Public
Schools. [email protected]
Chris Belcher
Al Germond
Al Germond is the host of the "Sunday
Morning Roundtable" every Sunday at 8:15
a.m. on KFRu. Al@columbiabusinesstimes.
com
from the Roundtable
Bottomland wells? Bad idea 20 years ago, bad idea todayMy recollections about Columbia's drinking
water go back only a few decades, but it’s always seemed odd that a series of wells would be a sufficient source for a growing city, one that just passed the hundred grand threshold.
Surface reservoirs with distinctive Indian names such as Ashokan and Hackensack sup-plied water outside New York City where I grew up, and the engineering feats behind the famed mountain-sourced, gravity-fed system require no further tributes.
Columbia's founders sited their embyronic settlement on the banks of a water source, Flat Branch Creek. As the village grew, a dam across Hinkson Creek created a reservoir. When that proved insufficient, the municipality drilled a series of artesian wells deep into the aquifer as a source of fresh water that originated beneath the Ozarks.
My first drink of water here came from the University of Missouri's own artesian well system. Drawn from the same aquifer as the city's first round of wells, MU’s water tasted fine, aside from its relative hardness, to which some attribute certain medical benefits because the hardness is caused by dissolved minerals such as calcium and magnesium
I'm not sure the same tributes can be paid to the city’s water supply these days. We can all agree that the most stringent measures must be followed to ensure the water is safe to drink. Taste and feel are more personal, thus subjec-tive, judgments.
I remember when the decision was made to use the shallower McBaine Bottoms near the Missouri River for wells, we were told that the water from it would be "different" —
softer to those who crave that quality. (Dissolved minerals make soap less effective, or less lathery, than when mixed with soft water.) The city said that by mixing new well water with the harder water from the original artesian wells, the overall quality would continue to be pleasing. For me, city water is OK, but MU's water still tastes better.
Then came the stunning, at least to me, decision almost 20 years ago to process Columbia's wastewater through environ-mentally trendy "wetlands" impound-ments within sight of the McBaine well field. At the time, I was spending a lot of time tending to business interests in northwest Arkansas and recall intense debate over the deleterious impact of chicken house effluents coursing into once pristine sources of drinking water in the Boston Mountains. Why would Columbia even think about the potential intermixture of wastewater with a fresh-water source?
Now the city is considering whether to drill more wells in the McBaine Bottoms. The answer should be a resounding "NO!" — at least until the matter of wastewater seepage into this comparatively shallow drawing point for the bulk of our drinking water is thor-oughly and scientifically resolved.
At the same time, let the trumpets call for Columbia and every water utility in the region to initiate a cooperative effort to improve and expand our present and future water supply. Maybe my dream of future
impoundments — a lake or two functioning as public water supply reservoirs — will come true because it will be seen as the best alterna-tive for the public interest. How about Osage Lake and the Oto Reservoir? v
vOICES
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An artesian well near the MU campus.
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County View
Changing strategies for our changing ways
Patricia S. Lensmeyer is the Collector of
Revenue for Boone County.
lensmeyer
vOICES
Most of us have heard the phrase, “The times, they are a changing.” Fewer of us recognize it as the paraphrased title of Bob Dylan’s 1964 song “The Times They Are A-Changing.” Effective business leaders must not only recognize that times are changing but also be diligent in seeking out those available resources of change, which will be beneficial to the business process.
This diligence of seeking available resources so positive changes can occur applies not only to businesses but also to the governmental process of collecting property taxes and license fees by my office. We consistently search for better ways to do what we do for the property taxpayers and the taxing entities for which we collect, while keeping in mind that faster is not always more efficient.
The measures used by my office when a change is contemplated are basic: Does this change provide adequate transparency, make it better for taxpayers or taxing entities, and is it the right thing to do?
Since becoming Boone County Collector of Revenue in 1995, changes have become the byword for my office. Below are a few of the initiatives:
Installment payments on real estate property taxes: This service allows a homeowner to pay the estimated tax liability monthly during the tax year by remitting payments directly to my office, or we will electronically draw the agreed upon monthly amount from the homeowner’s banking account. When the tax bill is created, the amount previously paid is credited to the bill. Homeowners including property taxes in their monthly payments to a mortgage company may not use this plan. The number of property owners using this service has
increased 47 percent since we began offering it in 2005. The service is particularly beneficial to retirees on fixed incomes and homeowners with no mortgage. It provides a way to budget an annual expense on a monthly basis.
Online services for Boone County property owners: Boone County residents are computer literate and expect government to provide elec-tronic services that will be available beyond regular workday hours. Following are a few of the services my office has available:
• Pay real estate and personal property taxes online through our Web site with an electronic check or a credit card. This is year round so cur-rent and delinquent taxes can be paid online.
• County residents can renew motor vehicle registrations online because my office provides paid personal property tax information to the Missouri Department of Revenue.
• Taxpayers may change mailing addresses on our Web site.
• Property owners may search for their cur-rent or prior years’ bill information.
• Business owners can obtain merchant licensing requirements, verify licenses are current and/or print an application for a mer-chant’s license.
• Realtors, title companies and lenders can locate accurate property tax amounts when needed, and closing agents can use the calcu-lator to determine the correct tax liability for property transfers.
The volume of transactions performed in my office increases every year, such as address changes, phone calls for information, pay-ments processed, number of tax bills generated and collected, types of bills to be collected and the number of taxing entities for which taxes are collected.
The word change embodies modifying, trans-forming, adjusting, amending and revolution-izing. In our growing and prospering county, businesses and government must continue to embrace change in order to provide the best ser-vices possible to our customers and citizens. v
What’s your opinion of the House-passed health care bill? When a bill passes by a five-vote margin with 435
votes cast in the U.S. House of Representatives, a strong divergence of opinion is expected.
That certainly was the case after the House narrowly approved a plan that would create a comprehensive national system of health insurance at an estimated cost of $1.4 trillion over 10 years. The multi-faceted bill would force most people to purchase health insurance, expand the minimum Medicaid eligibility rate to 150 percent of the federal poverty level and bar plans from turning away people with pre-existing conditions.
It would also install a government-run insurance entity, which is commonly known as the “public option.” That part of the plan has been controversial, with most Republicans and some Democrats balking at the move.
Here’s some reaction from Missouri politicians and advocacy groups about the vote:
"We applaud those members of the House who supported this crucial legislation. This bill will help millions of older Americans get the health coverage they need, while strengthening Medicare for today's seniors and future gen-erations.” – Norma Collins, AARP Missouri associate state director for advocacy. AARP, a major advocacy group for senior citizens, endorsed the bill.
“This bill imposes inflexible mandates before getting everyone covered and new regulations that duplicate what is already in place at the state level. Many of these reforms begin in 2010 after employees have already chosen their
plans and contracts have been negotiated. The result will be increased costs and massive disruptions in the quality coverage individuals and families rely on today.” – Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans. AHIP, which represents the country’s insurance companies, opposes the legislation.
“By forcing this mammoth overhaul on hard-working Americans, [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and the liberal majority are creating a health care system that increases taxes on small businesses, reduces benefits and choices for seniors, and piles insurmountable debt upon our children.” – U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Republican who rep-resents the 9th District that includes Columbia. All of the Missouri Republicans voted against the legislation.
"After years of effort, months of debate and listening to the ideas and concerns of people throughout Missouri, momentum is on the side of the American people and health insurance reform.” – U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, a Democrat from St. Louis who voted for the legislation.
“I am concerned about the impact the legislation could have on rural hospitals and doctors. The proposed reductions to Medicare reimbursement could further squeeze the budgets of rural health care providers. I also oppose the creation of a new government run public option and continue to have serious concerns about its potential unintended con-sequences for Missourians who have private insurance plans they like.“ – U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, who represents
the 4th District south of Columbia and was one of 39 Democrats who voted against the bill.
The bill might face trouble in the U.S. Senate, where some lawmakers have expressed concerns over the “public option” and the bill’s funding sources. In order for the bill to avoid procedural gridlock, it will need to gain the votes of 60 senators.
“We have the majority because we have moderates. And those moderates are going to be working very hard to make sure that we really do something about cost-control in the bill. I don’t think the House bill went far enough on cost-control. I think the Senate bill is much better on cost-control. And that’s what I think you’re going to see pushed by the middle of the Senate that’s going to be the one that crafts the compromises.” – U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday, Nov. 9.
“Our view on this side of the aisle believes reform is common-sense solutions focused on lowering health care costs for families and small businesses. We’re offering solutions that increase access and improve patient care as well … Our solution includes tax equity for all families, allowing small businesses to form their own plans across state lines, and ending the waste of $120 billion annu-ally from medical malpractice and defensive medicine. We don’t need a government overhaul of health care to give the American people what they want.” – U.S. Sen. Kit Bond in a Nov. 2 floor speech. v
Other than questions regarding property taxes, the most common questions posed by residents relate to licensing businesses. Who is a Merchant?Every person, corporation, co-partnership or association of persons who deals in selling food, wares and merchandise at any store, stand or place occupied for that purpose is a merchant.Do I need a Boone County Merchant's license for my business?Yes! If you answer yes to all the items in the checklist below:• You own or operate a business; and• The business is located in Boone County either within or outside the city limits of any incorporated area; and• There is a sales tax number issued to the business by the Missouri Department of Revenue.What's the cost?The annual fee is $25 for a calendar year license and is not prorated. Licenses expire December 31 each year and must be renewed.My business has more than one permanent location. Do I need a license for each?Yes!
