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The Valley’s Business Matters ISSN 1047-8582

Vol. 26 No. 8

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www.BusinessJournalDaily.com NOVEMBER 2009

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Cafaro Malls Embroiled in Kickback Scam Federal charges name former exec, 3 others. By Dan O’Brien

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$2 million scheme that defrauded The Cafaro Co., Yo u n g s t o w n , o f a t l e a s t $143,000 has led to the indictment of three men – one a former Cafaro executive – who face charges of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy along with 20 years in jail, federal authorities say. The government alleges that Benjamin Viloski, who once worked for Cafaro as its vice president of real estate, helped orchestrate a kickback scheme that between 1998 and 2005 defrauded Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., landlords and developers. The scheme was connected to the development of retail stores in shopping malls across the country, at least four of them in plazas or developments owned by Cafaro, including the Eastwood Mall complex in Niles, court documents say. The indictment, filed Aug. 5 in U.S. District Court for the Northern

This Dick’s Sporting Goods store in the Eastwood Complex in Niles is one of the four Cafaro Co. properties listed in the federal indictment.

District of New York, charges two other defendants – Robert Queri Jr., former Dick’s senior vice president of real estate, and businessman Gary Gosson of the crimes. A fourth party,

Gary Camp, is charged with an insider trading count unrelated to the purported kickback scheme. Cafaro spokesman Joe Bell conﬁrmed Viloski worked for the com-

Valley Collaborative Tackles Urban Blight By Dan O’Brien n entire generation who live and work in the Mahoning Valley was born after Big Steel retrenched in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Too young to have experienced those times, it could only inherit the economic devastation that ensued. Those in their 20s and early 30s have also known a Valley that has undertaken initiatives to clean up the Mahoning River, rid itself of corrupt politics, improve the gateways and downtowns of its major cities, and make concerted efforts to revitalize its neighborhoods. Some of the best and the brightest of this generation can be found See COLLABORATIVE, page 34

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pany from June 3, 1985, until Nov. 1, 1994. Bell says the company could not comment on the indictment and is “waiting for the case to move See KICKBACK SCAM, page 6

Clock Ticking For Northside By George Nelson

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Gail Stark, Phil Kidd, Ken Stanislaw and John Swierz look over a map of the South Avenue area in Youngstown where neighborhood organizers are working to improve those areas.

hile not a ﬁnal countdown for Northside Medical Center, a clock still ticks for the most ﬁnancially troubled of the hospitals operated by Forum Health Inc. Tucked away at the end of an order extending Forum’s ability to use its cash collateral to continue operating is a requirement that Forum, by Nov. 1, provide “written evidence” that Western Reserve Care System – the See NORTHSIDE, page 38

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NOVEMBER 2009

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NOVEMBER 2009

9 Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Sauce Fund-raising dinners in a church hall sparked the idea for a sauce sold in hundreds of stores to beneﬁt those in crisis. Maraline Kubik visits the church and Summer Garden Food Manufacturing in her series, “Made in the Valley.”

Rich Denamen of Mahoning County Educational Service, Anne Bomar of Dominion, and Mike Broderick of Turning Technologies, right, present Thomas Robey, superintendent, Campbell City Schools, second from right, with an award.

Chamber Revamps Program Honoring Academic Achievers 27 Foundations Target Basic Needs The region’s foundations are so busy meeting the basic needs of many Valley residents that they’ve been diverted from their economic development goals. Ryan Berenics, above, volunteers to organize clothing given to those in need.

By Jeremy Lydic vercoming cancer is an important turning point in anyone’s life. Gregory Jones’ victory over the disease gave his life a new focus. While living in Reynoldsburg, Jones, then 13, was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma – a cancer that originates in the uppermost region of the throat. The cancer didn’t hold Jones back and, after moving to Youngstown to live with his grandparents, he enrolled at the Youngstown Early College where he maintains a 3.9 grade point average and is president of the junior class. Three months ago, Jones, who credits his faith in God for helping him through his illness, became a minister at Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church

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where the Rev. Lewis W. Macklin is presiding minister. After he graduates from the early college, Jones plans to enroll in a seminary so he can become a pastor. He also wants to pursue a degree in business. His long-range goal is to found a nonproﬁt organization that mentors children afﬂicted with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. “I believe that God called me here for a reason,” Jones said Oct. 22 at the Regional Chamber’s Excellence in Education luncheon. “We would just do things [with the children] to comfort them, because I understand when we’re sick, there’s a hard emotional time.” Jones is one of three awarded the Special AchieveSee CHAMBER, page 4

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37 A Day in the Park Our search team visits a handful of area parks, exploring recreational opportunities for everyone in the family from playgrounds and swimming pools to bocce courts, a free golf course and an indoor walking track.

