SPECIAL SECTION Manufacturing - Columbia Business …€¦ · It was no surprise that head foot- ... the late-night infomercial for the Magic Bullet. So ... record shows with TiVo,

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Columbia, MO

Volume 13Issue 35

December 1, 2007

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3Tech AdviceOur tech guru on pros and cons of broadband TV.

Business Profile: Makes ScentsThe sweet smell of success.6

27Patric ChocolateMicromanufacturing never tasted so good.

(continued on Page 18)

Who are MU’s highest paid administrators?

SPECIAL SECTION

Manufacturing & Distribution

See Page 25

By Ray Beck

Early in its history, the Flat Branch area was Columbia’s pri-mary commercial zone. Over time, it became a bustling industrial area with train traffic. But after the MKT rail

line shut down, the historic creek bottom became dilapidated, and city leaders presented several plans to upgrade the area.

Proposals for a convention center, mid-city urban renewal, a civic center and a hotel complex all failed. In 1980, after the public shot down the civic center idea, drawn up by Annapolis, Md., con-sultant Don Zuchelli and promoted by community leaders, the city decided it had to catch its breath and try a different approach.

While Flat Branch is now a nearly completed city park at the beginning of the popular MKT Trail, its slow transfor-mation had to overcome strong opposi-tion from landowners.

As I learned throughout my career with the city, timing is important. Ideas and plans abound. The bottom line is

Historic Flat Branch evolves from eyesore to attraction

Second of Two Parts

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Last December, the CBT revealed the University of Missouri’s Top 30 salaries. It was no surprise that head foot-ball coach Gary Pinkel topped the list (think he deserves another raise?), followed by head basketball coach Michael Anderson. But the UM System’s President Elson Floyd was down at No. 10 and Chancellor Brady Deaton barely broke into the list, which was dominated by doctors and physi-cian-administrators from the University Hospital and Clinics.

This year, we excluded the athletic department, the UM System and the medical wing and came up with a list of the highest paid administrators. We also added intrigue with an organizational chart. The accompanying story puts the pay scale in perspective, however, because salaries at MU are low compared with peer universities and the Columbia campus is having a difficult time retaining and recruiting administra-tors. Coverage begins on Page 20.

Renewable energy use is catching on in Columbia. Two homes just outside the city are now getting power from wind generators, the city has tapped into a wind farm energy supply, and solar panels are becoming popular. Stories on the trend begin on Page 11.

Harnessing the Wind and Sun

The wind generator that towers over Nick Peckham’s farm is idle during a gentle breeze at sunset

� December 1, 2007 | CBT

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IN THIS ISSuE

39Drink UpMaster of Scotch holds whisky tasting at Grand Cru.

13Solar PowerThe Moutun-Segal green home.

9Driving AlternativesCity Manager Bill Watkins on the bike/pedestrian infrastructure.

People on the Move 4

Voices 8–9

People You Should Know 15

Entertainment Calendar 39

BuSINESS INDEx

EDItOR’S wElCOME

Cbt CAlEnDAR OF EVEnTS

About an hour after we sent these CBT pages to the printer Wednesday night, Columbia entered into a process that could be called the Decision of the Decade: How will the city provide sufficient electricity to its homes, offices, businesses and fac-tories in the coming years?

Columbia’s existing coal-fired units must be retired, and an existing contract with Ameren Energy Services is ending. At the same time, the trajectory of demand is rising. In the Columbia City Council chambers Wednesday night, the Power Supply Task Force met with the public for the first time to discuss the problem and possible solutions.

While it’s impractical to keep coal and natural gas out of the mix, an increase in renewable energy sources and more aggressive conservation mea-sures are already being advocated.

CBT will keep readers plugged into the issue with in-depth stories in the coming months. In the current issue, we look at a few of the forerunners in the energy field: two Boone County couples who are using high-tech versions of the windmill to generate electricity to their homes, a factory that is leading us toward the light of solar energy and a Terrapin Hills home built for active and passive solar power.

To be heard during the debate about future power supply options, you can e-mail the task force members via the Water & Light department at [email protected], or send them to Water & Light Administration, P.O. Box 6015, Columbia, Mo., 65205. It’s critical that members of the business community express their views during this debate.

Alliance Water Resources .............................. 4

Applied Coating Technologies ..................... 15

Bethel Ridge Estates ................................... 35

CC’s City Broiler .......................................... 37

CCG ............................................................... 5

CenturyTel ..................................................... 3

Design Built Homes ............................... 11, 13

Coliseum Bistro ........................................... 23

Copperstone ................................................ 35

Express Personnel ....................................... 32

Flat Branch Pub .......................................... 25

Grand Cru .................................................... 39

Hawthorn Bank .............................................. 4

The Insurance Group ..................................... 4

Les Bourgeois................................................ 4

Makes Scents ................................................ 6

Missouri Enterprise ...................................... 30

Nick-n-Willy’s Pizza ..................................... 37

Patric Chocolate .......................................... 27

Peckham & Wright Architects ...................... 11

Plaza Real Estate ........................................... 4

Precision Electric ......................................... 12

Professional Contractors and Engineers ....... 4

Quaker Oats ................................................ 26

Ragtag Cinemacafé ..................................... 39

Sandler Systems ......................................... 33

Scheppers Distributing ................................ 36

Sophia’s ....................................................... 15

Tech2 ............................................................. 3

Tigers Credit Union........................................ 4

University of Missouri .................................. 15

Visionworks Marketing and

Communications ......................................... 34

Word Marketing ............................................. 4

YouZeum ..................................................... 23

Writers in this issue: Ray beck, Vicki brown, Jim Gann, Dan Gill, Scherrie Goettsch, Phil Leslie, Jim Muench, Chloie Piveral, Robert thomas

Columnists in this issue: Cathy Atkins, Al Germond, Carl Medley, Jonathan Sessions, Larry Schuster, Sid Sullivan, Lili Vianello, bill Watkins

4 4th Annual Economic Outlook Conference7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Stoney Creek Inn and Conference CenterFind out where the region’s economy is headed and what mid-Missouri leaders must do to remain a strong presence in various industries in 2008. Hear presentations on health care from University of Missouri Healthcare and Boone Hospital Center/BJC; on real estate from Carol Van Gorp; and on venture creation from Jake Halliday. Attendees enjoy a catered lunch while learning about the latest corporate location trends from site-selection expert Dennis Donovan of WDG Consulting. $50; 443-3986

Business Performance: Measure, Manage and Succeed1 to 4 p.m. at Osher Lifelong Learning Center, 3215B LeMone Blvd.This course teaches a nine-step process for evaluating the performance of a business or organization and developing a “balanced scorecard” that can be used as a management tool. $79; 882-7096

5 EPIC: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at The Blue NoteThe Columbia Chamber of Commerce’s Emerging Professionals in Columbia group celebrates the holiday season with seasonal beverages, appetizers from Sophia’s and lots of holiday spirit and networking. $8-$13; 817-9115

December 20076 FastTrac NewVenture (Classes 9 and 10 of 10)

6 to 9 p.m. at Osher Lifelong Learning Center, 3215B LeMone Blvd.An education program created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, FastTrac NewVenture is designed to help attendees evaluate and perfect business concepts in a hands-on workshop. $249 for all 10 classes; 882-7096

FastTrac Tech (Classes 9 and 10 of 10)6 to 9 p.m. at Osher Lifelong Learning Center, 3215B LeMone Blvd.FastTrac Tech encourages technology entrepreneurs to determine the economic feasibility of their business concepts, evaluate the feasibility of the technology, design a business model that matches the personal vision and create a business plan to communicate the opportunity to investors. $249 for all 10 classes; 882-7096

Editor David Reed

editor@columbiabusinesstimes.

com

CBT | December 1, 2007 �

Tech Advice » Jonathan SessionsCenturyTel Broadband TV ahead of its time but still behind demand

I watch a lot of TV shows, but I do not have the leisure time to stop and hang out in the living room, watching whatever is on. When prime time rolls around, I’m lucky if I am even at home. After I’ve caught up on work and reading, by the time I get to the TV, the only thing on worth watching is the late-night infomercial for the Magic Bullet. So I take my TV to go. I use Mediacom OnDemand, buy shows from iTunes, record shows with TiVo, or watch shows via online on-demand services from the major networks.

Mediacom’s OnDemand allows me to watch “Big Love” and “Dexter” when I have time rather than during broadcast. iTunes allows me to download an episode at a time or buy an entire season, with each episode automatically down-loaded to my computer. This is useful because Mediacom does not offer the Sundance Channel; iTunes does. With the latest version of TiVo, I can pull stored video directly from the TiVo and format it for my iPod. Plus, with all of the major networks allowing shows to be watched via the Internet, I can watch almost everything I want to without sitting in front of my TV.

CenturyTel is offering a new option with its recently released Broadband TV. Broadband TV is not IPTV, which comes though the phone line and hooks up to the home TV. Broadband TV is a subscription service delivered to your computer desktop via your browser. This last week I had the opportunity to use Broadband TV and judge what this new service has to offer and how well it works.

When I received CenturyTel’s promotional information, I was pleased to see images of the service working on a Mac. But I quickly learned the service was not Mac friendly. Broadband TV requires viewers to be using Windows XP, Internet Explorer 6 (or greater), Firefox 1.5 (or greater), Flash 8 (or greater), or Windows Media Player 9 (or greater). So after hopping over to a Windows box, I got the service running; I also got it working on Windows on my Mac.

The system works much like IPTV or digital cable. An on-screen guide is used for channel navigation and viewing options (small, large, full screen). It offers about 25 channels, all streaming live. Obviously with only 25 channels, the selection is rather meager. News and sports are limited to FOX. Eleven of the channels are music videos, three are History Channel varia-tions, and five are vintage/classic TV or movie channels. The current selection is not particu-larly captivating, though most channels are spe-cially branded “Broadband” versions with no or few commercial interruptions. It offers no major network shows, but all the major networks offer streaming video from their Web sites. (For a com-plete listing of available channels go to www.centurytel.com/residential/internet_access/broadbandtv/channel_lineup.cfm.)

Once running, the Broadband TV works rea-sonably well. However, I was warned I would need a minimum 1.5 Mbps download speed; the necessity of this has become very clear. I have tried the service while wired at our office, where we have 10 Mbps download; on our wireless net-work, using our ExpressCard from AT&T on its

3G network; and on random hotel wireless net-works throughout the eastern United States. In the office, I got a good image and quick channel change. On our wireless network (802.11n; 300 Kbps) I also got a good image, but it took longer to buffer when changing channels. When I vis-ited the site using the ExpressCard and random wireless networks, the performance level was much lower. While trying to watch music videos on FUSE, I experienced long wait times for buff-ering, choppy playback and difficulty changing channels. In many places, the service did not work at all.

The quality, overall, is what I expected from broadband television. On a wired network, the image quality is comparable to what is delivered from the major networks; however, it did not per-form as well on lower-speed networks. I always got a better image quality from NBC, ABC and CBS. I was pleased with Broadband TV’s ability to go full screen, blocking out to the edges of the screen, similar to how CBS and YouTube’s ser-vices work (like watching a DVD on a computer). This full-screen option is nice when connecting to a TV; it helps make it more “TV” like.

Having suggested that, though, I would not recommend it. The quality is far too low to make it worth viewing. On our 47-inch 1080p TV in the office, “Lost Worlds” on the History Channel looks great via Mediacom cable, but using Broadband TV the image becomes ter-ribly unclear at 15 feet. This is definitely not yet a replacement for cable, satellite or IPTV, but as Internet speeds improve, so will the quality of service.

Broadband TV currently comes in two flavors: Broadband TV with 25 channels for $19.95 per month and an upgrade to include RetroVision TV, adding three addition channels for $1.49 per month. The CenturyTel subscription Web page outlines all the package details and states “new channels are coming soon.” From the page, CenturyTel offers a limited demo and a free month of service. www.centurytel.com/residen-tial/internet_access/broadband_subscriptions.cfm.

CenturyTel has made a leap by offering this service, one of the first of this nature. It has poten-tial, but it is young and still needs to mature. The limited offerings are a major drawback, but the biggest issue I see is with the lack of on-demand features. Now the service is live streaming, which is nice if: you have time to kill; you’re not near a TV but you have your computer; the show you want to watch happens to be on one of the 25 channels offered; and your Internet connection is fast enough. Without on-demand service or the ability to record shows and watch later, it’s hard to see how this is much more than paying for TV again—only this time for a lesser service. With the speed requirements, I do not see a benefit in subscribing to have TV on-the-go. CenturyTel is off to a great start, but it will be a while before I change my viewing habits. v

Jonathan Sessions is managing partner and con-sultant for Tech 2. He can be reached at 573-442-1555 or [email protected]

4 December 1, 2007 | CBT PEOPLE On thE MOvE

Royse

neal

HiringsMichelle Mountjoy has joined the team of marketing con-

sultants at Word Marketing. In her new position, she will focus on client development and customer relations. Mountjoy pre-viously worked at UMB Bank for five years. She holds a bach-elor’s degree in business administration, with an emphasis on marketing, from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is active in the Columbia Chamber of Commerce and the Women’s Network.

laura Royse has been named business development man-ager for Tiger’s Credit Union. Royse previously worked at Les Bourgeois Vineyards as head of marketing and sales for seven years. In her new position, she will implement new internship programs in marketing and sales and will create new mar-keting and sales strategies throughout the credit union.

PromotionsLes Bourgeois in Rocheport has promoted Rachel Mills

from catering director to marketing director. In her new role, Mills will oversee advertising, public relations, event plan-ning and promotion and will represent Les Bourgeois on the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Wine and Grape Board Marketing Committee, in the Rocheport Area Merchants Association and at the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

Sandra neal is the new director of marketing and busi-ness development at Alliance Water Resources. Formerly the director of human resources for the company, Neal will con-centrate her business development efforts on sharing informa-tion and building relationships with officials and employees of water and wastewater systems in Missouri and Iowa.

