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THE BUSINESS JOURNAL P.O. BOX 714 YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO 44501

PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID YOUNGSTOWN, OH PERMIT NO. 69

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

The Valley’s Business Matters ISSN 1047-8582

Vol. 25 No. 13

www.business-journal.com JANUARY 2009

$2.50

When the Dealers Bailed Out Henry Ford By Dan O’Brien

An economy steeped in recession, automobile sales in freefall, and an automaker on the brink of collapse. The parallels to today are inescapable.

During the autumn of 1920, The Ford Motor Co. confronted a crisis so daunting it could have crushed the automotive giant within a matter of months. There was no talk of government-backed loans to the auto industry – such a measure was unthinkable in 1920. See 1920, page 22 Robert Birrell sits in a 1908 Ford Model T, one of the ﬁrst Model T’s to roll off the Ford assembly line in Dearborn, Mich.

Business Retrospective Pages 19-25

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Inside 19 Plakie Toy Founded in Youngstown Youngstown fostered many entreprenuerial enterprises. Learn about some of the more notable companies – some that have survived and others that didn’t last more than a few years – in The Business Journal’s Business Retrospective.

The staff of the Better Business Bureau believes the new ratings systems provides consumers with more information. Back row, from left, are Pat Rose, Shirley Grifﬁn, Kevin Giruelle, Missy Vargas, Debbie Rodgers and Dianne Seitl-Vasko. Seated in the front row, from left, are Gabriella Baudet, Melissa Ames and Darlene Burkey.

BBB Ratings as Simple as ABC New system is last piece of the BBB’s rebranding process. 21 Butler’s Legacy Extends Beyond Art Joseph G. Butler Jr. may be best known for the museum he established, but the industrial magnate was also a philanthropist and political benefactor. Discover more about his legacy in the Business Retrospective.

25 Planes, Trains & Seagoing Vessels Join our search team as they head indoors, visiting transportation-related museums not too far from home. Among the ﬁnds they explore are a locomotive, vintage aircraft and the Lake Erie shipwreck research center.

13 Lou Zona

33 Legal Solutions

17 Building Wealth 35 BBB Report 28 Wire Service

41 Sales Savvy

By George Nelson fter considering options for a new ratings system, the Better Business Bureau settled on one that should be familiar to anyone who ever walked into a classroom or received a report card. This month, the local Better Business Bureau joins BBBs nationwide in presenting the ratings system, based on the grading system – A, B, C, D and F – schools use. The new system is one of the last pieces of BBB’s rebranding process, says Patricia Rose, president of the BBB of Mahoning Valley Inc., Youngstown. The chapter serves Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties. It used to be that people wanted to know whether

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a company had a satisfactory or unsatisfactory rating. “That’s all they cared about,” Rose remarks. But a national survey conducted for the Council of Better Business Bureaus found that both businesses and consumers needed more information. “We explored a lot of different options,” Rose says, including a star-rating system – even one that used happy and sad faces. But consumers liked the system they remembered from school. “We found A though F really told the story,” she says. “You know if you’re dealing with an F company, that’s probably not a wise decision.” “There’s a lot of merit in what the BBB is doing in terms of providing services to consumers and businesses,” says Keith Downard, chairman of the Mahoning Valley BBB board. According to Rose, 16 factors are considered in a company’s rating, including how long it has been in business and the types and seriousness of any See BBB RATINGS, page 4

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Weak Economy Draws Consumers to BBB By George Nelson

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ecause of the weak economy, consumers are taking advantage of the information the Better Business Bureau provides to do more research about companies before buying from them, says Patricia Rose, president of the Better Business Bureau of the Mahoning Valley Inc. “We’re all struggling in this economy but certain things have to be done,” she says. “You have to put up a new roof. You have to put a new hot water tank in if it goes bad.” Consumers also are trying to make sure that contractors they hire have workers’ compensation coverage before inviting them to inspect their property. Even when times are tough, companies still need to show consumers what they are about, remarks Kevin Gruelle, business consultant with the local BBB. “Businesses need to be more visible whenever times are bad because they’ve got to show people that they’re here to stay and need their support here in the Valley,” he says. Rose describes 2008 as “one of our most successful” in terms of outcomes and the number of people who beneﬁted from BBB services. Last year, the

Mahoning Valley bureau conducted more than 20 arbitrations, excluding auto line arbitrations, which Rose says are becoming fewer as manufacturers produce better vehicles. The BBB system saw several changes last year, she continues. Those include the national rebranding of the Better Business Bureau, launched in 2007, which Rose says has “done a lot to revitalize the brand and just make us more relevant.” The Internet also has changed the way reports on companies are ﬁled. Today, more than 80% of complaints are ﬁled online, Rose says, up from 20% only a few years ago. “It’s amazing,” she remarks. In addition, BBBs make better use of their staffs to take advantage of what the Internet offers. “We don’t hire people who are robotic anymore because we don’t need people who are punching things into a computer,” she explains. “We can expand our staffs to do so many exciting types of things, a lot of investigations and issues that they need to use their brains and develop reports about the companies that we decide to investigate. It’s really opened up our world.”

BBB Ratings: As Simple as ABC From Page 3 complaints lodged against it. “Some businesses are just inherently wrong or illegal or a scam, and they are never going to get more than a D or an F,” she says. Companies also are classiﬁed based on size and scope. “It really gives a clear picture of where a company stands,” affirms Melissa Ames, director of marketing and public relations. The former satisfactory-unsatisfactory labeling “left a lot of unanswered questions for a consumer,” she says. In addition, consumers are very familiar with customer reviews, as seen on sites such as eBay. “We’ve been testing this for a few years and we are very conﬁdent that this will reﬂect a company’s marketplace conduct,” Ames says. How accurate that reflection is, though, depends largely on the information the bureaus receive. “We are now much more accountable for what our reports read,” says Dianne Seitl-Vasko, director of operations. “We rely a lot heavier on the

information we get from businesses and consumers to make sure that our reports are accurate.” The local BBB underwent what she calls a “major database switch” in March, and since then has been gearing up for the new ratings system. “The most important thing was making sure we had accurate information from companies in regard to time in business, employee numbers – everything has an impact on their rating,” Seitl-Vasko says. “If we don’t have the information correctly in our database then it’s not going to reﬂect an accurate rating.” Rose says she had doubts about the new ratings. “I thought companies would hate it, that there would be controversy. But there hasn’t been.” “It’s good news for some companies and it’s certainly bad news for other companies, but it’s certainly nothing that we caused,” Rose says. “Companies determine their own rating because of their performance and the way they interact with their customers.”

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UCFC Completes Butler Wick Sale Trust company on the block; Farmers said to be likely buyer. By Dennis LaRue

Tom Cavalier, president of Butler Wick, says senior managers tried to buy the ﬁrm but were thwarted by the credit markets.

YOUNGSTOWN, Jan. 2 – The sale of Butler Wick & Co. to Stifel Financial Corp., announced Dec. 19 by United Community Financial Corp., closed quickly, the last details worked out late the afternoon of Dec. 31 and UCFC receiving $12 million in cash. UCFC, which had borrowed $40 million from J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and repaid all but $14.9 million when the sale was announced, said it would use the proceeds to pay down the rest of that balance by Jan. 31 and to increase its capital. “The completion of this transaction in a timely manner allowed us to accomplish two important objectives before the end of 2008,” stated Douglas M. McKay, chairman and chief executive of United Community Financial Corp., in a prepared statement released Jan. 2. “UCFC reduced outstanding debt by $8.0 million and provided new capital to Home Savings in the amount of $2.25 million. As a result, we are able to begin 2009 with a stronger balance sheet, higher capital ratios and the ability to focus on our primary lines of business.” See BUTLER WICK & CO., page 6

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Butler Wick & Co.: Sale Complete; Trust Company on the Block From Page 5 Stifel Financial, based in St. Louis, is the parent of Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. It provides ﬁnancial services through 3,000 employees in 200 ofﬁces, including one in Boardman, and three in Europe. Through its 75 ﬁnancial advisers, Butler Wick & Co. operates 18 ofﬁces in Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western New York. Stifel bought the capital stock of Butler Wick & Co. but not the Butler Wick Trust Co. Sources who insisted on anonymity reported UCFC was in discussions the last week of 2008 with Farmers National Banc Corp., Canﬁeld, on the sale of the trust company, the announcement of which was expected early the week of Jan. 4. McKay and Frank Paden, chairman and CEO of Farmers, both declined comment. Farmers, which lacks a trust department, has outsourced to PrimeVest its customers’ needs for retail brokerage and trust services. On Dec. 18, UCFC announced it would enter an agreement with Stifel where Stifel would buy the stock of Butler Wick & Co. The chairman and CEO of Butler Wick, Tom Cavalier, said he was pleased that Stifel was the successful bidder, noting how similar the corporate cultures of the two companies are and his long-time relationship with the CEO of Stifel, Ronald Kruszewsky. “Their ﬁrm is similar to ours and we should make a good ﬁt,” Cavalier said. He expects to play a leading role as Stifel Nicolaus increases its presence in the Ohio Valley. “I’ll stay on helping them build [their business] in Ohio and Pennsylvania,” Cavalier said. He becomes a managing director of Stifel now that the sale has closed. With the resources of Stifel Nicolaus behind it, Butler Wick, which will keep its identity for the indeﬁnite future, can offer merger and acquisition services, equity funds and initial public offerings. “We were getting to that point,” Cavalier said. “They are there.” Some Butler Wick & Co. employees will likely be deemed redundant as its backroom operations are integrated into Stifel Nicolaus. Cavalier said, and a small number of staff positions may be eliminated as well. Those matters have not been determined. The reversal of fortune at UCFC since fall 2007 when it announced its intent to acquire PVF Capital Corp., Solon, concerned many of the ﬁnancial advisers and ofﬁcers at Butler Wick. UCFC and PVF called off their agreement last spring as the price of UCFC shares continued to slide, falling well below the range agreed upon when the letter of intent was signed. Talk among Butler Wick’s senior management about taking their company independent – it became part of UCFC in 1999 – turned serious in early June, Cavalier conﬁrmed. Markets started to head south in September and got even worse in October as banks worked to conserve their cash, improve their capital positions and became averse to issuing new loans. “By the time we got some responses [from likely ﬁnanciers], it was October and the world had changed,” Cavalier said. McKay and the senior management of UCFC and Home Savings found themselves working to overcome the same conditions much of the banking sector faced. In August regulators issued cease-anddesist orders to Home Savings and Loan Co. that,

among other things, forbade UCFC from paying cash dividends without regulatory approval. In November, UCFC announced its third-quarter dividend would be paid in stock instead of cash. The news was widely misunderstood as a sign of weakness instead of the indicator of strength the board intended. When the sale of Butler Wick & Co. was announced, McKay stressed, “Our board thinks debt reduction and to focus on our core business is where we should be today.” Butler Wick Corp., he noted, contributes 10% of UCFC’s annual revenues.

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While UCFC more than meets the minimum capital ratios regulators require, its chairman said, some of the proceeds “will provide a little more cushion.” As for the future of Home Savings, “The bank regulators, state and federal, have never said anything to me, have never hinted in any way, that the bank needs to be sold,” McKay said. And he responded to a reporter’s follow-up question, “There are no plans to sell Home Savings. This transaction is being done to strengthen the bank, not to position the bank for sale to someone else.”

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Best Wishes for a Healthy and Prosperous 2009

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GM Hints Big News Coming at Auto Show With budgets slashed, show presents an opportunity for automaker to redeﬁne itself. By Maraline Kubik

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udgets have been slashed, but General Motors is looking to capture headlines – more newsworthy headlines than ever before – during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The show, which opens to the public Jan. 17, has long been one of the most closely watched and wellreported auto shows in the world, attracting nearly 7,000 journalists from 60 countries. In years past, ﬂashy stage shows and eye-popping concept cars dominated much of the coverage. This year, GM is scaling back on the glitz and glamour and pumping up the news value, says GM spokesman Scott Fosgard. “We’re going to address concerns affeting the auto industry,” Fosgard says. “This is a very important show – the perfect opportunity to redeﬁne and build conﬁdence in our company.” Declining to share speciﬁcs, Fosgard says the news GM will announce during this year’s show will exceed the news value of announcements made at previous shows. The public relations budget for this year’s show has been slashed 60%, but because news shared during the event will be more impressive, Fosgard says, it will capture more headlines and generate more stories than any annoucements made during the last 25 shows. Two years ago, amid much news coverage, GM unveiled the Chevrolet Volt concept car at the Detroit show. The Volt, the automaker’s extended-range electric vehicle, can travel 40 miles on full charge while producing zero emissions. The production model, which will be introduced next year, was unveiled during the GM’s centennial celebration in Detroit this past September. Will GM’s announcements at this year’s NAIAS be more newsworthy than the introdution of the Volt? Will GM be unveiling more new technologies? Or, will news focus on the automaker’s solvency? “I’m not saying anymore,” Fosgard says. “We

know what America wants and we have to deliver manufacturers that would have been relegated to on that.” the lower level. Three vehicles expected to capture some of the The main ﬂoor, generally perceived as preferable media attention at this year’s show are the Chevrolet to the lower level, is assigned to automakers based Equinox, Cadillac SRX and Buick LaCrosse. on the number of models an automaker wants to display, the number of world and North American introLaCrosse is the ﬁrst vehicle GM designed for both ductions the automaker has unveiled at the show in the North American and Chinese markets, Fosgard the past, and the manufacturer’s market share, Serra says, and closely resembles the Invicta concept car unveiled at the auto show in Beijing last April. says. “This prevented Chinese automakers from getCadillac SRX is a wagon-inﬂuenced crossover ting on the main ﬂoor,” he says, “because they didn’t and the new Equinox, a small crossover, features have any North American market share.” what Fosgard calls “a marked improvement in deChinese automakers made their ﬁrst appearance sign, both the exterior and the interior.” Equinox in 2007 and returned with an even stronger presence is among more than 30 GM models that average 30 last year. This year, Nissan’s absence freed up enough mpg or more. space to allow two Chinese automakers, BYD and GM is not the only automaker cutting budgets for Brillance, to exhibit on the main ﬂoor. this year’s show. Nissan, Although Serra says Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Rolls most exhibitors have GM is scaling back on the glitz and glamour slashed their budgets Royce, Landrover and Ferrari have pulled out and pumping up the news value. for the show, it’s unlikely altogether and Porsche, showgoers will notice the absent from the 2008 show, won’t make an appearchanges. “They’re stripping out costs by cutting little ance this year either. things that are apparently big money,” he observes. It isn’t unusual for some exhibitors to pull out “Flooring, for example. Some of the manufacturers would raise the ﬂoor.” This year, he says, one and others to apply for space at the last minute, and manufacturer who opted not to raise the ﬂoor in its this year is no different, observes Joe Serra, senior display area trimmed costs for booth construction co-chairman of the 2009 auto show. by more than $1 million. In fact, Serra says, the number of automakers Some manufacturers are carpeting their display appearing at this year’s show “is the same plus one” areas rather than laying hardwood, he adds, and othas those appearing at last year’s show. ers are foregoing construction of a second level. The reasons some have pulled out, he continues, “This is going to be a tremendous show – 85% vary from automaker to automaker and shouldn’t be of the [new vehicle] introductions are worldwide perceived as purely a means to cut expenditures. Suzuki, he says, pulled out because its decision-makers introductions. There are 37 plus,” Serra adds. “Last thought the area it was assigned was less desirable year 70% [of new vehicle introductions] – 34 – were than the space it occupied in 2008. Rolls Royce and world introductions.” Porsche, two high-end luxury brands, understand At this time last year, automakers had committed to introducing 43 new vehicles at the show, that “this is a media-driven show,” Serra continues. says Shand Spencer, a spokeswoman for J. Bailey “If they don’t have something new to unveil, they’re & Associates, the public relations ﬁrm promoting not going to get the attention, so the show may not the show. This year, automakers have committed to be a good ﬁt for them.” unveiling 49 new vehicles. Space is always at a premium, Serra elaborates, so Of course, she notes, some of the automakers there will be no empty locations on the showﬂoor “like to keep their vehicle introductions a secret, despite the manufacturers who’ve opted to pull out. so there may be more. We ended last year with 58.” Mitsubishi’s space will be occupied by models from The North American International Auto Show runs Detroit area Mitsubishi dealers, he says, while areas through Jan. 25. vacated by other automakers will accommodate

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ow may we help your business grow? Huntington has proudly helped the business community successfully manage their banking since 1866. We’ve been recognized by the SBA as the top lender in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan and as a repeat National Top 20 lender. We’ve also been recognized by Greenwich Associates with numerous awards for exceptional service to businesses in 2007 and 2008. We’re grateful to our customers for the honor. So stop by or call a Huntington banker today. We’re not just ready to be the bank you can count on for your business needs. We’re ready to be the best.

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Greenwich Associates is a leading worldwide strategic consulting and research ﬁrm specializing in ﬁnancial services. Excellence award selection was based upon the results of the 2008 Middle Market Business Banking Study, of ﬁrms $10-500 million in annual sales, conducted by Greenwich Associates. Banks selected for an award had to have a signiﬁcantly different percentage of excellent ratings than the mean for all banks at a 90% conﬁdence level. Small Business Administration ranking is based on the 2008 Coleman Report 500 for Top 50 7(a) Lenders by Number of Loans and Loan Volume. The Huntington National Bank is an Equal Housing Lender and Member FDIC. �,® Huntington® and A bank invested in people® are federally registered service marks of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated. ©2008 Huntington Bancshares Incorporated.