15 Lou Zona

24 Wire Service

19 Building Wealth 43 BBB Report 23 Media Scope

54 Legal Listings

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NOVEMBER 2009

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Chamber: Revamps Program Honoring Academic Achievers From Page 3 ment by an Individual Student at the luncheon. Also honored were Zackery Zuga of Maplewood High School and Josh Selway of Leetonia High School. The three awards are one aspect of the recognition program the chamber introduced to salute individual student excellence in Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties, said its vice president of government affairs, Tony Paglia. What was its From Steel to Scholars initiative has been expanded. Each county was represented in three categories: Special Achievement by an Individual Student, Achievement by an Innovative and Effective Educational Program, and Outstanding Contribution to Education by a Community Organization or Business. “It was a way to broaden the perspective of [the From Steel to Scholars luncheon],” Paglia said. The Crestview Local School District was honored for its Crestview Rebels Embracing Wellness (CREW) program, as was Boardman Local Schools for its West Boulevard Elementary Math Mentoring Program, and Warren City Schools for its Bridges with Mathematics K-5 and Connected Mathematics 6-8 programs. In the organization/business category, honorees were the Salem Junior Mothers’ Club, the Niles Rotary, and the Second Harvest Food Bank and the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley for the Elementary School Backpack Program. One school to beneﬁt from the backpack program is the Campbell City Schools elementary school. The

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program helped keep its students fed, said superintendent Thomas Robey. Campbell is one of three new school districts to achieve the excellent rating. The others were the Maplewood and Springﬁeld local school districts, the latter awarded excellence with distinction. “It’s truly exciting times in Campbell and Red Devil land,” Robey said. “We have worked very hard with our teachers and our staff and our students to accomplish this.” Campbell schools have focused on professional development among the staff and hired coaches for literacy, mathematics and special education, Robey said. “And the training and expertise they share with our staff has truly made a difference for our children.” In 2005, Karen Carney, one of 21 of the original literacy specialists in Ohio, spearheaded the literacy program at Campbell Elementary. Maintaining good relationships between the staff and students and “making sure those kids know they’re cared about” was also a goal for Campbell schools, Robey said. In a district where 80% of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, it’s “absolutely necessary” that the staff know the children and care about them. Adding its second and third preschool during the last two years has helped students make the transition to kindergarten, and Robey said the district will work to maintain educational consistency among staff to keep the excellent rating. Getting the families more involved with the school is also a goal. Other schools rated excellent for 2009 are

Bloomﬁeld-Mespo Local, Boardman Local, Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, Champion Local, Columbiana Exempted Village, Howland Local, Hubbard Exempted Village, Lakeview Local, Lowellville Local, Poland Local, South Range Local, Struthers City, United Local, West Branch Local and Western Reserve Local. Canﬁeld Local, Champion Local and Howland Local were rated excellent with distinction. Representatives from the event’s sponsors – Dominion, the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, Turning Technologies and Assessment Technologies, a division of East Graphics Corp. – commended those honored. Turning Technologies CEO Michael Broderick commented on the role education plays in the economic development of an area. He said he is hearing less about lost jobs, failing schools and economic depression in the Mahoning Valley and more about “things like hope, things like growth. “Excellence is the key to success in today’s highly competitive world of business and industry,” Broderick said. “And our only hope to lead competitively is if that excellence, that drive to continuous improvement happens ﬁrst and foremost in our schools.” During the awards presentation, Deborah Cain, president of the Ohio Board of Education, announced that Ohio has been named the 14th state to join the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The national advocacy organization focuses on integrating skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and communication into core subjects.