Merchant liceses fAQ
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PeRSonAl PROFILE
Sixth-generation Mendenhall to lead state Realtors' groupBy Abby Rogers
Elizabeth Mendenhall, who represents the sixth generation of the family’s real estate busi-ness, is running the company that her brother helps manage and her father owns.
She will take over the presidency of the Missouri Association of Realtors in January and is heir apparent to the matriarch role that grand-mother Mary Jane Mendenhall once held.
But don’t expect to find family rivalry in their RE/MAX Boone Realty office.
“He’s one of my best friends,” Elizabeth said of Ford Mendenhall, who oversees the computer systems and does property management for the company.
Ford said it can be tough to separate family rivalries from work, but he couldn’t ask for any-thing better.
“We always have those moments, but I love it a lot,” Ford Mendenhall said.
The family’s ease with one other and mutual respect was obvious during a brief group inter-view and photo shoot, with Richard Mendenhall ribbing his daughter by referring to her as “Madam President.” Richard Mendenhall was president of the state association in 2001 but still has a big one-up on his daughter — he was also president of the National Association of Realtors.
Although the firm’s roots go back to 1894, Richard Mendenhall formed the current com-pany in 1991 for both residential and commer-cial sales. The company has about 100 realtors in its Columbia office
Elizabeth Mendenhall, 36, is the broker man-ager and CEO and has been with the company for 13 years. She will be leading the real estate trade group at an intensely political period, as the members attempt to get a constitutional amendment banning transfer taxes on the November 2010 ballot.
Elizabeth Mendenhall has experience in real estate far beyond her professional years.
“I remember touring around and tagging along to open houses,” Elizabeth Mendenhall said. As a kid, she would work in her family’s office on snow days and during summer vaca-tions and did odd jobs such as cutting up old contracts to be used as scrap paper for taking phone messages, answering the phones and dis-tributing phone messages.
Elizabeth was an assistant manager at Boone Tavern for five years but said she couldn’t imagine having a career in anything but real estate.
“The real estate business is about helping families, and my family certainly has been doing this for a long time, so I think it is a nice fit,” she said.
When Mendenhall was 22, she went to work for her father. His administrative assistant’s hus-band got a new job, and she left RE/MAX, which left a vacancy Elizabeth wanted to fill. Elizabeth transferred from MU to Columbia College and worked her way through the rest of her college degree as her father’s administrative assistant.
Although anybody new in any situation needs to prove himself or herself, Elizabeth said she was more worried about her status as the boss’ daughter than other employees were.
As CEO, Elizabeth oversees the agents, including training them, and oversees the man-agement of the office. It was her work with the agents that guaranteed her success in her father’s eyes. He said he knew she would succeed when agents started telling him how good she was.
“They really liked her management style and the things she was doing to improve the com-pany,” Richard Mendenhall said.
The camaraderie between the Mendenhalls and the agents was apparent during CBT’s photo shoot at the office. The agents seemed very com-fortable with one other, as well as with Elizabeth, Ford and Richard. However, the agents deferred to Elizabeth for direction.
Elizabeth Mendenhall, CEO of Remax and president of the Missouri Board of Realtors.
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PeRSonAl PROFILE
According to Elizabeth Mendenhall, working with the real estate agents is the best aspect of her job.
“I think Realtors are committed to helping people not just achieve a house but really make a home and live in a community, and I love being associated with the independent contractors,” Mendenhall said.
In January, she’ll be working for a whole state-load of Realtors. Because Elizabeth has already done so much work with the organization and with agents, Richard said he didn’t think there was much he could tell her he’d like to see her accomplish as president.
“I think Elizabeth has done so much already at the state level, she pretty much tells me what she wants to get done,” Richard Mendenhall said with a laugh.
Elizabeth’s main task will be to lead the campaign against transfer taxes. A real estate transfer tax is a tax that can be imposed on property when the property is transferred
from one owner to another. It is up to the individual state, county or municipality to determine how much the tax will be.
Missouri is one of 13 states without a transfer tax; all of its border states have some sort of transfer tax. Illinois has a 0.10 percent transfer fee rate, while Chicago and surrounding Cook County have separate transfer fees. Nebraska has a 0.175 percent transfer fee rate.
The Missouri Association of Realtors is working to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2010 ballot that would give voters the option to bar politicians from enacting transfer taxes in Missouri.
No legislation concerning transfer taxes has been discussed in Missouri’s General Assembly in about 10 years, according to the group’s senior vice president for governmental affairs, Sam Licklider. But the state is facing a severe revenue shortage, and Licklider said there might be discussion in the general community about the taxes.
The campaign is essentially a preemptive movement, Licklider said. Elizabeth is opposed to transfer taxes, or “double taxation” as she calls it, because of the burden
she says it will place on homeowners. “Missourians already pay thousands of dollars each year in property taxes, so an additional
transfer tax would be a double tax on their property,” she said. “Missourians have always had an appreciation for homeownership, and an additional tax denies fairness, and it defies Missouri’s common sense.”
Her father supported her stance on transfer taxes and said the taxes have hindered the real estate industry in other parts of the country and only hurt the economy.
The Association of Realtors’ Web site concerning transfer taxes, www.YesToSaveHomes.com, details the organization’s proposal.
The proposal asks voters if the Missouri Constitution should be amended to prevent the state, counties and other political subdivisions from imposing any new tax, including a sales tax, on the sale or transfer or homes or any other real estate, according to the Web site.
Although she doesn’t know specifically how many signatures the campaign has collected so far, Mendenhall said the goal is to collect 157,000 plus a comfortable cushion. The next step in the cam-paign will be to educate the public about transfer taxes.
“Because we don’t currently have transfer taxes in Missouri, we need to make sure that every-body understands what a transfer tax is and then give Missourians the opportunity to vote yes to say no,” Elizabeth Mendenhall said. v
CEO of Remax and President of the Missouri Board of Realtors Elizabeth Mendenhall, right, answers questions that agents have on double taxation. Mendenhall, a spokesperson for the Vote Yes to Stop Double Taxation, hopes that legislators will not impose new taxes on the sale or transfer of homes or any other real estate.
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BuSInESS PROFILE
MU news Bureau
A comfort food, a tasty treat, an indulgence — ice cream conjures feelings of happiness and satisfaction for millions. Ice cream researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered ways to make ice cream tastier and healthier and have contributed to ice cream development and manufacturing for more than a century. Today, MU researchers are working to make ice cream into a functional food by adding nutrients such as fiber, antioxidants and pro-biotics to premium ice cream.
“The idea of putting a functional ingredient into a food instead of just using the nutrients found in the food naturally takes a multi-functional approach,” said Ingolf Gruen, MU professor of food chemistry and ice cream researcher in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. “Food provides calories and comfort — people want to indulge. We’re working on making ice cream satisfying and healthy.”
Adding nutrients such as pro-biotics, which are already found in some dairy products, and fiber to ice cream can improve digestive health. Many diseases are caused by inflammation that starts in the intes-tines, Gruen said. Improving digestive health with functional foods might reduce that inflammation. Although functional foods have health benefits, there are many challenges to adding nutrients to ice cream.
“Our major challenges are texture, flavor and psy-chological acceptance,” Gruen said. “The nutrients we add often have bitter tastes and affect the texture of ice cream that we have to mask. Flavors like chocolate are easier to work with because the flavor is so strong that it can overcome other flavors from the nutrients. Another challenge is determining whether people
would be upset that we’re ‘tampering’ with a comfort food. We need to know if they would be more willing to pay for ice cream with added nutritional benefits.”
Gruen and his research team are looking at using the açai berry and remnants from grapes in wine-making to add nutrients to ice cream. They hope to have a prototype ready for tasting in the next six months.
This new research on ice cream as a functional food coincides with the 20th anniversary of Buck’s Ice Cream Parlor, an ice cream shop and research facility at MU. In 1989, Wendall and Ruth Arbuckle contributed about $160,000 to ice cream research at MU and were the namesake for Buck’s Ice Cream Parlor, previously Eckles Hall Ice Cream Shop from the 1920s to 1972. Buck’s might be best known for the invention of Tiger Stripe ice cream, a popular MU frozen treat made with French Vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate stripes, that is sent to people around the world.
MU has a long history of ice cream research that dates back to the 1920s. William Henry Eddie Reid, professor emeritus of dairy manufacturing, and graduate student Wendell Arbuckle started the program by studying the texture of ice cream.