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Home Builders Turn To U.S. for Help By Jeremy Lydic

utive vice president of retail lending at Warren-based First Place Financial ow that the Bush Administration Corp. How such a buy-down affects has earmarked $17.4 billion in the lending industry would depend on short-term loans for General the size of the loan and who subsidizes Motors and Chrysler, the housing the buy-down, be it the builders or the industry is calling for help. government, he says. Fix Housing First, a coalition of “A builder can offer a buy-down to 600 organizations led by the National a buyer right now,” Wenmoth says. Association of Home Builders, conLast October, tends that “housFirst Place offered ing has to be at the centerpiece of Industry lobbyists are pleading builders a 30-year [an economic] re- for Congress to enact a tax cred- mortgage with a covery plan,” says it higher than that authorized ﬁxed rate of 4.99% Joshua Aikens, ex- by the Housing and Economy on its model home inventor y. The ecutive director of program stimuthe Home Build- Recovery Act of 2008. lated an “increase ers-Remodelers of 15% to 20% in activity” the ﬁrst Association of Mahoning Valley. month, Wenmoth reports. Near the “There are 1.6 million jobs that end of December, the program “genare directly associated with homeerated up to $4.5 million in new loan construction,” Aikens says, “and 1.4 business” for some 20 houses sold for million more that have a secondary an average of $200,000. effect on the housing industry.” Building continues, but as bank At press time the association had loans dry up because of the credit data through November that showed crunch, it becomes “more difﬁcult to a drop in housing starts in Mahoning acquire land and build new homes,” County to 121 compared to 181 at the the HBA’s Aikens says. As prices fall, same time in 2007 and 278 in 2006. houses are appraised at less than the “The numbers don’t lie,” Aikens price agreed upon by the builder and states. “Housing starts are down.” buyer, he explains. This means the To get more homebuyers into the buyer might have to front more money, market, industry lobbyists are pleador the bank won’t make the loan “being for Congress to enact a tax credit cause of outstanding equity,” he says. higher than that authorized by the A low appraisal nearly ended a Housing and Economy Recovery Act project before it began for Ricottilli of 2008, signed by President Bush Construction Co., Poland, says its in July. For every $1,000 increase in owner, Lee Ricottilli Jr. The appraisal the average price of homes, “217,000 was based on the blueprints, amenities potential buyers are eliminated from in the house and the market, and was buying that house,” Aikens says. valued less than what it would cost to In the plan the coalition proposes, build, he says. the credit would range from $10,000 “The year previous, the banks had to $22,000, or up to 10% of the house no problem with that ﬁgure,” Ricottilli price capped at 3.5% of Federal says. “We made it work so the deal Housing Administration loan limits. went through. We had to basically cut Eligible purchases would be houses things out [of the plan.]” bought between last April 9 and Dec. Ricottilli built two houses in 2008: 31, 2009. Credit would become availa 3,600-square-foot structure for able when the contract closed and $400,000 and another of 2,200 square need to be repaid only if the home feet for $240,000. He has another were sold within three years, he says. $300,000 house contracted for this The coalition is also proposing a year, and is quoting a second home. 30-year ﬁxed-interest mortgage rate Years ago, most houses were occupied buy-down of 2.99% for houses bought by people who had bought their ﬁrst through June 30, and of 3.99% for or second dwelling, he says, but 2008 houses bought between June 30 and seemed to be driven by “more custom, Dec. 31, 2009. high-end homes. The average begin“Any bailout program like that is ner home is basically nonexistent going to try to stimulate the economy,” right now.” says Bruce Wenmoth, corporate exec-

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Members Keep Fitness Clubs In Good Health Keeping ﬁt shouldn’t be a luxury, trainers say it should be a necessity. By Jeremy Lydic

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izek, a health club in the Eastwood Mall complex in Niles, tries to create an environment that seems like home to its members. Hence, its general manager, Richard Coy, asks the 100 members to bring with them a second pair of street shoes they can change into at the door when they come in from the rain or snow. “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” Coy says. “Everything here is new.” Coy and club owners John and William M. Cafaro celebrated the grand opening in December of the 26,000-square-foot club. Fizek (pronounced fuh’ zeke) will become the ﬂagship should the Cafaros decide to open other health clubs. On its three ﬂoors, Fizek employs 15 certiﬁed personal trainers and features more than 150 pieces of cardio and strength equipment, workout and aerobics rooms, and locker rooms complete with private showers and a sauna. General memberships run $29.95 plus tax per month in addition to a one-time maintenance fee. A total body workout package, which includes classes such as Pilates, TaeBo and kickboxing, costs $49.95. The New Year kicked off Phase Two of the grand opening, which features a $100,000 virtual sports room, complete with interactive video-game ﬁtness machines. “We’re going to do work with schools and address obesity in children and adults,” the general manager says. Coy, in the ﬁtness industry 25 years, says the club is set up and run to help all customers feel comfortable as they work out. The equipment is spread out on all three levels to give members the space they need; the staff monitors how members use it to make sure they’re using it properly as they keep an eye on their heart rates. “We certainly took into consideration the clubs in the past,” Coy says. “To me, they ran too many gimmicks and had fast-talking salespeople. We’ll take you through to learn the equipment … and make sure people are exercising correctly.” All Coy asks is that people join and work out regularly. In an area that’s been “beat up on health costs,” he notes, health club memberships aren’t high priorities for everyone. Coy knows he can’t force people to come in, but Americans need to realize that “ﬁtness isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity,” he says. “There’s nothing so highly difﬁcult about ﬁnding 30 minutes three times a week [to work out],” says Missy Gabriel, manager and personal trainer at Body Sculpting Total Fitness on Boardman-Canﬁeld Road

Melissa Lileas, ﬁtness director at Fizek, and Richard Coy, general manager, say the new health club employs 15 certiﬁed personal trainers and features more than 150 pieces of cardio and strength equipment plus workout and aerobics rooms.

in Boardman. “It has to come from you. Someone can’t pressure you into it.” Competition makes it hard to keep a gym open, Gabriel says, but Body Sculpting has kept things going since Debbie Wojtkowski assumed ownership in October 2006. The gym, exclusively for women, has about 300 members, 184 of whom come in regularly, Gabriel says. Serving only women isn’t a disadvantage, she says, and the club enjoys a steady membership that should increase by 10% after the holidays. “I think it’s a plus,” Gabriel says. “Our members don’t feel like they have to put on makeup or are being ogled while they work out. This isn’t a fashion show; this is where you work.” Maintaining personal relationships with her members helps keep membership consistent, but “the biggest challenge is getting instructors,” Gabriel says. Gabriel, Wojtkowski and two other trainers teach low-impact aerobics, yoga, Pilates, cardio and body sculpting at the club. Jerry DeJane, owner of Fine Tune Fitness on state Route 170 in Poland, says there are well-qualiﬁed personal trainers in the area, “but the work ethic is what I look at.” DeJane occasionally speaks to college students enrolled in exercise science courses where he tells them that if they want to be personal trainers “it better be in their skin. “If you’re a trainer, you got to be willing to put in the time,” DeJane continues. “You better make sure you love it. And you better let your clients know you love what you’re doing.” DeJane, a personal trainer nearly 16 years, works

by appointment only at his gym, which he opened three years ago. Fees are based on a client’s need and ability; sessions start at $35 each, or $300 for 10. With the beginning of the new year, Fine Tune has begun offering special ﬁrst-time client prices, DeJane says. He sold the Workout Center on Pittsburgh Street in Columbiana three months ago, but still trains there throughout the week. Core membership for the Workout Center has grown to 265, up from 230 in December 2007, and the staff at Fine Tune offers 65 to 75 sessions per week. DeJane would like to get that number up to 100, he says, but ﬁrst needs to make sure his staff is ready for the workload. “I’m pretty fortunate that the [staff members] I have are staying pretty strong,” DeJane says. “I have been getting busier each year.” DeJane has been helping Jack Wilkins, the Workout Center’s new owner, get used to the business end of running a ﬁtness club. Wilkins is working on his personal training certiﬁcate, which can take anywhere from six months to one year to complete. Budgeting the ﬁnances for the 8,000-square-foot, club has been the hardest part, but Wilkins is getting a good handle on the bills, he says. Electricity stays consistent at about $400, and insurance is about $170 a month, he says. Rent of $2,300 on the three-ﬂoor club is the major item each month, so it helps that the club owns the exercise equipment, Wilkins says. “It’s what I wanted to do,” Wilkins says about owning the gym he’s been a member of the last three years. “I ﬁgured I might as well give it a shot.”

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JANUARY 2009

Wellness Programs Beneﬁt Employers Workers’ Comp premiums were reduced by 15% for one area employer. By Jeremy Lydic

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oe Bukovinsky was anticipating a two-month rehabilitation after foot surgery in December. When he returned to work at InfoCision last month, he used the walking and climbing machines in the onsite fitness center to recover muscle strength in his foot. “I was able to walk earlier than I was supposed to,” Bukovinsky says. He was walking within four weeks. Bukovinsky – a communicator with InfoCision at 20 Federal Plaza in Youngstown – has been a member of the company’s wellness program since he was hired a year ago. The InfoCision Management Corp. effected its wellness program three years ago, and has seen improvement in overall employee wellness as well as recruitment numbers, says its senior vice president of corporate affairs, Steve Brubaker. Copeland Oaks of Ohio retirement community in Sebring lowered the premiums it pays to the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation since effecting its wellness program in January 2008, says its wellness director, Eve Bevilacqua. “What we noticed after the ﬁrst quarter was our workers’ compensation went down about 15%,” Bevilacqua says. Copeland Oaks turned the fifth ﬂoor of the building into a workout area where Bevilacqua teaches 11 classes a week for the 700 residents of the center and two classes a week for its 500 employees. The quality of life has improved for both groups, she reports. Two employees have quit smoking and the number of on-the-job accidents has decreased, which in turn lowers Workers’ Comp premiums. One aspect of the program was clearing some of the woods around the 250-acre property and installing a 5-kilometer track. Employees and residents use the track; some walk or run as many as 40 miles per week, Bevilacqua says. Copeland Oaks teamed with Youngstown State University and Mount Union College in Alliance to coordinate a 24-mile per week walking program that provides exercisescience majors internships working with the residents.

The residents’ physical ﬁtness imcare costs were escalating in a huge proves as they work out, Bevilacqua way,” Brubaker says. “We saw doublesays. Residents who work out suffer digit increases in premiums on a yearly basis.” fewer falls and get in and out of chairs InfoFitness is the result of earlier with greater ease, she says. They are programs begun to help employees live also more alert and more conscious of healthier lives, including a program in their diets. Some have even requested which the company paid participating less grease and more fruits and vegetables with their meals, she says. employees $250 a year for services “Bottom line, we’re in a sedentary that help them to quit smoking, Brubaker says. Since its inception, the culture in the work world,” says Mike company’s health Shaffer, central branch director for “We’re in a sedentary culture care costs have except for the Youngstown in the work world,” says Mike ﬂatened the 3% increase YMCA. “We need to get people off Shaffer, central branch director this past fiscal of their chairs and for the Youngstown YMCA. “We year, he notes. lose weight.” The YMCA’s need to get people off of their The YMCA offers Shaffer suggests corporate member- chairs and lose weight.” business owners ships to help busido what they can ness owners get their employees to incentivize employees’ participation in wellness programs and reward active. Some 10 companies are part of healthy behavior. Healthy employees the program, which account for about use less sick time, thus decreasing 1,500 members at the central YMCA absenteeism and Shaffer says, they and the Davis branch in Boardman. tend to work harder. Obesity is high and is a “huge risk Copeland Oaks’ program could factor for everything,” Shaffer says. lead to improved practices in the reTwenty minutes of aerobic activity tirement home industry. The program three times a week “greatly improves your cardiovascular health,” he says. InfoCision has installed a ﬁtness center and health clinic in its new call centers as well as those it’s expanding, Brubaker says. InfoFitness offers the ﬁtness centers to all InfoCision employees; its InfoWellness program includes quarterly screenings that provide employees their blood pressure and glucose levels, weight and body mass index, he says. Employees can also visit a corporate physician or nurse practitioner the company hires to hold office hours at the onsite clinics, Brubaker says. Corporate physician James Eley operates the onsite health clinics at the Boardman, Austintown and Youngstown ofﬁces. Each visit to a clinic costs an employee $10 if he’s insured through InfoCision’s health plan, $30 if he’s not. Clinics typically occupy 500 square feet, which encompasses an examining room, waiting area and a small ofﬁce, Brubaker says. Fitness centers can be as large as 2,000 square feet depending on the number of employees, and offer some $70,000 in workout equipment for each center, he says. Employees pay $15 per month for membership, and some 20% to 25% of InfoCision’s 4,000 employees maintain steady memberships, he said. “The reason we started looking at this was because we realized health

led to a cognitive walking study conducted by YSU and Mount Union. Dr. Dan Van Dussen, assistant professor in YSU’s sociology and anthropology department and coordinator of its new gerontology program, helped lead the eight-week study. Three times a week, 10 residents were tested on their speed, balance, gait and memory, Van Dussen says. “The overall goal in gerontology is to have people healthy as possible for as long as possible. Nursing care is always more expensive than assisted living.” Each week, the physicians increased challenges by introducing different obstacles and walking speeds, Van Dussen says. After they walked in a room, residents were taken into another where they were asked to recall obstacles they saw. Results are being analyzed but Van Dussen says he hopes the ﬁndings lead to similar studies and improved practices in assisted living environments. Van Dussen is one of some 80 in the United States who hold a doctorate in gerontology, the study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging.

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12

JANUARY 2009

The Valley’s Business

The Business Journal

Matters

25 East Boardman Street, Suite 306 P.O. Box 714, Youngstown, Ohio 44501-0714 Telephone 330 744 5023 Fax 330 744 5838 • 330 744 0634 Email: [email protected] Website: www.business-journal.com Publisher Andrea Wood Assistant Publisher Laura E. Lovell Copy Editor Dennis LaRue Page Editor Maraline Kubik Online Editors Monnie Ryan George Nelson Senior Reporters Dan O’Brien George Nelson Jeremy Lydic Columnists Monnie Ryan Lou Zona Gail S. White Photographer Tony Mancino Rate Comparisons Cara J. McClure Sales Manager Janet O’Malley Account Executives Barbara Evans Gail S. White Circulation Manager Debbie Sheely Art Director/ Fred Sipe Webmaster

T he Business Journal is published semimonthly (twice a month) in Youngstown, Ohio. Copyright 2009 by Youngstown Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Average Issue Readership: 45,000 Mail Subscription Rates: $42 for 12 months; $77 for 24 months; $96 for 36 months. Back Issues: If available, $4.75 apiece prepaid (mailed); $3.25 apiece prepaid (picked up at our ofﬁce). Submission Policy: News articles and photographs may be submitted but cannot be returned. We reserve the right to select and edit all articles and letters. All submissions become the editorial property of The Business Journal. Submissions may be edited and may be published or re-used in any medium including Business Journal television and radio reports and the Daily Business Journal Online.

Locally owned by the Youngstown Publishing Co.

Journal Opinion An Imperfect World

If the owners of V&M Star decide against moving forward with their $750 million expansion project, fault the sluggish global economy, not a lack of cooperation between local governments. To encourage the project, the cities of Youngstown and Girard – the potential site encompasses both – have agreed to work together and share the beneﬁts of the 900 jobs expected to be created. Among the possibilities the cities are considering is creating a joint economic development zone, a legal construct that would allow them to share the income and property taxes the site would generate. State and company ofﬁcials have commended this “unprecedented” level of cooperation between the two cities, says Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Williams’ proposal to form joint economic development districts, or JEDDs, with Austintown and Boardman. Under the JEDD proposal, in exchange for selling water at the same rate it charges city residents, Youngstown would collect income taxes from workers in the areas of the townships it supplies water. The proposal also offers each township the ability to impose its own tax. Youngstown has offered to match any money raised by the township for economic development, as well as to extend the development tools it has at its disposal. Township ofﬁcials have responded by investigating options, such as incorporation and buying water elsewhere, to head off the possibility of imposing an income tax as a condition for water service – an

ability the city asserts the law provides but prefers not to invoke – at least not yet. Taking into consideration the economic challenges that continue to face this region in particular and the nation, those in the Mahoning Valley who responded so viscerally to Williams’ proposal would do well to reconsider their opposition. Local governments throughout the region now ﬁnd themselves tightening their belts and may soon be forced to cut jobs and eliminate services. The situation is no better in Columbus, where Gov. Ted Strickland recently announced another $640 million in budget cuts for the year ending June 30, for a total of $1.9 billion in reductions. As reported in the Washington Post, Strickland left this phone message for his former congressional colleague, Rahm Emanuel, incoming White House chief of staff: “Rahm, it’s Ted. You’ve never failed me, and I need $5 billion.” Local governments best not look for much help from the state capital. And prospects for any infrastructure dollars that might be available from Washington, where lawmakers are expected to pass a stimulus package, would be enhanced by communities showing how well they work together. The Valley as a whole would be better served were Youngstown to invoke the powers it has – touching off a legal melee over JEDDs that might end up forcing all the parties to recognize what they have in common, not what separates them. It will doubtless be ugly, but there are only imperfect solutions.