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Kickback Scam: Cafaro Malls Listed in Federal Indictment of Former Exec, 3 Others From Page 1 forward.” The Cafaro Co. has not ﬁled any lawsuits or other legal action related to the case, he says. Neither the Cafaro Co.’s name nor any of its executives are mentioned in the indictment; just the names of malls owned by the developer. Federal authorities say that the kickback scheme came to light during an insider-trading investigation that involved Queri, Gosson and Camp. The indictment says Queri and Viloski hatched the scam in 1998 and Gosson became implicated in 2003. The alleged swindle involved the creation of six front companies that collected money from developers and then transferred the funds into Queri’s personal bank account or other phony ﬁrms, authorities say. According to court documents, the defendants “devised and executed a scheme and artiﬁce to defraud Dick’s, various landlords, real estate developers, investors and property owners” involved in the development of Dick’s stores. The scheme, documents say, deprived Dick’s of “potentially valuable economic information that could impact on its economic decisions, and its intangible right of the honest ser-

vices of its employees and ofﬁcers.” Calls to Dick’s corporate ofﬁces in Pittsburgh were not returned. Steve Clymer, assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, says the government is in discovery and that May 3 is the trial date. He would not say whether additional charges will be ﬁled. Attorneys of record for the defendants did not return calls. The indictment alleges that when Dick’s constructed new retail stores at various sites between 1998 and 2005, real estate developers such as Cafaro received an invoice from a front company demanding payment for a real estate commission, brokers’ fee, or consulting fee related to the construction of Dick’s stores. On or about Dec. 3, 2001, authorities contend, Viloski signed a letter of agreement that required the Cafaroowned Spotsylvania Mall in Fredericksburg, Va., and the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, W.Va., to pay Retail Development Network Inc., a company owned by Viloski, a consulting commission of $2 per square foot of ground ﬂoor leaseable space connected with the development of Dick’s stores at those locations.

The government says that Retail $50,000 was deposited in Queri’s Development was paid $62,470 account in January 2002, the same –$31,235 per project – Jan. 24, 2002, month the company collected from that sum related to the Dick’s stores in Dick’s projects in Cafaro’s Spotsylthe two Cafaro malls. On Nov. 8, 2002, vania and Huntington mall developthe indictment says, another $25,703 ments. Authorities further contend allegedly was paid to Retail Developthat on July 10, 2003, one day after ment for work in the Spotsylvania Mall the $43,723 was deposited in Retail project and anothDevelopment’s acer $11,644.81 was Neither the Cafaro Co.’s name count related to paid the company Eastwood Mall nor any of its executives are the Jan. 21, 2003, in project, a check connection with a mentioned in the indictment. for $35,000 was Dick’s store at the drawn from the Cafaro-owned Meadowbrook Mall in company’s account and deposited in Bridgeport, W.Va. Another $43,723 Queri’s personal account. was paid Retail Development July 9, Other mall developers paid as 2003, in connection with a Dick’s store much as $150,000 on a single invoice in the Eastwood Complex in Niles. to one of the straw companies, the According to court documents, a indictment says. total of $143,540 was paid Retail DeAuthorities say that Viloski, 60, velopment related to the development of Oak Island, N.C., was involved in of Dick’s stores at Cafaro malls. $1.2 million worth of kickbacks, most The indictment says that Viloski of which ended up in Queri’s pockets. then signed checks from Retail DeGosson, the government claims, was velopment’s account payable to Queri involved in $800,000 worth of kickwhile Queri was still an executive with backs and transferred $760,000 of that Dick’s, and the money was deposited sum to Queri. in Queri’s personal bank account or to A total of $2 million was realized Queri Properties LLC, which the govthrough the scam, authorities say, ernment says was a front company. which involved the construction of A Retail Development check for 27 Dick’s stores in 11 states.

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Tom Hutter of Ohio’s Ofﬁce of Workforce Development presents the Workforce Investment Board of the Year award to Deann Davis (center), human resources director of PHD Manufacturing Inc., Columbiana. Molly Seals, senior executive vice president at Humility of Mary Health Partners, accepts the Employer of the Year award presented to HMHP.