Craig Edlund, P.E., will assume the new position of director of technical services for Alliance Water Resources. In his new role, Edlund will provide technical support for water and wastewater systems at Alliance divisions throughout Missouri and Iowa. Formerly the director of marketing and business development, he will continue in his role as vice president of the company and will continue to oversee the company’s exclusive Regulation Compliance Assurance Program.

Elections and AppointmentsMike Kelly of The Insurance Group has joined the advi-

sory board for Hawthorn Bank in Columbia. Other board members include John Massey, Lynn Miller, Don Schilling, Thomas Gray, Bob Black, Dale Nichols, Harry Sulzberger, Matt Thornburg and Kat Cunningham. Kelly, also a sports broadcaster, is known as the “Voice of the Tigers.”

HonorsCheri Perry of Plaza Real Estate Services has successfully

completed the e-PRO course to become one of a select few real estate professionals to earn the certification offered by the National Association of Realtors. The course provides training in technology tools to assist in the purchase or sale of a home.

Columbia-based Professional Contractors & Engineers, Inc. (PCE), led by President/CEO Craig Simon, recently was honored with a first-place award for its achievements in workplace safety. The Builders Association Safety Excellence Awards recognized PCE as a winner in one of the five entry divisions based on total hours worked by all employees.

Edlund

Mills

Kelly Perry

CBT | December 1, 2007 5

Succession Planning: Recruit, Develop and Retain

Carl l. Medley

Carl L. Medley II, vice president of CCG, is a management

consultant, leadership trainer and inspirational speaker. Medley works

with organizations to help them plan for

organizational growth and implement change.

he may be reached at 573-761-7553 or carl@

thinkccg.biz

The following is the fourth in a series of articles about the importance and benefits of succession planning within your business or organization. Throughout this series, we will explore the various steps of this critical planning process that will help protect the longevity of your business and provide professional growth for your future leaders.

Choosing your successor is not always easy. You need just the right mix of skills, innate abilities, vision, leadership and winning personality.

In a previous article, we explored how to evaluate employees to determine whether they are “successor material” and, if so, in what areas they will need to hone their skills. One of the best ways to ensure that you can fill your seat with an internal candidate is to prepare early and develop the talent through sound recruitment, professional development and retention practices.

Your business is about providing a quality service and quality product while earning a profit. You are not afraid to “invest” financially in various assets in order to make that happen. Neither should you be afraid of “investing” in your most valuable asset: your human capital.

The reported cost for filling a single vacant position varies from study to study, but the bottom line is that you will incur thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of dollars in your effort to fill each vacancy when you consider staff time, advertisements, interviews, testing and lost productivity. Often, when faced with such a sizable investment, you explore ways to spread that invest-ment out over time, and human capital is no different.

Start early by strategizing your current staffing needs and your future needs for the next five years. Develop a mental picture for the skills and personali-ties that you are going to need to ensure your business’s success, and then start looking! Everywhere you travel, shop or work, you will be surrounded by people, some of whom are searching for the right opportunity to satisfy their career goals. If you can find a number of sound potential candidates and have them ready to interview with you for your next opportunity, you have just increased your chances for hiring success.

Some time ago I visited a local retail operation and was helped by a young man who exhibited a sometimes-hard-to-find professional look and personality. After he sold me more than I had intended to purchase, I thought to myself that this is the kind of personality that would really work well in my operation. He commented on the company ID badge I was still wearing and asked me what I did. After I explained my title and duties, he commented that he was interested in pursuing the same line of work and asked if I knew of any current openings. At the time I did not have any openings, but I gave him a business card and encouraged him to forward me a résumé, which he did. Eventually, we were able to work this emerging young professional into an internship position, which turned into a full time position. Although he may have been a bit short of my desired education and experience in the field, he had the personality and the desire to learn. While I am no longer with the company, I still run into the staff from time to time and I am encouraged to know that this young profes-sional did not disappoint me. In fact he recently received a promotion.

Once you have hired outstanding talent, it is critical that you do not stop investing. Make the commitment to your employees to continue their profes-sional development. It suggests that you are genuinely interested in them, and in turn, you will realize a higher level of dedication from those employees.

After taking over a small technology operation I had identified two spe-cific talent needs: the need to develop the underachievers and retain the over-achievers. Immediately I instituted a professional development program. This program allowed us to concentrate on obtaining the much-needed training for those whose skills were not completely up to date and on developing new skills for those that were eager for more knowledge and expertise.

During this process I worked very hard to foster an environment of open communication. I wanted each of the employees to fully understand what this investment was worth to them as an employment benefit and also to the company in terms of a return on our investment due to increased productivity. After a year I learned that one of my overachievers was interviewing for other job opportunities. She later came to me with some news: She was going to stay working with our company. Since she was an overachiever, this was good news. But what made this news even better was the fact that her primary reason for staying was the opportunity for professional development. She explained to me that through all of her interviews, not one single business or organization was able to make the same level of commitment for professional development that I had made. To me, this proved that my investment was paying off, and in fact it had reinvigorated her to work that much harder and appreciate her working environment that much more.

These principles are not confined to the entry levels of your business; they are applicable at the top of the organization chart as well.

So whether you are filling an entry-level position or seeking your successor, you should always be on the lookout for good talent and not be afraid to invest in the talent you have.

6 December 1, 2007 | CBT

TOP: Make Scents owner Christina Kelley carries more than 200 fragrances that can be mixed into lotions, perfumes or hair products.ABOVE MIDDLE: Makes Scents customers can mix and match oils to make custom fragrances.ABOVE: Diffusion reeds are available in over 200 fragrances at Make Scents. The reeds are designed to freshen small spaces.

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buSInESS PROFilE | MAkES SCEntS

By Chloie Piveral

What scent evokes the memory of a hug from a beloved grandmother? A freshly mowed lawn? A high school dance? Christmas?

The strongest memory trigger we have is our sense of smell. No one knows this better than Christina Kelley, whose love of fragrance began in childhood. One of her favorite scents is Neroli, or orange blossom. Her family took vacations in Florida when she was a child, and she loved to buy tiny oranges, filled with the scent, from roadside five-and-dimes. For her, Neroli is the scent of happiness and family.

Kelley now is a co-owner of Make Scents, a fragrance store for bath, body and home that carries more than 200 scents, from designer to therapeutic. Fragrance is subjective, and the limitless possibilities for combinations means everyone can find something to suit his or her tastes by sampling, mixing and matching from the many alphabetized fragrance oils lining the wall behind the store’s register.

Kelley began working in the fragrance industry when she lived in England. For a year she worked at The Body Shop, a forerunner in the industry of natural bath and body care, and she loved the job. Back in Columbia in 1990, she wandered into Makes Scents, then

Custom fragrance shop flourishes downtown, again




located on North 9th Street, and found a local coun-terpart to fulfill her love of scents.

For the next 15 years, Kelley worked for Makes Scents, which ran a store at the Columbia Mall along with the store on North 9th that eventually closed. In June 2006, she and her husband, Michael Marcum, purchased the company.

In September, the business returned to The District, this time at 19 S. 9th St. between Sparky’s and Missouri Shirt Co.

“The move was an easy decision,” says Kelley. “We knew this was where we wanted to be because we love downtown, the heart of Columbia. It gave us a chance to reconnect with old customers who preferred not to shop at the mall. Many people like to support local businesses, and there is this impres-sion that if you are in the mall you are not local.” Parking can be tricky on 9th Street, but Kelley says the foot traffic is big benefit.

Even with their seven part-time employees, operating two locations required more time and energy than Kelley and Marcum wanted to invest, so in January 2007 the couple closed the mall loca-tion. The downtown location provides the kind of pleasant, personal shopping experience many cus-tomers crave, Kelley says.

Two such customers are Lisa and Kurt Jansen, who recently moved to Columbia from Seattle. They discovered Makes Scents during a recent Art Walk. Their son, Jacob, fell in love with the store—espe-cially the bath beads, which come in shapes ranging from whales to cows.

A customer checks out the special Christmas ornaments available during the holiday season at Make Scents.


Al Germond

Al Germond is the host of the “Sunday

Morning Roundtable” every Sunday at 8:15 a.m. on kfru. he can

be reached at al@columbiabusinesstimes.

com.

From the Roundtable

Casting light on community’s illumination shortcomings With the approach of the Christmas season,

as strings of holiday decorations appear, Columbia, like most places, is turning into a veritable “city of light.” I look forward to these displays, both commercial and residential, as they temporarily overwhelm the place that I’m starting to believe looks more and more like the “city of glare.” It takes the onset of winter weather combined with the fact that darkness falls by 5 p.m. to remind me more than ever of our community’s illumination deficiencies.

Lighting here is the realm of contradictions. Some people say there’s too much light, arguing with those who say there isn’t enough. Others are bothered by the glare. Confusion abounds at some intersections as drivers try to distin-guish the traffic signals from the streetlights. Then, one wonders if recent criminal incidents at several area parking lots could have been avoided if they were better lighted.

I’m reminded of how bright Columbia has become every time an astronomical event is announced, such as the appearance of a comet or meteor shower said to be visible to the “naked eye.” I’ve been following celestial events since I was a boy — the first comet I ever saw was Arend-Roland in April 1957 — and while largely inactive in that hobby now, I still dust off the telescope as I did recently to have a peak at Comet Holmes or try to. Unfortunately, my neighborhood is lit by a string of so-called “dusk-to-dawn” lights, so I headed out of town to look for this latest celestial visitor.

Residents of one Columbia neighborhood recently balked at what I believe were the city’s

best intentions to light up a stretch of Forum Boulevard as a means of promoting safety and security for everyone who uses that road. Now that the city has backed off — pending further study — I wonder if this means, like the inmates who’ve seized the asylum, that residents now have the power to dictate to the city how their neighborhoods will be illuminated.

This reinforces my concern about the growing selfishness of people who seek to deny something that will benefit the commu-nity at large just because they personally don’t want it to happen. The protesters in this case can hardly claim to be exclusive users of Forum Boulevard, which they happen to adjoin.

What’s next? Will individual citizens and neighborhood associations start challenging municipal officials in other areas? It could become absurd and picayune with silly peti-tions mounted to question, say, the color of the police departments’ uniforms or wondering why a particular door handle was used on the recently installed restrooms along the MKT Trail.

While I hate to see the city stirred up in still another area — no doubt spurring another one of those ubiquitous appointed “commissions” of citizens — Columbia needs to develop a cohesive, uniform policy on lighting that will promote safety and take aesthetics into account. Safety without the glare should be an easily attainable goal. Let’s copy how some of the area’s auto dealerships have lit up their lots because they know how to do it.

Right now, the city’s most significant black hole is a portion of Old Highway 63 — the sec-tion south of Stadium Boulevard – that is espe-cially devoid of lighting and in fact does not even have any helpful reflector strips attached to the guard rails flanking the roadway as it twists and turns on that hilly stretch. Given the number of students who course up and down that road every day, it’s a miracle, except for one incident I can recall, that the stretch of the road has remained mostly accident-free.

The dusk-to-dawn light has been the main-stay of Columbia’s illumination practice ever since the city replaced the old street-mounted standards several generations ago. Thousands of them glare at us, wastefully flailing light downward and outward all around the city and country because they’re cheap to acquire and easily maintained.

On the other hand, a few so-called “shoebox” fixtures have been placed along certain city streets that beam light mostly straight down, thus sparing drivers of the blinding, confusing glare of those dusk-to-dawn demons. It’s a pity that fixtures of this sort were not chosen to illuminate downtown Columbia. The latest lighting iteration is another bad choice that doesn’t bode well for the future. One can hope the fixtures chosen to brighten up our new-found alleys will flood those passages with light without illuminating the heavens. Let’s get out the lighting catalogues and spend a little more time poring over their pages and get it right for a change!

larry Schuster

Larry Schuster is a former city councilman and political observer.

Soap Box

After quiet fall, busy year for city nears endWhere has the year gone? Such is the question

of a phat guy who officially greeted middle age by name. The year 2007 burst from the starting gate at breakneck speed. A quietly proposed portion of building code revisions included the loss of grandfather rights for Greek residences within the University of Missouri community. Downtown sign and awning ordinance changes were painfully hammered out with the skillful aid of Blake Danuser, MU’s associate vice presi-dent of employee relations.

In the meantime, elections in the Third Ward and Fourth Ward were gearing up and the visioning process was in full swing. Karl Skala won a narrow victory in the Third Ward, and Jerry Wade won the Fourth Ward seat. The visioning process is in the final stages of completion as the adoption process begins long-term implementation.

Our non-motorized lottery winnings, courtesy of U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, are being spread about for wise use. Alleys are rising from humble stature to the glorious seat of Europesque quaintness. First Ward city council candidates are coming out of the woodwork. Incumbent Council Member Almeta Crayton currently faces four opponents, each of whom wishes to focus on inner-city needs. By the way, do we have an inner city? We have a down-town. Crime in downtown is an oft-verbalized issue of Ms. Crayton’s challengers.

And finally, how can I not mention the glorious plan to save North Central Columbia from those evil, nasty, hard-working, spend-their-own-money business types? Instead of being a transitional neighborhood with a very aged housing stock, maybe this neighborhood should become a transitional neighborhood with the addition of many vacant commercial buildings slowly declining into a state of dis-repair that no longer warrants use. Are we not trying to revitalize the entire city core? Why place so many hurdles in the way?Time flies

Time, time, time: where does it go and why is there not more of it? We Columbians seem to be the busiest of all ant colonies. We scurry about with many a task. Most activity seems to revolve around saving ourselves from each other and the ever-elusive, narcotic notion that we can change the heart of man. In other words, we have too much time, money and energy on our hands.