The Business Journal

13

JANUARY 2009

BY LOUIS A. ZONA

Impressions ‘Creeped Out’ by Clowns True confession time: I never liked mimes.

that clowns, even with all their face paint, or entertainers wearing masks have never amused me. In the early 1950s, Buffalo Bob y mother taught her Smith, the creator of Howdy Doody, children to like everybody. also created a clown for that children’s But I must be candid and tell program. Her name was “Clarabell,” you that I have never liked mimes. played by Bob Keeshan, the future T h a t ’s r i g h t , I ’ v e n e v e r “Captain Kangaroo.” In Clarabell, liked those delicate and limber pseuwho communicated with a horn do-clowns wearing attached to her black leotards with As a small boy I enjoyed the belt, America’s white grease paint saw a zany antics of Clarabell, but as children on their faces. I somewhat bunadmit, that’s not I think about it, she was the only gling clown who got into harmless very charitable on clown I ever found amusing. mischief. my part, but with As a small boy I enjoyed the zany apologies to Marcel Marceau, I once antics of Clarabell, but as I think about came very close to giving a mime a “knuckle sandwich.” it, she was the only clown I ever found I did so even at the risk of getting amusing. To cite the talking baby in white grease paint on my rented tuxthe E-trade commercial who said of edo. The ﬁsticuffs nearly happened at his rented clown, “I underestimated a fancy party where a mime was asked his creepiness.” to entertain by mimicking the moveHe’s right and so is Kramer on ments of guests in attendance. “Seinfeld” who gets “creeped out” by As I watched him copy my every the Pagliacci clown character who move, I told him, in less than perfect confronts him on the street. And French, to cease and desist. That was speaking of Pagliacci, of Italian opera fame made popular by the great one unhappy mime. Perhaps the reason that I reacted so strongly is just See ZONA, page 14

M

BY MARALINE KUBIK

Commentary Help Kids Explore Careers

W

hat did you want to be when you were a kid? A recent conversation with my young nephew about what he might want to be when he grows up scares me. Not because he’s entertaining thoughts about pursuing some extremely dangerous profession, but because he doesn’t have a clue about the unlimited possibilities. Sadly, I fear this is the case for most kids. Ask the kids you know – preschoolers to pre-college – what their aspirations are and I’m certain that their responses will be the same. They want to be teachers, ﬁreﬁghters, circus performers, sales clerks, cops, physicians, nurses, dancers, tow truck

drivers, airline pilots and sports stars. The older kids might add computer programmer, lawyer or sportscaster to this list. Very few will tell you that they dream of becoming a nuclear physicist, research scientist, economist, engineer, business analyst or genetic counselor. They won’t mention geologist, botanist, general contractor, marine biologist or any one of thousands of other possibilities. This isn’t because these professions aren’t appealing – or wouldn’t be an ideal ﬁt and dream come true for many – it’s because most young people don’t know anything about them, probably See KUBIK, page 14

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JANUARY 2009

The Business Journal

Zona: ‘Creeped Out’ by Clowns From Page 13 Enrico Caruso, clowns too can be tragic ﬁgures. As you might recall, Pagliacci’s heart was broken by his wife’s inﬁdelity. You see, clowns are people too. It’s just that they look different from the rest of us – or should I say most of us? Getting back to the creep factor or the darker side of clowndom, no clown was more intensely scary than the one in Stephen King’s “It.” After I watched that movie, I had nightmares for a month. I read with great fascination the news accounts of the clown convention recently held here in Youngstown. I had no idea that those famous oversized shoes can cost a poor clown as much as $350. That would certainly do it for me. OK, so what if they’re seltzer-waterproof? Kathy Earnhart at the Butler Institute likes to tease me about someday starting a clown ministry. Somehow the idea of a guy with orange hair and a round red nose reading from the Holy Book or leading in the sing-

ing of “Amazing Grace” doesn’t make it for me. I guess that Ronald McDonald is a rather mild-mannered clown but I never understood why a company would have a clown as its spokesman, despite his pleasant disposition. Clowns have been a part of our culture for a very long time. Do you remember “Singin’ in the Rain” where Donald O’Connor sings, “Be a clown, be a clown, all the world loves a clown”? Or how about Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns”? The organist at Cleveland’s Progressive Field should have that song in his repertoire when the New York Yankees take the ﬁeld this summer. One of my favorite early rock ’n’ roll songs was the Everly Brothers “Cathy’s Clown.” Later, when Gary Lewis performed “Everybody Loves a Clown,” he was not thinking about people like me. Perhaps the most popular clown ever was Emmett Kelly who depicted a sad hobo named Weary Willie. Emmett, who has a museum named for

him in Kansas, became famous with Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus and even played himself in Cecil B DeMille’s epic ﬁlm, “The Greatest Show on Earth” that starred Jimmy Stewart as, you guessed it, a clown. One of the most popular entertainers ever was Red Skelton. One of his personas was a character named Freddie the Freeloader. Freddie, too, was a hobo and, as I discovered, is in The International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center. And Skelton, besides playing a clown on his weekly television show, also gained renown for his paintings of clowns that are in collections around the United States. But not one is in the Butler collection. I wonder why? Now that you know my feelings about clowns, you might wonder what happened in my childhood that would turn me against characters whose only purpose is to make us laugh, or at least bring smiles to our faces. As far as I can ﬁgure, nothing happened. Maybe it’s just that I don’t like disguises. A mask hides one’s features

and thus prevents us from reading a person’s true identity or personality. Athletes are told to put on a game face to intimidate the other team into thinking that they’re more intense than they might be. Thus a baseball relief pitcher will let his facial hair grow or otherwise attempt to look meaner, more masculine or tougher than he actually is to gain an advantage in the game. Two boxers will stare at one another at weigh-ins with scowls on their faces. For that moment each is a beast and not someone’s son or husband. Sadly, as we live our lives we are forced to sometimes put on imaginary masks to hide our true feelings. Disguising ourselves now and then is part of being human. Maybe I should lay off the clown bashing or what athletes call trash talk regarding my clown phobia. Truth be told, I had no intention of actually punching that mime. I should have just put my game face on and squirted him with my seltzer bottle. OK, I’ll quit clowning around.

Kubik: Help Kids Explore Careers

From Page 13 haven’t even heard of them. Many area school systems have made great strides in improving highschool graduation rates and preparing students to pass competency tests but I don’t know of any that stand out in presenting a broad range of professions to their students and helping the kids ﬁgure out what it is that they ought to pursue, or at least consider. They may offer career fairs, days when speakers are invited to discuss their professions and field trips to places that might pique a student’s interest in an area that could provide future employment, but many students graduate from high school without even identifying their own interests.

No wonder so many college freshman have undetermined majors. I’m not suggesting that everyone should graduate high school knowing exactly what he or she wants to do, but they should have some idea. My nephew, like many kids his age, loves to play video games and put Leggo sets together. He’s also a wizard when it comes to math, especially mental math – that’s when a teacher verbally presents a problem and students must perform the computations without the aid of paper, pencil or calculator – all computations must be done mentally. Mental math competitions make a game of this, pitting students against others from throughout the region.

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A brief conversation ensued in It’s a wonderful learning activity for a which my nephew decided that he generation growing up in the world of wants to become an electrical engivirtual reality and computer wizardry. neer who ﬁgures out how to combine It’s also an indicator as to which kids electrical components in video games are predisposed to professions that so that the game is might require excellent math skills, What did you want to be when unbeatable. I don’t know reason and excel you were a kid? if this will come under pressure. to pass, but at least now he’s thinking (Mental math competitions can be about career possibilities beyond the pretty grueling.) professions he’s most familiar with So, when I asked my nephew what – the teachers and bus drivers he sees he wants to be when he grows up, I every day, the jobs his parents do to expected him to say something like earn their paychecks, the physicians “I want to invent new video games,” he visits when he’s not feeling well, or “I want to design Leggo sets and the coaches who supervise his soccer roller coasters.” team, the athletes he watches on TV When he was younger he wanted and others within the limited experito be a scientist who makes potions ence of a 14-year-old schoolboy. – the combined inﬂuence of a great I’m certain my nephew can be science teacher and the Harry Potter whatever he sets his mind to, he movies, I suspect. But, it’s been a few just needs to ﬁgure out what it is he years and I expected the boy to have wants to do and what he must do to a more reasonable answer. prepare himself for the demands and Instead, he replied, “I dunno.” And challenges such a profession would he meant it. He didn’t have a clue. present. He’s one year away from high school Our job – parents, teachers and and being able to choose some of his everyone else who cares about a kid classes – classes that should prepare – is to present the possibilities and him for whatever comes after high encourage all of our children to exschool – and he’s clueless. plore professions they may never have Maybe you should be an engineer, imagined existed. I suggested. He responded with a blank stare. I didn’t know where to begin. So, The author, Maraline Kubik, is a senior reportI said, “There are different kinds of er and page editor with The Business Journal. Reach her at [email protected] engineers and they do all sorts of or by calling 330 744 5023. things.”

The Business Journal

JANUARY 2009

15

16

JANUARY 2009

The Business Journal

January 2, 2009

Interest Rates CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT PASSBOOK

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

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1.00  1.00 

STATEMENT SAVINGS APY*

CF BANK (formerly Central Federal S&L) Wellsville

1 Year 24 Mos.

CHARTER ONE BANK

12 Mos. 5 Year

CONSUMERS NATIONAL BANK Salem

12 Mos. 4 Year

2.25  3.55 

.25/ .35

CORTLAND BANKS Cortland

1 Year 5 Year

3.00 — 4.00 —

.50/ N.A.

E.S.B. BANK Ellwood City, Pa.

1 Year 4 Year

1.70  2.90 

.30/ .30

FARMERS NATIONAL BANK Canﬁeld

1 Year 4 Year

2.50  3.75 

.30/ .35

FIRST MERIT BANK New Castle, Pa.

1 Year 2 Year

2.50  2.50 

N.A./ .05

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PA. Her mitage, Pa.

1 Year 5 Year

1.00  2.50 

.15/ .15

1ST NATIONAL COMMUNITY BANK East Liverpool

1 Year 4 Year

2.43  3.45 

.45/ .70

FIRST PLACE BANK Boardman

6 Mos. 12 Mos.

3.00  2.00 

.40/ .40

HOME FEDERAL Niles

1 Year 3 Year

HOME SAVINGS Youngstown

12 Mos. 5 Year

BANKING & BILL PAY AT

CORTLAND-BANKS.COM

ANNUAL PERCENTAGE YIELD, 2-Week Trend

2.50  2.50 

2.93  3.34  2.50 — Minimum $500

3.60 —

.10/ N.A. .35/ .50

.75/ .75 .50/ .50

Minimum $500

HUNTINGTON BANK Youngstown

1 Year 4 Year

1.80  3.70 —

N.A./ N.A.

KEYBANK Youngstown

1 Year 3 Year 5 Year

1.10  2.10  3.60 

N.A./ .45

NATIONAL CITY BANK Sharon, Pa.

1 Year 4 Year

N.A./ N.A.

N.A./ N.A.

NATIONAL CITY BANK Youngstown

1 Year 43 Mos.

1.60  3.90 

.30/ N.A.

PNC BANK Conneaut Lake, Pa.

1 Year 5 Year

1.76 — 2.95 —

N.A./ .20

US BANK (formerly Firstar Bank) Boardman

1 Year 59 Mos.

2.55 — 3.40 

N.A./ .10

*Annual Percentage Yield

Arrows tell whether rates rose or fell since last issue. Dashes indicate “unchanged.”

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of The Business Journal compilations. Rates are subject to change without notice and should be conﬁrmed with the individual ﬁnancial institution before entering into transactions. ©2009 Youngstown Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

�� The Business Journal

17

JANUARY 2009

BuildingWealth

SPONSORED BY

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Understanding Yield as Performance Measure

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Yield, which is typically expressed as a percentage, is a measure of the income an investment pays during a speciﬁc period, typically a year, divided by the investment’s price. All bonds have yields, as do dividend-paying stocks, most mutual funds, and bank accounts including certiﬁcates of deposit. When you buy a bond at issue, its yield is the same as its interest rate or coupon rate. The rate is ﬁgured by dividing the yearly interest payments by the par value, usually $1,000. So if you’re collecting $50 in interest on a $1,000 bond, the yield is 5%. However, bonds you buy after issue in the secondary market have a yield different from the stated coupon rate, because the price you pay is different from the par value. Bond yields go up and down depending on the credit rating of the issuer, the interest rate environment, and general market demand for bonds.

The yield for a bond based on its price in the secondary market is known as the bond’s current yield. For instance, a bond with a par value of $1,000 with a 6% coupon rate might be sold in the market at a current yield of 5%. This means the bond itself will keep paying 6% of $1,000 every year, or $60. But to purchase this bond, you’ll have to pay a premium – $1,200 instead of $1,000 – to match the higher interest rates being paid by newly issued bonds. So the ﬁxed $60 income payment will produce a yield of only 5% ($60 divided by $1,200). If you intend to hold a ﬁxed-rate bond to maturity, the bond’s coupon yield might be the only thing that matters to you since the coupon yield doesn’t change after issue. However, current yield can matter a great deal if you’re considering selling a bond before

its maturity date. That’s because bond yields go down when bond prices go up. As a result, you can often sell a bond you bought at the time of issue for a proﬁt when the current yield is lower than the coupon rate because at that point the market price is higher than the price you paid. Current yield might matter to you as well if the yield you’re getting on older bonds is lower than the current yields of more recently issued bonds. In that case, you might consider selling your bonds even at a loss if you’d like to reinvest to get higher yields while they’re available. The information presented in this article is not investment advice. Because each individual’s ﬁnancial objectives and goals vary, always contact your ﬁnancial adviser before making investment decisions. NEXT EDITION: Understanding complex measures of yield. SOURCE: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

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18

JANUARY 2009

January 2, 2009

The Business Journal

Credit Union Rates

CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

Term

ASSOCIATED SCHOOL EMPLOYEES

1 Year 2 Year

3.04  3.30 

CAVALIER FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

1 Year 2 Year

GREATER WARREN COMMUNITY FEDERAL FIRST CHOICE COMMUNITY

MORTGAGE LOANS

AUTO LOANS

Down Payment

Fees

Term

Rate

Type

$1,000 $1,000

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

5.50 5.75

Fixed

20%

15 Year

2.75 — 3.25 —

$1,000 $1,000

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

5.75 5.75

Fixed

20%

15 Year

5.75 

0+costs

1 Year 2 Year

2.50 — 2.75 —

$1,000 $1,000

48 Mos. 66 Mos.

5.90 6.45

Fixed Fixed

0% 0%

15 Year 30 Year

6.00 — 6.50 —

0+costs 0+costs

1 Year 2 Year

3.00 — 3.75 

$500 $500

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

6.50 6.50

Fixed

20%

15 Year

6.50 —

0+costs

(formerly RMI CO. EMPLOYEES)

OHIO EDISON/ PENN POWER

1 Year 2 Year

3.00 — 3.15 —

$1,000 $1,000

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

5.70 5.99

Fixed Fixed

5% 5%

15 Year 30 Year

0+costs 0+costs

SEVEN SEVENTEEN

1 Year 2 Year

2.80  3.09 

6.375  7.00 

$1,000 $1,000

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

5.99 5.99

Fixed Fixed

5% 5%

15 Year 30 Year

4.875  5.25 

0+costs 0+costs

STRUTHERS FEDERAL

1 Year 2 Year

$1,000 $1,000

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 66 Mos.

6.00 6.00

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

YOUNGSTOWN CITY EMPLOYEES FEDERAL

1 Year 2 Year

$2,000 $2,000

Up to 60 Mos. Up to 72 Mos.

5.99 6.99

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

APY

2.52  2.63  2.78  2.98 

Minimum

Term

Rate, 2-Wk Trend

5.625 

2+200

Arrows tell whether rates rose or fell since last issue. Dashes indicate “unchanged.” Rates are subject to change without notice and should be conﬁrmed before entering into transactions. ©2009 Youngstown Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

Celebrating

50 Years 1959 - 2009

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The Business Journal

Pages 19-25

19

JANUARY 2009

BusinessRetrospective

Youngstown Fostered Entrepreneurs Some companies continue to thrive, others experienced short-lived success. By Dan O’Brien

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visitor to Youngstown in 1883 would have found a fairly developed city with a population of 12,000, narrow roads (often muddy) ﬁt for horse-and-buggy travel and, seven years after its invention, some 100 telephones installed and working throughout the city. An elaborate opera house stood out in a downtown dotted with theaters, shops and service businesses. Stately houses lined Wick Avenue and electricity had just been introduced. It was also a city forged by iron production, an industry that had propelled the community into unrivaled prosperity for the period, and in turn helped spur entrepreneurs with huge – and more modest – ambitions. “It was a city whose core manufacturing base was iron,” says Bill Lawson, director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. “That industry made Youngstown the wealthiest city per capita in the United States.” As iron manufacturing gave way to steel production during the early 20th century, the demand for services and businesses that served the growing population also increased, Lawson says. “Between 1900 and 1930, the population of Youngstown skyrocketed from 45,000 to 170,000,” he says. Many were immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who came here to secure work in the steel industry. A sizeable number of immigrants settled on or near the East End of downtown, where the businesses reﬂected a rich ethnic diversity. “East Federal Street was home to a cluster of second-tier retailers, grocers and butchers” who represented a microcosm of larger, cosmopolitan communities, Lawson relates. “Grocers, bakers, fraternal organizations and some residents were all part of the East End,” he adds. “It was a brisk, busy place. The food distribution industry was, and still is, a strong industry in this area.” Businessmen such as Nathan Ozersky, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, established a thriving bakery, Ozersky Bros. in 1896, ﬁrst on Boardman Street and then on East Federal. Delicatessens, meat and poultry distributors, haberdashers, shoe retailers – all were components of the changing composition of small entrepreneurs during the ﬁrst quarter of the 20th century on the East End. Some of those businesses survive today. Rulli Bros., established in 1917 as a produce distributor

on East Federal, is a thriving diversiﬁed grocer with stores in Austintown and Boardman. “It was truly very unique,” recalls Frank Rulli, whose father, Nick, started the business along with his two brothers, Joe and Frank, at 345 East Federal. “The East End was where all the food and grocery businesses were,” he says, “while West Federal had the banks, apparel shops and department stores.” Rulli, who worked in the store as a young boy in the years following World War II, recalls the family catered to every ethnic group in the city: “There were all types of ethnicities downtown. Rulli Bros. became a factor in that – we carried everything.” Including live chickens. “They used to sell them in those days,” he laughs. He recounts the day a woman’s shopping bag broke open and the squawking chicken she had just bought bolted into the street. “I came to her aid. I was dodging cars and buses in the middle of downtown trying to retrieve a chicken.” The bird was successfully returned, much to the woman’s delight, he notes. “It was a great time. There were hundreds and hundreds of stores downtown. Everybody made a pretty good living.” The West End of the downtown was home to more upscale retailers – department stores such as McKelvey’s and Strouss – soda fountains, theaters and financial institutions, says the Historical Society’s Lawson. It provided a Bill Lawson, director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, stands next to the “Whifﬂe,” generally regarded as the first commercial pinball machine. Earl Froom of Yo u n g s t o w n invented the coincapturing device that helped launch the arcade era.