Workforce Investment Board, HMHP Honored

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h e A r e a 1 7 Wo r k f o r c e Investment Board of Mahoning and Columbiana Counties has been named best in Ohio for the third consecutive year, and Humility of Mary Health Partners has been named Ohio’s Employer of the Year. Tom Hutter, chief of the Bureau of Local Area Support and Oversight in the state’s Ofﬁce of Workforce Development, presented the awards at the Workforce Board’s Oct. 20 meeting. The awards were established two years ago by the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services to recognize agencies serving employers and job seekers, and the organizations that use their services. Humility of Mary Health Partners, the Youngstown division of Catholic Health Care Partners of Cincinnati, was honored for its involvement in the Area 17 Workforce Investment Board. In presenting the award to Molly Seals, HMHP senior executive vice president of human resources and learning, Hutter said HMHP was the ﬁrst employer to endorse the creation of the Northeast Ohio Health Force industry cluster in 2002. The organization also serves as “a guinea pig when the local One-Stop system improves and expands its services,” he said. In addition, HMHP sends all of its entry-level job postings and many of its professional positions to One Stop. HMHP “participates in all major job fairs, provides input on important

work-force issues and works to develop career pathways,” Hutter added. The Workforce Investment Board was recognized for developing partnerships and “exceeding all performance measures signiﬁcantly,” Hutter said. The board provides guidance to the Mahoning & Columbiana Training Association, which serves as the administrative and fiscal agent for federal and state funds and operates the One-Stop system in Mahoning and Columbiana counties. Its membership consists of business and community leaders appointed by each county’s board of commissioners. In presenting the award to Deann Davis, human resources director of PHD Manufacturing Inc., Columbiana, and vice chairwoman of the board, Hutter praised the partnerships the board has forged with training agencies in Trumbull County as well as in Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania. He noted the board participated in the recent “Oh-Penn Summit” that brought together 150 leaders from the two states to develop an interstate regional work-force plan. The Workforce Investment Board also participates in the Northeast Ohio HealthForce, an industry-driven network, and the Business Resource Network, which addresses work-force and economic development needs. “You are truly a model for the rest of the state,” Hutter said.

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The Business Journal

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NOVEMBER 2009

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Spaghetti Sauce Nourishes Those in Crisis Priest’s dream is for sales to beneﬁt every diocese in country. By Maraline Kubik

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n the movies, a spaghetti dinner might bring Paul Newman and a Catholic priest together to help families struck by disaster. In the Mahoning Valley, it also requires a trip to the grocery store and the vision of an entrepreneur. Monsignor Michael J. Cariglio Jr. was in the grocery store, browsing in the condiments aisle when he picked up a bottle of Newman’s Own salad dressing and experienced an epiphany, the pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Youngstown, recalls. Proceeds from the sale of the salad dressing – and all of Newman’s Own grocery items, a line founded by Oscar-winning, Cleveland-born actor Paul Newman – beneﬁt charity, he explains. That message is prominently stated on every label. Why couldn’t Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church do something similar, Monsignor Cariglio thought. The parish’s monthly spaghetti dinners, famous because of the homemade sauce made from a closely guarded recipe handed down through the church for ﬁve generations, attract hundreds of residents from throughout the Valley, Cariglio says. Those dinners are major fundraisers for the church. If that sauce were bottled, he remembers thinking, it would surely garner support from some of those diners and provide an additional stream of revenue that could, perhaps, beneﬁt a much larger community. The monsignor approached John Zidian, president and owner of The John Zidian Co., which has since evolved into Gia Brands, Summer Garden Food Manufacturing and Zidian Specialty Foods. The two men were acquainted through prayer celebrations and pilgrimages in which both took part. Zidian Specialty Foods distributes, within a 200mile radius, all of the sauces – the Mario Batali and Gia Russa lines are among the best known – and dressings made at Summer Garden as well as pastas and condiments imported from Italy. Gia Brands distributes products through an extensive national network. “I told him I have this wonderful recipe from the parish that has been used for our spaghetti dinners for 100 years,” Cariglio says. Four women who volunteered in the parish kitchen and were in charge of making the sauce presented it to him to ensure the spaghetti dinners would continue in the event they could no longer run the kitchen. At the time, Cariglio says with a smile, “they were all in their 80s.” “John [Zidian] said [bottling, marketing and selling the sauce] would be quite an enterprise,” the priest says. “But he didn’t rule it out.”