In the 1960s, Robert Marshall, professor emeritus of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, began
studying ways to make ice cream meet the nutritional needs of consumers. This work led to pioneering research of low-fat ice cream. Researchers found that replacing milk fat with ingredients made from carbo-hydrates and proteins created low-fat frozen desserts that were similar to high-fat desserts. The ice cream industry adapted those formulas to produce the ice cream consumed today. v
Buck’s Ice Cream: 20 years of sweet research
Laura Ortinau, a graduate student in food sciences, helps Rick Linhardt, coordinator of research operations and manager of Buck's Ice Cream store, make a batch of Tiger Stripe Ice Cream.
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amid dire
MU college expanding shortage
By Marilyn Cummins Photos by Jennifer Kettler
------------------------------------------------------------------• MU ranks in the top five of vet schools in research
funding from the National Institutes of Health. • MU has three NIH National Resource and Research
centers: the only NIH-funded swine center, the only rat center and one of three mouse centers in the U.S.
• MU has one of 15 regional biocontainment laboratories in the U.S.
PridePoints
But in October, right after donning her white coat in a ceremo-ny marking the class of 2011’s move into clinical training, Kasten didn’t work on cats and dogs. She headed down to Versailles to treat large farm animals in a rural area north of Lake of the Ozarks.
“It’s hard, physical labor,” Kasten said. For example, she spent hours one night in bad weather helping a cow deliver a calf by wrapping chains around the front hooves of the 80-pound animal and pulling.
But she learned to love working with dairy farmers while helping out a veterinar-ian in Union during breaks at Missouri Baptist University, where she earned her undergradu-ate degrees in chemistry and biology.
“They are just such good, hard-working people,” Kasten said. She and the farmers were “working together to try to figure out what to do better to care for their herds.
“To me, veterinary medicine is like a mur-der mystery," she said. “You’re given all these clues, and you work together to try to treat the animal and hopefully save the client money at the same time.”
But there’s a larger mystery that the MU vet school is helping to solve: How will the U.S. meet what Dean Neil Olson calls the “current and looming” shortage of veterinarians in most areas, particularly those who treat food animals rather than pets and those involved in public health?
This fall, Missouri’s sole veterinary school admitted the largest freshman class in its history: 110 stu-dents. In 2007, when Olson became the new dean, 76 students were admitted.
Olson’s long-term goal is to admit 125 students a year and create more tuition reve-
nue to boost programming resources. But that will take more space in an already crowded facil-
ity. His 10-year plan calls for a new academic building and renovation of current buildings to meet the space shortages as well as to ac-
commodate the additional students.
Billion-dollar industry’s widespread impactVeterinary medicine is a $1 billion industry in Missouri, Olson
said, and every dollar spent for veterinary education and services generates $2.42 in economic impact to the state.
“But it potentially goes way beyond that” in its contribution to the state’s well-being, Olson said.
It’s well-known, he said, that “animal agricul-ture is very vulnerable to bioterrorism.” Having a strong veterinary college and well-supported vet-erinary medicine system in the state protects ani-mals and the state’s No. 1 industry — agriculture.
Animal health and safety also helps safeguard the No. 2 industry — tourism — from the losses that would ensue if something like the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the United Kingdom happened close to the Interstate 70 corridor, which would require massive slaughtering of animals and the shut-down of highways, airports and more.
Day to day, MU veterinary medical extension specialists, through herd health management consultation and medical care, are directly respon-sible for increasing the efficiency of the Missouri’s food animal production. According to university estimates, every 1 percent productivity increase in the state's $2.5 billion livestock industry results in an increase of $25 million more sales for the
state’s producers. But that scenario requires a sufficient number of large-animal veterinarians.
Luring large-animal docsAt MU’s veterinary teaching hospital, there is a stark difference
in activity on the floor where students treat small animals, with the cacophony of barking dogs and the packed waiting room, and the floor where students treat livestock.
The surroundings are quiet when Dusty Nagy, an assistant professor and doctor of veterinary medicine, leads a gaggle of students — five wom-en and one man — on her rounds at the food animal clinic.
This fall, Missouri’s
sole veterinary
school admitted the
largest freshman
class in its history:
110 students. In
2007, when Olson
became the new
dean, 76 students
were admitted.
Vet student Vicky Kasten checks over a dairy cow during her internship in Versailles, Mo. (photo courtesy of Vicky Kasten)
Vicky Kasten always enjoyed diagnosing and treating her menagerie of pets while growing up in suburban St. Louis, and she often compared notes with her veterinarian aunt in Texas. So it was natural that she enrolled at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
Dean of the vet school, Neil Olson, with the Missouri mules. (photo pourtesy of the College of Veterinary Medicine)
Billion-dollar industry’s widespread impactVeterinary medicine is a $1 billion industry in Missouri, Olson
said, and every dollar spent for veterinary education and services generates $2.42 in economic impact to the state.
“But it potentially goes way beyond that” in its contribution to the state’s well-being, Olson said.
It’s well-known, he said, that “animal agricul-ture is very vulnerable to bioterrorism.” Having a strong veterinary college and well-supported vet-erinary medicine system in the state protects ani-mals and the state’s No. 1 industry — agriculture.
Animal health and safety also helps safeguard the No. 2 industry — tourism — from the losses that would ensue if something like the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the United Kingdom happened close to the Interstate 70 corridor, which would require massive slaughtering of animals and the shut-down of highways, airports and more.
Day to day, MU veterinary medical extension specialists, through herd health management consultation and medical care, are directly respon-sible for increasing the efficiency of the Missouri’s food animal production. According to university estimates, every 1 percent productivity increase in the state's $2.5 billion livestock industry results in an increase of $25 million more sales for the
state’s producers. But that scenario requires a sufficient number of large-animal veterinarians.
Luring large-animal docsAt MU’s veterinary teaching hospital, there is a stark difference
in activity on the floor where students treat small animals, with the cacophony of barking dogs and the packed waiting room, and the floor where students treat livestock.
The surroundings are quiet when Dusty Nagy, an assistant professor and doctor of veterinary medicine, leads a gaggle of students — five wom-en and one man — on her rounds at the food animal clinic.
Although veterinary medicine used to be a male-dominated industry, that 5-to-1 ratio is now typical at the vet school at MU and elsewhere. About 80 percent of the MU applicants and the admitted students are women. And Kasten is one of a very few of those women who will enter a practice whose main clients are cattle, hogs, horses and, occasionally, goats; only three to five female graduates go into large-animal practices each year, ac-cording to Olsen.
Kasten has tried to spread her passion for large-animal work. She helped revive the vet college’s Swine Club and worked with the Bovine Club to introduce more students to hands-on experi-ence with cattle.
While spending six weeks in dairy practices in Wisconsin this past summer as an “externship,” Kasten got first-hand insight into the demand for large-animal practitioners. “There is defi-nitely a shortage,” she said. At a goat-care conference, “I was swarmed by people all day saying, ‘You need to come here.’”
She’s also realistic about the barriers she might face in her cho-sen field. “There still is some animosity against women as large-animal veterinarians,” she said. She recounts stories of women buying existing practices, then seeing large-animal clients pulling out because they don’t think a woman can do the job.
Kasten, who’s 5 foot 9 inches tall and strong from her clinical work, said she’s confident she’ll handle the job.
Olson acknowledges that “there’s a stereotype that’s out there, and it’s unfortunate. You can’t just flip a switch. Attitudes have to change over time.” He also said that with proper use of restraints, lifting mechanisms and other specialized equipment,
Students prepare to study slides in their histology lab at the vet school. The school had to offer another lab to accommodate the large number of incoming freshmen who are required to take the class.
Rebecca Moland looks at slides of animal spleens in her histology lab.
(continued on Page 18)
Researchers in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine are using dogs such as Tonto, a German Shepherd with a degenerative spinal cord dis-ease, to find better ways to treat both companion animals and humans with comparable diseases.
The initiative is called One Health, One Medicine: The Convergence of Human and Animal Health. MU’s administrators have identified One Health as one of five areas of notable expertise that will be emphasized in Mizzou Advantage, a new strategy for improving the university’s repu-tation, increasing research funding and drawing donations.
“These are the areas where we are incredibly well-positioned,” Provost Brian Foster said during a recent presentation to community leaders at the Reynolds Alumni Center. “These five areas are an incred-ible resource for economic development.”
(The other four areas are Food for the Future, New Media, Sustainable Energy and Disruptive and Transformational Technologies.)
MU is one of about five universities in the U.S. that has medical and veterinary schools on one campus and is integrating them for research, according to Carolyn Henry, a professor and director of an endowed chair in veterinary oncology at the vet school. As a land-grant institution, MU also has a highly regarded animal science program.
“We’re all treating the same disease, regardless of what species it’s in,” Henry said.
MU is also one of only 12 members in the Comparative Oncology Consortium, formed by the National Cancer Institute to organize nation-wide trials in tumor-bearing dogs using cancer drugs.