We are spoiled and unappreciative. Any parent knows this is the perfect recipe for mis-chief. Much like water, kids and adults often follow the path of least resistance. Regretfully, again as with water — an essential life element — too much of a good thing is erosive. We can drown from our own good intentions or merely be swept away by the euphoric feelings of doing good.

For the well-intentioned residents of our community who “act locally and think glob-ally,” a fine line exists. To be fair, the same line exists for business types who seek public aid for risky, ambitious projects with much purported public benefit. None should be dismissed out of hand but given fair consideration. Money is always the issue. Who pays and how much do they pay? From my profound seat of middle age, it seems that the larger the investment of public dollars the more scrutiny each “save the world” proposal requires. Similarly, it would seem that a higher cost benefit should be expected on the public’s behalf.

Guarding what prior generations have graciously gifted us requires quiet reflection and humble thankfulness. Families such as the Sorins, Barths, Prices, Rollins, Gentrys, Sapps, Nifongs, Gordons and many, many others have handed us a fabulous community. We are a proud and accomplished lot. Failure to remember our humble beginnings on the banks of Flat Branch Creek, though, will certainly ensnare our future. Grateful remembrance of the blood, sweat and tears invested by the developers known as The Smithton Land Co., along with our ancestors who fought for the flagship University of Missouri campus to remain following the loss of Academic Hall, however, will certainly ensure a bright future.


How do you prefer to travel? A study funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) indicates that 86 percent of Columbia residents primarily make trips by auto. An addi-tional 1.5 percent ride bicycles, and 8.6 percent walk as a primary means of transportation.

The city of Columbia wants to increase the number of people using active modes of trans-portation like walking and biking. As gas prices continue to climb, we believe that programs that promote the health, social and economic benefits of walking and biking can effectively influence behaviors and shift transportation choices by adults and kids.

In early 2006, Columbia was selected as one of four communities in the nation to participate in the FHWA Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program. This program is designed to encourage and measure “modal shift” — defined as the public’s willingness to park its cars and consider the benefits of walking, biking, or riding the bus. Our designation as a pilot city came with $22 million in federal funds to help build infrastructure and establish national standards regarding public awareness, acceptance and willingness to use active modes of transportation.

Columbia has a history of building and enhancing trails, bike lanes and sidewalks to make it easier for people to get about town. This pilot program allows us to accelerate and

expand that effort. The majority of these fed-eral dollars will be used to supplement existing city efforts to acquire rights of way, improve walking and biking infrastructure, and better connect our neighborhoods.

There are four project components that, taken together, will help us make the changes the federal program envisions. They include awareness, education, encouragement and support programs, as well as enhancements to our walking and biking infrastructure.

To date, the lion’s share of the work has focused on planning infrastructure additions and improvements. It requires design, engi-neering, and a public approval process similar to any road project the city undertakes. In fact, these federally funded infrastructure projects must also gain local, state and federal approval before they can move forward.

Most projects are scheduled for completion by 2010. Awareness, education, encouragement and support programs will begin in winter/early spring of 2008.

Some of the features in the working plan adopted by the Columbia City Council are shown below. They include:

• More than 100 miles of new bikeways and sidewalks, including 19 miles of new multi-use paths and trails (added to our city’s existing 25 miles of infrastructure); up to 66 more miles of streets with striped bike lanes (added to our

city’s existing 28 miles of bike lanes); more than 23 miles of streets with bike routes marked on the streets; several “Bike Boulevard” demo projects; and five miles of priority sidewalks and pedways.

• A new project office, at 101 N. Seventh St., housing city staff and a nonprofit organization working on education and encouragement pro-grams, classes, workshops, maps, other project information, and more.

• A citizen advisory committee that advises city staff regarding projects related to the fed-eral grant.

• Improvements to bicycle parking down-town. The current plan is to increase bicycle parking spaces from 100 to 1,000 spaces.

• Improvements at eight major intersections to make them more pedestrian-, wheelchair- and bicycle-friendly while maintaining traffic efficiency.

Ultimately, the success of these efforts will be measured by our ability to encourage resi-dents to walk, bike, or ride a city bus. These infrastructure enhancements, complemented by successful public awareness, education, and encouragement efforts, promise to create the kind of modal shift that will help make Columbia an even better place in which to live, learn, work, and play.

Bill Watkins

bill Watkins is Columbia’s city

manager.

City Perspective

Columbia undergoing modal shift under federal transportation program

Plans for improving Interstate 70 seem to have settled on an expansion of the existing interstate from the current four lanes to six lanes and later to eight lanes. Although the engineers have done a remarkable job in ana-lyzing alternatives, one still wonders whether all the factors have been considered and the right decisions have been made. The issue raises the most fundamental questions about the future development of the city. Here are some arguments for relocating the interstate to the near-north side:

1. The forecasted traffic volumes on an improved I-70 would once again bring the highway close to capacity in the year 2030, only 23 years from today. Those intervening years will pass quickly, especially because at least five of the forecasted years will elapse before funding and construction will be completed, at which time we will be faced once again with the question of how the heaviest traffic flows in the city are to be accommodated. Instead of the year 2030, we should be planning our basic infrastructure for the horizon year of 2050. The conclusions drawn from the data of these two different forecasting endpoints are dia-metrically opposed. Using 2050 for the forecast year, one finds it is cheaper to construct a near-north relocation now, because it will inevitably become necessary a few years after 2030.

2. A near north-relocation would open new sites for industrial development adjacent to a major east-west truck corridor and offer new

opportunities to promote Columbia as a ware-housing and distribution center. Equidistant from Kansas City and St. Louis, only two-and-a-half hours away, Columbia is, for example, ide-ally situated to serve as a depot for emergency supplies in case of catastrophe in either one or both of the two major metropolitan areas.

3. A near-north relocation would avoid the necessity of widening the current alignment of I-70 to six lanes, increasing to eight lanes, which would further divide Columbia from north Columbia.

4. A near-north relocation would promote more balanced development of an increas-ingly southern-oriented city growth pattern by encouraging development of the north side. The future of downtown Columbia would be sustained and strengthened by continuing to be central to the urbanized area. The creation of new job centers would draw population and purchasing power to the immediate market areas of both downtown and the Columbia Mall/West Broadway commercial complex.

5. Local traffic (traffic with at least one trip end in Columbia) represents one-and-a-half times the amount of through traffic on I-70. Diverting through traffic around the city would allow the designation of the current I-70 as Business Route 70, freeing it to absorb the increased locally oriented traffic and reducing the need to use intra-city neighborhood streets, such as Ash/Worley for cross-city movements.

6. The official preferred alternative (improving the current alignment) is said to be less costly than a near-north relocation because the latter would entail the cost of a bypass plus the cost of expanding lanes and bridges to accommodate increases in local travel. The increases in local travel on the interstate could be moderated with more arterials running par-allel to the interstate on the north side, making development less dependent on north/south roads and use of the interstate for cross-city travel. Such streets could change the compara-tive costs of the near north relocation versus improvements to the current alignment.

7. Relocation of the interstate would permit the conversion of the current facility to an expressway that functions as part of inner loops created by the expressway in combination with Stadium Boulevard, Providence Road and State Highway 63. As the developed area of the city expands access to and across the current alignment, especially for circumferential street systems, additional access can be provided by less costly at-grade intersections, such as for example, at Scott Boulevard. Such intersections, in combination with speed limits on the current alignment comparable to Stadium Boulevard, and mandatory use of the bypass by through trucks, would serve to divert through traffic to a relocated interstate highway.

These considerations remind us that in the ebb and flow of decision-making, we are building a city as well as moving traffic.

Guest Editorial

Making a case for a near-north Interstate 70 bypass

Sid Sullivan

Column by Sid Sullivan and Max Anderson.



By any other name, shop smells as sweetTime line1973 Body Bizarre kiosk opens in the Biscayne Mall1974 Sam Simpson moves shop to 25 N. 9th St. and renames it the Potion Parlor 1986 Sam sells the Potion Parlor to Peter Neenan and Susan Bubach, who rename the store Makes Scents1987 Makes Scents opens additional location in the Columbia Mall1988 Downtown store moves to 15 N. 9th St., where the Blue Note ticket officeistoday1989 Makes Scents opens Jefferson City location in Capitol Mall1990 Christina Kelley joins the Makes Scents downtown location. Additional location opens at Crestwood Plaza in St. Louis1992 CapitolMallstoremovestoChesterfieldMallinChesterfield,Mo.1993 Additional location opens at 316 N. Euclid in St. Louis2005 Central West End shop sold to Cassie Buell, who renames it “Cassie’s”June 2006 Columbia’s Makes Scents store sold to Christina Kelley and Michael MarcumSeptember 2006 New location opens at 19 S. 9th St. in ColumbiaJanuary 2007 Columbia Mall location closes

Fragrance Trivia: Did you know?•Thefirstdistilledfragrancewasrosewater.• The word “perfume” comes from the Latin per fume, which means “through smoke.”• Oils last three times longer on the skin, but the alcohol in cologne makes the scent dissipate and filltheroom.•ThefirstperfumetobearadesignernamewasChanelN°5,releasedin1921.• The Oscars of the fragrance world are called “The FiFi.”• Changes in body chemistry due to prescription drugs or hormones can affect scents on the skin.• Fragrance is a $30.5 billion industry worldwide.

“We are not a store of needs; we are a store of wants. There is nothing in the store that anyone needs, so I want it to be a fun, unique experience,” says Kelley. “And no one should feel excluded. We have products from 35 cents to $350. I want everyone to be able to take a piece of Makes Scents away if they want.”

The custom fragrance oils are added to everything from bath salts and lotions to sham-poos and massage oils. Kelley measures the oils into a jar of bath salts with a pipette, which

looks like an extra-small turkey baster. After each of the oils is added to create a custom fragrance, she shakes the jar like a maraca to blend the scent. It is a little like bartending.

Makes Scents could sell many gift items, but fragrance is the core of the business and the reason many loyal customers have stayed with the shop over the years. Kelley has helped many find their ideal scents or recreate scents they loved that have gone out of production. Every day is a creative one.

Over the years, customers have surprised Kelley with odd combinations that have resulted in great fragrances. Thanks to her blind clientele, she also has discovered that some scents evoke color; they smell blue or green or pink—especially when you use your nose to see the world. “Smell is a muscle like any other. I just exercise mine every day,” Kelley says.

Many people believe the world of fragrance belongs to women, but three out of every 10 Makes Scents customers are men, who are less likely to go to a department store perfume counter. Kelley says she believes they find her store more accessible. They tend to gravi-tate toward chocolate, vanilla or clean citrus scents.

Kelley notes patchouli is still the scent that draws the strongest reaction. “People either love it or hate it,” she says. Perfume often fol-lows clothing trends, and in the world of fra-grance, what is old is new again. If the smell of roses reminds you of your Grandma, this isn’t the case with the younger crowd of today who find the scent fresh and clean.

Fragrance is all about finding your fit. For 34 years, the custom fragrance shop has been an ideal fit for the people of Columbia. v

www.makesscentsonline.com

Business Profile ... continued from Page 7

Like a chemist Christina Kelley mixes more fragrance into her lotion to get the desired smell of jasmine.


By Dan Gill

On a hilltop a few miles northwest of Columbia, workers this past week began installing a wind generator to help power the newly constructed home of Derek Fox and Stephanie Essman, veterinarians and assistant professors at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine.

Earlier this year, Nick Peckham, founding partner of Peckham & Wright Architects, and his wife, alpaca farmer Diane Peckham, installed a wind generator at their farm south of the city.

These are the first two homes connected to Boone County’s power grid that are using wind power to supplement their energy supply. And

next month, as traditional energy costs swiftly rise, legislation goes into effect that will allow homeowners who have harnessed wind and solar power to sell excess energy back to the utility, a process called net metering.

While those involved in wind generation acknowledge that the technology needs to become more efficient, Fox said at least they’re trying.

“It’s a start,” he said.He and his wife spent years dreaming about,

researching and planning their energy-efficient home. They asked builder Bruce Finley of Design Built homes to build them a wood timber home with efficient windows to decrease need for heating and cooling. During the summer, sun-

Second Boone County couple uses wind generator to supplement power supply

Derek Fox holds two blades from his wind generator in front of his new home being built in northwest Boone County.


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light will be filtered out, keeping the home cooler. In the winter, the windows allow the low-angled rays of sunlight into the home, heating the wood timbers. The broad concept is called “passive solar” power.

The wind turbine will generate 30 percent of their home’s power supply at peak capacity, Fox said. “That’s 30 percent less coal,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to be at zero percent and get off the grid.”

In January, the Peckhams installed the wind generator at their farm on Route K as an experiment. According to Boone County Electric Cooperative, theirs was the first wind generator in Boone County. So far the county has no policies in place for dealing with homeowner-generated power, leaving local pioneers in energy-efficient home-building to take matters into their own hands.

“It is a lot easier to design a solution than to vote for it,” Nick Peckham said.

While the idea of living outside both politics and the power grid may be liberating, energy efficiency must be grounded by acts of conservation, Fox said.

“The greenest energy is the energy that is never used,” said Chris Rohlfing, manager of member services for Boone County Electrical Co-op.

Those who are interested in wind and solar power need to first look to reduce their energy consumption by adding insula-tion in the attic and using efficient appliances and low-wattage bulbs, Rohlfing said. While Rohlfing does not discourage innova-tors from investing in wind and solar technology, he said they should first look at the return on investment in using the current technology.