Mike Audi, vice president of Zidian Specialty Foods, Monsignor Michael J. Cariglio Jr., and John Angelilli, chief ﬁnancial ofﬁcer/ chief operating ofﬁcer, Summer Garden Food Manufacturing, prepare for a blessing of the plant where the sauce is made.

Not long afterward, Zidian died and Cariglio thought the idea of bottling Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Spaghetti Dinner Sauce had died with him. Months later, Zidian’s son Thomas called the priest to see if he was still interested in pursuing the venture. “The project was important to his father and Tom thought nothing would make him happier [than to follow through with it],” says Linda McNally, vice president of brand development at Gia Brands. “John had intended to do it all along,” she notes. “They [Summer Garden] did everything. They made the sauce and we went and tasted it to make sure it was right,” Cariglio says. In the parish kitchen, the priest chuckles, the sauce was always a little bit different, depending on who was cooking because all four of the octogenarians thought they knew how to make it best and each of them would slip things into the pot when no one else was looking. So, Summer Garden worked from the base recipe, made a few variations and then the parish council conducted a taste test to determine which version tasted most like how the sauce is supposed to taste. Once they decided, the priest says, Summer Garden and Zidian Specialty Foods went to work, designing the label, choosing the jars and planning its distribution. “They did all of the designing at their own expense. I didn’t have to give them one penny,” he says. The label, Cariglio points out, features a picture of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church along with a list of the ingredients for the recipe that’s been so closely guarded. “It’s sort of a giveaway,” he remarks. “Now

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everybody knows what’s in it. They just don’t know the proportions.” Just like the spaghetti sauce made in the church kitchen, the sauce Summer Garden makes on behalf of the church is made from fresh, wholesome ingredients and tomato sauce rather than paste, Cariglio says. The homestyle jar is also reminescent of sauces made in the kitchens of church members in late summer when their backyard gardens are overﬂowing with ripe tomatoes. Referring to Summer Garden, the priest says, “They do such a good job, it would be hard for us to do it better.” The sauce Summer Garden makes using the church recipe may even be better – because the recipe is the same for every batch, nobody adds anything extra to the pot, Cariglio explains. The sauce is so good, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel kitchen volunteers no longer make it. Instead, Summer Garden bottles it in one-gallon jars for the monthly spaghetti dinners in the parish hall. Since then, Cariglio says, attendance at the dinners has grown. Almost 1,300 diners turned out for one of the dinners last year, he says, the most who’ve ever turned out for a single spaghetti dinner. Ordinarily, he says, between 900 and 1,100 turn out. More people have become aware of the dinners – held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. the second Sunday of the month, September through April, in the parish hall – he says, because they’ve seen the sauce in the store. Regulars at the spaghetti dinners, he continues, buy the sauce to make pasta at home. Attractive packaging and name recognition helps to sell a product the ﬁrst time a consumer buys it, McNally notes, but repeat sales occur because it is a good product that people like. “Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is a strong brand. It has a name that is recognized. It tastes like something you would make at home and people feel good about See SPAGHETTI SAUCE, page 10

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Made in the Valley for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church Products: Spaghetti dinner sauce, marinara sauce, Italian dressing. Retail Sales Began: December 2005. Manufacturing: Summer Garden Foods, Boardman, Ohio. Available: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church rectory, Marc’s, Boardman Sparkle Market, all Nemenz IGA and Save-A-Lot stores, among others. Beneﬁts: Catholic Charities of Youngstown’s emergency fund. Amount Raised: $37,159 as of Aug. 31, 2009. Sources: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Summer Garden Food Manufacturing.

Cariglio says he regularly receives calls from other churches interested in developing their own products, sales of which would beneﬁt their causes, “but they get scared when they realize the volume required.” Sauces are made in 500-gallon batches with $2 from every case sold going to charity. The success of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel sauces “fulﬁlled my hope,” Cariglio says. The most recent check he wrote to Catholic Charities as a result of the sale of sauce was for $2,500. Since its inception in 1982, Newman’s Own has provided more than $265 million through Newman’s Own Foundation to hundreds of charities around the world.