Henry said cancers in companion dogs offer a largely unexplored re-search opportunity for cancer imaging, device and drug development.
MU also has comparative orthopedic, ophthalmology, general medi-cine and neurology programs.
Earlier this year, MU researchers reported an incurable, paralyzing disease in humans is now genetically linked to a similar disease in dogs. They found that the genetic mutation responsible for degenerative my-elopathy in dogs is the same mutation that causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the human disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Joan Coates, a veterinary neurologist, said in a news release that dogs with the degenerative spinal cord disease are likely to provide sci-entists with a more reliable animal model for Lou Gehrig’s Disease than transgenic rodents, the models traditionally used. “Also, this discovery will pave the way for DNA tests that will aid dog breeders in avoiding DM in the future,” she added.
Henry pointed out that companion animals are better research sub-jects than rodents for numerous reasons, including their more similar size and structures and the fact that pets and humans have a shared environment.
She also stressed that the dogs used for their research developed cancer and other diseases “on their own. I’m not creating cancer in my patients.” w
Medical convergence:humans and their pets
Tonto exercises in the water on a treadmill called the hydro physio three times a
week for her neurological disease. Vicky Kasten always enjoyed diagnosing and treating her menagerie of pets while growing up in suburban St. Louis, and she often compared notes with her veterinarian aunt in Texas. So it was natural that she enrolled at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
Dr. Cheryl Rosenfeld, left, helps Cari Van Zweden understand lymphatic tissue in her histology lab at the vet school.
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for most procedures “you don’t have to have brute strength, male or female.”
Olson looks at the gender shift in applicants and graduates as part of a larger “feminization of the health professions” going on in medical and dentistry schools as well. “Here in veterinary medicine, we’ve been the most dramatically impacted,” he said. He emphasizes that it has been a gradual change as women have be-come more interested in pursuing mathematics, science and engineering.
“The real question we should be asking,” Olson said, “is this: Where are the male applicants?”
He believes a key factor is less-than-desirable start-ing salaries for new veterinarians facing an average of
$115,000 in debt load at graduation after so many years in school. A colleague at the med school tells him the average student debt there is $150,000, but starting salaries are disproportionately greater. Veterinarians can look forward to significant increases in income once a practice is established or after obtaining additional spe-cialty training, but he said it’s those first few years out that get people’s attention.
In 2009, the average veterinary school graduate go-ing into private practice started at a salary of $65,165.
As an incentive for students to stay in Missouri to practice large-animal veterinary medicine, a new fed-erally funded loan program provides six MU students with $20,000 for living and educational expenses per academic year. The loans are forgiven, provided the
students practice large animal veterinary medicine in a defined area of need — one year for each year they re-ceived the scholarship.
Easing the growing painsMU’s College of Veterinary Medicine has gradu-
ated more than 3,000 veterinarians since its founding in 1946. The annual entering class number hovered around 30 for the first two decades, moved up to 65 to 70 in the late ’60s and early ’70s and only recently moved above 70.
After admitting 110 students this year, the college’s long-term goal is to phase in classes of up to 125 a year, for an eventual total student population of 500.
Until this year, MU’s class size ranked 24th or 25th out of 28 veterinary colleges in the United States.
“We will still be at about the national average be-cause other schools will increase, too,” Olson said. “We’ll go from being one of the smallest in terms of class size to being right in the middle.”
But the MU vet school ranks near the bottom — 25th out of 28 schools — in state funding.
Why grow? Two major reasons, Olson said. The first is to reduce the severity of the shortage of veterinarians. The second is “to generate more revenue.”
Olson said “going to 110 really stretches us.” One way of coping this year was to divide the histology lab course into two sections; others were to consolidate exam schedules and give exams as early as 7 a.m. The auditorium seats 190 students, so it works for larger lectures.
“But our curriculum is not like a traditional curricu-lum,” he said. “Everyone in a class has to take the same thing at the same time each year. So bringing in a larger class sends ripples in terms of how we schedule other courses.”
The MU Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital sees 16,000 cases annually in three hospitals — small animal, equine and food animal. This allows students to see a large number of varied cases, which gives them valuable clinical experience while serving Columbia and Missouri animal owners.
Vet school ... continuedfromPage17
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biaBusinessTim
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As the only health professionals trained in multi-species compar-ative medicine, veterinarians serve the public in myriad ways, some of which make the headlines regularly: investigating animal and hu-man disease outbreaks such as food-borne illnesses (think E. coli), the H1N1 influenza pandemic (inappropriately named “swine flu”) and zoonotic (animal-borne) illnesses (rabies, West Nile viral enceph-alitis); working in the Food and Drug Administration to evaluate the safety of everything from pet foods to food additives; protecting the U.S. from bioterrorism by serving in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps and the Department of Homeland Security.
Many of the 24 federal entities with veterinarian workforces told the General Accounting Office they are concerned about current and future shortages. The Food Safety and Inspection Service fell 15 percent short of its 2008 hiring goal for veterinarians who inspect meat and poultry. Just to satisfy current needs, 500 of the 2,500 new graduates each year need to enter the public arena. To make matters worse, 27 percent of the veterinarians at key USDA agencies will be eligible to retire in fewer than three years.
MU began a joint Doctor of Veterinary Medicine-Master of Public Health degree program two years ago; it now has 17 students en-rolled — some as a dual degree, others started the program with their D.V.M in hand. “It will be very desirable for veterinarians of the future to have a public health background,” Olson said.
The shifts needed to staff up for the future will take time. Olson said it’s natural for incoming students to apply to veterinary school to emulate someone they admire — most often a private practi-tioner whom they have shadowed or who cared for their animals. The trend to small-animal practice is starting to level off, he said; students such as Vicky Kasten are rediscovering the satisfaction of large-animal care.
Kasten drew inspiration from her aunt, a companion-animal vet-erinarian in Texas who challenged her to learn how to diagnose and treat animals rather than just take care of them. •
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The story is a familiar one. A small-business owner is talking with his banker, who casually mentions the money he could be saving with a particular service.
“I liked what I heard,” the owner said later. “I just wondered why he hadn’t brought it up before in the three years we’ve been working together.”
We’ve all been there — learning too late about the time or money we might have saved — had we only known about an option available to us. And we wonder: Isn’t it our banker and other financial advisors’ job to tell us?
The answer, of course, is yes. The number of banking products and ser-vices available can be over-whelming. That’s why, in a perfect world, your advisors should be meeting with you regularly, listening to your needs and making sure you’re taking advantage of the latest and greatest solutions.
But in our less-than-perfect world, how can you know if you’re really managing your money as effectively as pos-sible, minimizing fees and maximizing return? The only way to find out is to ask. Here are three places to start.
• Basic money manage-ment: Do I have the best ac-count for my business needs?
If you tell a banker that you want to open a small-business checking account, there’s a good chance that you’ll get one. The problem is that might not be what you re-ally need.
It’s better to have an open-ended discussion with your banker about the expected size and number of your deposits and disbursements, as well as your borrowing and investment needs. Your bank might have a “bundled” product — a package of services that provides discounts on some services, better in-terest rates on others, along with other benefits that might appeal to you. Sometimes you can combine your personal and business accounts and save even more.
Don’t forget your employees in this discus-sion. Commerce Bank, for example, offers a Benefits Banking Direct product that allows you to deposit your employees’ earnings directly into their checking accounts, which saves you the cost of cutting payroll checks. At the same time, if your employees bank with Commerce, they benefit from an easy and fast way to make purchases, pay bills, get cash, make deposits and track their transactions — all free, with no mini-mum balance requirements. So everybody wins.
• 2. Treasury management: Am I doing ev-erything I can to improve cash flow, streamline payment processing and reduce costs?
Every small business I know wants to man-age its finances smarter. The good news is there are countless tools available today to help you do it. The key is learning which ones are best for you.
Businesses that receive paper checks, for ex-ample, can gain access to funds faster and im-prove cash flow by processing them electronical-ly. Remote deposit technology makes it possible to process receivables as you receive them, right from your office computer, rather than making
trips to the bank. That saves both time and money.
If you have a service that your customers pay for monthly, it might be time for an automated clearing house line of credit that automatically transfers cus-tomer fees from their check-ing account into yours. A business that requires employees to visit custom-ers’ homes or offices might similarly benefit from mo-bile technology that enables them to take electronic payment before they leave. You’ll not only streamline your invoicing process with tools like these, but you’ll also reduce the number of bad checks you receive and must later collect on.
• 3: Expense manage-ment: Am I managing my expenses as efficiently as possible?
Expense management is more than just paying the bills: It’s knowing you have the proper controls and reporting tools in place to guard against fraud and knowing that you’re saving time or money in the process.
There are a host of commercial cards avail-able to help you achieve these goals. Fleet cards, for example, can help you manage fuel, auto maintenance and repair expenses. Purchasing cards can decrease your reliance on purchase or-ders, invoices and checks. Commercial cards can do both — while also managing your travel and entertainment expenses.