Living in a self-sufficient home or business off of the power grid requires a long-term investment. Finley said a wind-gen-eration system costs about $30,000 to $40,000, and a typical solar system costs between $40,000 and $50,000.

Most people who buy homes are looking for a five-year return on their home purchases. Homes built with wind and solar sys-tems will see a return in 10 to 20 years.

But Finley added, “Most people that build custom homes plan on staying for a long time or retiring.”

A recent home built by Finley relies on solar power for 80 per-cent of its energy needs.

As with any new technology, tomorrow’s innovation will be paid by today’s purchases. Five years ago, consumers paid $1,200 for a laptop with one-third the computing power of today. Rohlfing says wind and solar return on investment could change dramatically in the next few years. v

RESOuRCESTake the home energy conservation survey:extension.missouri.edu/boone/homeenergyconservation.htmlearn about alternative energy generation:missourifamilies.org/learningopps/learnhousing

Wind Generator ... continued from Page 11

Tony Baldwin puts the finishing touches on the trench that will carry the electrical cables from the wind generator to the house. Baldwin works for Precision Electric.


By Scherrie Goettsch

An extended overhang of Western red cedar rises above the front passageway to the solar-powered “green” home of Catharine Mouton and Steven Segal. Their entryway heralds visi-tors, inviting them to step inside, take their shoes off, relax and enjoy the view.

Inside, a wide-open central hallway is distin-guished by two massive lodge-pole pine trusses, which carry most of the weight of the roof on the home’s central core. Opposite the front door, a wall of windows reveals a trapezoidal deck that overlooks a line of trees and offers a glimpse of the Missouri River. Above the double doors that lead to the deck is a window in an iconic house

shape, set under a second overhang that mirrors the entrance.

Once the leaves have fallen, anyone standing on the deck and looking across the river has a clear view of trains traveling along its bank. Nature envelops this unusual home. The sur-rounding woods are alive with trees, frogs, toads, deer and wild turkeys. “The first morning I woke up in the house and looked out the windows, I was ecstatic,” Catharine says. “The house was designed specifically to embrace nature.”

The couple came to Columbia in 2006. The University of Missouri-Columbia recruited Steve from Yale University. Here he works as a pro-fessor of pharmacology and physiology and runs a research science laboratory.

Mouton-Segal “green” home pays respect to Mother Nature


The deck off the back door of this solar-powered Terrapin Hills home is accessible to both wings off the central core, and it provides a view of the Missouri River. Photovoltaic panels on the roof provide “active” solar power for the home.

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PEOPLE yOu SHOulD kNOw

PhOTOS by jennifeR keTTleR

Michael F. NicholsVice President for Research and Economic Development, University of Missouri

AGE: 59

JOB DESCRIPTION: As the university’s senior executive for economic development and research-related initiatives, the vice president for research and economic development is responsible for promoting the commercialization of patented intelligence and products of faculty discovery, innovation and development. Working closely with the chief research officers and chancellors from each campus, I serve as a conduit to local, state and federal agencies to ensure research results aid the growth of the state’s new economy and lead Missouri’s transformation toward a knowledge-based economy dependent upon innovation and entrepreneurship. I am required to routinely interact with state, community and business leadership to engage their financial and political support for university needs and initiatives that promote its role as a partner and key contributor to the state.

YEARS LIVED IN COLUMBIA: 35

ORIGINAL HOMETOWN: Manhattan Beach, Calif.

EDUCATION: Doctoral degree in biomedical sciences with an emphasis in bioengineering and statistics from the University of Missouri (1992). Bachelor’s degrees in education, with emphasis in biological sciences (1970), and in biological sciences, with an emphasis in chemistry (1972), from California Polytechnic State University.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Special Olympics softball and basketball coordinator, board of directors member for Visiting Nurses Association, president of board of directors for Shelter Enterprises, member of Rotary South board of directors.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND: More than 25 years of experience in small business and product development, startup funding and capitalization, intellectual property and patent issues, and grant and contract management. Successfully managed the development of concepts and intellectual properties through Phase I and Phase II awards in the SBIR grant program. Participated as a SBIR program reviewer for NIH, NSF and other agencies since their inception in the 1980s. Participated in the early days of sensor development resulting in the invention of the first solid-state pH electrode, which received a patent in 1982. Received patents for development of a stable adherent membrane for the protection of platinum and gold oxygen sensors and biogalvantic batteries in 1981 and 1983. Founder and president of one of the earliest spin-off companies from the University of Missouri, Applied Coating Technologies (ACT). ACT received both Phase I and II SBIRs to develop materials for the cardiovascular and prosthesis implant industry. Developed proprietary coating intellectual property based on mathematical processing models for selected industry clients such as Warner-Lambert, Pfizer, Spectra, Optical Coating Laboratories Inc. (now JDS Uniphase), Energizer and Schick since 1996.

A COLUMBIA BUSINESSPERSON I ADMIRE: Bo Frasier. He brings to the table “honest intelligence” that I admire most in people.

WHY I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT MY JOB: Few people get the opportunity to truly change people’s lives and watch the change take place during their lifetime. Economic development helps people at all levels, from entry-level jobs to CEOs, and with the new information economy, the transfer of knowledge from universities will become even more important to the state’s economic success. I have been fortunate to get the opportunity to help lead this effort at the University of Missouri. IF I WEREN’T DOING THIS FOR ALIVING, I WOULD: Start more small businesses. Small business is the backbone of our economy. I come from a family that started companies, so it is in my blood. The university is a hotbed for startups, and if I were not involved with the university, then I would be scouting for intellectual property that could be the next mega-business.

BIGGEST CAREER OBSTACLE I’VE OVERCOME: Wanting to do everything. A better understanding of how to set and accomplish goals helped to propel me in my career.

A FAVORITE RECENT PROJECT: Helping to form the Intellectual Property Development Fund (IPDF), which will allow us to protect intellectual property (file patents) for startup businesses so that we do not lose our intellectual property and startup companies to other states.

WHAT PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS PROFESSION: You have to be a very multidisciplinary person to succeed in this business. In addition, you have to be very customer-service-oriented to cater to the challenging faculty requests.

WHAT I DO FOR FUN: Locally, I like to run or bike on the trail with family and friends. I love to travel to the Caribbean Islands, especially in the winter. I love fishing with friends. If I can find the time, I love to sit in the sun and read.

FAMILY: I have a son, Michael F. Nichols II (11), and a daughter, Jackie B. Nichols (14).

FAVORITE PLACE IN COLUMBIA: Sophia’s

ACCOMPLISHMENT I’M MOST PROUD OF: I don’t think it has happened yet.

MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THAT: I played sports at a professional level.v


The couple interviewed five different builders before selecting Bruce Finley of Design-Built Homes. “There are two reasons we chose Bruce, other than his charm,” Steve says. “First, he had a strong back-ground in environmental design and engineering to accommodate a solar, modern, prairie-school design that uses big windows and nestles into nature. Second, timbering. He has a lot of experience building log homes.”

Solar Energy House ... continued from Page 13

Homeowners Catharine Mouton and Steve Segal, seated on his Italian Ducati Monster 900 motorcycle.

To the right of the front entrance at the circle driveway is a half-garage door entrance designed especially for bikes.


WHAT MAKES iT GREEnPassive Solar• Building orientation to the south, with large, south-facing

windows for maximum sunlight.• Roof overhangs for less direct sun in the summer and

more sun in the winter.• Earth-contact wall on the north side of lower level for

stable temperature of 58-60 degrees and lower heating/cooling costs.

• Cellulose insulation with high ratings.• Rigid two-inch-thick foam insulation between the cement

slab and the earth and on the outside of the foundation wall to minimize heat loss into the ground.

• Energy Star appliances to save energy and reduce pol-lution. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, if one in10homesusedEnergyStar-qualifiedappliances,thechange would be like planting 1.7 million new acres of trees.

Active Solar• Solar collectors that convert direct current to alternating

current from photovoltaic panels on the roof. Excess power is supplied to the grid.

• Solar hot water system for zonal radiant heat on both floors,withthreezonesoneachlevel.

• Smart-house wiring for the audio and security systems.• Thermostat feedback for selectively modulating the

temperature.• Fresh air system (Energy Recovery Ventilator) that cuts

energy costs by about two-thirds.

Extras• No fossil fuels in—and no harmful emissions from—the all-electric home.• Nearness to the Katy Trail for convenient bicycling instead of driving.• Renewable resources for more than half of construction materials.• Toto toilets with low water consumption.• Low-emission and low-toxicity paint.

Decisions on how to build an energy-efficient home began with orienting the house to the south. Architect Brian Segal, Steve’s cousin, designed three-foot and six-foot overhangs on the perimeter to take advantage of the low sun in the winter and to cut down on heat generated by the high summer sun.

Also, typical of the modern prairie style, the house is replete with large windows that allow in as much natural light as possible. This is a “passive” dimension of solar homebuilding, meaning the feature reduces the need to use power, such as electric lights. “Active” solar homebuilding, on the other hand, refers to col-lecting the sun’s energy and using it to power the house.

Though the home is connected to the county’s elec-trical-supply grid, its active solar power comes from photovoltaic panels on the roof. “We’re converting [sun]light into direct-current electricity, and that goes to the converter, which converts direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC),” Steve says. “When the pho-tovoltaic panels are producing more electricity than we need, the excess goes back into the grid. So, the grid that supplies everybody—that’s our storage in a sense. We get credit now for the excess energy that we produce, and in fact we are [living in] the first house in central Missouri—possibly the whole state—to be tied to the grid and actually get credit for electricity that we produce beyond our needs.”

Boone County Electric Cooperative installed meters on the house to measure, in kilowatt hours, the amount of electricity generated by the home. “The system was designed to generate approximately 70 percent of our

total energy needs, based on average consumption, but the way our house was designed [with passive solar power], our total energy needs will be less,” Steve says. “There are still some things that need to be tuned, but all the components are working.”

Another active solar function of the panels is the circulation of a glycol solution, which works like a car’s antifreeze, through coils from the roof down to two 150-gallon storage tanks, which heat a 50-gallon water tank.

“That is our domestic heat supply, and as long as the sun shines, those two storage tanks can provide all of the heated water that we need,” Steve says. “We have radiant heat tubing running through the base-ment floor and also to the upstairs floors, so all the rooms in the house have radiant heat.” “The whole house has to be kept at a consistent 70 degrees,” Catharine says.

It took Steve and Catharine six months to feel like they really live in this solar experiment, and its real cost has is yet to be determined. “Yes,” Steve says, “it will cost more than the average house because there is added technology, but it is practically maintenance-free.” Builder Bruce Finley agrees: “I’m still in favor of doing mostly passive thermal panels for heating, but any time you can reduce energy consumption or mini-mize your use of electricity off the grid, that’s good.”

One thing is clear: The Mouton-Segal home is set-ting a new local precedent for energy efficiency.

“From the beginning,” Steve says, “we felt it was our investment in the community.” v


what you can actually accomplish at a given point or over a period of time for some projects. You have to be patient and gradually implement a vision and plan that can be flexible while meeting an overall goal. Some projects and programs can best be “phased-in,” and some begin as “pilot projects.”

The Columbia City Council directed city staff to proceed in clearing up dilapidated housing in the area without using federal money. So we cleared the slum housing, and we started to work in partnership with

other agencies, the university, property owners and businesses in the area to make improvements.

We looked at the needed roadway improvements, parking, use of city property, upgrades to the open Flat Branch Creek and MKT Trailhead, and a vision for redevelopment in the southwest corridor of downtown.

Sometimes change takes decades. For instance, we have known for nearly 30 years that the intersection at Providence Road and Broadway, on the periphery

of the Flat Branch area, needed an upgrade with free right-turn lanes to improve traffic flow and pedestrian crossings. A plan was prepared and then gradually implemented for separate right-turn lanes, pedestrian closings and landscaping. Today, three lanes have been completed for this landscaped intersection — a window from the west to downtown Columbia.

As land became available, the city purchased it to implement the separate right-turn lanes. I recall nego-tiating land on the southeast corner of the intersection

Outhouses on Flat Branch near 3rd Street and Walnut.

Beck ... continued from Page 1

By summer 2007, Flat Branch was evolving into a bona fide park.



from Gladys Roth. Part of that land was used for the right-turn lane, part was landscaped, and part became a paved city parking lot between Providence Road and what was then the ice plant.

In the 1990s, we purchased the land where Streetside Records had once been located, on the northeast corner next to the MFA service station, which has been aban-doned. We can thank Dan Hagan, who agreed to sell us property below market value and provided $5,000 in landscaping for the project. When the city learned that Walgreen’s planned to locate on the corner, we negotiated for land to complete the southwest corner. Without considering eminent domain, I’m not sure when the northwest corner will be completed.

We reconstructed 4th Street from Broadway to Cherry Street, making it much narrower than it had been in its railroad heyday. The section south of Cherry Street was left “blacktopped” southward to Locust Street where metered parking is available to support local business and the city park.

We had to decide whether to extend 4th Street south from Locust Street to Elm Street. While it is often desirable to have a circulation street next to a major thoroughfare such as Providence, we decided to let it remain a temporary parking lot until plans for a parking garage and extension of the park southward to Elm were determined.

The Elm Street expressway from Broadway just west of Providence to College Avenue, envisioned in the Zuchelli plan, died in the 1980 vote, but we still needed Elm extended to Providence. Luckily, when the city built a new public works operation center, the Grissum Building, it allowed the city to abandon the large Quonset hut used for refuse operations and street department storage on land south of Elm, between Flat Branch and the university power plant.

The city no longer needed the land, and the university could use it.