great venue for folks with new ideas to ply their trades all across the city. Among the most innovative was Earl Froom. In 1931, Froom, a successful salesman, made a single important modiﬁcation to a Bagatelle board – a French parlor game that included ﬁxed pins where balls caromed back and forth. Froom devised a coin acceptor and adapted the game for commercial use, this time with a knob-spring plunger that shot marbles across the board, bouncing from pin to pin and scoring points as it did so. Froom took his new device, a commercial pinball machine that cost a nickel to play, to drug stores and soda fountains throughout the Mahoning Valley. He then established Automatic Industries Inc. and began marketing his new product, named the Whifﬂe, across the country. The Whifﬂe is regarded as the ﬁrst commercial pinball machine, making Froom the father of what would become the modern arcade industry, Lawson says. Froom’s success was short-lived, Lawson notes. Larger companies with deeper pockets saw its popularity and began producing similar games, such as Bafﬂe Ball, which eased out Whifﬂe as the top choice among gamesters by the end of 1931. Others followed. Within a year of Froom’s invention, the industry became even more crowded by major companies such as Bally Manufacturing Co., which produced the Ballyhoo pinball game in 1932. “In three years, he went from marketing the product internationally to bankruptcy,” Lawson relates. “He was a little guy in a very competitive ﬁeld.” Other innovative companies that rose to international prominence survived much longer as they embraced the Mahoning Valley’s bustling entrepreneurial spirit. In 1932, Frank M. Hoover reSee, Y-TOWN page 20

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Youngstown: Fostered Entrepreneurs From Page 20 turned to Youngstown from Detroit after working in the steel industry; he maintained the important connections he had made in the auto industry. Hoover started his own company to manufacture gearshift knobs for automobiles. By the mid-1930s, however, automakers were installing more automatic transmissions in their cars, which all but put Hoover out of business. By 1935, he was looking for another line of products to manufacture. Then, an idea hit him after he observed his infant son, Dean, playing with salesman samples of colored square chips strung together on a small chain. “He saw that it gave me so much pleasure that he decided to go into the baby toy business,” recalls Dean Hoover. By 1938, Hoover says, his father started manufacturing round, plastic ﬂat discs on a chain that rattled. That product provided the foundation for the Plakie Toy Co., which originated in Youngstown. By 1942, the company had diversified into other toy products, but World War II and rationing changed its production methods because plastic was rationed, Hoover says. “So, they produced wooden toys.” In 1943, Frank Hoover pitched a new idea – a “play key” – to the company’s board of directors, and the name “Plakie” was added to the toymakers’ lexicon. Once the war ended, business took off, Hoover

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recalls. “My father purchased the eighth plastic blow-mold machine ever sold in the world” to enhance the operation. “He was very much ahead of his time.” The company moved to a new production plant on Simon Road in Boardman. However, the real transition for the company came when Frank Hoover died in 1960 and the business operations fell on the shoulders of his wife, and Dean’s mother, Dorothy. “She took the company in an entirely different direction,” Hoover recalls. “My mom was a designer, and she started to take the company into cloth products, and she did a great job.” In 1960, the company did $2 million worth of business; Dorothy Hoover and her son eventually steered the company to sales of $4.25 million a year. “We employed about 225 people,” Hoover says. By the 1960s, Plakie was producing designer blankets, nursery crib sheets, cloth toys, children’s books with cloth covers, dolls and dust rufﬂes. “As a designer, she was very much ahead of her time and was at the forefront of the nursery decorating ﬁeld. No one had ever done that before,” Hoover says. However, by the mid-1980s, higher production costs and increased competition led to declining sales. The operation closed in 1992 and was liquidated in 1997. But one toy, “a Humpty-Dumpty product designed by my mother is still being marketed by another company,” Hoover says. “So, that entrepreneurial spirit is still there.”

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Jessica Trickett, manager of collections and curatorial services at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, displays a pull toy manufactured by the Plakie Toy Co. during the 1940s.

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Butler’s Legacy Extends Beyond Art Institute Biographer portrays three facets of Youngstown philanthropist. By Dan O’Brien

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here is the Joseph G. Butler Jr. whose name most people in the Mahoning Valley know well. This Butler was an aggressive collector and supporter of American art who turned his passion into the cornerstone of one of the most important museums in the world dedicated solely to that genre. Then there is the philanthropist Joseph G. Butler Jr. whose generous support led to the building of libraries and hospitals in Youngstown, including what today is St. Elizabeth Medical Center. And there is the industrial magnate and political benefactor Joseph G. Butler Jr. who, in shaping the economy of the Mahoning Valley, reﬂected the bigotry and prejudices of his time. The Butler Institute of American Art is just one accomplishment in this extraordinary life during which Butler wielded extensive inﬂuence, displayed widespread interests, and helped shape – and was shaped by – the Mahoning Valley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Joe Lambert, a nursing home administrator for Windsor House Inc., recently completed a biography of the industrialist who cast a huge shadow yet is forgotten today except for his great cultural legacy. “There are three different sides to Butler,” Lambert says. “One is the philanthropist who loved rubbing elbows with the public” as evidenced by his support of community efforts, hospitals, libraries and the creation of the Butler Institute. Another is the iron and steel magnate: a brilliant businessman present at the creation of an industry that transformed the Mahoning Valley economy and made his fortune off the backs of immigrant labor – a segment of society Butler looked upon with suspicion. And last, Lambert says, there was Butler the author and political operative whose relationships stretched from the White House to England’s House of Lords. “I wanted to tell the story of this local man who had connections and inﬂuence all over the world,” he says. “You have to often wonder how many people come and visit the museum and don’t really know who Joe Butler was.” Lambert ﬁrst became interested in Butler while studying history in graduate school at Youngstown State University during the early 1990s, when he was also working part-time at the Ohio Historical Center for Industry and Labor. “His name kept popping up everywhere,” he recalls. Butler was born in 1840 in Mercer County, Pa., the son of an iron producer and owner of a blast furnace. “He literally had iron in his blood,” Lambert says. Thus, the narrative of Butler’s life correlates with the industrial development of the United States and a region that would, within a half-century, emerge as one of the world’s largest steel-producing hubs. His family moved to Niles when Butler was about 4. It was here that Butler met and attended school with a future president of the United States, William McKinley. “Their fathers had shared business inter-

Biographer Joseph Lambert stands before the portrait of Joseph G. Butler Jr. at the art institute that bears Butler’s name.

ests and they became friends,” Lambert notes. Butler started his career with the iron producer James Ward & Co. in Niles, where he was a company clerk. “He never really engaged in the rough and tumble work” of the company’s rolling mills, Lambert says. At age 30, Butler struck out on his own and pursued iron production in Girard and Youngstown. Soon, the venture led to the establishment of the Brier Hill Co. and relationships that would propel the industrialist into the heart of the steel industry. In 1892, he joined with Henry Wick to form the Ohio Steel Co., which built two Bessemer furnaces along the Mahoning River. In 1899, the company was sold to the National Steel Co., and in 1901, the plant became the Ohio Works of the newly formed U.S. Steel Corp. By the ﬁrst decade of the 20th century, Lambert says, Butler was regarded as an elder statesman among iron and steel producers who affectionately referred to him as “Uncle Joe.” Butler served as director of the American Iron and Steel Institute and president of Portage Silica Co; he also was a director at The Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., Youngstown Suburban Railway Co., Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. and Commercial National Bank of Youngstown. He was selected as a member of the American Industrial Commission to France in 1916, a privately sponsored delegation formed and staffed with leading industrialists to investigate the impact of World War I on French manufacturing. It’s likely most of his workers didn’t hold Butler in the same esteem his peers accorded him. “He wasn’t a saint by any means,” Lambert notes. “No doubt, he took advantage of immigrant labor and had no

problem breaking labor strikes.” Indeed, in his three-volume History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, published in 1921, Butler is quick to blame unrest, strikes and the attempt at organizing labor in the region’s steel industry on foreign-born workers. In 1916, workers at Youngstown Sheet & Tube’s plant in East Youngstown – today, Campbell – went on strike, spurred by the company’s refusal to pay higher wages. A confrontation Jan. 7 between mill guards and strikers spilled out into the city, ending in a disastrous riot in which the business district was torched and many buildings burned to the ground. The Ohio National Guard was called in to restore order. To Butler, the riot was “merely a drunken orgy among workmen of foreign birth.” Jan. 7, he noted, was celebrated as Orthodox Christmas among workers in East Youngstown, and provoked “as usual, much bibulousness [drinking] among the immigrants from Southern Europe.” Again, during the steel strike of 1919, Butler, in his History, singles out immigrant workers as the culprits. Organizers “were practically all radically inclined foreigners and freely threatened others,” especially those American-born workers who may have resisted a strike. Lambert says Butler was cut from the same cloth as other industrialists of his era and held the same, paternalistic attitudes when it came to immigrant labor. “He wanted to ‘Americanize’ them,” he writes, “and wanted them all to learn English.” Still, Butler was enthusiastic about becoming See BUTLER, page 23

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1920: When the Dealers Bailed Out Henry Ford From Page 1 In debt to the tune of $60 million, and armed with just $20 million in cash with the notes due in April 1921, Henry Ford confronted the possibility of losing control of his company to East Coast bankers, whom he despised. Ford either had to come up with the money or face ruin. The company conducted a massive rummage sale, cut jobs, and slashed prices of autos to draw in more business. Still, Ford wound up short. To stave off bankruptcy, the pioneer automaker seized upon a novel – but shrewd – idea. By 1920, there were nearly 7,000 Ford Motor dealerships across the country. Owning such a dealership during this period was like owning a goldmine, and Henry Ford knew it. Ford’s answer was to ship everything he had – about $88 million worth of inventory and parts – to these dealers, demanding cash on delivery. If the dealership refused, its franchise would be revoked, ending forever a lucrative relationship with the Ford Motor Co. “In 1920, our dealership sold 312 Model T’s,” says Betty Birrell, wife of the late Robert Birrell, whose father,

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enough revenue to retire his debt and Andrew, started the A.G. Birrell Co. in pocket a $20 million surplus. When Kinsman. “That was a lot of cars for a community this size.” the Great Depression hit during the Ford’s tactic paid off. In squeezing 1930s, Ford used the same strategy to raise cash. the dealers, he placed the burden on “In those days, Ford could be awlocal franchises that were forced to fully generous in many ways, too,” borrow money from local banks to recalls Betty Birrell. “They took good purchase these new vehicles. Some care of their dealers.” dealerships that were undercapitalized and not wellA.G. Birrell Co. diversified didn’t “You have to understand started selling cars make it, but those in 1908 and bethat survived – and Henry Ford’s perspective,” came a licensed most did – cashed Birrell relates. “He needed F o rd d e a l e r i n in big when the to push dealers to sell more 1914, one of sevin Ohio at the market rebounded vehicles. And you needed to en later in the 1920s. time and the 134th Historian Doug- drive your salesmen.” Ford franchise in las Brinkley, in his the country. Today, book Wheels for the World: Henry the company is a towing business operated by Robert Birrell Jr., Andrew’s Ford, His Company and a Century of grandson. He surrendered the Ford Progress, writes “nearly every dealerdealership in 2002. ship” accepted Ford’s scheme. But Birrell says her father-in-law was what angered many dealers was that occasionally called to Ford Motor the company abandoned its traditional Co.’s headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., franchise agreements and allowed along with 10 or so other dealers, to Ford dealerships to compete in territories that were once the domain of meet with Ford personally. “He had other Ford franchises. The idea was great respect for Henry Ford, and was to encourage cutthroat competition proud to be called in.” and boost sales. Those meetings were usually held By April 1921, Ford had generated in Ford’s Highland Park plant, and the dealers would sit around a table set so spare that it offered nothing but crackers, cheese and bottles of milk for refreshments, Birrell relates. “Ford wanted to discuss problems with the cars, deliveries and service. He wanted to keep track of what was going on and what needed ﬁxed,” she says. Years later, during the 1950s, after Ford had died and his grandson, Henry Ford II became company president, Birrell recalls accompanying her husband and father-in-law on a trip to Dearborn, where they were treated to lavish luncheons and dinners. “A.G. would just shake his head and say how things had changed since the early �� days,” she recalls. �� The Kinsman dealership survived Ford’ s money grab during the reces�� sion of 1920-1921 and the Great De�� pression largely because the business was not tied to a single operation, says Robert Birrell Jr. “There was a parts business, a repair shop, a fuel station, �� a towing operation, a hauling busi�� ness. We worked on everything, and �� were very diversiﬁed,” he says. �� “You have to understand Henry Ford’s perspective,” Birrell relates. “He �� needed to push dealers to sell more �� vehicles. And you needed to drive �� your salesmen.” In the 1920s, Ford Model T’s rolled off the assembly line in Dearborn, then �� were disassembled into large modules and shipped by rail to a distribution

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hub near Cleveland, Birrell says. Workers unloaded the boxcars, assembled the modules on the spot and drove the vehicles to dealerships. A 1908 Model T still sits in A.G. Birrell Co.’s shop. “Ford even used portions of discarded wooden boxes that parts came in for the ﬂoorboards,” he laughs. When he was a boy, Birrell recalls, he often sat in on meetings with his father, grandfather and representatives of Ford. “Often, they would talk about the Depression and how bad it was,” he recalls. “They always told me to just listen.” During the hard times, the company bartered goods and services with others in the rural community, Birrell says. “People would show up on Sundays and work off a debt, or would pay in crops or chickens.” These meetings taught the younger Birrell valuable business lessons he would ﬁnd useful later in life. “I remember them saying, ‘There’s going to come a time when they’ll ask you to do something you don’t want to do.’ ” Such a moment came in 1980, when Ford again started pushing unsolicited orders on dealers during an economic downturn. Birrell, who was then running the dealership, refused to accept the six vehicles the company allocated to A.G. Birrell Co. “I told them I wasn’t going to take the vehicles and never allowed them to unload the cars,” he says, despite Ford’s threats to terminate the franchise. Still, once business picked up, and the dealership started moving more vehicles out of its showroom, business continued with Ford. The last straw came in 2002, Birrell says. The next year marked the 100th anniversary of the Ford Motor Co. and the automaker mandated that dealers across the country display new signage commemorating the occasion. Birrell says it would have cost the company $40,000 to replace the sign, a huge expense for a small dealership. “So, I opted to surrender the franchise,” he says. “At that time, I think we were the oldest franchise operating in the country.” In an unusual move, Ford Motor Co. purchased the dealership’s assets and parts inventory. “We probably had about $100,000 worth of parts, and they took it all.” Birrell says the business had changed by then, and the company saw its future in developing its expanding towing operation. “The Ford dealership was a very good business to be in,” he says. “But, it became tougher the smaller you were.”

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Butler Mingled with U.S. Presidents By Dan O’Brien

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hroughout his illustrious life, the founder of the Butler Institute of American Art was an inﬂuential industrialist and a forceful player in local and national politics. He was also a man conﬁdent of the signiﬁcance of those roles and who wanted to preserve that involvement for posterity. Joseph G. Butler was the author of eight books, among which were his three-volume History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley (1921) and his autobiography, Recollections of Men and Events (1925). These and other lesser-known works such as Presidents I Have Seen and Known (1910), and Fifty Years of Iron and Steel (1923), were printed in limited editions and reserved mainly for close friends and associates. While Butler’s History and other works are couched in archaic prose and offer little in terms of comprehensive history, they are nonetheless valuable in presenting the perspectives of the industrial hierarchy during the dawn of the iron and steel industry in the Mahoning Valley, not to mention the political muscle that accompanied this rise. These books tell the story of Butler rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, his travels abroad, and relationships with U.S. presidents, most notably his friend William McKinley. In Presidents I Have Seen and Known, Butler recounts his father’s meeting with Abraham Lincoln and his ﬁrst glimpse of the president-elect, who stopped in Cleveland in February 1861 to deliver a brief speech en route to his inauguration. Butler writes his father “called on Lincoln at Springﬁeld, Ill., soon after his nomination for the presidency; he was received with great cordiality.” His father wrote him a letter – which he lost – describing the interview with Lincoln. “I remember one clause well enough to reproduce it; it read: ‘Whatever may happen, slavery is doomed.’ This

An etching of Joseph G. Butler, courtesy of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.

was father’s individual opinion after meeting with Lincoln.” Months later, Butler got his ﬁrst and only glimpse of Lincoln in Cleveland. “The president spoke from the second balcony of the old Weddell House; and I stood immediately under and heard him quite distinctly. He was dressed in a suit of clothes that looked as if it was not tailor-made, ﬁtted loosely; and he, at that time, had a smooth face.” Butler, who heaped praise on Lincoln, had scant respect for his successor, Andrew Johnson. After Johnson delivered a speech in Cleveland, Butler writes, he saw the 17th president “arm in arm with Secretary [of State William] Seward. Johnson was intoxicated and had to be helped to a seat. I was sick at heart, felt humiliated and left the scene.” The recollections, which continue through the presidency of William Howard Taft, describe Butler’s

encounters with Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and his “considerable correspondence” with James A. Garﬁeld. “I became very well acquainted with him in subsequent years,” Butler writes. “When he passed through on his way to Washington, he came by way of Youngstown, and I happened to be on the same train from Cleveland, and had the honor of introducing him as the next president of the United States to the Youngstown audience.” Butler’s relationship with President McKinley clearly stands out above all his ties to national politics. “I went to school with him and was his daily companion” when the two grew up in Niles. Butler was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1900 that renominated McKinley for president and nominated Theodore Roosevelt as vice president. “I remember asking McKinley how he was satisﬁed with his running mate, Roosevelt. He replied: ‘Just as I wanted it,’ and added, with a smile: ‘It’s going to be very hard for Roosevelt to sit still long enough to preside in the Senate.’ ” Butler also worked closely with Mark Hanna, the Cleveland industrialist who spearheaded McKinley’s election in 1896 and re-election in 1900. McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and Butler served as a pallbearer at the president’s funeral. His death inspired Butler to campaign for a memorial near McKinley’s birthplace in Niles. Butler writes that his association with Roosevelt began at the Republican Convention of 1900. “I was in favor of his nomination for vice president against the wishes of all the other delegates from our state. I thought it was good politics to nominate him and worked to that end, and had a small part in securing his agreement to accept the nomination.” He continued to have associations and correspond with U.S. presidents until his death in 1927.