With expense management, as with all finan-cial management, just remember that one size does not fit all. After asking about and listening to your needs, your banker should be able to of-fer a solution that is tailored to your company, which is what you really wanted all along. v
Bob Hull is a small-business banking specialist at Commerce Bank, Central Missouri Region. You can reach him at [email protected].
Guest Column » Bob Hull
Banking questions every small business should ask
With expense
management, as
with all financial
management, just
remember that one
size does not fit all.
After asking about
and listening to your
needs, your banker
should be able to
offer a solution that
is tailored to your
company, which
is what you really
wanted all along.
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Job market anemic outside health fieldsByKathleen Pointer
Need a job? MBS Books is hiring. So are ABC Labs and Shelter Insurance. But don’t bother to call on Dana Corporation, State Farm Insurance or Weaver Manufacturing.
With the unemployment rate in the city passing 7 percent, which leaves nearly 4,000 workers without jobs, CBT surveyed some of the largest local employ-ers about their openings and talked with employment service executives about the job market, which they said was generally anemic outside the medical field.
About half of the 21 surveyed businesses were hir-ing for vacancies; a little more than a fourth were hir-ing for new positions and about a third did not have plans to hire any time soon. Because most companies were hiring for vacancies, the positions available tend-ed to be full-time rather than part-time or temporary.
Caroline Gower of Caroline & Company and Allen Jennings of Kelly Services said they’ve also seen a higher number of vacant positions available instead of new positions.
“Employers are continuing to tighten their belts by cutting overhead and workforce, cutting hours and placing further demands on employees that remain,” Gower said.
Jennings said that companies are continuing to take careful measures to keep costs as low as possible.
“Factories have been adding employees piecemeal, only as needed,” Jennings said. There have been “no mass hirings as companies are watching inventories, scrutinizing incoming orders and doing whatever it takes to control payroll.”
Dana Corporation has gone down from 250 em-ployees to 138 in the past year, and the manufactur-ing company was not hiring for any open positions. Weaver Manufacturing has gone up three employees in the past year, 36 to 39, but also was not hiring for vacancies or new positions.
Jennings said just looking in the employment sec-tions of newspapers shows that companies are work-
ing to keep the need for new positions low. There are “two pages as opposed to five pages a year and a half ago,” he said.
“While there are a few companies in certain indus-tries either maintaining or showing spurts of business, current economic conditions are generally not good in Columbia and the outlying areas,” Jennings added.
But several of the companies surveyed by CBT said they planned to increase their workforces over the coming months. MBS Books is hiring for 35 full-time positions. These positions include three managerial positions in IT or customer service, three Web devel-
opment programming positions, two inventory data analysts and four inventory or product specialists. The available positions also include 20 warehouse opera-tion positions.
VA Mortgage Center also had several positions available. The company grew from 138 employees last year to 220 this year. There were seven open positions, only two of which are vacancies.
The city of Columbia is another place to look for employment. They were hiring for four vacancies and four new positions.
Although Shelter Insurance was hiring for three positions in the Columbia area, two other insurance groups — Cornerstone National Insurance Company and State Farm — didn’t have any job openings. Joe Camoriano of State Farm said they are filling all their open positions internally, and David Spencer of Cornerstone said they didn’t have any open positions and would only be hiring if an open position needed to be filled.
Columbia’s largest bank, Boone County National Bank, is hiring for one position in the area. This past year the bank has gone from 346 employees to 333.
“We hire as needed to replace positions as they open,” said Melody Marcks, senior vice president of human resources.
The medical field is one place where jobs are start-ing to open back up, said Anne Williams of Job Finders Employment Services.
“Our medical recruiting division is showing a steady incline,” she said. “Allied health professionals
“Employers are continuing to tighten
their belts by cutting overhead and
workforce, cutting hours and placing
further demands on employees
that remain”
– caroline gower.
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and mid-level providers are once again interested in making job changes.”
In the past year ABC Labs in Columbia has in-creased its workforce from 317 to 330 and was hir-ing for 15 full-time positions, eight of which are en-tirely new positions. Another medical business, the Columbia Orthopaedic Group, was seeking employ-ees to replace two full-time positions.
Workers who don’t have a place in a resurging field such as medicine might find employment, at least temporarily, in seasonal or temporary positions. Both Williams and Jennings said their companies ex-pected to find more response for temporary workers from employers.
“Our temporary staffing division is starting to in-crease,” Williams said. “When talking to clients, we are finding they are ready to get the economy going. They cannot wait any longer for growth” in the econ-omy to take place.
MBS Books was hiring for 58 part-time tempo-rary positions and more than 50 temporary ware-house positions for December and January. Miller’s Professional Imaging planned to fill as many as five seasonal positions.
Williams said the demand for temporary workers is increasing as companies work to keep their costs of doing business low.
“They are utilizing our temporary staff, saving them the costs associated with hiring regular em-ployees: benefit, worker’s compensation insurance, unemployment insurance and the like,” she said. v
Census measures recession’s impactIn the first year of the recession, Missouri had net job losses overall, across genders and most age
groups, but the state gained more jobs than it lost in the utilities and health care industries, according to a U.S. Census report.
Missouri lost 28,880 jobs from the fourth quarter of 2007, the beginning of the recession, to the fourth quarter of 2008, the Local Employment Dynamics report said. (The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center posted the report — on changes in employment by gender, industry and age — on-line at www.missourieconomy.org.)
The Missouri job losses followed a regional trend. Illinois lost nearly 79,000 jobs, and Arkansas lost a little more than 12,000 jobs, though Iowa lost only 2,500, and Kansas lost only 757 on a net basis. Missouri’s male workforce had more than twice the number of job losses than the female workforce.
Utilities in Missouri gained the most jobs of any industry, with a 5.8 percent growth in female em-ployees and a 9.8 percent growth in male employees.
Healthcare in Missouri went through a growth similar to the utilities industry but not to quite the same extent. Women in Missouri’s healthcare industry grew by 3.7 percent while men employed in Missouri’s healthcare industry grew by 3.5 percent. Missouri’s neighbors witnessed growth in their healthcare industries as well.
Along with Missouri, many states saw job losses in construction. Some of the largest percentages were concentrated in the Western states. However, the losses were widespread with only eight states showing an overall increase in construction jobs over the year. Missouri’s losses in the industry were 5.5 percent for males and 7.5 percent for females.
Only three states had net increases in manufacturing jobs. Missouri’s manufacturing jobs dropped 3.2 percent among males and 7.8 among females.
Men between the ages of 25 and 34 gained more jobs on average than women of the same group did nationwide. However, women aged 45 to 54, 55 to 64 and 65 to 99 gained more jobs on average nation-wide than their male counterparts for the same age groups did. v
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Job Point prepares employees for marketByRobert E. Thomas
Rhonda Kelly Matthews had to give up her job as a certified nurse assistant because of medical issues. Looking for a new career, she turned to Job Point, a not-for profit employment agency based in Columbia that serves mid-Missouri.
Matthews graduated from the Job Point office tech-nology training program and now has a per-manent position as a legal assistant for the Missouri Bankruptcy Center.
Job Point, started in 1965, has a staff of about 50, said Brenda Overkamp, director of marketing and research. It operates in Columbia, Jefferson City, Moberly, Wright City and Marshall. Columbia locations in-clude 2116 Nelwood Drive and 1500 Vandiver Drive.
“We serve about 2,000 people a year, providing career planning and occupational skills training to individuals who have any type of barrier to employment or those economically disadvantaged who have not had the opportunity for employment,” Overkamp said.
This past year, Job Point placed more than 200 in-dividuals entering employment at an average hourly wage of $8.57, she said. Almost 70 percent of adults hired maintained employment for at least 90 days.
“We specialize in preparing people to enter the workforce and at the same time provide a critical need for the business community,” she said
David Townsend, president of Agents National Title Insurance in Columbia, is on the Job Point board
of directors. He turned to the organization when look-ing for an administrative assistant and hired Stephen Neville, 24, who is legally blind. Neville, a college dropout, had been looking for a job for six months.
“I filled out job applications every day,” Neville said. “Job Point showed me how to get a job. They push you and show you how to work. They were very helpful.”
Townsend said: “We make all the neces-sary accommodations for him, but it doesn’t slow him down on bit. He works as hard or harder than anyone in the office.
“Job Point does a great job in preparing all their clients for job skills and interviewing. They are a pretty neat, progressive group.”
Skills training funding is provided by sponsors such as United Way, Department of Mental Health, Division of Family Services,
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, city of Columbia and others. In some cases, a fee is charged.
Full-time instructors provide hands-on training. Advisors serve as case managers who work with the individuals and help them handle things that affect their ability to keep or maintain employment.
Other staff members contact local businesses and let them know of people who are ready to go to work.
Training provides entry in various fields including clerical, manufacturing, custodial, food service and construction. Training programs can range from four to 36 weeks. Certificates are awarded to individuals who complete graduation.