In 1983, I recall beginning negotiations with the university for the trade of land and the extension of Elm Street. The goal was to trade city-owned land south of what is now Elm Street for Elm Street right of way and land along Providence to house Columbia’s Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and Chamber of Commerce.

The cost of constructing Elm Street would be shared. The university would purchase land along Providence Road south of Hardee’s to trade with the city. This land was being considered for private development, making it important to move forward in a timely fashion. After months of staff discussion by both parties, I recall contacting Duane Stucky, vice chancellor for administration, and the two of us met to work out an agreement that was presented to the City Council and the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri and was approved in 1985. Maps, land appraisals and street costs were used to help ensure a fair agreement.

Our city should be proud of its long-standing tra-dition of a good working relationship between local government and the university, which is different from that in many other college towns. The construction of Elm Street allowed better access to the expanding power plant, a new Convention and Visitors Bureau project (the Walton Building) at the northeast corner of the Providence/Elm Street intersection and a feeder street for both the north campus area and the south-central business district. The Chamber of Commerce reimbursed the city for half of the land and building cost. The CVB, Chamber of Commerce and Regional Economic Development Inc. (REDI) occupied offices

at this location before REDI’s recent move for space reasons.

The issue of whether and how to develop the MKT Trail also came into play during the time I was acting city manager and later on as city manager. We tend to look at the trail as an asset now, but opposition to it was strong from landowners abutting the railroad and, especially, from council constituents in northern Columbia.

A lot of planning went toward the MKT Trail. Richard Green, Parks and Recreation director, and his planner, Steve Saitta, City Counselor Scott Snider and I spent substantial time with federal agencies asking for grant funds and discussing land rights issues. Under a relatively new law, legal opinions indicated the city could build a trail on railroad right of way without purchasing additional land rights.

Just prior to the council meeting and hearing, some council members visited my office to tell me the majority of the council would vote against a trail because of the strong opposition both in and outside of the city and because it could not be a city priority. I recall quickly explaining that we could phase in the project as community acceptance grew and I recom-mended purchasing any property rights to be fair to the owners. We could start phase one where the city and university owned most of the adjacent land.

This was the only “courtesy visit” of this nature that I can recall as city manager for more than 20 years. Following the hearing, my staff report suggested that we phase in the overall project and buy out prop-erty rights that might yet remain. Phase 1 was from Stadium Boulevard to Scott Boulevard, where the city and university owned most adjacent land; phase 2 ran from Stadium to Providence/Stewart; phase 3 will run from Providence/Stewart to Flat Branch Trailhead

name title basesalary

1 WilliamCrist Dean,medicine $345,291.362 bradyDeaton Chancellor $297,582.483 brianFoster Provost $243,984.004 thomasPayne Dean,agriculture $240,470.045 bruceWalker Dean,business $235,467.246 neilOlson Dean,Veterinarymedicine $230,000.047 Jamesthompson Dean,engineering $225,095.048 lawrenceDessem Dean,law $221,557.979 michaelO’brien Dean,artsandscience $195,249.9610 CarolynHerrington Dean,education $187,715.0411 michaelmiddleton DeputyChancellor $181,102.4412 KenDean DeputyProvost $180,407.6413 robertHall interimViceChancellorforresearch $175,000.0814 rosePorter Dean,nursing $172,752.0015 JacquelynJones ViceChancelloradministrativeservices $172,186.5616 steveJorgensen Dean,Humanenvironmentalsciences $168,251.0417 HandyWilliamson ViceProvost,internationalPrograms $166,954.5618 martysiddall Generalmanager,KOmU $165,300.0019 estherthorson actingDean,Journalism $160,762.8020 richardOliver Dean,HealthProfessions $158,723.04

MU’s Highest Paid Administrators

*OntHeUmeXtensiOnPayrOll

ChancellorbradyDeaton297,582.48

lawlawrenceDessem

221,557.92

engineeringJamesthompson

225,095.04

agriculture,Foodandnaturalresources

thomasPayne240,470.04

educationCarolynHerrington

187,715.04

businessbruceWalker235,467.24

artsandsciencemichaelO’brien

195,249.96

JournalismactingDeanestherthorson160,762.80

Humanenvironmentalsciences

steveJorgensen168,251.04

HealthProfessionsrichardOliver158,723.04

VeterinarymedicineneilOlson

230,000.04

nursingrosePorter172,752.00

medicineWilliamCrist345,291.36

ProvostbrianFoster243,984.00

ViceChancellorstudentaffairs

Catherinescroggs151,060.80

DirectorrecreationalservicesandFacilities

DianeDahlmann102,000.00

DirectorCampusDiningJulianeKiehn117,999.96

assistantViceChancellorandDirectorstudentauxiliary

servicesJeffZeilenga139,500.00

DirectorresidentiallifeFrankieminor117,000.00

actingDirectorDisabilityservicesbarbaraHammer

$60,000

interimDirectorCounselingCenter

roseanbishop104,160.00

Directorstudentlifemarklucas95,000.04

DeputyChancellormichaelmiddleton

181,102.44

DeansofschoolsandColleges

Directorofbudgettimrooney156,806.88

ViceProvost,advancedstudies;

GraduateschoolDeanPambenoit142,500.00

ViceProvost,Undergraduatestudies

Jimmyspain142,500.00

ViceProvost,enrollmentman-agement

annKorschgen128,544.00

Directorofbudgettimrooney156,806.88

interimViceChancellorforresearch

robertHall175,000.08

ViceProvost,internationalPrograms

HandyWilliamson166,954.56

DeputyProvostKenDean

180,407.64

UniversitylibrariesJamesCogswell

147,871.92

ViceProvostextensionandDir.CoopextensionmichaelOuart$195,699.96

4

thomasPayne

5

bruceWalker

6

neilOlson

7

Jamesthompson

8

lawrenceDessem

9

michaelO’brien

10

CarolynHerrington

1 2

WilliamCrist

bradyDeaton


StaffReport

Jim Coleman was making $175,000 a year as the vice chan-cellor for research at the University of Missouri–Columbia before he left this year to take a job at Rice University. While his might seem like a great salary, it’s below average for vice-chancellor positions at comparable universities, MU Provost Brian Foster said, making it difficult for MU to fill Coleman’s shoes.

About a year ago, Foster also compared MU deans’ sala-ries to those of their counterparts at other universities and found that just one or two of the deans at MU had salaries approaching the median. Most were near the bottom.

“We have very uncompetitive salaries,” Foster said. “The salary competitiveness doesn’t manifest itself just in keeping people but at least as much, if not more, in hiring people.”

After a decade of slow salary growth, MU is one of the lowest-paying universities in its peer group. Administrators want to catch up within the next three years, but it’s going to cost millions of dollars and will require a management strat-egy that leaves administrative and faculty positions vacant.

The university competes in a national market for faculty members and administrators. That makes it expensive to re-tain talent and even more expensive to recruit it. New hires lack family ties, ongoing research projects and other non-monetary incentives to be in Columbia. Since MU’s salaries are below average, the university might have to pay new candidates more than it pays current faculty members, which can create unhappiness among the faculty.

In addition to Coleman, several high-level administrators have announced plans to leave MU this year. At the end of October, Rose Porter announced she would leave her post as dean of the Sinclair School of Nursing next September. Counseling Center Co-Director Michael Lynch Maestas, University Club Director Mark Tiernan and Disability Services Director Sarah Weaver also left this year.

Foster said departures by senior administrators have in-creased slightly over the last two years but that “it’s not like there’s a mad rush for the exit or anything.”

“If you’re asking if [the reason for the departures is] pay, of course that tends to enter in, but it’s certainly not the only issue,” Foster added.

Faculty salaries have fared worse than those of adminis-trators. The university’s average faculty salary is currently second-to-last among its peers, public schools that are mem-bers of the American Association of Universities. MU’s growth in average faculty salary since 1997, 20.4 percent, ranks dead last among its peers, nine points behind the pen-ultimate Iowa State University.

MU administrators estimate that it will take $24 million over three years to raise salaries to the middle of the peer group. That breaks down to $12 million annually to keep pace with the 4 percent salary increases at comparable in-stitutions and an additional $12.4 million spread over three years to boost MU’s faculty and administrator average sala-ries to the middle of the peer group.

Under MU’s plan, half the $12.4 million spread over three years would be funded by the state, depending on the state legislature’s approval of the special appropriation. The other half would come from reallocation of funds within the sys-tem. In some cases, that means leaving faculty and adminis-trative positions vacant.

Foster said MU plans to save about $7 million in fiscal year 2009 by authorizing 30 new hires—about 50 fewer than normal. v

With salaries relatively low, MU seeks to bolster pay

DirectorUniversityeventsDonnaPuleo67,568.04

executiveDir.PublicationsalumniCommunication

KarenWorley99,644.40

executiveDir.newsbureaumaryJobanken

74,325.84

assist.totheChancellorUniversityaffairs

ChrisKoukola150,067.92

DirectorCashiers/studentloans/Payroll

Paultoler103,126.20

DirectormUPDJackWatring87,858.60

GeneralmanagerUniversityClubandCatering

Johnlarocca$94,596

Directorshow-mestateGamesKenash

80,370.96

GeneralmanagerKOmUmartysiddall165,300.00

assistantVCHumanresourceservices

Karentouzeau123,100.08

assitanceVCCampusFacilities

GaryWard137,113.56

managerProjectmgmt/Pro-cessimprovements

FenfenChou91,728.00

assistantVClegallisaWimmenauer

75,628.80

assistantVCFiscalDavidsmarr101,398.80

managerJesseauditoriumJohnmurray63,882.00

managerCampusmailservicesronaldFeilner

56,285.88

DirectorPrintingservicesrickWise

87,019.08

DirectorParkingandtransportationservices

JimJoy80,288.64

Directora.l.GustinGolfCourserichardPoe55,479.96

DirectorenvironmentalHealthandsafetyPeterashbrook

111,598.20

ViceChancelloradministrativeservicesJacquelynJones

172,186.56

3

brianFoster

11

michaelmiddleton

12

KenDean

13

robertHall

14

rosePorter

Charting the Chain of Command



Park; and phase 4 will go from Scott Boulevard to the state MKT Trail near the Missouri River. Phases 1 and 2 were constructed to Stewart Road. Years later, after a 4-to-3 vote of the City Council, phase 3 with the Flat Branch Trailhead was under way.

The university provided an easement on the east side of Providence, and Pon and Kimi Chinn drew up plans for a half-acre park, which grew much larger as planning contin-ued. Dedicated in 2001, the park became an important center for recreation, outdoor mov-ies and other events.

Land for the part between Fourth Street and Providence Road was purchased from several landowners using Community Development Block Grant funds and other sources. I remem-ber negotiating for the land owned by Helen and George Crawford over Helen’s dining room table — perhaps that’s how Flat Branch Park got its start. Later, as the park expanded southward to Elm Street for the potential con-nection to Peace Park and the university gar-dens, the city fortunately already owned and kept most of that property.

Slowly, things were shaping up in the Flat Branch area, thanks to $200,000 in federal funds and $1 million in state funds for cleanup. The area’s industrial past led to a series of environ-mental cleanups of such items as underground oil tanks in 1991 and contaminated soil in 2001 and 2003. We also had to convince a local con-crete company to quit dumping concrete left-overs from various construction jobs onto the

FlatBranch...continued from Page 19

The gazebo at Flat Branch park is used during Twilight Festivals and other community events.


bank of the creek. They said it helped to stabilize the creek bank. Although concrete is stable, it isn’t very pretty.

Meanwhile, area businesses had already been making small changes for the better. Hardee’s opened in 1978 and was rebuilt after burning down in 2001. In 1982, Mark Stevenson pur-chased the old ice plant from Clyde Cunningham, economics professor and city councilman, who had in turn purchased it from L.A. Nickel years before. Stevenson rehabbed the building and changed it into offices and stores.

In the 1990s, many old buildings in the area were torn down and some replaced by newer construction–such as the Tiger Meatpacking building at 5th and Cherry and the Atkins store. Other owners, such as the Callahan & Galloway property management firm and Tim Brockmeier, chose to rehabilitate old houses. A new office building was constructed at 4th and Elm, and the large structure at the southwest corner of 5th and Cherry was rehabbed. Flat Branch Pub and Brewery opened in 1994 in a 1927 warehouse that once held a Hudson dealership.

Katy Station restaurant, which is now the Coliseum Bistro, opened in the old depot in 1976. After it closed in 1998, the city considered purchasing the depot building, which had been built in 1901, for the Convention and Visitors Bureau, but we decided that the Walton Building was the preferred location to house the CVB, Chamber of Commerce and Regional Economic Development Inc., because of the related mis-sions of those organizations.

In 1982, attorney Edgar Wayland helped the Columbia’s Muslim community build the Islamic Center of Central Missouri at 5th and Locust streets, which was an interesting propo-sition because the building had to be aligned carefully in accord with Islam’s tenets. A year later, the Islamic Center sought to build a nearby housing complex as well. However, in 1998, the city council turned down the center’s request to construct a cultural center on the land that was under discussion for use as the trailhead park.

Because it did not appear that a large depart-ment store would ever be built to help anchor the downtown area, I discussed in the mid-1980s with Mayor Mary Ann McCollum and the coun-

cil a vision for redevelopment in the southwest corridor of downtown, also known as the Flat Branch area. As reported with a picture at that time in the Columbia Daily Tribune, the council visited the area during a public work session to discuss a possible city role. Part of the goal was to provide local attractions and bring tourists downtown and to the university.

The city purchased the remaining land it did not own in the block bounded by 5th, 6th, Cherry and Locust streets, converting surface park-ing to a parking garage with surplus space on the west side available for future development. We contacted Ann Cowan, chair of the Health Adventure Center Board (now the YouZeum), and the board revised its planning for a down-town site. The YouZeum’s initial plan was to use the land west of the garage but changed to the Federal Building when it became available. When the Blind Boone home became available, the city purchased it to preserve its historic sig-nificance to the area and to develop it in the fu-ture as another attraction. Proposals to move the Art and Archeology Museum and State Historical Society have not materialized to date.