Butler: Industrialist’s Legacy Extends Far Beyond Art Institute From Page 21 involved in his community and his energies earned the admiration and respect of Youngstown residents. “I got a sense there was a genuine affection for this man,” Lambert says Butler reveled in the durable political relationships he forged, Lambert notes, most prominently his friendship with McKinley and his acquaintance with President James A. Garﬁeld. Garﬁeld was assassinated in 1881, McKinley in 1901. Butler served as an honorary pallbearer at the funerals of both. Butler worked methodically as an effective political insider, Lambert says. In 1910, Butler wrote a short memoir, Presidents I Have Seen and Known. The book, published and circulated only among friends, tells of Butler’s encounters with presidents that began with his glimpse of Abraham Lincoln in 1861 in Cleveland as the president-elect was en route to his inauguration. That was followed by his correspondence and meetings with Garﬁeld, McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. It was Butler who convinced the Niles Board of Trade to support a memorial dedicated to the memory of McKinley and helped secure funds to

build the National McKinley Birthplace Memorial. The monument was dedicated Oct. 5, 1917; former President Taft delivered the dedication address. Butler held considerable sway in the national Republican Party, adds Bill Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. “If you were a Republican and were running for ofﬁce, you came to Youngstown to see Joe Butler,” he says. But it was Butler’s deep dedication to community improvement efforts that brought him so much esteem during his day, Lambert says. Butler donated money to construct libraries, bought and sent books to small towns across the country where his companies held mining interests, and spearheaded a campaign that raised $100,000 in a single week to lay the groundwork for what became St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown. Meantime, he began to quietly build his art collection in his home on Wick Avenue. “As he became more inﬂuential and traveled abroad,” Lambert relates, “Butler noticed there weren’t a lot of American artists represented in Europe.” That was one factor that motivated him to become a serious collector of American art, says Lou Zona,

director of the Butler Institute. “There was this general feeling that all art was in Europe,” he says. “He was buying and collecting works of American artists when no one else was. He loved it.” The Butler is considering publishing Lambert’s book, Zona says, but “can’t do it now [on a large scale]. He’s done a thorough job,” drawing from a vast bank of resources in the museum’s collection, such as Butler’s letters and photographs. A ﬁre at the Butler house in December 1917 swept through the third ﬂoor, destroying all but one of the industrialist’s paintings. In his autobiography, Butler noted he then determined to build a new art gallery that “would be a credit to Youngstown.” Lambert says his research shows plans for The Butler were well under way when the ﬁre broke out. “He lived in a fairly modest home,” his biographer says, “considering his wealth.” In 1918, Butler was struck by a car and “never fully recovered,” Lambert says. From then until his death, he published his autobiography and wrote his History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. Butler died Dec. 20, 1927, one day shy of his 87th birthday.

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his 1956 photograph shows no traffic along U.S. Route 224, but the parking lot of the new Boardman Plaza is packed, demonstrating the growing appetite for retail businesses in the suburbs. The Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. opened the shopping center in 1950, one of the ﬁrst strip plazas in the country. In 1970, the company would build the Southern Park Mall, adding to what would become one of northeastern Ohio’s busiest commercial corridors.

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saly’s Dairy in on West Federal Street in Youngstown became a favorite among downtown shoppers. During the 1930s, Isaly’s embarked on an art deco-style for its dairy production centers, the most notable of which was located on Mahoning Avenue in Youngstown.

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ulli Bros. opened in 1917 in Youngstown and carried “just about everything,” says Frank Rulli, son of co-founder Nick Rulli. The business set up shop at 345 East Federal St. in downtown’s East End, which featured a diverse ethnic base. Rulli’s closed the store in the late 1960s and today operates stores in Austintown and Boardman.

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eter Deibel’s Sons Meat Market, at 213 West Federal St. in downtown Youngstown, was established during the late 19th century. This photograph, taken in 1893, exempliﬁes the types of small businesses that served Youngstown’s expanding population as more workers and immigrants ﬂocked to the city to work in the burgeoning iron and steel industries.

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iven a choice between spending time in the great outdoors or in a building, we’ll opt for the former every chance we get. Hiking on a scenic mountain trail (albeit one that’s rated “easy”), sitting on a bench while the sun goes down over a large body of water or watching wildlife roaming in nature preserve are far preferable to being cooped up within four walls.

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ut sometimes, life intervenes. That mountain trail isn’t nearly as appealing when it’s oozing mud; a cloudy night doesn’t make for great sunsets; and most wildlife have sense enough to stay out of the rain. Faced with those obstacles, what’s a weather-challenged traveler to do? Head indoors, of course – and in many of the places we visit, that turns out to be a museum. When the northeastern Ohio weather starts to turn iffy, we start looking for mini-trips not far from home – and here, too, museums ﬁt the bill perfectly. In fact, a recent “ﬁnd” on the way home from one of our forays to Lake Erie prompted us to focus a search on transportation-related museums. For the record, yes, there’s a wonderful museum in Warren that ﬁts the bill: the National Packard Museum. But we’ve written about it here before, so we wanted to bring some other neat places to our readers’ attention this time.

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t was a huge black locomotive engine outside what appeared to be an old train depot that brought our car to a halt on our way home from Conneaut. Turns out we were right about the building’s former use, too; it’s the former New York Central depot, built in 1900, which now houses the Conneaut Railroad Historical Museum. The museum is operated by the Conneaut Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society with an all-volunteer staff and free admission. That 220-ton engine outside – a Nickel Plate Berkshire Engine No. 755 – was built in 1944, retired in 1957 and moved to the museum’s outdoor tracks in 1964. Standing proudly behind it are a hopper and bright red caboose, and visitors can peek inside them all. Inside the old depot are many more treasures, including several large-scale models of locomotives and equipment and an expansive HO gauge railroad layout. There’s a replica ticket ofﬁce and lots of display cases ﬁlled with old photographs, lanterns, keys, timetables, model trains as well as one of the rarest items, an 1866 stock certiﬁcate from the old Red River Line to New York City. More History: After you’ve seen everything this place has to offer, walk across the tracks to the Conneaut Area Historical Society’s building in the former New York Central freight depot. Here, too, admission is free; the focus is on the history of Conneaut which, like the city of Cleveland, was founded by surveyor Moses Cleaveland.

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t least once a year, we try to make the drive to Erie, Pa. – usually to spend some quality time at Presque Isle State Park. If time permits, we’ll stop at the Erie Maritime Museum, the operating base of the U.S. Brig Niagara. The museum, opened in 1998, offers multi-media ex-

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hibits and interpretive programs that showcase the region’s maritime history. Major exhibits include a steam-powered electricity generating station and a reconstruction of the mid-section of the Lawrence, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s ﬁrst ﬂagship during the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812. The Niagara, naval history buffs will recall, is the “relief” ship Perry captained to victory on Sept. 10, 1813. It was at the end of this battle that Perry uttered his classic message, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Nearly 190 years and several reconstructions later, the Niagara is once again seaworthy. When

In Search of:

Planes, Trains & Seagoing Vessels By Monnie Ryan

she’s home, one-day educational sailing excursions can be booked, while those truly serious about learning how to sail a square-rigged vessel can sign on for longer-term seamanship training courses and tour apprenticeships. More History: We assume you’ll do as we do when in Erie and take in the natural beauty of the park. But on your way in (or out), be sure to take a tour of the Tom Ridge Environmental Center at the park’s entrance. The center, open year-round, is dedicated to providing visitors with everything they should know about the 3,200-acre Presque Isle.

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he red-and-white replica of a lighthouse that once guarded the Lake Erie shores in Vermilion, Ohio, stands just outside the home of the Great Lakes Historical Society and the Inland Seas Maritime Museum. In addition to attracting visitors from around the world to see the many maritime artifacts, documents, artwork and models, the maritime research library is a favorite of scholars, including those from the History and Discovery channels. The two-ﬂoor maritime museum was added to provide more exhibit space, and later still the Lake Erie shipwreck research center was opened in an annex behind the museum to house a database of Lake Erie shipwrecks – reportedly the most extensive in the country. The original lighthouse, for which funds were appropriated in 1847, fell into disrepair but was rebuilt from wood and topped by a whale lamp surrounded by red glass; still, it wasn’t strong enough to withstand the harsh Lake Erie weather. Another lighthouse, this time made from cast iron, was commissioned and built. By 1929, it, too, was in danger

of falling over, so it was dismantled and the pieces were hauled away to an unknown location. Fast-forward to 1991, when volunteers who didn’t want their historical structure to be lost forever succeeded in raising $55,000 to build a 16-foot replica of the 1877 lighthouse – the structure that stands today. Ironically, after the replica was built, the original lighthouse was found. Since 1935, it’s been standing off Cape Vincent at the entrance to the Saint Lawrence Seaway under a new name – East Charity Shoal Lighthouse. More History: Ohio’s largest one-day festival (or so it’s said) is held in Vermillion each October, so you might time your visit to take in the 37th annual Woollybear Festival next fall. The idea was hatched by Fox TV8 meteorologist Dick Goddard and started in the nearby town of Birmingham. When it outgrew that small community, it was relocated here.

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e concluded our transportation search at the MAPS Air Museum in North Canton. MAPS is an acronym for the Military Aviation Preservation Society, and the museum staff takes pride in the fact that everything is run by volunteers (drawn from a membership base of about 300, we learned). Located at one end of the Akron-Canton Airport, the museum includes two buildings; the main museum and gift shop plus a second one that’s used for reconstruction and repair of aircraft and to house an astounding 2,200 model airplanes, all sorted by country of origin and timeline. That building also houses the Louise Timken Research Library. The museum is dedicated to displays of vintage aircraft and aviation artifacts and memorabilia. Guided tours begin with a stroll through the hangar, where several vintage planes are parked. Immediately, we spotted a 1916 Sopwith Triplane – the plane most often identiﬁed with Baron Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the “Red Baron.” Our guide explained that the plane is unique because as the propeller rotates, so does the engine. Thus, the only way to slow it down is to shut off the engine (which we suspect would have made landing a bit of a challenge). Also in the hangar is an F-14B jet. The airplane, built in 1970, it is one of 671 made by Grumman Aerospace Corp., and was ﬂown to the museum about ﬁve years ago and decommissioned inside the hangar. Still another interesting plane is a Boeing 324 Clipper, which offered private rooms for passengers and was “just for rich people,” our guide whispered. Even the air space is put to good use; a 1908 Martin Glider, for instance, is suspended from the ceiling of the hangar. A room just off the hangar called the Gallery of Honors is no less impressive; here are old armed services uniforms, medals and photographs and special sections dedicated to events and people like Pearl Harbor and the Tuskegee Airmen. More History: Have lunch or dinner at the 356th Fighter Group Restaurant at the south runways of the airport. The 356th was an airborne team that fought in the European Theater, ﬂying P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs to complete a total of 413 combat missions; the restaurant is dedicated to these heroes of World War II.

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The Business Journal

BY MONNIE RYAN

Wire Service Online Tools Help �� You Manage Money �� Track your ﬁnances, learn from experts.

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veryone I know is looking anywhere and everywhere for ways to cut costs and keep expenses – whether household or business – under control. And that’s probably a good thing; if most economists are to be believed, the next couple of years aren’t exactly going to be a walk in the economic park. Even after things start to ease up, I don’t intend to stop looking for Web sites that offer free (or low-cost) products, services and advice that help me get organized and save money. And since my mom always taught me to share, I’ll let you in on some of the good stuff that turns up. Let’s start with getting a handle on your ﬁnances. One of the best free sites I’ve found is www.mint.com. Not only are there helpful blogs on saving for retirement and paying off debt, you can download free software that allows you to list your accounts in one place, create a budget and more. Other tools help you pay down debt and even buy a new car. In addition, the site automatically compares your bank account and credit card rates to others out there, showing you how and where you can reap substantial savings. If something suspicious is going on in any of your accounts – or you’re being hit with a late fee on a credit card – you’ll be alerted instantly. I admit I’m not much for the stock market, but I know lots of folks who are always on the prowl for investment opportunities and maximizing returns on their money. If that’s you – or you just want to get a better handle on what your broker is doing – give www. stockhouse.com a try. It is, states the home page, a community of “investors who trade ideas on high growth investment sectors, market trends, small cap stocks and more.” Resources include a portfolio tracker to keep an eye on stocks, mutual funds, options and such (the delayed data version is free). The

Streaming Portfolio Manager, which costs $12.95 a month, provides data in real time. Want it on your BlackBerry? No problem. Financial calculators help you determine such things as the future value of your savings, conversion rates for world currencies and the current value of your stock investment. Blogs, message boards and groups allow you to learn from others and share your insights. And, of course, there are snapshot summaries of the markets, “hot” stocks compiled by state, and updates on the commodities, metals, bonds and currencies markets. It’s hard to think of the name Bloomberg without thinking of money, so it almost goes without saying that the Bloomberg.com Web site is one that shouldn’t be missed. I’m always drawn to the breaking news, which is displayed prominently on the home page. Be sure to check the investment tools. More than 50 different calculators help you keep tabs on your ﬁnances (i.e., is it more cost-effective to rent or buy? Will it really pay for your spouse to get a job? If you’re leaving an employer, should you spend or save your 401(k)? If you’re a ﬁnancially challenged person like me, start with the glossary of ﬁnancial terms. For just about anything moneyrelated, it’s hard to beat CNNMoney. com. On the home page alone you’ll ﬁnd breaking news as well as updates by categories such as technology, small business, real estate and personal ﬁnance. At my last visit, the credit crunch took center stage – with discussions and analyses of rising bankruptcies in the retail sector, salary increases that are slim to none and how foreign automakers stand to beneﬁt from a government bailout of the Detroit Big 3. Dig a little deeper and you’ll ﬁnd an extensive section on personal ﬁnance. Interested in starting or growing a small business? Yep, there’s a section on that as well, jam-packed with advice beginning with eight places to look for ﬁnancing when you can’t get a bank loan.

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Palo Finds New Image Is Everything for Clients Messages and products must be relevant in consumer culture. By Dan O’Brien

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hen your company’s product still comes attached with a promotional endorsement from 1950s television icons Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody, it’s time for a creative makeover. Even the most successful businesses need to tweak their images from time to time, or in some cases, revamp their marketing campaigns to ensure messages or products are relevant in a changing consumer culture. That’s the approach Palo Creative, Boardman, takes when the advertising and marketing ﬁrm sits down with a client and explores objectives to improve reach and visibility, says its president and chief creative ofﬁcer. “It’s really cool doing what we do,” observes Rob Palowitz. “It’s great to be in at the early development stages of a corporate logo, or launch a new corporate identity. Then, you can’t wait to see it in the media.” Today, Palowitz says the bulk of the company’s marketing focus is devoted to developing a client’s corporate presence on the Internet. “We’re a homegrown technology ﬁrm that handles Web design and development,” he says. The ﬁrm stresses the need to integrate print, television and radio into coordinated marketing campaigns. As a small agency, Palowitz says, Palo Creative is well-positioned to weather the downturn in the economy because it’s not saddled with the overhead larger ﬁrms have. The company also has the advantage of bringing together the entire creative team to hammer out fresh ideas and marketing strategies for clients. “One of the best things we’re doing now is integrating video into a client’s Web site,” Palowitz says. Recently, Palo developed a site for Heartland Bowhunter, an outdoor sportsmen’s company based in Kansas City, Mo. Palowitz says Heartland was impressed with the quality of the ﬁrm’s video capabilities and wanted to post a half-hour program on its Web site. Palowitz, himself an avid outdoor sportsman, says the company contacted Palo and asked it to revamp its Web site to improve its video quality. So Palo helped put together a Web site that could also host Heartland’s new,

half-hour video. “What we want to do is evaluate the message, and determine what the client wants, and what the consumer will think.” Chip Atkins, creative director at Accent Media LLC, Youngstown, says his company often works closely with Palo on video projects to enhance a client’s image or visibility. “Our companies are quite similar in that we’ve both got a lot of young blood,” he says. “They’re a company that’s open to using new ideas so the product says fresh.” Accent is working with Palo to set up a Web video for a manufacturer in Cleveland, and recently helped produce television commercials for another Palo client, Witmer’s Farm Equipment in Columbiana. Among the ﬁrst orders of business Palo considers is the company’s target market, Palowitz says. “You need to dissect demographics, and sometimes it’s hard for clients to answer that.” For example, a product geared toward men and women born between 1980 and 1994 – known as “Generation Y” – is a group that demands special attention, Palowitz says. This is the market most apt to be reached by new media such as advertising via personal digital assistants – BlackBerrys, for example – banner advertising on the Internet and marketing through cell phones. Still, the latest gizmos mustn’t deter marketers from what Palowitz calls “B.R.A.N.D,” his acronym for “Be Repetitive And Never Deviate.” Consistency is a must in the advertising industry. “The trick is to immerse the B.R.A.N.D. philosophy by examining national trends, a client’s competition and target market,” he notes. Palo Creative began as a homebased business in 1999, Palowitz says. “I was doing a lot of freelance work and I wanted to make it full-time,” he says. Today, the company employs eight, and “looks to grow to a point where it’s still manageable.” Palo’s clients range from local businesses to companies based in Wisconsin, Idaho, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. “Most of our business is derived from referrals or our own Web site,” he says. But growing too big, too fast could hamper the close relationships the firm has with its clients, Palowitz notes. “Each client has access to our entire team,” he says. “I don’t want to lose that.”

Rob Palowitz, Mike Nyers, seated, and Will Perez, collaborate on a marketing campaign for a client. Palo Creative specializes in developing the client’s Internet presence as well as comprehensive campaigns that ensure its message is relevant in a changing consumer culture.