Employers of Job Point graduates can receive a Work Opportunity Tax Credit designed to move peo-ple from welfare into gainful employment. Tax breaks include $2,400 for an adult hire and $1,200 for each summer youth hire.
Job Point offers a Youth at Risk program for partici-pants ages 16 to 24, usually high school dropouts who are economically disadvantaged. Youth are engaged in class work to earn their GED while being trained in skills such as single-family home or highway and road construction. v
Job PointWilkesCenter,400WilkesBlvd.Ste.A
449-3431Contact:GaryTaylor
Resource Center1500VandiverDr.Ste.109,777-1500
Contact:MarkEye
Matthews
A YouthBuild group in a Job Point classroom
For your next company retreat, group outing, conference, banquet or camp
Rickman Conference CenterP.O. Box 104298, Jefferson City, MO 65110www.rickman.info
Fall & Winter Meeting Reservations!
Inquire about our
for first time guests/reservations!
Contact: DeAnne Nigus, Coordinator(573) 635-0848 or Toll Free: (866) [email protected]
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Prepare for health care reform now before it's too lateByAbby Rogers
Business managers should examine their health care benefits now rather than wait and see how federal legislation pans out, according to a consultant who recently spoke to the Human Resources Association of Central Missouri.
By the time Congress acts on proposed changes to the health care system, it might be too late to avoid significant cost increases, said Janet Lowe, a principal at Mercer, a human resources consulting company in St. Louis.
When discussing health care reforms with clients, Lowe advises them to establish fiscally responsible plans.
“Once they look at their plans, it’s going to be more important than ever to control the costs,” Lowe said.
Lowe spoke on preparing for the impact of health care reform during the Oct. 13 meeting of HRA of Central Missouri at William Woods University’s Columbia campus. Lowe’s projects at Mercer include development of short- and long-term benefits strategies and development of consumerism and employee cost-sharing strategies.
To cut their costs, Lowe is encouraging companies to consider at least three options: consumerism, a more effective pharmacy man-agement program and tighter quality-driven networks. When it comes to consumerism, com-
panies should have programs, such as wellness programs, that keep employees engaged in their health management. Consumer-directed health plans shift more of the responsibility to the em-ployees to seek health care. To have a more effec-tive pharmacy management program, compa-nies should implement programs that are more outcome-based in which the pharmacy and the drugs can truly improve the health of the indi-vidual, Lowe said. Tighter quality-driven net-works focus on the most effective providers; many insurance carriers do evaluations to deter-mine which providers have the highest quality ratings.
Immediacy is key when it comes to preparing for the health care reform, according to Lowe.
“We are absolutely telling employers that they can’t wait for health care reform, and they need to take action now to be better prepared,” Lowe said.
Employers face a potential surcharge if their benefits plans cost too much, and according to Lowe’s data, 25 percent of employers will be subject to the surcharge by 2013, which is why she is encouraging them to examine their plans immediately. Companies need to manager their costs in the present in order to avoid future surprises.
“They need to continue to manage their costs in the short term, and it’s more important than ever,” Lowe said. v
How to prevent, identify H1N1 The health of employees during an outbreak such as H1N1 influenza plays a critical role in the
continued operations of a business.The best ways to do this are through education, proper personal hygiene, and appropriate
medical care. Employees should stay home at least 24 hours after they are free of fever without medication.
It is important to know the differences between common cold and H1N1 flu symptoms. Below are some guidelines:
Symptom Cold H1N1 Flu
Fever Fever is rare. Fever is present in up to 80% of all flu cases. A temperatureof 100°F or higher for 3 to 4 days is associated with the flu.
Coughing A hacking, productive (mucus- producing) cough is often present.
A non-productive (non-mucus producing) cough is usually present (sometimes referred to as dry cough).
Aches Body aches and pains are slight. Severe aches and pains are common.
Stuffy Nose Stuffy nose is commonly present. Stuffy nose is not commonly present.
Chills Chills are uncommon. 60% of people who have the flu experience chills.
Tiredness Tiredness is fairly mild. Tiredness is moderate to severe.
Sneezing Sneezing is commonly present Sneezing is not common.
Headache A headache is fairly uncommon. A headache is very common, present in 80% of flu cases.
Sore Throat Sore throat is commonly present with a cold.
Sore throat is not commonly present with the flu.
Chest Discomfort Chest discomfort is mild to moderate. Chest discomfort is often severe with the flu.
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Customer Service » Lili Vianello
People are talking…Are you part of the conversation?
In previous years, marketers and businesses directed their messages to an audience in the form of a push. An ad was produced, the consumer listened, and if the message connected, the customer would follow the call to action.
Things are a little different now. Consumers are the ones who are seeking out brands. Instead of a push method, messages are being distributed through a conversation between brands and consum-ers. This conversation is facilitated through the Web and social media.
People are talking. They say good things and bad things, and they might be talking about you. You can ignore them, or you can become one of them. Have you joined the conversation?
By joining the conversation, you will know what is being said, and you will be able to make contributions. Your contributions help direct the tone and direction of things being said. It’s always better to be able to contribute to a conversation so your message is spread more in the manner you would like it rather than depending on others to get it right.
Before you jump in, let’s go over a few important things. • Social networking is all about enabling conversations. It is important to let people talk and to
talk back.• You can’t control the conversation, but you can influence it. Remember that annoying kid in
high school who always had something to say and shot down everyone else’s ideas? Don’t be that kid. Be the one who made you think their ideas were your ideas, too.
• Influence is the foundation upon which all viable relationships are built. Social networking is all about forming a relationship. Make sure that relationship is open and honest. A few negative com-ments can actually make you seem more genuine — after all, everybody makes mistakes.
Now that we’ve gone over the basics, lets talk about a few popular social networks.
Facebook.comYou’ve probably heard of Facebook. It started in 2004 and with more than 300 million users has
been growing at lighting speed ever since. Facebook says its mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Millions of people, businesses and organiza-tions use Facebook every day to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, promote events and learn more about the people they meet.
If you want to use Facebook to help promote your business or service, you need to create a fan page. You can add basic information, photos, videos, articles (called notes), links and status updates to your page. Your fans can add photos, videos, links and comments to your page if you let them, which we recommend you do.
MySpace.comMySpace existed before Facebook but has recently seen a drop in visitors. MySpace is a technol-
ogy company connecting people through personal expression, content and culture. The site has a good layout for musicians to showcase their talents. MySpace empowers its global community to experience the Internet through a social lens by integrating personal profiles, photos, videos, mobile, messaging, games and the world's largest music community.
On your MySpace account, you can upload personal information, photos, videos, songs, games, comments and a blog. You can create a list of friends who also have MySpace profiles. Make your profile public, or keep everything between you and your friends.
Twitter.com Twitter is a micro-blog. It is a real-time, short messaging service that works over multiple net-
works and devices. In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens — from breaking world news to updates from friends.
On Twitter, you get 140 characters to tell the world what you are doing, what you are thinking or what you find interesting at the moment. Use it to link to interesting articles, direct users to your Web site or to talk about things going on in the world or with your business.
LinkedIn.com This is a network for business professionals and it is all about connections. LinkedIn says it can be used to find past and present colleagues quickly and discover inside con-
nections when you’re looking for a new business opportunity. The network is full of industry experts willing to share advice.
The form for creating a LinkedIn account asks users to complete a resume-like profile and create a company profile and a list of employees with LinkedIn profiles.
So are you ready to start networking? If this has been enough to thoroughly confuse you, or if you don’t have time to do it all yourself, call us at Visionworks. We would love to get you started with social media. We will even help you maintain your social networking accounts if you need a little help. It’s time to start the conversation. v
Lili Vianello is President of Visionworks, a Columbia-based full-service marketing and communications firm offering Web design and maintenance. Contributions to this article were made by Visionworks staff mem-bers. Portions were also liberally borrowed from Facebook.com, MySpace.com, Twitter.com and LinkedIn.com.