In 1997, Mayor Darwin Hindman appointed a 22-member committee to design the Flat Branch trailhead park. John Ott chaired the commit-tee, and Jack Waters played a major role. Other members of the committee included Almeta Crayton, Bill Crockett, Blake Danuser, Brad Eiffert, Bill Farrand, Tom Flood, Jim Goodrich, Verna Harris-Laboy, Raymond Linzie, Mary Anne McCullum, Paul Mehrle, Fran Pope, Nick Peckham, Tom Prater, Benjamin Schwarz, Tom Smith, Don Stamper, Jim Whitley, Betty Wilson and Dick Wolken. The net cost of the Flat Branch plan after all of the federal grants and dozens of private donations is estimated to come to about $900,000. Parks and Recreation Director Mike Hood and his staff have done a great job in designing and managing the Flat Branch Park development. Mayor Hindman and the City Council have continued over the years to be sup-portive of the redevelopment of the Flat Branch area.

Prior to the development of the park, the land across the creek from the Walton Building was used for overflow parking, but much of that land


would later be used to enlarge the park. A bridge over Flat Branch, which was donated by Ron and Vicky Shy at a substantial cost saving to the park project, connects a small overflow parking lot for the Walton Building.

The revitalization of the Flat Branch area was an example of slow development over time. The city has been following a vision and plan while remaining flex-ible. Different from some downtown areas, the parking garage has been acting as an anchor for supporting re-development in the area. The garage provides primary

parking and overflow parking for many of the current new and rehabbed structures in the area. It is designed so that an additional floor may be added in the future, if needed.

With the great Flat Branch Park being completed, the area has potential for additional museum, historical and educational attractions, and this once-dilapidated downtown area, can once again become a major attrac-tion and gathering place for our community. v

FlatbranchParkapproachingendofwork,butdedicationstillmonthsawayBy JimMuench

The Flat Branch Park project is mostly complete and should be ready for a dedica-tion next spring, says the senior parks plan-ner for the city, Mike Snyder.

All that remain are signage, plaques and the suspension bridge — which was donat-ed by a business committee led by Ron and Vicky Shy — that crosses the creek to con-nect to the Columbia Chamber of Commerce property on the west bank of Flat Branch Creek.

Besides the bridge, the $350,000 project in-cluded: environmental cleanup of petroleum and concrete on the site, reclamation and replanting along the banks of Flat Branch Creek, landscaping, a playground and a “sprayground” for kids, an overflow parking lot for the Chamber and the completion of the Katy Trail, which now goes underneath Locust and Elm streets and Providence Road.

“Now you can get on the trail at 4th and Cherry, travel 8.4 miles to the state trail and never cross a road,” Snyder said. “Originally, Columbia moved to Flat Branch because it is a spring-fed creek and it is still spring-fed year-round. The park is an effort to re-em-brace the roots of Columbia.”

Children splash through Flat Branch Park’s new fountain in summer 2007.

CBT | December 1, 2007 25 MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION

ByJimGann

The debate surrounding the loss of manufac-turing jobs in the United States continues. Many maintain that manufacturing has experienced a significant decline in recent years due to the relocation of many companies to offshore sites where infrastructure and labor are less expen-sive. Others maintain manufacturing job loss is a natural byproduct of enhanced technology that has eliminated the need for workers to complete manufacturing processes.

Whatever our position, we all would prob-ably agree that the United States is still a major manufacturing nation, selling and exporting more now than at any other time in its history.

One of the reasons for this country’s continu-ing dominance has been the integration of lean manufacturing principles based on the original Toyota production system designed around waste elimination. Although these techniques were created in the automotive industry, the principles can easily be adapted to other indus-tries and workplaces.

For instance, consider the following tenets of lean manufacturing: • Changeovers – the process of reducing time for a product to move from machine to machine or work station to work station. • Waste elimination – a continuing search for waste, not only of materials but also of time. • Supplier management – supplies delivered in smaller amounts to reduce the need for storage and inventory management. • Problem solving – use of systematic tools and processes to remove challenges and barriers. • Organization – maintaining supplies in an efficient system, incorporation of solid cleaning practices designed to enhance safety and time management. • Process mapping – developing flow and pro-cess charts for common practices

Any operation would benefit from better integration of these principles. The lean phi-losophy is a systematic blend of innovation and problem solving that improves the bottom line. Although it’s been implemented on the manu-facturing shop floor for more than 25 years, the recent adoption of lean practices can streamline processes and eliminate waste from office, busi-ness and administrative processes as well.

Experts in work flow tell us that 60 to 80 per-cent of all costs related to addressing customer demands is in the administrative and non-pro-duction or service-related functions of a business. Reducing that percentage can only add customer value. Here are some steps you can take to intro-duce lean principles into your operation:

Clearly define your processes. Those em-ploying lean practices call this “mapping the value stream,” but it really boils down to writing down the steps that comprise a process in your company and analyzing them for wasteful steps or duplicative actions. Ask yourself who the end users of the process are and whether you are meeting their requirements. Are there any steps

in the process that don’t directly help meet those requirements? Is the work load distributed equi-tably? Are the work areas efficiently organized? Is the process handled on a “just in time” basis? In other words, does the work arrive at each sta-tion in a smooth and timely progression, or are their long lags in time when one worker waits for something from another? Is there a continu-ous flow of work, or is there a stack of work at one station that backs up the entire process? Do you need to reassign resources to eliminate lag times or times of over-demand?

Improve data collection. If you do not collect much data on your administrative processes in terms of time and worker and supply demand, you may need to start. For instance, if one of the goals in your business is to reduce the time it takes to gather receivables, you may need to think of your invoices as the products you are producing and collect information on the number of invoices issued, the number of days required to issue an invoice, the number of days to receive payments, the number of days to process pay-ments and the total cycle time for the process to be completed. Only then can you identify where there are bottlenecks and delays in the process.

Eliminate waste. All activities in a work pro-cess either add value; do not add value but are required for legal or regulatory reasons; or are just wasteful and can be eliminated without any negative impact. Examining each step with a clear, objective eye, and categorizing them ap-propriately can help you identify what to elimi-nate, combine or modify.

Another lean principle with universal appli-cability, whatever your organization, is the prin-ciple of 5S—a protocol for ensuring individual work areas are free of clutter and organized for effectiveness. 5S stands for: • Sort: the elimination of all unnecessary items from the workplace. • Set in order: the creation of efficient storage methods to arrange items so they are easy to find, use and store. • Shine: a thoroughly clean work area. • Standardize: recording the best practices in each work area to create a consistent approach to how work is done. • Sustain: making a habit of the four preceding steps—often the most difficult, as old habits are hard to break.

Try to follow these steps just in your own of-fice or work space, and reap the results.

Every business and organization continues to face increasing customer requirements–the need to reduce costs, competition and shorter lead times. Implementation of lean manufac-turing principles into any kind of business will ultimately improve the bottom line and increase customer satisfaction. v

Jim Gann is a counselor with the Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Centers in the University of Missouri Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Reach him at 882-7096.

Lean manufacturers thrive amid global competition

Quaker Oats leads solar energy project

StaffReport

Ray Magruder, the health, safety and environmental manager for the Quaker Oats plant in Columbia, said he approached city officials last spring with an open-minded offer.

The company was looking for ways to encourage environmen-tal protection and energy conservation, and he asked, “What can we do as a company to help?”

Magruder said Quaker Oats “is committed to environmental sustainability” and pointed out that PepsiCo, its parent company, is the nation’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy credits.

City officials visited the plant, corresponded by e-mail, held several meetings and decided that providing solar energy was the best answer to Magruder’s question.

They looked at several funding models before Quaker Oats de-cided that the best option would be for the company to purchase a solar panel system. It would cost an estimated $35,000 to $45,000 and produce five kilowatts of electricity. The solar panels would be installed on the roof of the manufacturing plant.

The city pointed out that businesses are eligible for a 30 percent tax credit on solar power system purchases, which made the proj-ect more economical.

The Quaker Oats initiative would be the first phase of a proj-ect called Solar One—so named because its goal is to produce 1 percent of Columbia’s electric energy from solar power by 2023. Achieving the 1 percent goal would require the installation of 11 megawatts of solar production.

The city’s Water & Light Department proposes to purchase so-lar energy from Quaker Oats and other businesses that join the project and resell the energy to customers on a volunteer basis.

Customers who subscribe to the service would have to pur-chase at least 100 kilowatt hours of solar energy per year, which amounts to one percent of the annual electric use of the average residential customer and would cost about $42.

The Quaker Oats corporate office approved the project, and in mid-November, the City Council approved the project’s concept. The proposal is now being crafted into an ordinance that will be the subject of a public hearing in January.

In a letter to Columbia Water & Light Department Director Dan Dasho a month ago, Magruder wrote that Quaker Oats per-ceived the solar project “as a means of leading the way for other … manufacturers to be involved in the Solar One process as it moves forward and evolves into a much larger initiative.”

After 10 years, Quaker Oats and other companies that join the project would be able to use the solar energy systems for their own use.

Quaker Oats has about 250 employees at the 100,000-square-foot plant, which makes grain-based snack foods. v

26 December 1, 2007 | CBT SPECIAL SECTION

nExt SPECIAL SECTION:

PhilanthropyIn thE 12.15.07CBT


ByPhillLeslie

Alan McClure is passionate about choco-late. He’s so passionate that he has made it his life’s work.

But his is not just any kind of chocolate. McClure makes gourmet single-source ca-cao products in his factory in the northeast corner of Columbia.

Patric Chocolate, the company he found-ed in 2006, strives to please the palate of the most discriminating chocolate connoisseur. This is not Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory with Oompa-Loompas churning out Wonka Bars by the hundreds of cases.

McClure prides himself on his micro-batch approach of handmade dark choco-late production. The bars, which sell for about $6 each, have been available locally since July.

“I strive to maintain the standards I set to ensure the best possible product,” McClure said. “And also so I can look back on my career with love and respect, knowing I did the best I could to offer true devotees of fine chocolate a wonderful experience.”

Seeking such a pinnacle of achievement might seem haughty to some. But McClure tempers his high ambitions with the sincer-ity of a dedicated artisan and the humble background of a faithful fan.

Fine chocolate micro-manufacturer hopes to profit from passion, good taste

alanmcClure

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Patric, a high-end, dark chocolate, is manufactured locally in small quantities. A Patric bar sells for $6.

SPECIAL SECTION

PatricChocolatewww.patric-chocolate.com6601stephensstationrd.

Columbia,mO65202(573)814-7520


FromMU’sSmallBusinessDevelopmentCenterEntrepreneurArchive

As a young boy, Alan McClure always liked chocolate, becoming quite familiar with the typical domestic commercial varieties found on candy shelves everywhere. But he really be-came a fan of fine chocolate in his early teens when his father brought home to St. Louis some dark French chocolate following a trip to Europe. That’s when Alan began to understand the depths of the gastronomic possibilities of his favorite confection.

A few years later, while pursuing religious studies at MU, Alan met a fellow student, Viviane Ducret from France, who later became his wife. They lived for a year in France where Alan informally initiated his study of chocolate making. He frequented the Lyon-based choc-olate maker Bernachon, which served as one of his main inspirations and primary quencher of his chocolate cravings during the year abroad.

After his return to Columbia, Alan visited domestic producers’ facilities throughout the United States. He also collected and read authoritative books on the subject, developing an in-depth understanding of each stage of production. He learned lessons about sourcing cul-tivated cacao from the tropical venues of Mexico, Central America and South America, and Madagascar where farmers grow, ferment and dry the raw material. Then on to production techniques employed in chocolate manufacturing that involve roasting the beans; winnow-ing; separating the inert shell and germ from the raw chocolate or nib; grinding; mixing with sugar; refining (final grinding) and conching (intense, heated mixing); aging; tempering; and molding. He also learned that all these steps collectively take time, patience and love.

To learn even more, he began applying his newfound knowledge in the experimental laboratory of his home’s kitchen. Eventually. the experimental stage paved the way toward the ultimate step, establishing a factory and business. However, while he had become well versed in the complex production techniques of chocolate making, McClure still needed some practical business advice.

“One of the challenges that I faced was trying to figure out if I had enough money to do what I needed to do,” he said. “I didn’t want to get half way and run out of money, and I didn’t know if I needed a loan, and if so, the best way to go about applying for one.”

At that point, in the spring of 2006, McClure turned to Virginia Wilson, a Small Business Development Center counselor in Columbia with MU’s University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She helped her chocolate-maker client determine the level of financial resources he would need to secure a production facility, obtain equipment and procure a steady flow of raw inventory: the all-important cacao.

One of the tools she offered McClure was an electronic spreadsheet financial statement. He continues to use the computerized statement on a regular basis, frequently plugging in numbers to create a variety of possible business scenarios he can consider. Wilson also con-nected Alan with a foreign trade expert, who provided Alan with information on exporting to Europe.

“Virginia, with her obvious expertise in business, absolutely helped me to feel more confi-dent in what I had been doing by allowing me to discuss all of the details of Patric Chocolate with her,” McClure said. “Additionally, she followed up with me vigilantly over the months that followed to make sure I was still doing well.” v

McClure imports cocoa from tropical countries.


ByJimMuench

The state’s economic development and transportation department directors provided ominous manufacturing and transportation investment statistics during the third annual Missouri Manufacturing Conference.