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How to Confront Employees Criticism doesn’t always happen when and how it should. Often, out of fear of being disliked, some managers avoid confrontation by ignoring the need for criticism, or by watering down deserved criticism so that it means little or nothing. No matter how well-intended criticism may be or how diplomatically you deliver it, it almost always stings the recipient and frequently carries the potential to cause resentment. So how should you handle criticism in the context of day-to-day working relationships? Consider the following: • Criticism should always be speciﬁc, precisely identifying what’s wrong and what needs to be ﬁxed. Generalizations are always inappropriate. For example, “Your bad attitude is causing problems at the reception desk” is a generalization that tells the employee little. Rather, the individual needs to hear: “Yesterday alone, there were three complaints concerning how you spoke with people at the front desk,” adding the times and speciﬁcs of each complaint. Criticism that’s harsh and nonspeciﬁc can practically paralyze employees who are, in effect, being told they’re behaving wrongly, but not how they are doing so. • Criticism must always be private. The greatest transgression a manager can commit is criticizing in the presence of customers, employees or other managers. What transpires when one is criticized is the business only of the critic and the recipient. You should target the criticism toward the inappropriate action or offending behavior, never the person. You should focus on the results of behavior, never on the inferred cause of that behavior. For example, “This was not done according to instructions” instead of “You’re careless and don’t do what you’re told.” Attack the problem, never the person. • Criticism must always be timely. It should occur as soon after the errant behavior or performance as practical. The more time that passes between incident and criticism, the less meaningful the criticism. Late criticism is ineffective; criticism saved up for a later time, such as performance review, is useless in correcting behavior or performance and serves only to alienate the employee. • Sugarcoat the negatives – the perceived barbs and zingers – with politeness and diplomacy. Offer instructions and advice for correcting the problem. Criticism delivered without guidance for correction is destructive. Including guidelines for correction

Don’t Let the Economy Dampen Your Enthusiasm

makes criticism constructive. Nagging, scolding, insensitivity, name-calling and the like only put workers on the defensive. When defensiveness arises, the likelihood of an employee accepting the criticism is greatly reduced. • Balance necessary criticism with deserved praise. Employees who hear about what they’re doing wrong, but nothing about what they’re doing right, have legitimate cause to wonder whether they’re regarded as performing superbly, barely marginally or somewhere between. If you ﬁnd yourself uneasy with the notion of criticizing others, relax – what you’re feeling is normal. Even with signiﬁcant experience, we should always feel at least a slight edge of uneasiness when delivering criticism. The individual who can consistently criticize without feeling probably should not be managing people. Criticism requires a polite, considerate, diplomatic approach that should always encompass: • Praising when praise is earned or due and acknowledging what’s done right. • Speciﬁc delineation of what was done wrong. • Why what’s wrong is, in fact, wrong. • What can be done to correct the errant conduct or performance. SOURCES: National Federation of Independent Business, www.nﬁb.org. Ser vice Corps of Retired Executives, www. score.org.

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If any single thing is key to small-business success, it’s maintaining an optimistic, enthusiastic attitude. Even in the best of times, small-business owners and employees face daily challenges. When the economy is slowing, these challenges are magniﬁed. To overcome them and to keep moving forward, an enthusiastic attitude is crucial. Maintain a positive outlook. Small businesses are greatly affected by rises and falls in the general economy. These rises and falls are inevitable, so don’t let the falls demoralize you. Accept the reality of the business climate and make the most of what you have to work with. Cutting costs, pricing goods and services to be competitive, using employees in the best ways possible and learning how to be proﬁtable even in the leanest of times can create a company that will ﬂourish when the economy recovers and is positioned to withstand future economic slowdowns. Keep employees in mind. Your employees need to maintain a positive outlook during difﬁcult periods. When they read the news about the economy, it’s natural that they will be concerned about their futures – and their employer’s future. Talk with your employees about how their company is adapting to the changing economy. Inform them about decisions made by management. Never keep employees at arm’s length during difﬁcult times. This is a chance to create a tightly knit group that operates like a highly efﬁcient team. Inevitably, that’s the key to keeping a company in the black.

Tips to Conserve Capital • Determine your primary business of units sold, customers sold, average order, hours billed and so forth. Know what drives your business. • Pricing should be determined by the sum of product costs, service costs, image of the business, direct and indirect costs and a reasonable proﬁt. • Do not commit cash or capital until necessary. Don’t buy services before you need them. • Lease instead of buying when it makes sense. • Look for ofﬁce equipment that can do double duty, for example a fax machine that can also make copies.

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Legal Solutions Use Caution to Spot, Prevent Identity Theft By Kevin T. Murphy

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dentity theft is the fastestgrowing crime in America. Over the past y e a r, m o r e than 10 million Americans became victims of identity theft, resulting in losses of more than $60 billion. Identity theft happens when another person wrongfully obtains your personal information without your knowledge with the intent to commit fraud for economic gain. Identity thieves can access your personal information in many ways. They can steal your mail, hack into your bank accounts, or assume your name. Criminals may engage in dumpster diving, or rummaging through the trash of businesses or public dumpsters, and even your garbage cans at home, to ﬁnd your bank account information, credit card statements or any pre-approved offers you may have thrown away. Criminals may root through your mailbox, or they may call your business or home pretending to be someone else. They may pose as someone who may seem to have a legal right to your personal information. At the ofﬁce, they may pose as your credit-card company or ﬁnancial institution and may ask for bank account or other identifying information. Thieves sometimes steal records of a company’s employees. In public areas, identity thieves engage in shoulder surﬁng, by watching over your shoulder as you enter a PIN or a credit-card number. They also listen to the numbers when you recite them over the phone. The Internet is another source used by identity thieves to steal information. This is known as “phishing.” Criminals can gain your personal information when you respond to unsolicited e-mails and give away passwords or banking information. After the identity thieves steal your

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personal information, they can commit a wide range of crimes. Thieves may open fraudulent loans or complete credit-card applications. They can make unauthorized withdrawals from your bank account. In addition to economic loss, serious damage can occur to your reputation and good name. Make sure you keep your personal information as private and personal as possible. Stay alert and be aware of any signs that may require immediate attention. If any of your bills do not arrive as expected, or if you were denied credit for no apparent reason, you could be the victim of identity theft. Check your credit report to make sure your credit history is correct, and report any activities you did not authorize. You can obtain a free copy of your credit report each year from each of the three major credit reporting companies. If you think you may have become a victim of identity theft, you must act immediately to reduce the amount of damage caused to your ﬁnancial accounts, credit and good name. • Immediately contact any of the major credit bureaus and ask them to put a fraud alert on your credit report. Document all of your conversations with any of the credit bureaus. • Close all accounts that you suspect have been tampered with and conﬁrm that action in writing. • Contact your ﬁnancial institutions to advise them that you have been the victim of identity theft. • File a police report. • If you suspect that your mail has been intercepted, contact the U.S. Postal Service. • If your Social Security number has been used fraudulently, contact the Social Security Administration. Attorneys can guide you through the process and assist you in protecting your good name and financial well being. The author, Kevin P. Murphy, is a lawyer at Harrington, Hoppe & Mitchell Ltd. Reach him at [email protected] or at 330 392 1541.

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Youngstown Options Land for V&M Project T By George Nelson

he Youngstown Board of Control approved options Dec. 19 to acquire three sites for V&M Star Steel’s proposed $750 million expansion, a project that ofﬁcials could know the fate of by the end of next month. The board approved paying $5,000 for an option on the Brier Hill Slag Co. site in Youngstown, $15,000 for the former Demsey Steel site and $10,000 for the closed Sharp Lumber site, both in Girard. The options are for three months on the Brier Hill and Sharp properties, and six months on the Demsey site. The option on Brier Hill may be extended for two more three-month terms for an additional $5,000. V&M’s board of directors is in “the ﬁnal aspects of the decision process” on its proposed expansion of the Youngstown mill, says David Bozanich, city ﬁnance director, and he expects the company to make its decision by the end of January. The company manufactures pipe and tube, primarily for natural gas drilling and exploration. According to Mayor Jay Williams, the company wants to spend $750 million to expand its North American pipe and tube operations. One of the sites under consideration is land in Youngstown and Girard near V&M’s Youngstown plant. The cities are working together on the project and would share income and property taxes it would generate. The project is expected to add 300 jobs at the

mill, which employs 465, along with 200 indirect jobs and 400 construction jobs. If V&M moves forward, the city of Youngstown would pay up to $3.9 million for its 80 acres, $360,000 for the 14.76-acre Demsey property, and $340,000 for Sharp’s eight acres. Although V&M would reimburse Youngstown for the land purchases and infrastructure improvements as part of its development agreement, the city would hold the land and lease it to V&M. The city would also remediate the site, where an environmental study is under way.

Having the city own the property enables V&M to keep the environmental liability off its balance sheet, which averts a problem in obtaining ﬁnancing. During the 1980s, the state of Ohio assumed environmental indemnification on North Star Steel, the mill’s name under its previous owner, Cargill. The environmental issue would have been a “deal killer,” Bozanich says, “but the mayor stepped in and said, ‘We’ll own the property.’ That’s what made the deal work.”

Union Leader Says Severstal Keeps Mill Open WARREN, Dec. 23 – OAO Severstal’s purchase of WCI Steel Inc. last summer has kept the mill alive through one of the worst economic downturns in United States history. “We would have been out of business by midNovember” if not for the Russian company buying WCI’s assets in July, says Ed Machingo, president of Local 1375 of United Steelworkers of America. Employees at Severstal Warren learned the week before Christmas that the company was laying off 500 hourly workers and 125 salaried employees. Machingo says the layoffs are temporary, and Severstal anticipates all employees will be called back to work no later than May 1. The plant has idled its blast furnace, basic-oxygen furnace shop and caster.

“They’re still taking orders,” Machingo says. Instead of melting steel in-house, the company will purchase steel slab from sister steelmakers such as the former Wheeling-Pitt Corp., which Severstal purchased in the fall. The slab will be rolled and ﬁnished at Severstal Warren, then shipped to the company’s customers, Machingo says. The order book is so depleted at the moment that the company cannot justify ﬁring up the blast furnace and caster, he explains. Machingo says certain unemployment beneﬁts would not be available under the plant’s previous owner. “Severstal is a great company. They didn’t buy this mill to shut it down,” he observes. Severstal has committed $100 million toward new repairs and upgrades over a ﬁve-year period.

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BuildingBetterBusiness Companies Need a Vehicle Accident Policy Employees who drive on company time should have a checklist in their vehicles.

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anuary is typically the month when companies review their policies for compliance with federal and state laws. Managers need to make sure all employees are aware of all policies and acknowledge, with their signatures, that they have read and understand them. An often overlooked company policy is a vehicle accident policy. Any employee who drives a company vehicle or his or her own vehicle for company business should have an accident checklist in the vehicle. Should an accident occur, no matter how minor, these steps should be taken immediately: • Get help for the injured. Give help or comfort, but do not move any injured person. Moving a person may aggravate an injury. • Call the police. • Provide accurate information to the investigating ofﬁcer. Cooperate with the investigating ofﬁcer and provide whatever information is required. Avoid making incriminating statements (not even so much as, “Sorry, it was my fault”). Stick to the facts. Record the following information: • Witnesses’ names and addresses. • Police ofﬁcers’ names and their departments. • Other emergency personnel. Which ﬁre department, which ambulance company, which towing

BBB Resolves Disputes When people think about trust, they think about the Better Business Bureau. There is a good reason consumers, businesses and regulators respect the Better Business Bureau. We have earned the trust of the marketplace by working cooperatively with all parties to reinforce good business practices and assist people in ﬁnding solutions. The BBB has been helping resolve disputes for almost 100 years. Whether your company is a small local ﬁrm or large national corporation, we are here to share our expertise and experience with you and your customers. Our network of BBBs provide acknowledged experts in dispute resolution. A panel of 1,700 professional arbitrators – predominantly attorneys – partner with the BBB system to provide arbitration hearings that are local and yet consistent with overall program mandates. To explore opportunities for your company or industry, call 330 744 3111.

company, responded? • Make a sketch of the accident scene and, if possible, take pictures. Indicate the direction that the vehicles were traveling, stoplights, trafﬁc signs, street names and road conditions. • Ask the investigating ofﬁcer where and when a copy of the accident report can be obtained. • Exchange information if another driver is involved. Record the driver’s license number, vehicle license plate, registration and insurance company.

If passengers are in the vehicle involved in the accident, get their names and addresses. • Report any accident, no matter how minor, immediately to the supervisor along with a copy of the police report. Failure to do so can result in termination of employment. If you need more information on this company policy or others that your company should have in place, call the Youngstown BBB at 330 744 3111.

Do You Know the Janitor’s Name?

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y granddaughter Melissa just completed her master’s degree in business education and statistics at the University of Akron. I’m very proud of her because she worked very hard to get that degree. She worked full time to put herself through college. I always enjoyed talking to her By Pat Rose about school and the BBB President interesting and not-sointeresting classes she had to take to achieve her degrees. Most of all I remember the story she told about a ﬁnal exam she had to take before she was admitted to the master’s program. By this time, all the exams were tough but she studied hard and had passed everything except for this last class. She reviewed all her notes and felt conﬁdent that she would do OK. Then she read the ﬁnal question that accounted for 25% of the grade. It was, “What is the name of the person who cleans your dorm?” How could she be expected to know the name of the janitor? She and several others in the class questioned the professor if this answer really counted so much toward their grade. “Yes, it does,” said the teacher. “Most of you dream about being the president of a successful company, maybe even your own company, but success is a team effort. A good leader takes nothing for granted and recognizes the contributions made by everyone on the team – even those people who appear to do the most insigniﬁcant jobs” It was a lesson Melissa will never forget, nor will I. Truth is, I didn’t know anything about the main-

tenance people who took care of the building where the BBB is, but I do now. It is important for an organization to recognize that teamwork is essential to the company’s success. Think of teamwork as a tug of war. An unsuccessful team has three kinds of problem people who will prevent a company from being successful. Look for team members who give an all-out effort, but don’t pull in unison with their teammates. They are out of synch with everyone else. Another member may hold on to the rope but isn’t really pulling. They are part of the team in name only. The third and worst kind of teammate is one who actually pulls in the opposite direction. They work against their teammates and can poison a team with dissention. It is up to you to create a positive and diverse team. The person who maintains the equipment is a very important team member. This person can tell you what equipment is outdated or needs repairs. An appointment-setter and assistant to your sales team can tell you about trends in the marketplace. This person may be ﬁnding an unusually high rate of disconnected phones or returned mail. Or your customers may be saying to this person, “I’m not going to reorder. I haven’t been satisﬁed with the service I’ve been getting from your company.” How important is it for you to hear about these conversations? Very! Make sure you are never the one whose participation makes a team worse. I hope if you are a manager or business owner that you create teams of diverse members in your company and coach them to be the best source of ideas to continually improve your company. The Better Business Bureau wishes you and your team a more prosperous 2009 and a bright future in this Mahoning Valley. For more information about teamwork and how it can impact your company, call the BBB at 330 744 3111.

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18 Things Business Can Do Without Getting rid of the junk may make us more productive. Commentary by John R. Graham

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s companies whack away at their budgets, cutting out capital expenditures and dismissing employees, there is still room for additional sacriﬁces – things every business can easily do without, particularly in a time of economic distress. Here is what can be called a starter list of things we don’t need: 1. “We’re hunkering down.” Why do corporate types act so macho in good times and so wimpish when things get rough? Whenever trouble hits, they’re the ﬁrst to run for cover and let us know that it’s time to “hunker down.” What they’re really doing is letting the world know they haven’t got a clue about how to solve the problem. 2. “I am reaching out to you….” The words ooze nothing more than feigned sincerity. But don’t be fooled. Frightfully sinister and seductive, they’re just another way of saying, “I want to sell you something” or “I want you to do something for

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me.” Those who use them don’t care about anything other than getting their own way. Reach out all you want, but don’t touch. 3. Photos of people with a hand on their chins. For some unknown reason, this popular pose probably began in a last-ditch effort to make dumb executives and pseudo-professionals who lack basic critical thinking capabilities look smart. All they do is make them look stupid. 4. “Mr. Mason is going to be in your area on Friday. He would like to stop by….” This is an update on the antiquated and ineffective cold call. The only possible response when you hear this one: “Please tell Mr. Smith to have a nice lunch at McDonald’s.” 5. “We’ll exceed your expectations.” The time of death has come and gone for this one. No one knows what those three words mean. The phrase is another example of a “high level abstraction,” akin to love, taxes, hard work, patriotism and generosity. What is so utterly crazy is that we use the phrase without even pretending to know or understand someone’s expectations; yet, we make it clear that we are going to exceed them. Run from anyone who pulls this one on you. 6. “Best practices.” This belongs in the same class as “exceed your expectations.” Anyone who uses the term “best practices” thinks that just using the term makes a positive and powerful impression. It’s

another instance of verbal sleight of hand. You can be sure that those who speak so glibly about their best practices don’t have any. 7. “I would like to have a conversation with you about….” Similar messages continue to pop up, particularly in voice mail. While they sound genuine and sometimes a little breathy, don’t be deceived. “I want to sell you something” is the message. 8. Photos taken for business use with a consumer digital camera. Digital cameras are terriﬁc, but only in the hands of a professional photographer. Never let anyone else take your photo with a digital camera, unless you want to look ﬂat headed and fat. Your local police department can do a better job. 9. “I sent you information a couple of weeks ago…..” This one deserves extra attention, since it’s the most unsuccessful way to make contact with a prospect. It’s closely related to another loser, “I sent you information about our company….” If you’re serious about prospecting (most salespeople only think they are; they want a sale, not a customer), then the only successful strategy is to develop a campaign that is designed to create credibility by helping the recipient and offering value. If you’re not willing to be patient and practice persistence, maybe it’s time to get out of sales. 10. “I would like to conference with you.” This one is designed to establish the caller as a sophistiSee GRAHAM, page 38

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JANUARY 2009

TIPS FOR CLIMBING THE CAREER LADDER, COMPILED BY MONNIE RYAN

Getting Ahead

Dog Ate My Doctor’s Excuse No. 1 reason workers pretend to be sick is they don’t feel like working.