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New Business LicensesOctober*Includes changes in business ownership
General licenses:
Breeze OutfittersRegeb Mavrakis908 E. BroadwayRetail women’s apparel
Geo-MonitoringHerbert Wolverson(573) 234-46471 E. BroadwayElectronic monitoring — probation, parole
Gold & SilverMustafa Ergun(573) 044-56972300 Bernadette Dr.Retail jewelry
Hunny BunzsAnthony Murphy(573) 442-7530206 E. Texas Ave.Restaurant/Bar
Joe Machens Automotive GroupGary Drewing(573) 875-5000500 Vandiver Dr.Auto dealership
Marjorie Tveitnes AgencyMarjorie Tveitnes(573) 443-60803201 S. Providence Rd., Ste. 203Insurance agency — Shelter Insurance
New Deli Sub & Sandwich CaféRDR Enterprises Inc33200 Vandiver Dr., Ste. 10Restaurant
Quiznos SubJeffrey Allen Weaver2703 E. Broadway, Ste. 125Restaurant
Studio B Dance CenterAshley Ann Mayer(573) 441-22202909 Falling Leaf Ln.Dance studio
SupercutsAdam Crews(573) 874-3001509 E. Nifong Blvd., Ste. 14Hair salon
General Licenses-Home Occupation
Bella Sera Wedding DesignsErica Christine Bruns(573) 680-11315204 Opal Dr.Wedding planning, entertainment services
Bibby’s DJ ServiceJohn D. Bibby(573) 529-97691967 Jackson St.Mobile DJ service
Bratten EnterprisesBlake Benjamin Bratten(573) 256-18241904 Longstreet Dr.Handyman
Columbia Eagle Eye TacticalBrandon S. Whitaker(573) 234-13113508 Longfords Mill Dr.Retail sale of airsoft toy guns and accessories
Critter Control of Central MoPeter Douglas Riney(573) 442-22942302 Grizzly Ct.Nuisance wildlife removal, insect extermination
Dan Berry Insurance AgencyDan Berry Parks III(660) 728-23872501 Bear Bluff Dr.Property and casualty insurance
Gold Seal PaintingCurtis Dale Bennett(573) 529-19835901 St. Charles Rd., Trlr. 5Painting and small repairs
Helen Robinson Cleaning ServiceHelen Robinson(573) 214-00122203 Millay Dr.Residential and commercial cleaning service
Loose Change VendingDiane Bell(573) 234-86292401 Blue Ridge Rd.Vending machines
NAC RoofingAlexander Chiu(573) 447-15363505 Zinnia Dr.Roofing repairs and installation
One Of A Kind ToursCyril David Schaller(573) 446-931614 Eubank Ct.Travel/tours
Paul Dysart PC Hardward & MorePaul Robert Dysart(573) 447-38052304 Sallee Gaele Ct.Wholesale computer sales
Revs CornerRevanth Korukonda(573) 639-06761319 Anthony St., Apt. 2Web site — Indian movie information and ticketing
S & C Home Solutions LLCChristopher C. Blakemore(573) 445-11864404 Brunswick Dr.Remodeling and painting
S & S Security ConsultingScott Sergent(573) 446-05166806 Port Orchard Dr.Security and safety — consulting and training
Scott’s Janitorial ServiceStephen R. Scott(573) 356-15882311 Windmill Ct.Janitorial services
Taylor Structural EngineeringTimothy D. Taylor(573) 814-21685601 Redwing Dr.Structural engineering
Tiger Stripes Lawn CareEric Steele Wesbury(573) 881-09871708 Oxford Dr., Apt. BLawn care
Toni Rahman, LLC LCSWToni A. Rahman(573) 999-6011623 Bluff Dale Dr.Mental health, parent education
Zane’s Piano ServiceZane A. Omohundro(952) 239-28102012 W. Ash St., Apt. B-08Piano tuning and repair
4 Aces Locksmithing ServicesAndy Lee Hurd(573) 442-34621520 Bodie Dr.Mobile locksmithing services
NeW BUSINeSS LICENSES
NEW BUSINESS PAgE SPoNSorED BY:
NeW BUSINeSS UPDATE - DOWNTOWNOlive Café and Grocery21 N. Providence Rd.
Café Berlin has opened at its new location at 10th and Park streets, and Olive Café and Grocery took its place, opening on Nov. 10.
The decision to open the café came after own-er Jamal Allza noticed his two similar stores in Kansas City were drawing customers from the Columbia area, according to the local manager, Ayman Harb. Around 60 percent of customers who would frequent a Columbia store were go-ing to the Kansas City stores.
The Olive Café will serve 12 combination meals, including falafel, gyros, hummus and ke-bobs, and will sell groceries.
Chef Connection22 N. Ninth St. | 356-4461
When owner Kasey Ryan started the Chef Connection, a catering business run out of her home, in January, she didn’t expect to be run-ning a restaurant later in the year. The Chef Connection, which opened the week of Oct. 19 across from The Blue Note, serves breakfast, lunch and desserts Monday through Saturday.
Casablanca501 Elm St. | 442-4883
The second location of this Mediterranean restaurant (the first is on Peachtree Drive in south Columbia) will join Bengals on the lot on Elm Street between Sixth and Fifth streets. The building is still being renovated, but the restau-rant is expected to open in late November or December.
The Textbook Game904 Elm St, Ste 212 | 441-8398
Beat the Bookstore, where students buy and sell textbooks, decided to start selling video games and change its name to the Textbook Game.
Yogoluv201 S. Ninth St.
Yogoluv, a do-it-yourself, premiere frozen yogurt store, will be opening up along side the Missouri Theatre this month. The store will fea-ture several flavors and toppings for customers to choose from when making their personalized yogurt creations.
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coNStRUctIoN UPDATE
Where: From Vandiver Drive at U.S. Highway 63 to Mexico Gravel Road. The extension crosses a new bridge spanning the upper Hinkson Creek.Contractor: Emery Sapp and SonsCost: $6.7 millionStatus: Work began in March and is scheduled to be finished in December.
Why: The extension will improve transportation between the northeast and northern quadrants of Columbia by providing access to U.S. 63, Vandiver Drive and Mexico Gravel Road. The construction workers are extending Vandiver Drive to run parallel to U.S. 63 and connect to Mexico Gravel Road. A two-lane bridge will replace a narrow one-lane bridge that spanned the Hinkson Creek. There will be two new roundabouts: one at the intersection of Vandiver Drive
and the U.S. 63 interchange and another where Mexico Gravel Road meets with the Vandiver Extension and the new bridge. Environmental infrastructure will also be improved as part of the project. An inadequate sewer line and pump station along on the creek will be replaced. The two projects have been major city road plans for years that were passed in the 2003 and 2005 ballot issues. v
Vandiver Drive Extension,Upper Hinkson Sewer Project p
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PrEvIoUS PAgE: The project extends vandiver Drive from U.S. 63 to Mexico gravel road.
CloCkWISE: Construction workers assemble the new bridge that spans over Hinkson Creek.
rIgHT: Construction crews work on a new roundabout at the intersection of Mexico gravel road and the vandiver Drive extension.
coNStRUctIoN UPDATE
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PUBLIc RECORDDeeds of Trust more than $160,000 Oct. 27-Nov. 2
RADER, JULIE ANN TRUSTLANDMARK BANKLT 27 PT COLUMBIA$2,050,000
NINTH STREET PROPERTIES LLCLANDMARK BANKLT 26 PT COLUMBIA $2,050,000
SAUERS, BRYAN R & VALERIE JNAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNIONLT 322 OLD HAWTHORNE PLAT NO 3$477,050
TONNIES, JOSEPH F & MARGARET AALLIED MORTGAGE GROUP INCLT 1 BL 2 GRASSLANDS ADD STAGE1$343,750
STEPHENS, DAVID & DEBRACOMMERCE BANKLT 17 PARADISE HILLS ESTATES BLK 4$340,000
RYAN, MICHAEL W & JULIE ABANK OF AMERICALT 367 THORNBROOK PLAT NO 11$328,000
FRAME PROPERTIES LLCPROVIDENCE BANKLT 9B HERIGON CENTER I COM-MERCIAL CONDOS$325,000
NEW HAVEN LLCSECURITY BANK OF PULASKI COUNTY (1)STR 26-48-12 //SE$320,935
MAGNUS ENTERPRISES LLCSECURITY BANK OF PULASKI COUNTY (1)STR 25-48-12 /S/SW SUR BK/PG: 2731/88$320,935
LANGE, ERIC C & ALICIA MBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKSTR 4-46-12 /S/NW SUR BK/PG: 3490/2 FF TRACT 2 A$260,000
THARP, DANNY J & DARLA LALLIED MORTGAGE GROUP INCLT 86 MILL CREEK MANOR PLAT NO 1$257,962
BOUCHARD, GUY & CATHERINE ABOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 7 CHAPEL HILL LAKE$236,000
BURTON, KENNETH M & LINDA VFLAT BRANCH MORTGAGE INCLT 10 POWELL SUB$232,707
MOSS, WALDON L & JANET LFIRSTRUST MORTGAGE INCLT 92 HERITAGE MEADOWS PLAT 5 $229,647
MCFADDEN, RODNEY L & AUDREY MWELLS FARGO BANKLT 85 QUAIL CREEK PLAT NO 2$211,105
HORN, KENNETH R & JANELL L REVOCABLE LIVING TRUSTCOMMERCE BANKSTR 18-47-12 //NW SUR BK/PG: 437/553$208,800
CORNERSTONE CONSTRUCTION LLCCOMMERCE BANK
LT 34 BOONE'S POINTE$208,800
MCCRARY, MICHAEL & STACYBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 35 GREENBRIAR SUB$192,850
