BusinessBusinessSUNDAY, MAY 4, 2014 HOBBS NEWS-SUN 2233

KIMBERLY RYAN/NEWS-SUN

Michael’s Prescription CornerMichael Raburn, owner and pharmacist of Michael’s Prescription Corner, cuts the ribbon during a grand opening ceremony Thurs-day in Eunice. Michael’s Prescription Corner is located at 1024 Main St. in Eunice.

TODD BAILEY/NEWS-SUN

The Hobbs Nutrition and FitnessThe Hobbs Nutrition and Fitness held a ribbon cutting with the Hobbs Chamber of Com-merce on April 30. The center is located inside the Mini Mall at 209 W. Broadway.

DENISE MARQUEZNEWS-SUN

Most Lovington residents are waiting in antic-ipation for the new Taco Bell to open.

“We go up there to have a meeting with thecity and we go to lunch and everybody asks,‘When are you going to open?’” Joy Buhalts, oneof the principles of Star LLC, who is heading

the project with Merch Mer-chant owner of Penroc Oil inHobbs, said.

The new Taco Bell is planned tobe built just west of Bob’s Thrift-way, right next to Lea CountyCooperative on West Avenue D,along with a 10,000-square-footretail center and a hotel.

Buhalts said the project is cur-rently at a stand still due toapproval needed from the NewMexico Department of Trans-portation for an entrance to thenew business.

“Right now we’re in a holdingpoint because that site is on aNew Mexico highway,” she said.“We had to hire a traffic engineerand have him do an impact study.He just finished that and sent itto (the DOT) on Wednesday. Theytold us it could be 60 days beforethey come back to us on whatthey have to do.”

A groundbreaking date for theproject is still unknown, Buhaltssaid.

“We can’t (set a date) becausewhatever (the DOT) decides they

may make us change our site plan,” she said. “Ifwe have to do that we can’t do anything until weknow exactly where they will allow us to havean entrance onto the site.”

Once approval from the department isreceived, Buhalts said construction on the TacoBell will begin.

“Our first priority is getting Taco Bell donebecause we have a corporate deadline,” shesaid. “As soon as we know that is a go then we’llgo ahead and proceed. The architects are work-ing on everything.”

Denise Marquez can be reached at 391-5437 or atreporter@hobbsnews.com.

Taco Bell opening date at a holding point

U.S. economy rebounds fromfrom winter with hiring surge

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American economyshrugged off the end of a brutal winter lastmonth, rebounding with the biggest hiring surgein two years and suggesting that the job market’sgains could endure.

Employers added 288,000 jobs across industriesfrom manufacturing to construction to account-ing. Even local governments hired. The unem-ployment rate sank to 6.3 percent, its lowest pointsince 2008, from 6.7 percent.

But the rate fell that far because many fewerpeople began looking for work in April, thereby

reducing the number of unemployed. The pro-portion of Americans who either have a job orare looking for one dropped to a three-decade low.

GM begins talks to settleignition switch lawsuits

DETROIT (AP) — The mediator hired by Gener-al Motors to settle claims from a deadly ignitionswitch problem has started talks about compen-sating victims’ families.

Kenneth Feinberg confirmed with the Associat-ed Press that he met Friday with lawyer RobertHilliard, who represents families of 53 peoplewho died in crashes of defective GM vehicles, and

another 273 who were injured.Feinberg says he is evaluating GM’s options

regarding compensation. Hilliard said no dollarfigures were mentioned but he believes Feinbergwants to reach fair settlements.

Papa Murphy’s shares risein its Nasdaq debut

NEW YORK (AP) — Papa Murphy’s HoldingsInc.’s shares rose in the pizza maker’s first day oftrading.

The company offered 5.8 million shares pricedat $11 per share and raised approximately $63.8million in the offering.

Four Corners conferencemay be the biggest yet

FARMINGTON — This year's Four CornersOil and Gas Conference is shaping up to be oneof the biggest of the twelve years it has been inexistence.

“This is probably going to be one of the bestconferences we ever had and will definitely bethe largest,” said Karen Ortega, chairwoman ofthe conference's executive committee.

The 2014 edition of the biannual conference isscheduled to begin on May 7 at McGee Park andends the following day.

Throughout the two days, participants willhave the opportunity to attend more than 20 dif-ferent presentations covering subjects thatinclude water reuse, updates on the San JuanBasin Mancos Shale oil exploration and produc-tion, and policy updates that impact oil and gasproduction.

“The talks are going to give them the latestregulations and lasted technology,” said JanTomko, conference coordinator.

She said the intent of the conference is to pro-vide local companies insights to regulationchanges, inform them about new practices andto provide an opportunity to network with othercompanies and industry professionals.

She said as many as 1,800 people are expectedto attend this year's conference from through-out the United States and Canada. The 2012 con-ference netted some good results for local com-panies.

This year, about 300 companies from aroundthe country are expected to be part of the tradeshow.

This year's conference will be the 12th after theinaugural event in 1994 that was intended tohelp smaller local oil and gas companies navi-gate their way through policies and regulations.

“The goal was to help the smaller companieswith regulatory issues and regulations,” Tomkosaid. “Some of the bigger companies knew howto do all that.”

Economists back increasedU.S. oil and gas exports

NEW YORK (AP) — Whether to allow moreexports of U.S. oil and natural gas has become amatter of political debate in Washington. But toeconomists, the answer is clear: The nationwould benefit.

The vast majority of economists surveyed thismonth by The Associated Press say liftingrestrictions on exports of oil and natural gaswould help the economy even if it meant higherfuel prices for consumers.

More exports would encourage investment inoil and gas production and transport, create

Energy roundup

To accurately state that every-thing is radioactive does notjustify exceeding discharges ofconcentrated radioactivity into

the environment which violate regu-latory limits.

That would be like saying it is OKfor a house to burn down because ithas a fireplace. All radiological activ-

ities in commercefrom nuclear welllogging in the oil-field to high schoolchemistry sets havelimits and controlsfor quantities, safeuse and disposal ofradioactive materi-als.

When a facilitydoes not exceedtheir regulatory orsafety limits, youmight think theywould just go alongwith business asusual. If the facilityhad an unexpected

release, which still fell inside thesafety and regulatory limits, youmight still think they would againcontinue on as usual after fixing theproblem.

When observing many notions fromthe recent WIPP radiation event, you

How muchradioactivitydid the WIPPrelease?

RobertHayes

NuclearIssues

Briefs

SEE ENERGY, Page 24

SEE HAYES, Page 24

� Impact study for entranceto new Lovington restaurantdelaying projected opening