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ully one-third of workers called in sick using fake excuses over the past year, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual survey. Some, of course, get caught. Most employers typically don’t question reasons for absences, but 31% of survey respondents do check up and 18% have ﬁred a worker for missing work without a legitimate excuse. Reasons workers pretended to be sick include needing to relax and recharge (30%), go to a doctor’s appointment (27%), catch up on sleep (22%), run personal errands (14%) and catch up on housework or spend time with family and friends (11% each). But a substantial 34% just didn’t feel like going to work that day. Of the employers who checked up on an employee who called in sick, 71% said they required the employee to show them a doctor’s note while 56% called the employee at home, 18% had another worker call the employee, and 17% drove by the employee’s house or apartment. What are the most creative excuses employees gave for missing work? Here are samples (believe it or not): • I didn’t want to lose the parking space in front of my house. • I donated too much blood. • My dog was stressed out after a family reunion. • I had a heart attack early this morning, but I’m all better now. • My wife burned all my clothes and I had nothing to wear to work. • I swallowed too much mouthwash. • I injured my toe when a soda can fell out of the refrigerator.

Working Through Lunch? The average lunch break these days is 35 minutes compared with 42 minutes in 2003, ﬁnds a survey by OfﬁceTeam. What’s more, managers say they work through lunch more than half of their workweeks. In today’s 24/7 workplace, lunch breaks often take a back seat to e-mail, phone calls, meetings and pressing deadlines. Many people are doing

their jobs with fewer resources, and some work across time zones and forgo lunch breaks to accommodate their customers and colleagues’ schedules. Still, professionals need time away from their desks to recharge and remain productive – as well as to set an example for their staff, who also need a break. Here are some tips: • Plan your day. Schedule your break to fall between projects, if possible, and set morning deadlines for important tasks so you can relax. • Schedule lunch with colleagues. Change a team meeting to a working lunch outside the ofﬁce. The time away will improve your energy while maintaining productivity. • Step away from the desk. If you are unable to leave your building for lunch, take a walk around the ofﬁce. If possible, eat in the lunchroom or break area with colleagues. • Put work aside. If you have to be near your computer or phone, face your chair away and engage in an activity unrelated to work, such as reading a newspaper or magazine.

Job-Hopping Gen Y’s Constant job-hopping can create frustration for employers who prefer to get at least three years of service out of new employees before they move on. In fact, 70% of recent college graduates – those in the so-called Generation Y age group – leave their ﬁrst jobs within two years, ﬁnds a survey by Experience Inc. Jenny Floren, founder and chief executive ofﬁcer of Experience, offers these suggestions for human resources managers who want to increase retention by accommodating entry-level employees: • Set expectations. Share what it’s really like to work at your company with Gen Y’s before they are hired so that you minimize unrealistic expectations from the start. • Diversify communication. Incorporate instant messaging, text messaging and other interactive practices into your communications. • Offer lifestyle beneﬁts. When possible, meet these new employees’ needs by conducting meetings and training sessions that combine entertainment and learning.

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JANUARY 2009

The Business Journal

Graham: 18 Things Business Can Do Without

From Page 36

cated corporate type. Skip the stupid jargon and let’s just talk, assuming you have something to say. 11. “Think outside the box.” The problem here is twofold. First, the term is dated, which is a good reason not to use it. It shows that you are “out of the loop,” whatever that means. Second, most people who take the idea of thinking seriously and put aside time to do it discover that those who rule their lives on the job get stressed, angry, afraid and destructive when anyone dares to pull themselves outside the box. They want us as inside-the-box nonthinkers. When you try it, see how quickly you become a preferred employee. 12. Toxic. Who would have thought “toxic” would achieve such widespread use? Not only are dumps toxic, but so are mortgages and former Wall Street barons. The toxic catalog is wide ranging, including toxic attitudes, toxic facts and probably even toxic customers. 13. People who make commitments but fail to keep their promises. “I’ll have it for you on Tuesday.” But Tuesday never comes. The failure to keep our promises is far and away the No. 1 problem in just about every company. One has the feeling that those who make promises have no intention of keeping them. This is an epidemic that hammers productivity, locks up projects, delays decisions and destroys a competitive advantage. 14. “We’re restructuring.” The words exemplify the trouble businesses have with language. Better yet, the problem they have is trouble with the truth.

They avoid it whenever they can – and that’s most ﬁlled with exceptions. When the customer tries to of the time. use them the sales clerk say, “Oh, I’m so sorry, the When executives say, “We’re restructuring,” they discount doesn’t apply to that item,” which only do it in a way that suggests we should be excited and serves to make customers angry and drives them proud that they are about to announce another layoff elsewhere. It’s an efﬁcient system for getting rid of all or lousy quarter. They simply can’t bring themselves those pesky people who want to make a purchase. to say the company is in 17. Corporate culdeep financial trouble. ture. Neither “corporate” When executives say, “We’re restructuring,” nor “culture,” it’s the sum They would rather choke before saying manage- they do it in a way that suggests we should of a company’s irrational ment messed up again. be excited and proud that they are about to and nonsensical notions Can it be that they fail to announce another layoff or lousy quarter. for eliminating anyone recognize that we know expressing an innovative what they are doing? or creative idea. 15. Stop handing out business cards. When you 18. Passionate. Try to ﬁnd a resume that doesn’t think about it, the business card is dead, a useless fail to describe the job applicant as not just interfailure. When you give out your card, you are really ested, competent, excited and rarin’ to go to work, asking the recipient to do something with it: they but – that’s right – passionate! And why not? It’s a must ﬁgure out where to ﬁle it or scan it into their quality that can’t be measured or quantiﬁed. If you electronic address book. In frustration, they may need to use passionate to describe your work ethic, throw it away. Not very reassuring, is it? you probably aren’t. There’s a far better solution. When the moment Getting rid of the junk in our heads is not only is right and you are exchanging business cards, ask a good idea, but it may help us think more clearly for the person’s e-mail address or cell phone number. and work more productively, which is what it will And while you’re talking, beam your v-card to them take to get out of the economic morass so we can from your smart phone. do more business. 16. Don’t try to fool the customer. Don’t follow the current all-too-prevalent approach of offering John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a discounts on products and services customers don’t marketing services and sales consulting ﬁrm based in Quincy, want or need. Coupons are powerful when they help Mass. He writes for a variety of business publications and customers save money on what they value. speaks on business, marketing and sales issues. Contact him Macy’s ﬂoods the mail with coupons that are at 617 328 0069 or at [email protected].

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39

JANUARY 2009

PEOPLE, COMPANIES, MAKING NEWS

For the Record For the 61st consecutive quar ter, Cortland Banks, Cortland, has earned Bauer Financial’s highest rating, ﬁve stars, a recognition of its capital strength, asset quality and proﬁtability. Bauer says Cortland is in the top 10.6% of all banks nationally. The Regional Chamber and Youngstown State University are sponsoring a breakfast Jan. 30 that features the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Armond Budish, R-Beachwood. The event, to be held in the DeBartolo Stadium Club, is $20 for chamber members, $25 for others. Michael Oetjen has been appointed vice president of the dedicated logistics division of Aim NationaLease, Girard.

The Rub Club, 6775 Applewood Blvd., Boardman, is offering a free onehour massage to anyone employed by a police or ﬁre department or school system. “This is our way of showing thanks [to public servants] and at the same time introduce our ser vices to those people who may need it the most,” says Brandy Enterline, a licensed massage therapist at the Rub Club. Randi Baun, the director of Shepherd’s Foundation, the fund-raising arm of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Retirement Services, has been named a certiﬁed fund-raising executive (CFRE).

Trumbull County Technical College will offer a 720-hour computer technology course for full-time students beginning Jan. 26. The course features the latest technology used in the workplace. Classes meet from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

The ninth annual antique motorcycle exhibit at the National Packard Museum, Warren, features 30 collectible motorcycles built in the United States between 1902 and 1982. Theme of this year’s exhibit, which runs through May 31, is Made in the U.S.A. Lectures on motorcycle restoration will offered the third Saturday of February, March and April.

The AARP will accept applications until Feb 13 for its Best Employers Awards for Workers Over 50. The awards program honors employers with a work force of 50 or larger that have practices and policies that are friendly to workers ages 50 and older. An independent research ﬁrm will review the applications and score the applicants. Visit www. aarp.org/bestemployers.

The Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practices has renewed the certiﬁcations of Daniel Hazen Becker and his daughter, Kelly L. Becker, as certiﬁed funeral services practitioners. Mr. Becker is a lifetime member and ambassador for the academy. The Beckers own the Davidson-Becker Funeral Home in Struthers and the Cunningham Becker homes in Poland and Lowellville.

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JANUARY 2009

BY JEFFREY GITOMER

Sales Savvy Resolve to Go All-Out Economy will rebound, so get in front of it.

the value of my Web site. • All-out internal education with a focus on attitude and trust. So that t’s another year. Good riddance, we can offer the best of everything, 2008. We’re at a point of a fresh my team will have to be its best. I have start, new beginnings. New hundreds of hours of sales, customer president, new regime, new ideas, loyalty, attitude, trust and personal new hope. So, what’s going to be new development training available, and about you? my inside team One thing is for Add “all out” to whatever your will be the first sure. I’m not wait- resolutions so you are deter- to take advantage ing until Inauguraof it. tion Day or until mined to take real action. • All-out selfafter the ﬁrst 100 education. More days of the new administration to see studying and reading, less TV. Study what happens. I’m taking massive the history of sales and personal develaction today. My hope is that my acopment more. Write more philosophitions match or exceed the economy’s cal discoveries and understandings. progress. • All-out work my hardest. I will In the free enterprise system, busicomplete three books this year. I will ness reacts faster than government. I give 100 presentations. I will make don’t know about you, but I want to certain all my content, whether in be on the leading edge, not the waitbooks or in seminars, is the most reland-see edge. evant and transferable as I am physiWhen the economy begins to recally and mentally able to make it. bound, I want to be right in front of • All-out work my best. Invest my it, not reading about it in the paper, time. Be more organized and producor watching some talking head tell me tive in my early hours of the day. about it. This is not a resolution; it’s a • All-out be my best. Increased resolve – and a game plan. focus on personal excellence, both Maybe if I tell you what I plan to physical and mental, at work and at do, it will inspire you to do more than home. Be the best dad, the best grandyou were thinking, and in a different dad, the best friend, the best boss, and way. Here are my objectives for the the best person I can be. ﬁrst 100 days of 2009. Not all will be The key word is “all-out.” completed in that time frame, but all This is not a time for waiting. This will be in full motion. is a time for DOING. • All-out sales campaign. Contact What are you going to be DOING every customer we have ever done all-out? What are you going all-out for business with – offer them help, ask to achieve this year?And what does them where the most help is needed, all-out mean to you? and ask them for more business. At this time of year, most people • All-out improvement of cuswrite down a few resolutions or goals. tomer service. Faster shipping, faster Lose 10 pounds, read more books, exturnaround of training modules, faster ercise more, join a health club, keep a response to needs and questions, clean desk, and other wishes that will and memorable recovery for the rare fade in less than a month. Don’t let this mistakes we make. More proactive be you – especially this year. customer communications – thank Add “all out” to whatever your yous and conﬁrmations are the order resolutions so you are determined to of the day. Every day. take real action. Seems pretty simple • All-out branding. My writing, – challenge yourself to become better, my column, my ezine, my Web site, and in some cases, become best. and all my promotions will reﬂect the Get going. Go all-out. value that my customer can relate to, and want more of. Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, • All-out relationship building. conducts seminars, sales meetings and “Value ﬁrst” is the key. Consistent training programs. Reach him at 704 333 communication is the secret. Increase 1112 or at [email protected].

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‘Win-Win’ at Thomas Steel WARREN, Dec. 22 – Members of Local 3253 of the United Steelworkers of America at Thomas Steel Strip will start 2009 with a new 63-month contract. The agreement was ratiﬁed Dec. 22 by a vote of 182 to 49, says Michael Boyle, president of Local 3523. “It was a win-win for both parties,” adds Patsy Naples, Local 3523’s grievance chairman. “Nobody came out on top. Nobody’s feeling a great victory at this point, and everybody’s glad it’s over. Workers hit the picket line July 24 after working a year without a contract. “Because of the economy, we thought we had pushed the envelope as far as we could push it,” Boyle says. “It energized us to get this done.” Contract highlights include a $4,500 ratiﬁcation bonus for the ﬁrst year of the contract, he said. The following two years will include $3,000 bonuses, and the ﬁnal two years 50-cent raises for hourly workers. A health-care plan with a 10% co-payment replaces the 100% medical coverage. The annual co-payment goes up to $1,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for single employees and $2,000 for families. A $5 per hour cut in wages takes effect for new hires, who will pay a 20% co-pay under their healthcare plan, up to $2,000 of out-of-pocket expenses for singles and $4,000 for families. New hires will reach parity after six years, Boyle says. New hires will also be taken out of the deﬁned pension plan and put into a pension trust. “That really stops the legacy cost for the company,” Boyle says. “It was a good ﬁx for all three parties.” Retirees will enjoy increased health-care coverage at $500,000 in coverage, up from $150,000. Single retirees now pay $2,000 out-of-pocket expenses,

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and those with families will pay $4,000. Boyle notes that 20 buyouts were secured with age-based monthly cash payments on top of base pension until age 62. The proﬁt-sharing plan was structured to give employees proﬁts based on the entire company. “Now, we have a true form of proﬁt sharing,” Boyle says. “We get 15% from dollar-one.” On Dec. 15, Local 3523 voted down the company’s offer that proposed concessions leading to “job compression” that would have eliminated about 20% of the work force. Job compression is not part of the ﬁnal contract, nor is the immediate threat of outsourcing, Naples says. Thomas Steel employs some 250 hourly workers at its Warren plant. The company performs value-added operations such as nickel-plating for specialty-steel products used in a variety of industries. It is a division of Corus, which is owned by the India-based Tata Steel.

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Foundation Distributes Grants YOUNGSTOWN, Dec . 29 – The Youngstown Foundation has distributed more than $700,000 to 65 nonproﬁt organizations from donor-advised and special-interest funds it adminsters, as well as the foundation’s unrestricted fund. Released during the three months from Sept. 9 to Dec. 9, the distributions bring to more than $3 million the total awarded in 2008. Ranging in value from $250 to more than $130,000, awards for the period totaled $711,550. Large gifts include $130,500 for Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way, $53,050 for Youngstown State University, $30,250 for the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, $27,500 for the Youngstown Business Incubator and $27,000 for Goodwill Industries of Youngstown. In all, 66 organizations received grants during the period, including some from several funds. “Even during this challenging economy, local donors continue to demonstrate their commitment to the community and conﬁdence in The Youngstown Foundation,” says Jan Strasfeld, executive director. The foundation’s support fund, which adds 5% to contributions for approved local nonproﬁt organizations, experienced an increase in contributions of 23% in December compared to December 2007, she reports. Year to date, the support fund has received over $770,000. The Youngstown Foundation, celebrating its 90th anniversary, is the fourth oldest community foundation in the country. Information on grants, establishing a fund and the support fund is available at the foundation’s Web site, www.youngstownfoundation.org.

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Children’s Museum Refocuses on Science Emphasis on technology education mirrors business needs. By Jeremy Lydic

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en Seganish does her best to keep an eye on her 4-year-old son, David, as he runs from the kid-size model airplanes to the microscopes and to the mock television studio. She sits the lad down long enough to take a picture at the replica television news stage. “This is pretty cool,” Seganish said. “I wish we lived closer.” Seganish, who resides in New Jersey, was en route to Michigan to spend Christmas with family when she and David decided to stop at the Children’s Museum of the Valley in downtown Youngstown. Their visit happened to be Dec. 18, the day real television news crews and other reporters gathered for a press conference where museum executives announced its new mission. Dr. Maggie Hamel McCloud, the museum’s new executive director, and Ronald Faniro, president of the museum’s board of trustees and president of Ronald Cornell Faniro Architects AIA Inc., welcomed donors to the event to thank them, particularly Roger and Gloria Jones, whose $50,000 donation helped fund the museum’s transition to an informal science and technology education center. Now called the Children’s Center for Science & Technology, the center will be a “real asset to Youngstown,” Roger Jones said. David Seganish again found his way in front of a television camera – a real one this time – to shake Jones’ hand. “This is the type of people that populate our community,” Faniro said. “This makes me glad that my business is in Youngstown.” With the new focus, the center looks to add “more interactive, handson exhibits,” including a weather monitoring station, McCloud said. Space has been made on the roof and the monitor should be ordered this month, she said. The system will help children monitor and measure air temperature, wind velocity, rain and snowfall with a laptop computer. “Formal education in the classroom is one thing, but having fun while doing it is another,” Gloria Jones said. “A central part of any literacy is science and technology.” McCloud is working to acquire a

Gloria and Roger Jones, left, present an oversized check representing their $50,000 donation to the Children’s Center for Science and Technology to Dr. Maggie Hamel McCloud, the museum’s executive director, and Ronald Cornell Faniro, president of the museum’s board of trustees.

grant from the J. Ford Crandall Memorial Foundation to help pay for the project, which could cost anywhere from $3,500 to $8,500, depending on the equipment, she said. The station itself can cost up to $5,200. Because center programs are based on state education standards, having the weather system will complement what students are learning about weather in the fourth grade, she said. Other projects include a room dedicated to the Healthy Habits,

Healthy Bodies exhibit where children will learn to grow, harvest and cook fresh vegetables. Children will be taught about nutrition and diet as well as the botanical names of plants and the chemical basis of soil, McCloud said. “What we’re trying to do is respond to a need in this community,” the executive director said. “Formal education is necessary, but many times it needs to be supplemented. There is a need for STEM [science, technology,

David and Jen Seganish visited the museum on their way from New Jersey to Michigan.

engineering and math] education … and the museum is going to fulﬁll that need.” The center will continue its Family Discovery Night, which involves parents and guardians with children’s educations. Such interaction is a key part of the agenda at the center, McCloud said. “When adults take children’s education seriously and set expectations, [the children] tend to perform better,” she said. The center will invite area companies to a technology summit this month in an effort to interest children in the Mahoning Valley’s position in the Tech Belt, a concept promoted by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio. Jan Strasfeld, executive director of the Youngstown Foundation, said the center’s new focus “ﬁts in with the direction the community is going.” The foundation, along with the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley and the Raymond John Wean Foundation, are primary donors. “It’s exciting to see the transition they’re going through to go along with the development of the community,” Strasfeld said. Getting area businesses involved with the center will be an important part of keeping it going, and the Joneses’ donation comes with a challenge, Faniro said. The center needs local support to help them meet the challenge and match the $50,000.