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feeding it to their families because it’s a good-quality sauce made from healthy ingredients,” McNally continues. Mt. Carmel spaghetti sauce is available at more than 320 grocery stores throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia and the list continues to grow. “Sales have more than doubled in the last year,” McNally reports. Two new products were also added earlier this year: a marinara sauce and an Italian salad dressing. Introducing the new products was Tom Zidian’s idea, McNally notes. “He knows what the market wants.” So, Summer Garden and members of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel’s parish council worked together to formulate recipes for the new products. As of Aug. 31, sales of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel’s products have generated more than $37,159 for Catholic Charities of Youngstown’s emergency assistance fund. The emergency assistance fund beneﬁts families throughout Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Ashtabula, Stark and Portage counties, which make up the Youngstown Catholic Diocese, reports Brian R. Corbin, executive director of Catholic Chairities, services and health affairs. Catholic Charities’ emergency assistance fund, Corbin explains, is used to help families who encounter “difﬁcult situations outside of the norm, such as when someone dies and the family can’t afford to bury them. Burying the dead,” Corbin notes, “is one of the corporal works of mercy.” Emergency assistance is available to anyone in the six counties served by the Youngstown Diocese, Catholic or not. Only one of the last 10 families to receive assistance is Catholic, Corbin notes. Catholic Charities budgets more than a million dollars for its emergency assistance fund each year, Corbin says. Funds received through sales of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel sauces “are supplemental to our normal operations,” he adds. He estimates those funds have helped between 100 and 200 families. Monsignor Cariglio’s dream is that demand for Mt. Carmel’s sauces will continue to grow so that proceeds can beneﬁt even more people. Summer Garden is working with Cariglio and Catholic Charities of Florida to sell Our Lady of Mt. Carmel products in grocery stores there. Proceeds

would beneﬁt Catholic Charities there because, the priest explains, “they have so many natural disasters.” Eventually, Cariglio hopes sales of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel products will spread across the country with proceeds beneﬁting Catholic Charities in every community. Other churches could follow the model Cariglio and Summer Garden Foods have developed and sell their own sauces, the priest says. Other options are selling the sauce developed by the parishioners of the church in Youngstown as is, or changing the labels to depict churches in each diocese. Separating and distributing the funds wouldn’t be a problem because Zidian Specialty Foods and Gia Brands track sales of product at each retail outlet.

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From Page 9

The Business Journal

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Spaghetti Sauce:

NOVEMBER 2009

Business Partners in Boardman, Austintown,Youngstown,Vienna, Hubbard, Columbiana County & surrounding areas: Chris Graham 330/372-8191 or 330/726-0344 ext. 8191 [email protected]

The Business Journal

11

NOVEMBER 2009

Kreps Drywall Celebrates 25th Anniversary Founder credits growth to his employees skills, good work ethic. By Jeremy Lydic

S

taying in business 25 years is no small feat. One businessman who’s reached that milestone, Roger Kreps, says that’s more of a credit to his employees than himself. Roger Kreps Drywall & Plastering Co. Inc., Boardman, celebrated its silver anniversary Oct. 15. Although the recession brought with it a falloff in commercial construction, Kreps, a former teacher and coach at West Branch High School, says his company still keeps 65 employees working. “The recognition, I feel, is well-deserved for our employees,” he says. In 2006, the Regional Chamber recognized his company for its history of showing a steady increase in business. This year’s revenues, however, are down at least $1.2 million from 2008, Kreps reports, with fewer projects to bid on combined with stronger competition. Winning bids on jobs in Cleveland, the Akron/Canton area and parts of western Pennsylvania, though, “enables us to be not just Youngstown, Ohio,” he says. A third of his business is in Youngstown. Of the company’s many projects, construction of the former Convocation Center – since renamed the Covelli Centre – is among the biggest, Kreps says. Kreps Drywall worked from mid-January through August 2005 and had as many as 42 workers on the job site, Kreps says. In addition to his executive duties, Kreps handles personnel and places “every guy on every job, every day,” he says. At the Covelli Centre, workers assembled the metal stud framing, did

Roger Kreps and his wife, Maryann, celebrate their company’s 25th anniversary Oct. 15.