Missouri Economic Development Director Greg Steinhoff warned that the most overlooked issue in economic devel-opment is often entrepreneurship, the ability to “grow your own” jobs. Missouri has fallen behind in the “innovation index,” in which the state produces only 0.7 companies per $1 million in research funds, while the national average is twice that, Steinhoff said.

Although Missouri lost 8,100 manufacturing jobs last year and has lost at least 51,000 since 2002, Steinhoff said he was encouraged by positive trends and predicted posi-tive net growth in manufacturing jobs this year.

Missouri Transportation Director Pete Rahn warned that the United States might be falling behind in transportation investment that is vital for economic development. He said foreign competitors are spending much more on transpor-tation infrastructure than the United States, citing the sta-tistic that China spent $363 billion last year on its highways alone while the United States spent only $70 billion.

“China clearly understands the linkage between trans-portation and their economy,” Rahn said. “We have forgot-ten that. We have become so used to having the interstate system that we take it for granted. China is not taking it for granted.”

Steinhoff and Rahn spoke to an audience of about 50 people during a Nov. 14-15 conference in Columbia spon-sored by Associated Industries of Missouri and Missouri Enterprise.

DED, transportation directors address manufacturers

Vince Ardito (center) and Dan Medley (right) of Missouri Enterprise consult with a colleague during the Missouri Manufacturing Conference.

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Economic development and transportation issues often inter-sect, Steinhoff said, but not usually as directly as when the two state departments worked to plan a new U.S. 63/Gans Road inter-change that will serve the Discovery Ridge development.

The most important issue for Columbia’s economic develop-ment is how to best tap the potential of new discoveries gener-ated by the University of Missouri’s incubator being constructed on Providence Road and the new Discovery Ridge research park, he said.

“They have an immense amount of research, and there are a lot of discoveries that happen within the University of Missouri System,” Steinhoff said. “Getting those discoveries into compa-nies that locate right there in mid-Missouri is the goal. That’s the big economic opportunity for Columbia.”

From the transportation perspective, Rahn said improving Interstate 70 is the most important issue facing Columbia, a $3.5 billion project that will take five to six years and will affect 20,000 businesses situated within three miles of it. Rahn touted the prog-ress made recently using a modified “design-build” process, which he said has given Missouri more for its money by injecting more competition into the procedure for building roads and bridges.

“Missouri is using a process that has never been used in the United States before, but it is producing phenomenal value for the citizens,” Rahn said.

Likewise, Steinhoff spoke about his department’s new ap-proaches to breaking down barriers to attracting companies to Missouri. He said it is often difficult to recruit companies to Missouri because few people outside the Midwest know about it, which makes it difficult to get them to visit. Also, Missouri does not offer as much chance for employees to move from company to company.

A new strategy to combat these barriers is the Missouri Partnership, he said, which will use professional salespeople out-side the state to generate leads for Missouri communities. The partnership was created as part of a restructuring of the state’s Hawthorn Foundation, a private corporation that marshals the state’s business community in support of Missouri’s economy. In the past, Steinhoff said, Hawthorn was mainly used to fund trade missions.

“We want it to support the state’s economic development re-gardless of who’s in the governor’s office or my chair; we want it to be non-political,” Steinhoff said. “We want to see it grow. The goal is to get as many members of Hawthorn as we can. We’re try-ing to raise a million dollars a year from Hawthorn members to support the partnership.” v

Rose Marie Hopkins, executive director of the Missouri Training and Employment Council, talks with a Missouri Manufacturing Conference attendee.


By RobertE.Thomas

Michelle Hill Ishmael has been operating Express Personnel Services for 20 years now, and the job placement agency has grown sig-nificantly despite the tough times involving its primary clients, manufacturing and light industrial companies.

Ishmael, former president of the Women’s Network in Columbia, recently moved the lo-cal franchise from the lower level of Parkade Plaza on the Business Loop, where they had been for 12 years, to a well-appointed office on the ground floor with frontage space.

Local manufacturing “is going through some challenges,” said Tyree Byndom, man-ager of the Columbia office and its five em-ployees. “Columbia lost about 2,000 jobs in the last year and a half, many of these to out-sourcing.” Total manufacturing employment locally has dropped to about 4,000, he said.

“We need to be proactive in making Columbia attractive to manufacturers with things like tax breaks, transportation and long-term commit-ment,” he said.

Byndom said there are plenty of qualified workers in Columbia—but not at the wage levels local compa-nies want to pay.

Twenty to 30 percent of Express Personnel’s clients are driving to outlying cities such as Moberly and Mexico to take jobs, he said.

“There is an abundance of people with good expe-rience wanting big-salary jobs between $35,000 and

$60,000,” Byndom said. The problem is not very many of those jobs exist in

Columbia and surrounding areas. The imbalance may change in the five to 10 years.

Retirements in the baby boomer generation are ex-pected to lead to a shortage of employees, giving job candidates more options, Byndom said.

While light industrial or manufacturing and cleri-cal jobs make up most of the firm’s placement efforts, Express Personnel also helps with professional office staffing.

“On average, we get between 100 and 150 applica-

tions a week,” Byndom said.Job-seekers are interviewed and

counseled, and their skills are evalu-ated. They receive coaching in résumé preparation and physical appearance and are given tips on how to succeed in a job interview with a prospective employer, she said.

Byndom said there is a miscon-ception that the office is just a “temp service.”

“Eighty percent of what we do is long-term employment,” he said. Byndom said about 60 percent of place-ments work out, and the employees stay with the jobs.

Sometimes clients ask for a large number of temporary workers. The office has hired ushers for Missouri football games. Two clients have put in orders for 65 temporary workers for the Christmas season in retail outlets.

Another client is seeking trash collectors. “We will not send someone out do a job that we

would not do ourselves,” Hill-Ishmael said.“We will go and work the first shift of the job it-

self,” said Byndom. “We are concerned about safety issues.”

Express Personnel Services has more than 600 of-fices and 336,000 employees worldwide, according to Bryan McEwen, the Columbia office personnel super-visor. He said the firm has 42,000 clients worldwide. v

Personnel service focuses on manufacturing sector

Express Personnel’s manager, Tyree Byndom(left) and owner, Michelle Hill-Ishmael, say the shortage of manufacturers in Columbia has affected employment rates.


All too often, salespeople focus on the wrong elements in their attempt to increase sales. They turn their attention to the features, benefits and value-added aspects of the product or service in an attempt to differentiate it from that of the competition and ultimately persuade prospects to buy. While these elements may eventually play a part in the presentation (more on that later), it is not the place to start.

Salespeople need to first focus on the prospect. Here are five elements to pay close attention to:• Motive. Prospects buy for their reasons, not necessarily the salesperson’s reasons. This is the “golden rule” of sales. Salespeople must determine not only what aspects of their product or service interest pros-pects but why they are interested. What are their motives for wanting, needing or desiring the product or service?

The salesperson must determine exactly what the pros-pects are trying to accomplish. What problems are they trying to solve or avoid? Is their concern short-term or long-term? Is it an immediate need or a future need? If, for instance, the prospect is concerned with the increased pro-ductivity aspects of a product or service and the salesper-son is emphasizing the cost saving aspects, the salesperson may as well be speaking a different language. • Money. Regardless of how technically advanced, in-novative or revolutionary the salesperson’s product or service is, regardless of the responsiveness, reliability or reputation of the company, if the prospect is not willing or able to make the necessary investment to obtain the product or service, the end result is the same — no sale; wasted time, effort and energy; and the salesperson’s disappointment and frustration.

Salespeople must learn to deal with money issues early in the selling process. Without this infor-mation, it is unlikely that the salesperson can present a best-fit solution. More likely, stalls and objec-tions that revolve around price issues will develop during or after a presentation. At that point, the salesperson has two options: walk away (which may be the appropriate decision but is emotionally difficult to make after investing all the time) or arm wrestle over price (which usually means cutting the price). Dealing with money issues early in the process will help salespeople avoid these unpleas-ant scenarios. • Process. Prospects have a process by which they make buying decisions. It is important that salespeople uncover this process before scheduling a presentation.

Most salespeople make an effort to ensure they are talking to a decision maker. But, they don’t always find out who else plays a part in the decision process, what exactly the approach is, how the decision is ultimately made and the time frame for making it until after they’ve made a presenta-tion or submitted a proposal. Without this knowledge in advance, the salesperson risks making a presentation of the wrong information to the wrong person, at the wrong time, and/or in a manner inconsistent with the prospect’s decision-making process. • Commitment. Even if the salesperson is aware of the prospect’s decision process, there is no guarantee that he or she will obtain a decision after making the presentation unless there is an agree-ment with the prospect that a decision will be made. Unfortunately, too few salespeople have this agreement (or perhaps, know how to develop this agreement) with prospects prior to a presentation. The result: More times than not, the salesperson finds himself or herself in chase mode, chasing the prospect for a decision after being told, “I’ll get back to you” or “We need to think this over.” • Presentation. There should be one objective for a formal presentation —secure a buying deci-sion. If the salesperson has effectively qualified the opportunity and discovered what the prospect wants, why he or she wants it, the budget issues, and the decision process, then the only thing left to do is close the sale. How? By demonstrating to the prospect how specific features of the product or service address the specific issues (and only those issues) uncovered earlier in the selling process.

The presentation is not the place to introduce other features or benefits of the product or ser-vice that were not previously discussed or specifically address the needs and wants of the prospect. Unfortunately, too many salespeople do just that, bringing up additional features and benefits, per-haps in an attempt to demonstrate “added value.” What they actually do is introduce “added confu-sion,” which leads to a think-it-over situation, no decision and no sale. Salespeople must learn to sell today. After the prospect becomes a client or customer, the salesperson can educate him or her on other aspects of the product or service.

By focusing on these five elements, the salesperson has criteria with which to more quickly quali-fy or disqualify an opportunity. The salesperson will be able to determine exactly what it will take to close the sale, and increase the chance of doing so. v

© 2007 Sandler Systems Inc. The Sandler Sales Institute is an international sales & management training and consulting firm. For information on the next public seminar, call Cathy Atkins @ 573-445-7694. Visit us at www.awarenessmanagement.com.

SmartThinking»Cathy Atkins

Pay attention to five elements today in order to close business tomorrow

Salespeople must learn to deal with money

issues early in the selling process. Without this

information, it is unlikely that the saslesperson can present a best-fit solution.


CustomerService»Lili VianelloWhen does it make sense to outsource a task?When it falls outside a company’s core mission.

As business owners and managers, we outsource all the time and don’t think twice about it.

At Visionworks Marketing & Communications, we employ a full-time financial manager on the staff, and she does a great job. However, when it comes to doing our taxes, we outsource.

Likewise, when we have legal questions, we call a lawyer. When we need printing, we call our printer. When the air conditioner gave off more heat than cold this summer, we called an expert on HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems.

When we have a party, we call a caterer. Actually, last time I didn’t. Instead, I had three well-paid staff members taking time away from their other duties to plan, shop, cook and display a feast for our guests for two days. It looked and tasted great. But when I look at our productivity during that period, I shudder. Next time, I’ll pay a little bit more out of pocket to hire someone else to do it. And my crew will keep working on the jobs I’m paying them to do.

Why is it that we outsource some tasks or projects without thinking and other tasks we stew and fret over before getting help?

A rule of thumb dictates that if the task is within the core mission of your business, it is probably not a good one to send out-of-house. Conversely, if it does not fall within your core competencies, it may make sense to see if a vendor could provide the service ef-ficiently and cost effectively.

I talk to many small business owners who are grap-

pling with the question of whether to outsource their marketing needs. Most feel their companies are not large enough to splurge on the luxury of having an ad-viser guide them in their advertising and public rela-tions efforts. Meanwhile, I see them wasting precious dollars on choices that are not smart for their organiza-tion. My theory is the less you have to spend, the more important it is to spend it wisely.

Business owners and managers know what they hate about handling the marketing themselves. Here are some of their complaints.

“How do I know I’m choosing the right media?” “I don’t have time to take calls and meetings with

every media sales representative in town.”“I’m not convinced I’m getting anything out of the

money I spend.”“I don’t know which media to credit with what

little success I am having.”“Everyone tells me their product will help me the

most, and I don’t know who to trust.”These are all questions that can be answered by an

experienced, objective marketing consultant. The advantages of hiring an individual or firm to

assist you with your marketing decisions and imple-mentation are many. Your creative messages will likely be more consistent and cohesive if they are being pro-duced under one roof. There is usually a significant time savings, but even if there isn’t, the time spent is almost always more focused and effective. Sometimes there are also efficiencies of scale. If the consultant or

agency you select is representing other clients as well, there may be bulk printing opportunities, better media rates or cross-promotional relationships from which you can benefit. The primary advantage comes from receiving objective, expert advice from someone who is not trying to sell you airtime or print space.

And how do you know the consultant you are plan-ning to hire will really provide the objective, expert advice you are seeking?

Start with an interview. Ask them questions. See if their responses make sense and are easy to understand.

Ask to see samples of past work, case studies, suc-cess stories. Read client testimonials.

Check up on them. Ask for references and contact them. Google them. Check them out on casenet.com or with the Better Business Bureau.

Once you have done your homework and selected an individual or organization to assist you with your marketing decisions, invest the time and effort to make it work. The information you bring from within your business and the time you spend in interaction with this advisor are crucial to getting a return on your investment. v

Lili Vianello is president of Visionworks Marketing & Communications, a Columbia-based, full-service adver-tising firm. Contributions to this article were made by Visionworks staff members. Visit them online at www.vi-sionworks.com.


COnStRUCtIOn UPDATE

Developers have recently finished building a $2 million clubhouse at Copperstone, a new luxury subdivision on Scott Boulevard and Vawter School Road in southern Columbia. The clubhouse fea-tures a pool, a children’s sprayground, a gym, a conference room and a commercial-grade kitchen.