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JANUARY 2009

Only Online Jan. 2, 2009 8:01 a.m.

Williams Looks to 2009 YOUNGSTOWN – After being “front and center” in the 2008 presidential campaign, Youngstown isn’t fading in the minds of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, says Mayor Jay Williams. Dec. 30, 2008 2:04 p.m.

GMAC Gets $5B from Fed; GM Unveils 0% Financing DETROIT – A day after the U.S. Treasury Department injected $5 billion into GMAC, the ﬁnancing company that provides the bulk of General Motors Corp.’s new-car buyers with loans, GM announced 0% ﬁnancing on select new cars and trucks. Dec. 30, 2008 7:04 a.m.

No Uptick Seen by Builders YOUNGSTOWN – Residential construction has dropped by almost half since 2006 in some areas of the Mahoning Valley and township zoning departments predict new housing starts will stay sluggish in 2009. Dec. 20, 2008 9:03 a.m.

Comprehensive Coverage: Auto Rescue Brings Relief YOUNGSTOWN – The Bush Administration’s change of heart in supporting a federal plan to loan billions of dollars to the ailing domestic auto industry didn’t happen by accident, says a local auto dealer. Dec. 18, 2008 5:31 p.m.

Delphi Packard Idles 99 WARREN – Delphi Packard Electric will place 99 hourly workers on permanent layoff effective Monday. “The biggest thing is that our orders are down,” said Karen Krolopp, president of International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 717. Dec. 10, 2008 6:41 a.m.

Airport Eyes Stimulus Plan VIENNA – The Western Reserve Port Authority, still seeking funding for new hangars at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, hopes to beneﬁt from the economic stimulus plan proposed by President-elect Barack Obama. Dec. 17, 2008 6:50 a.m.

Getting Ready for Federal Money Spigot YOUNGSTOWN – The $400 billion economic stimulus package proposed by President-elect Barack Obama has local ofﬁcials making their lists of ready-togo infrastructure projects and checking them twice.

January 2, 2009

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Auto Loan Rates

CONSUMERS NATIONAL BANK – Salem Up to 60 Mos. 5.75 - 16.50 Rate varies based on applicant’s credit rating

FIRST PLACE BANK – Boardman Up to 60 Mos. 10% Down

8.00

7.74 8.24

CORTLAND BANKS – Cortland Up to 60 Mos. Up to 72 Mos.

6.75 6.75

HOME SAVINGS – Youngstown Up to 60 Mos. Up to 66 Mos. 10% Down

E.S.B. BANK – Ellwood City Up to 60 Mos. Up to 72 Mos.

6.74 7.74

HUNTINGTON BANK – Youngstown Up to 60 Mos.

FARMERS NATIONAL BANK – Canﬁeld Up to 60 Mos. Up to 72 Mos.

6.20 6.74

KEYBANK – Youngstown Up to 66 Mos. Down: Varies

Rate varies based on applicant’s credit rating

FIRST MERIT BANK – New Castle Up to 48 Mos. 5.50-12.50 10% Down FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PA. – Hermitage Up to 60 Mos. 7.85 Up to 66 Mos. 7.85 1ST NATIONAL COMMUNITY – East Liverpool Up to 60 Mos. 6.00 - 11.75

NATIONAL CITY BANK – Sharon Up to 66 Mos.

7.49

6.99

7.24

NATIONAL CITY BANK – Youngstown Up to 66 Mos. 7.00 - 13.00 Rate varies based on applicant’s credit rating

US BANK (formerly Firstar Bank) – Boardman Up to 48 Mos. 6.03 with Auto Deduct

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of The Business Journal compilations. The rates are subject to change without notice. All rate information should be conﬁrmed with the individual ﬁnancial institution before entering into transactions. © 2009 Youngstown Publishing Co.

Home Sales Plunge 22% in Area Three counties see numbers, average sale prices fall from October, November 2007. By George Nelson YOUNGSTOWN, Dec. 24 – Existing-home sales in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties fell 22% in November compared to the month before and more than 17% from a year ago. Columbiana County saw the steepest drop with 48 houses sold in November compared to 72 in October, down 33.3%, and down 21.3% from the 61 sold a year ago. In Mahoning County, 156 houses were sold in November, down 15.7% from October and down 22.4% from November 2007. And in Trumbull County, sales of houses reached 118 in November, down 24.4% from the previous month and 7% from a year ago. In Trumbull County, the average sale price was $62,047, compared with October’s average of $83,735 and November 2007’s average of $91,561. In Mahoning County, the average sale price decreased from $84,700 in October to $78,177 in November, also below the $85,981 posted in November 2007. Columbiana County’s average sale price in November decreased to $76,539 from $96,569 a year ago and was down from $87,137 in October. The drop from October to November is the biggest for the year, “which isn’t much of a surprise” given the economic climate and the decline in the

stock market, observes Andrea Lupton, president of the Warren Area Board of Realtors and an agent with Century 21 Prestige Realty Group, Howland. In Ohio, existing-home sales during November reached 7,091, a 21.7% decline from the 9,051 sold in November 2007, according to the Ohio Association of Realtors. The average sale price of $118,277 represents a 16.6% decrease from the $141,807 average in November 2007. Moreover, existing-home sales in November fell 8.6% nationwide to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.49 million units from 4.91 million in October, a 10.6% drop from November 2007, reports the National Association of Realtors. “Many loans are taking longer than normal to get approved because of additional reviews,” says Kathy Carroll, president of the Youngstown Columbiana Association of Realtors and an agent with Century 21 Prestige Realty Group, Canﬁeld. Loans are still going through, she adds, but lenders are “just being cautious.” Based on the activity Carroll has seen recently, “Hopefully there is some light at the end of this tunnel,” she says. Even nationally, she notes, there seems to be growing agreement that housing prices have hit bottom, although they will probably remain at low levels for a while. “Many people here think we’re ﬁnally getting at the lower end,” Carroll says. “A lot is going to depend on what’s going on with the bailouts and the auto industry. It’s all got to work together and get moving.”

The Business Journal

January 2, 2009

47

JANUARY 2009

Mortgage Rates

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION AMERISTATE BANCORP INC. Boardman

TYPE

TERM

City Title Company R E A L E S TAT E T I T L E I N S U R A N C E

RATE, 2-Wk Trend

5.00  5.00 

FHA/VA Fixed

0% Down 3% Down

30 Yr. 30 Yr.

CHARTER ONE BANK Boardman

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

CONSUMERS NATIONAL BANK Salem

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

CORTLAND BANKS Cortland

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.875  5.00 

COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS Warren

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.875 — 5.25 —

DOLLAR BANK MORTGAGE CENTER Cleveland

ARM Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

5 Yr. 30 Yr.

E.S.B. BANK Ellwood City, Pa.

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

5.00  5.25 

FARMERS NATIONAL BANK Canﬁeld

Fixed Fixed

20% Down 20% Down

15 Yr. 20 Yr.

6.25 — 6.49 —

FIRST MERIT BANK New Castle/Boardman

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PA Youngstown, Ohio

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

1ST NATIONAL COMMUNITY East Liverpool

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.75  5.00 

4.875  5.375 

4.875  5.125 

4.875  5.00  5.00  5.50  6.00  6.00 

FEES

0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs

ESCROWS RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL Visit our Web site and order services online!

www.citytitleco.com Atty. Donald P. Leone

5361 Market St. Youngstown, OH 44512 (330) 782-8810 Fax: (330) 782-8819

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0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs

Arrows tell whether rates rose or fell since last issue. Dashes indicate “unchanged.”

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48

JANUARY 2009

IT FEELS GOOD TO BELONG! From Swimming Lessons to Youth Sports Leagues, From Day Camps to Racquetball, The YMCA of Youngstown has programs for every member of the family. Why Not Join Today? It Feels Good To Belong!

January 2, 2009

The Business Journal

IT FEELS GOOD TO BELONG! Mortgage Rates

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION FIRST PLACE BANK Boardman

YOUNGSTOWN CENTRAL

FLAGSTAR BANK Beechwood

Champion St., Downtown Fixed Fixed

HOME FEDERAL Niles

Fixed

Fixed YMCA YMCA

330-744-8411 Fixed

HOME SAVINGS Youngstown HOWARD HANNA FINANCIAL THE Pittsburgh KEYBANK Youngstown

Your YMCA Membership Gives You Access to Both the Downtown Central Y and The Davis Family Y in Boardman!

TYPE

TERM

RATE, 2-Wk Trend

0+costs 0+costs

0% Down 0% Down

0+costs 1+costs

FAMILY YMCA McClurg Rd., Boardman 15 Yr. 4.75  30 Yr. 5.125 

20% Down

15 Yr.

www.youngstownymca.org

6.375 —

15 Yr. 4.875  330-480-5656 30 Yr. 5.25 

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

Fixed

5% Down

15 Yr.

5.375 

Fixed Fixed

20% Down 20% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

5.50  5.625 

YMCAFixed Of YOUNGSTOWN, 5% Down 30 Yr. OHIO 5.625 

0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs

NATIONAL CITY BANK Sharon, Pa.

N.A. 0+costs Fixed • INDIVIDUALS 10% Down • STUDENTS 15 Yr. FAMILIES • SENIORS

NATIONAL CITY BANK Youngstown

0+costs 0+costs

HUNTINGTON BANK Youngstown

Fixed

10% Down

30 Yr.

US BANK Boardman (Formerly Firstar Bank)

N.A.

Your YMCA Membership Gives You Access 5.375  FHA 3% Down 30 Yr. to Two Great Facilities! Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 4.875  Fixed Fixed

3% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

5.00  5.125 

330-747-YMCA FHA 3% Down 30 Yr. 5.50 Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.50 www.youngstownymca.org

WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE Boardman (Formerly Norwest Mortgage)

330-747-YMCA

FEES

D.D. & Velma Davis 5% Down 15 Yr. 5.50  5% Down 30 Yr. 6.00 

Fixed

5% Down

15 Yr.

 

5.25 

5% Down Yr. 5.50  We buildFixed strong kids, strong30families, communities. © 2009 Youngstown Publishing Co. All rightsstrong reserved. *Private Mortgage Insurance because less than 20% down.

0+costs

0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 0+costs 1+costs

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BUSINESS JOURNAL INSTITUTIONAL AD 1/6V PAGE AD

BUSINESS JOURNAL INSTITUTIONAL AD 1/4V PAGE AD

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The Business Journal

49

JANUARY 2009

Kresge Offers YSU $1.2M Matching Grant Supporters must raise $2.4 million match before June 30, 2010 to receive the grant. By Dennis LaRue

I

f Youngstown State University can raise another $2.4 million by June 30, 2010, to its centennial capital campaign, the Kresge Foundation will provide a matching gift of $1.2 million. In announcing the gift Dec. 18, the president of YSU, David C. Sweet, and dean of the Williamson College of Business Administration, Betty Jo Licata, agreed that the challenge grant “will jumpstart the ﬁnal phase of the centennial campaign,” as the dean put it. The campaign has surpassed its goal of $43 million and reached $48.2 million, the campaign chairman, Tony Lariccia, reported. Lariccia, class of 1967, is a vice president in the Canﬁeld ofﬁce of Merrill Lynch and has established a reputation for philanthropy in the Mahoning Valley. However, the three-story building that will house the Williamson College of Business Administration needs another $3.6 million. Whether by coincidence or design, the $1.2 million challenge grant the Kresge Foundation has offered, plus the $2.4 million match, equals $3.6 million. Ground will be broken early next year and classes are expected to be held there by fall 2010. The signiﬁcance of “this grant,” Sweet noted, “is the endorsement of a respected, world-renowned foundation. It’s a distinction that is sought by thousands of educational institutions across the country. It puts YSU in select company.” The Kresge Foundation’s generosity provided a grant of $600,000 in 2004 when it earmarked that sum for the university’s Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center. Sebastian Kresge, who founded the S.S. Kresge Co., a ﬁve-and-dime store, in 1899, created the foundation in 1924 from his personal funds. The Kresge Co. became Kmart and merged with Sears in early 2005. Since 1924, the foundation, which has $3.5 billion in assets, has awarded more than 8,000 grants collectively worth more than $2 billion to nonproﬁt

Tony Lariccia, chairman of YSU’s centennial capital campaign, YSU president David C. Sweet and Betty Jo Licatta, dean of the Williamson College of Business Administration, announce the Kresge Foundation’s challenge during a press event Dec. 18.

organizations involved in health, the environment, arts and culture, education, human services and community development. Building the new Williamson College qualiﬁes YSU in the environment category because the architects, Strollo Architects, have designed it in line with standards of the Leadership on Energy and Environmental Design, Sweet noted. And it qualiﬁes on community development because the site of the Williamson College is intended to strengthen the university’s link with the downtown. The building, designed with 110,000 square feet of ﬂoor space, will have double the area of the sixstory Williamson building on Lincoln Avenue. As YSU’s chief development ofﬁcer, Paul McFadden noted afterward, “So far we’ve focused on the top of the pyramid” in looking for donors to the centennial campaign. “Hence the importance of the

Kresge gift is magniﬁed and we hope it’s a shot in the arm to get other alumni ﬁred up.” In her remarks, Dean Licata said she would pursue alumni, friends of the university and faculty to raise the $2.4 million needed. McFadden agrees. “Friends and faculty have been really receptive and generous,” he said. This spring YSU students who man the annual phonathon will call alumni, especially Williamson graduates, in pursuit of the match. Lariccia, a stockbroker 38 years, observed that the past year has been “the worst economic time I’ve ever seen,” yet friends of the university and its faculty and alumni continue to contribute. Raising the remaining $2.4 million needed for the new Williamson, “the centerpiece of the YSU Centennial Master Plan and largest single capital expenditure [at $33 million] in the university’s history, is attainable,” he said.

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JANUARY 2009

Delphi Not Dipping into GM Cash NEW YORK, Dec. 17 – Delphi Corp. is operating its business without dipping into the $300 million cash infusion from General Motors Corp. available since Dec. 1 and won’t tap into the funds until the ﬁrst quarter of next year, its attorney says. GM is advancing Delphi $600 million – $300 million Dec. 1, the balance in the 2009 ﬁrst quarter – for Delphi to use to fund its day-to-day operations, part of an agreement approved by U.S. Judge Robert Drain in November. Speaking to reporters following Delphi’s monthly omnibus hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Jack Butler, Delphi’s lead attorney, declined to comment on any discussions Delphi and GM may be holding. Missing from the hearing agenda was Delphi’s motion to approve its amended reorganization plan. As expected, last week Delphi sought and was granted an extension to Feb. 27 to submit amendments to the plan. A hearing is set for March 24. Earlier this month, Butler said Delphi would seek the extension, provided for in a previous ruling, so that the company can update the plan to reﬂect current economic conditions. The plan was submitted Oct. 3, before the collapse of U.S. ﬁnancial markets and the concurrent conditions that make raising the necessary $4.35 billion in exit ﬁnancing onerous. Drain also approved extensions to March 31 and May 31 for the exclusivity period within which Delphi’s unsecured creditors and equity stakeholders can ﬁle and solicit acceptances of Delphi’s amended reorganization plan. The extension aligns the schedules of all parties ahead of the March hearing.

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OnlineDatelines

Autumn Hills Plans Expansion NILES, Dec. 15 – Autumn Hills Care Center is embarking on an expansion that will create 57 private rooms. The project includes adding 23 new private rooms as well as converting 34 existing double-occupancy rooms into private rooms. The Mike Coates Construction Co., Niles, is the general contractor for the project, which is slated for completion in early spring. The new rooms will be equipped with ﬂat-screen TV sets, updated showers and baths and new furnishings. “This expansion project addresses the needs of the changing demographics in our industry, and allows us to meet the current and future needs of our residents,” says administrator Jason DiPasqua. Autumn Hills Care Center, which has a staff of more than 200, provides a variety of care levels including subacute, skilled and intermediate care.

The Business Journal

$500,000 Grant for Plant Site EAST LIVERPOOL, Dec. 18 – The Columbiana County Port Authority will seek funds from the state for the property where the $5.5 billion coal liquefaction plant will be built west of Wellsville, says Tracy Drake, port authority chief executive ofﬁcer. The project dodged a bullet when it received a $500,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development’s Job Ready Sites program, extending the options to purchase agreements. The port authority entered into the agreements with the 17 property owners when it applied through the program for the full $5 million needed to acquire the 522-acre site where Baard Energy LLC plans to build its $5.5 billion coal liquefaction plant. Because the Job Ready Sites program isn’t funding the full amount, the port authority will seek $4.5 million through the governor’s economic stimulus plan with the intent of securing the purchase next year, Drake says. The $500,000 grant will be applied to the ﬁnal sale price. State Rep. Linda Bolon, D-1 Columbiana, announced the $500,000 grant Dec. 16. The project is an “extraordinary opportunity for Ohio to be on the cutting edge in the energy ﬁeld,” she says. “While this is a phase of a lengthy process, it is especially encouraging in these tough economic times to see the state support a project that has the potential to stimulate our local economy and bring jobs to the area.” “It greatly enhances our feeling that we’ve picked the right site,” adds Steve Dopuch, vice president of business development for Baard Energy.

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The Business Journal

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JANUARY 2009

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JANUARY 2009

The Business Journal

The Business Journal Growth Report 2009

Overview

More details

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