MITCHELL, BARBARA SBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 17 UNIVERSITY PARK ADD#5$189,000
MARTIN, JODY & TARAFLAT BRANCH MORTGAGE INCLT 643 ARCADIA PLAT 6$186,558
BENNETT, MARK & ANNETTEEVERETT FINANCIAL INCLT 56 WEST OAKS PLAT 4$185,948
KELLY, MICHAEL J & JANET TFLAT BRANCH MORTGAGE INCSTR 19-47-12 //NW SUR BK/PG: 400/566 FF PARCEL 1$184,103
HAMRAH, BENJAMINDAS ACQUISITION CO LLCLT 140 FOREST PARK SOUTH PLAT 1$164,171
HOLEM, JONATHAN EUGENEUSAA FEDERAL SAVINGS BANKLT 7 BEARFIELD MEADOWS$162,316
REYNOLDS, JADA L & TIMOTHY GWELLS FARGO BANKLT 340 EASTPORT VILLAGE PLAT 3$160,663
FILE CONSTRUCTION LLCHAWTHORN BANKLT 327 QUAIL CREEK WEST PLAT 3$160,000
PUBLIc RECORDDeeds of Trust more than $160,000 Nov. 3-9
SENTINEL PROPERTIES LLCHAWTHORN BANKLT 10 LAKEWOOD GARDENS SUB FF W/ESMT$2,560,000
FLEISCHER, STEVEN P & REIMLER, MARCI DBANK OF MISSOURI THELT 1 VANDIVER SQUARE SUB$1,308,880
GIBB, GEORGE A TRUSTBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 2-B1 LIMERICK HEIGHTS COM-MERCIAL SUB PLAT 2A$475,000
KINKADE, SCOTT & SHEA KCALLAWAY BANK THELT 127 SPRING CREEK PLAT 1$406,400
HULETT, KRIS K & LISA MALOTTMAINSTREET BANKSTR 4-48-14 /E/SE SUR BK/PG: 406/259$389,610
SCHLIMME, MARK & CARRIECALLAWAY BANK THELT 23 WOODRAIL SUB PLAT 8$378,640
PRIEST, STEPHEN & ANGELA LANDMARK BANKLT 311 CASCADES PLAT NO 3 THE$327,200
BELL, DEBORA J & ROBERT E SRBANK OF AMERICA
STR 19-49-11 //NW SUR BK/PG: 1003/983$316,400
DURDLE, LEIGH A & DANIEL ACEFCULT 407 THORNBROOK PLAT NO 12$308,750
HOERNSCHEMEYER, DANIEL G & KAREN LBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 193 THORNBROOK PLAT 6$308,000
RELAX INVESTMENTS INCMONTGOMERY BANKLT 103A WOODLAND SPRINGS PLAT 3$307,000
WRIGHT, DON DAVID JR & MI-CHELE LYNBNC NATIONAL BANKLT 25 BROOKFIELD ESTATES PLAT 3$305,000
CAVANAUGH, DAWNCENTRAL TRUST BANKLT 144 SPRING CREEK PLAT 1$300,000
WESTLAKE, RICHARD D & JANICEWELLS FARGO BANKSTR 17-50-12 /W/NE$275,114
LIEDTKE, CORINNE A & HANS DPREMIER BANKLT 214A VINEYARDS PLAT NO 2-A$274,916
CATHEY, PHILLIP L & SUSAN LLANDMARK BANKSTR 24-49-13 //SE SUR BK/PG: 400/598 $270,000
PITT, MICHAEL R & JENNIFER LALLIED MORTGAGE GROUP INCLT 16 SMITHTON RIDGE PLAT 1$268,357
DAVID, CHRIS B & PATRICIA AFLAT BRANCH MORTGAGE INCLT 16 COUNTRY MEADOWS SUB$264,500
PRICA, GEORGE JR & FRANCES MCALLAWAY BANK THELT 3 PT FLORAS SUB FF SUNSET HILL SUBDIVISION #1$262,400
OFODILE, DIANNA L, ANSELM A JR, & JANET BALLIED MORTGAGE GROUP INCLT 416 CASACADES PLAT NO 4 THE$261,665
ADAMS, JOHN E & DEAKYNE, CAROL ABOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 122 HIGHLANDS PLAT 12-B THE$257,600
SMITH, MARTHA ANNE & LEE CLAIRBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKSTR 27-49-14 //NW SUR BK/PG: 1977/645 AC 10.000$251,000
MCCALLISTER, BRETT A & JEN-NIFER LCITIMORTGAGE INCLT 22 ARROWHEAD LAKE ESTATES$250,300
DENTON, DAVID H & CAROLYN H LIVING TRUST THEBANK OF MISSOURI THELT 202 ROSEWOOD CONDOMINI-UMS$250,000
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Wine Tasting » Jennifer Larmie
Perfect Pairings, Like with the Like Latin Food and Wine Summit brings a taste of the world to Columbia
“Fay-jwa-da” — spelled Feijoada. It took me a while to say but no time at all to enjoy. This Brazilian stew is divine, and I had the chance to sample it re-cently at the University Club’s Latin Food and Wine Summit. This two-day event, sponsored by the University Club and partnered with the American Culinary Federation, was the second installment of its kind. The goal of this year’s summit was to educate UClub staff and members of the Missouri Chapters of the American Culinary Federation through seminars and food demonstrations. The concept for the event was based on the Culinary Institute of America’s World of Flavor Conference held in California.
I’m there for the wine portion of the event, which pairs international varietals with Feijoada and fresh salsas. Golden Barrel, along with importer Kysela Pere et Fils, set up various wines to showcase during the two sessions.
The room is set up like a test kitchen from on old PBS cooking show, with students in chef whites and monitors on either side of the cooking area — perfect for up-close viewing.
The first chef is Adauto Rodrigues, a consultant chef from Sao Paulo Brazil. He is a soft-spoken man — no Emeril Lagasse, that’s for sure — and quietly starts frying his pork belly. Feijoida is a typical Portuguese dish made with black beans and smoked pork and beef. Normally the stew is prepared over a slow fire in a thick clay pot and served with rice, collard greens, sliced oranges and toasted cassava flour. Cassava is a root and is usually processed into meal and flour. Brazilians use it as a condiment, much like the Italians use Parmesan cheese. A fresh vinegary salsa goes on top. The layers of flavors are smoky, salty, meaty, spicy and fatty delicious. Chef Rodrigues tells everyone that the locals typically drink rum with Feijoada because they think it helps with digestion. I, however, am dy-ing for some sparkling wine to go with my sample, so off I go to the wine table to see if my idea of pairing works.
Guillome Portalellet of Kysela Pere et Fils mentions to the crowd that when pairing wine with foods, there are no boundaries. However, he does have personal recommendations for the stew that are similar to what I have in mind — sparkling wine, off dry Rieslings or spicy reds.
My first pick is a sparkling white from Lonko out of Patagonia, Argentina. The crisp and refreshing bub-bles are exactly the type of palette cleanser I am look-ing for. It has a great citrus nose that also pairs well with the orange peel in the stew.
The next wine I try is the off-dry Riesling from Matheus Piesporter. It’s a fine wine, and I can see this pairing nicely with seafood or cheeses, but I don’t like it so much with the stew.
I then go to like and like — spicy wine with spicy stew. This pairing almost always works well. The Thorn-Clarke, Terra Barossa, Shiraz from Australia is a typical big, oaky spicy wine that holds up well against the hearty stew. But the sparkling wine is still the best, in my opinion.
The students take a break and then a few minutes later come back for the salsa demonstration. Chef Chadwick Isom, president of the Springfield/Branson ACF chapter, presents five salsas that students had de-veloped during their weekend of classes.
The first salsas are the roasted green tomato salsa, Vera Cruz cucumber salsa and the mint ginger pineap-ple salsa. All are very fresh and delicious with lime, ci-lantro and cumin being the dominant flavors. Pairing wine with these flavors can be difficult, so I go with the
two most obvious to me. First is the Wolfberger Pinot Blanc from Alsace, France. This wine is clean and crisp and just acidic enough to stand up to the lime.
The second set of salsas features smoky ingredients such as the smoked heirloom tomato squash and the grilled corn, pinto bean and ancho salsa. It’s smoky flavors, smoky wines — like with like.
I’ve said it before; I love Malbec, and the Tiza Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina, is killer. Aged in new French oak barrels for 12 months, this wine is complex, smoky, subtly spicy and still fruity. I love the wine with both salsas but frankly would love this wine with just about anything. Yum!
Also on hand from Golden Barrel is the 2006 Mi Sueno Winery Chardonnay. Rolando Herrera, owner
and winemaker, worked at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars for 20 years before launching his own brand. His wines have won numerous awards and are befitting of the Latin theme of the weekend. I try this toasty chardonnay with the corn salsa and love the combi-nation. The velvety texture of the wine goes perfectly with the corn.
The demonstrations wrap up, and some people lin-ger around the wine table to sample the wines. A few days later, still impressed with the Feijoada, I end up buying a Latin cookbook with its version of Feijoada included. Aproveite! (Portuguese for enjoy!)
For more information on how to be a sponsor or attend the 2010 Wine and Food Summit, contact the University Club at 882-2586. v
Mike and Marcheita Anderson and valorie livingston.
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