the exterior cladding, drywall, insulation, acoustics and carpentry. “It was the most challenging job we’ve ever done,” Kreps remarks. Although nothing on the horizon comes close to the scope of the Covelli

Centre, the company has some large projects lined up for the coming year, including a new school for the South Range School District and ofﬁces for CTW Development Corp. in Canﬁeld, says Kreps’ chief estimator, Joe

Pitko. While the employees’ collective knowledge and experience are important in executing their assignments, Pitko says it is their interpersonal skills that give the company an edge on the competition. “A lot of times, it’s the personal relationships and ability to grow with other people that’s as important, if not more important, than actual technical knowledge,” Pitko says. “That could make or break a job.” Getting a job done on time and on budget means getting along with the other building trades, and for that Pitko gives credit to the employees in the ﬁeld. Given the intense competition, he recommends that apprentices entering the ﬁeld reﬁne or improve their interpersonal skills along with all aspects of carpentry. Kreps Drywall works with the carpenters union’s Joint Apprenticeship Training program in Richﬁeld and Roger Kreps sits on the board. In addition bringing in new people qualiﬁed to ﬁll the jobs vacated by retirees, Kreps Drywall is staying abreast in the computer age, Pitko says. Work once done by hand, such as research and project estimates, is done with computer programs in half the time and many fewer errors, he says. Keeping up with developments and maintaining clearly deﬁned roles within the company keeps things moving efﬁciently, Pitko says. And although there aren’t “as many jobs out there to bid on as there were eight to 10 years ago,” Kreps Drywall will continue to get work, he says. “This area doesn’t seem to have the wild up-and-down swings,” Pitko says. “We’re all pretty steady here. As long as there’s assisted living and school work, we’ll be positioned to get our fair share of that.”

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The Business Journal

Baard Looking For Financing

Your business ﬁnances.

B

aard Energy says it needs more time to secure ﬁnancing for its proposed $6 billion Ohio River Clean Fuels project in Wellsville, and the company has asked the Columbiana County Port Authority to seek extensions on options for the land it needs. At the port authority’s meeting Oct. 19, its CEO, Tracy Drake, said letters have been sent to the landowners regarding the request and nearly half have responded “in a favorable manner.” In July, the Vancouver, Wash.-based Baard announced it would front some $45,000 in fees so the port authority could get the land acquisition process moving. Now, Baard is asking the options on the property be extended through the end of June 2010. Baard believes that construction for the coal liquefaction plant could start as early as next spring, with the plant’s ﬁrst phase starting up in early 2013, said its vice president, Steve Dopuch. “We’re very conﬁdent we’re going to be picking up the necessary ﬁnancing to proceed with this project,” he said. Baard is dealing with 12 investors interested in the project, he added. Public funding remains an option. In March, the company withdrew a request for $2.5 billion through the U.S. Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program after learning that lawsuits challenging the environmental permits issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could delay any federal funding. “We’re working very hard to present our case to U.S. Secretary of Energy [Steven] Chu. He needs to understand the engineering behind our project,” Dopuch said. “He’ll become more comfortable once he sees the truth of what we’re going to do here.”

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Bruce and Clare Neff, owners of MultiMedia Farms LLC, receive the 2009 Canﬁeld Area Council Business Pride Award during the Regional Chamber’s Good Morning, Canﬁeld event Oct. 23 at McMahon Hall.

The Business Journal

13

NOVEMBER 2009

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NOVEMBER 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] Web site: BusinessJournalDaily.com Publisher Andrea Wood Assistant Publisher Eileen Lovell Copy Editor Dennis LaRue Page Editor Maraline Kubik Online Video Anchor Stacia Erdos Video Editor Jeremy Lydic Senior Reporters Dan O’Brien George Nelson Jeremy Lydic Columnists

Monnie Ryan Lou Zona Gail S. White Stacia Erdos

Photographer Tony Mancino Rate Comparisons Cara J. McClure Sales Manager Janet O’Malley Account Executive Gail S. White 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 Forum Blows It. Again.