Construction workers are build-ing the foundation for Bethel Ridge Estates, a senior community near the intersection of Bethel Street and Nifong Boulevard. The three-story structure will have 42 apartments along with a community room and other common areas and is sched-uled to be completed in fall 2008.

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PUbLIC RECORDDeeds of trust more than $155,000

$196,000,000COLUMBIA MALL LLCU S BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONLT 1 PT COLUMBIA MALL

$2,000,000MANN, STEPHEN AND CONNIE REVOCABLE LIVING TRUSTLEMONE, ROBERT REVOCABLE TRUSTSTR 21-48-11 //SW

$2,000,000LEMONE, SARA AND ROVERT, TRUSTEESBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKSTR 11-47-12 /W/SE

$2,000,000LITTLE DIXIE HOLDING COMPANY INCBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKSTR 11-47-12 /S/SW

$2,000,000RML ENTERPRISES LLCBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKSTR 11-47-12 /S/SW

$1,600,125AMERICA’S REST INN LLCBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 2 DOWDING SUB

$417,000SELLS, RICHARD AND ANNETTE FIRST NATIONAL BANK & TRUST LT 32 BRISTOL LAKE

$415,000FALER, LANCE AND DANABOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 4 HUNTERS RIDGE

$337,500MAGSAMEN, JEFFREY AND KIMBERLY U S BANKLT 302 THORNBROOK

$318,400MCCULLEM, RYAN AND ROBYN PREMIER BANKLT 204 GREENBRIAR VILLAGE

$315,000SEILING, TONY AND SHERRYFIRST NATIONAL BANK & TRUST STR 3-49-11 //E

$304,950MATHENY, LOREN AND LIKAFIRST NATIONAL BANK & TRUST STR 32-47-11 //SW

$294,400THOMASON, TIMOTHY AND TARAFIRST TENNESSEE BANKLT 27 EAGLE LAKES

$275,805RAY, RANSOMFIRST COMMUNITY BANKLT 49 EVERGREEN ACRES

$259,475JOHNSON, KEVIN AND LORIBOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKSTR 32-47-12 /NW/NE

$213,000MCNEELEY, CHRISTOPHER AND MICHELLEALLIED MORTGAGE GROUP INCLT 104A VILLAGE OF CHERRY HILL

$211,500BARTON, JOHN AND MONICA COUNTRYWIDE BANKSTR 28-50-13 //NW

$206,000LYMAN, LEE AND BARBARAMISSOURI CREDIT UNIONLT 310 THE CASCADES

$200,000JQB CONSTRUCTION INCPREMIER BANKLT 197 THE CASCADES

$200,000PRICE, JASON AND AMY HAWTHORN BANKSTR 14-50-14 /NW/NE

$192,000NEWKIRK, BRADLY AND REBECCA MAINSTREET BANKSTR 4-46-12 /N/NW

$190,000WILLIAMS, SHELLEY AND BARRY BOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 10 ROCKINGHAM PLACE

$189,000HUNOLT, ROBERTAND REBECCAFIRST TENNESSEE BANKSTR 13-46-12 /NW/NW

$186,413.96 PERKINS, GAIL RENSHAWCITIFINANCIAL SERVICES INCLT 6 ROTHWELL HEIGHTS

$181,500RIPPETO, SONDRA COUNTRYWIDE BANKLT F-2 CRESCENT GREEN CONDOS

$180,000SABO, PAUL AND MARTHA WELLS FARGO BANKLT 36 BOONE’S POINTE

$173,673.40 REAMS, JUDSON BOONE COUNTY NATIONAL BANKLT 3 BURROGON ACRES

$170,000HOMEFRONT MANAGEMENT INCU S BANKLT 107 BELMONT VILLAGE

$166,155MORONEY, DIANA AND KEVIN BANK OF AMERICALT 25 MIDDLETON CROSSING

$165,900TIPS, JONATHAN AND JAYMEMID AMERICA MORTGAGE SERVICES LT 3 PL 1 LAKE WOODRAIL

$164,000SCHEUFELE, KEVIN AND REBECCA BANK OF QUINCYLT 446 VANDERVEEN CROSSING

CC’sCitybroiler

Mark Comley, an attorney and master of ceremonies at the SOS (Support Our Salute) Gala, pre-sented Joe Scheppers of Scheppers Distributing the Salute to Veterans Above and Beyond Award. More than 200 people attended the fundraiser on Nov. 3 at the Columbia Elks Club to benefit the Salute to Veterans Corporation, which organizes the annual Memorial Day weekend at the Columbia Airport.


nEW bUSInESS UPDATE

CC’sCitybroiler nick-n-Willy’sPizzaCC’s City Broiler opened its sec-

ond restaurant on Nov. 8 on Forum Boulevard across from the Forum Shopping Center. General Manager Dustin Norem said the menu is exact-ly the same as the 13-year-old restau-rant on South 10th Street downtown.

Nick-n-Willy’s Pizza, a Colorado-based chain with 70 locations in 14 states, will soon open its first Missouri franchise at Nifong Shopping Center. Nick-n-Willy’s sells uncooked pizzas that customers heat at home, and some shops also offer dine-in pizzas. Calls to the corporate office to de-termine the franchise owner were not returned.


By VickiK.Brown

Jefferson City officials and civic leaders have been working for decades to develop a down-town center for large conferences and conven-tions, and now residents finally have a picture of how the project might look—if the city pulls together the financing.

The city’s conference center committee dis-played artist renderings of the proposed com-plex last month and announced that Garfield Traub Development of Dallas, Texas, will direct the project.

The drawings depict a conference center on McCarty Street, a 300-room hotel, office space, retail space and a 900-space parking garage. The structure is expected to cover a two-block area, with the elevated conference center extending over Broadway, allowing traffic to pass under-neath it. The plan also includes an outdoor café and a walkway to the Truman Building.

But what would a conference center in Jefferson City mean to Columbia?

Steve Picker, director of the Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the project would be mutually beneficial. “Any time we can bring more business to the area is a positive

thing,” Picker said, noting that the two visitors’ bureaus have a “good relationship.”

“If we bring in a large conference and fill up the hotels here, it would spill over into Columbia,” he added. “People are more willing to travel today. As both [cities] grow … we can work together to bring more business to Central Missouri.”

Jefferson City Mayor John Landwehr, how-ever, said a conference center in the capital prob-ably would only marginally benefit its northern neighbor. “There would probably be some but … not a significant amount of impact,” he said.

Columbia already attracts conferences, Landwehr added, because of its own amenities. “Most groups who want to go to Columbia will go to Columbia,” he said. “Jefferson City hasn’t capitalized on its status as the capital.”

Although the Jefferson City leaders point to some potential benefits, Lorah Steiner of the Columbia Convention & Visitors Bureau said she sees a conference center in Jefferson City as direct competition, particularly if the state gov-ernment helps fund the project.

The state sustains only a “finite pool” of busi-ness, Steiner said. Instead of creating more busi-ness for the convention and conference industry,

the center would simply spread out what is avail-able. “It adds one more venue in Central Missouri, which means that that pool of business has one more place to go.”

“We might have a few more people eye Central Missouri as a place to hold a convention, but there will be no substantive benefit for Columbia,” she said. “We will just have to be more aggressive” if the confer-ence center materializes. v

Jefferson City conference center project moving ahead

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Cbt ENTERTAINMENT

DECEMBER2007

1Festival of Trees Gala5:30 p.m. at Lela Raney Wood Hall, Stephens CollegeThe black-tie event includes hors d’oeuvres, drinks, dinner, dancing, and silent and live auc-tions to benefit Lutheran Family and Children’s Services of Missouri. $75; 815-9955

2Anat Cohen and the Waverly Seven Quartet7 p.m. at The Blue NoteThe “We Always Swing” Jazz Series presents a double bill. Tel Aviv-born clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen was named a 2007 “Talent Deserving Wider Attention” by Downbeat magazine. Her brother, saxophonist Avashai Cohen, plays in the Waverly Seven with saxophonist Joel Frahm, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, keyboardists Jason Lindner and Manuel Valera, bassist Barak Mori and drummer Daniel Freedman. $16-$30; 874-1944

2-4Victorian Christmas at Stephens College7:30 p.m. at Historic Senior Hall Parlors Enjoy a recreation of a Victorian Christmas cel-ebration hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens, featuring holiday music, period dance, wassail, figgy pudding and games. $14; 876-7199

4Ragtag Reading Series5:30 p.m. @ Ragtag CinemacaféHear readings by fiction writer R.M. Kinder and creative nonfiction writer/University of Missouri doctoral student Dustin Michael. 443-4359

Ja Rule7:30 p.m. at The Blue NoteRapper Ja Rule, one of the industry’s most com-mercially successful hip-hop artists of this decade and the flagship artist for the Def Jam-affiliated Murder Inc. label, is known for his solo work as well as duets with Ashanti and Jennifer Lopez. Fa Sho Entertainment Camp opens. $20-$22; 874-1944

6Scotch Tasting6:30 p.m. at Grand Cru restaurantMartin Duffy, “Master of Whisky,” leads an educational session on selecting the best scotch. 443-2600

7Living Windows FestivalAll evening in The DistrictAlong with holiday shopping, the festival fea-tures live window displays, caroling, carriage rides and holiday lights. 442-6816

8-9Handel’s Messiah7 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. SundayThe Columbia Chorale performs the classic holi-day piece Saturday, followed by an audience-par-ticipation sing-along rendition Sunday. 443-3111

8Hoss’s Open House10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hoss’s Market and RotisserieEnjoy wine tasting and hors d’oeuvres at the market. 815-9711

tImE WELL SPENT

Whisky master hosts single-malt tastingByDavidReed

Martin Duffy, a bona fide Master of Scotch, says the meth-ods used during a whisky tasting are about the same as those at a wine tasting, with a couple of exceptions: Adding a drop of

water to the glass brings out the flavor, and tasters drink every drop.

“I don’t encourage dumping; our whisky is too precious,” Duffy said.

Duffy will be conducting a scotch tasting seminar Dec. 6 at Grand Cru’s new smoking lounge, adjacent to the restaurant on South Providence Road.

Duffy, a representative of Johnnie Walker and Diageo whiskies and a Chicago resident, will talk about the history of scotch making, what whisky can be called scotch (it must be distilled

and matured a minimum of three years in oak casks in Scotland) and what can be called single malt (one type of malted barley from one distillery). Ninety percent of scotches are blended varieties.

He’ll also explain regional differences among single-malt scotches from eight distilleries in seven scotch-producing re-gions of Scotland.

Much as Chardonnay made in Napa Valley tastes different from Chardonnay from Sonoma Valley, Lagavulin from the Isle of Islay will have characteristics unlike Talisker from the Isle of Skye.

Talisker, for example, has a slight salty smell and taste. Duffy said he likes to pour a bit of Talisker directly on an oyster on a half-shell before slurping it down. “It makes the oyster a little sweeter,” he said.

Duffy also recommends that people don’t get hung up on price or age of single malts.

“You might find a 10-year-old whisky that blows away a 25-year-old whisky,” he said.

And don’t ask Duffy what his favorite scotch is: “It doesn’t mean you’ll like it. Scotch is only as good as it tastes to you.” v

theClassicmaltsThe Classic Malts Selection are single malt scotches from eight different

distilleries in seven scotch producing regions of Scotland.

Glenkinchie (lowland) - Lightly peated, slight grassy sweetness with a hint of fresh, green fruit (green apples & pears) on the nose and a wet hay or straw qual-ity in the finish. Located just 15 miles outside of Edinburgh, it is only one of three Lowland distilleries still in opera-tion today.

Cragganmore (speyside)– Round body, oaky, fruity, malty taste with a sweet, flo-ral aroma. A bit of green banana peel on the nose. One of the most complex single malts to come from this region. Fantastic when served chilled with carmel or hon-ey topped over vanilla ice cream.

Dalwhinnie (Highland) – Slightly heavier body, but delicate, with an aromatic nose, honeyed flavor & texture. Sometimes a lemon rind citrus can be detected on the nose. Increasingly smokier than either the Glenkinchie & Cragganmore, though peated at the same level. Even better when served ice cold! The highest dis-tillery in Scotland at 1073 feet above sea level.

Oban(WesternCoastalHighland)–Medium bodied, smoke, peat, salt with underlin-ing sweet and more delicate lime citrus undertones. The distillery that was so good that a town grew up around it!

Clynelish (northern Coastal Highland) – An unpeated single malt with great elegance and a noticeable orange zest on both the nose & finish. Fruity, yet with some pow-er. It is the fourth most northern distillery in Scotland and one of the few unpeated single malts on the US market.

talisker (isleofskye)– Rugged nose with leathery sea quality. Peppery, smoke, peatiness and a hint of dark chocolate sweetness in the finish. Three ice cubes really helps to reveal hidden flavors. Pour a teaspoon over an oyster in a half shell! The only single malt distilled on the Isle of Skye!

lagavulin(isleof islay)– Huge smokiness, woody, peaty aroma and taste. Long fin-ish with a noticeable red and dark fruit sweetness under the smoke and lingering bacon flavor. Terrific when served with strong cheese or dark chocolates!

Caol ila (isle of islay) – Powerful, peaty nose is followed by a sweet fruity char-acter, then a surprising delayed smoky finish in the throat. Long considered one of the “Hidden Malts” because it was not released outside of Scotland for so many years, this fantastic whisky was brought over to supplement the global shortage of its Islay sister distillery.

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SPECIAL SECTION Manufacturing - Columbia Business …€¦ · It was no surprise that head foot- ... the late-night infomercial for the Magic Bullet. So ... record shows with TiVo,