It’s hard to imagine how the latest public relations ﬁasco at Forum Health Inc. could have been any worse. Laying off more employees might be necessary, but it’s not an action that promotes good will in the community. But Forum’s recent move to lay off 52, coming as the health care system sought not one but two big-ticket contracts, is a model of bad timing and worse judgment. First came Forum’s ﬁling a motion to hire its recently departed CEO, Walter “Buzz” Pishkur, as a consultant to the interim CEO it plans to hire. The contract called for Pishkur to be paid up to $9,000 per week – more than he made as CEO. That thud you heard was the collective jaw of the Mahoning Valley hitting the ﬂoor. Forum followed that up with a subsequent motion to pay $75,500 per month to FTI Consulting Inc. of Baltimore for the services of Charles Neumann as interim CEO. And that sound would be the collective eye pop of thousands of Valley residents. Toss in the new layoff notices – mere months after Forum extracted millions of dollars in concessions from its union and salaried employees, and you can cue the pitchforks and torches. At an Oct. 22 press conference – part of an effort to rehabilitate his own image – Pishkur, forced out by Forum’s lenders a month earlier, announced that he would decline the contract. His explanation, at least part of it, was that he had been marginalized, and

that the lenders either wanted him out altogether or wanted him in a position that would make it impossible for him to carry out the plan he had developed for Forum’s future. We’re a mite incredulous that he would think the lenders wanted his plan. Otherwise, why would they have wanted him to leave? Still, while we’ve certainly had issues with some of Forum’s moves under his leadership, we don’t doubt Pishkur’s good intentions. He deserves credit for his efforts to preserve Forum as a single regional health care system. He also made valid points during his news conference. “I can certainly understand why people believe $9,000 [per week] is too much to pay a consultant,” he said. “But how about $15,000 a week? How about $17,300 a week and how about $20,000 a week?” As interim CEOs, Lowell Johnson and Keith Ghezzi were paid the ﬁrst and third amounts, respectively, and Neumann’s company is to be paid $17,500 weekly. We can’t divine the future of Forum. Attorneys for Forum say it should be known by the end of November whether Forum will reorganize or if it will be acquired or merge with another system. The sale of all or some of its assets continue to be explored. What we do know is that more hard, unpleasant choices still have to be made. Whatever road is taken, it could be a smoother ride for everyone without ill-conceived moves that anger the workers Forum depends on to provide health care and the members of the community that it serves.

The Business Journal

NOVEMBER 2009

BY LOUIS A. ZONA

Impressions Why Faces Turn Red (It Isn’t from the Cold) We’re embarrassed recalling the incident.

derly neighbor woman died. In those days, some families still showed the body and received friends at home rather than have calling hours at a s I watched a cable newscast, I funeral home. was shocked by the “breaking My little friends and I decided to news” crawl at the bottom of take up a collection in the neighborthe screen: “Former Federal Reserve hood for this grieving family. CofChief Alan Greenspan has been rushed fee can in hand, we walked by the to the hospital with an enlarged family gathered on prostitute.” It didn’t take Those moments of embarrass- their front porch. long for the cor- ment, even humiliation, we have We felt so bad for rection to appear all experienced have certainly these nice people and I wanted them with the blame attributed to a tired made a mark on our lives and to know that we were trying to help sometimes enriched them. typist. out. But why did I All of us have feel compelled to hold that can up said one thing thinking we said someand to shake it so that the family in thing else at least once, only to feel our mourning could hear the coins? If that face redden because we realized our weren’t bad enough, one of my friends mouth got ahead of our brain. announced loudly, “We have lots of Such moments of red-faced embarmoney for you!” rassment cannot be erased from our Even as a small kid, I realized that memories. we had done the most insensitive When I was a small boy on Center Street in New Castle, Pa., an elSee ZONA, page 16

A

BY GAIL WHITE

Commentary Jabbing, Poking Their Way Through Boyhood

A

s I was driving my son to his drum lesson one afternoon, I saw a boy giving a “noogie” to a younger boy in the front yard of one of the houses in the neighborhood. From the look on the younger boy’s face I could tell he was annoyed but not hurt. I drove on, laughing to myself about the antics that children play. After the drum lesson, as we passed the same house, I saw the same two boys along with a young girl playing outside. From a quick glance, I guessed that they were all related.

The two younger children were riding bikes on the sidewalk. Just as I was thinking how sweet it was to see these brothers and sister playing together, I watched as the oldest boy put a gate down on the sidewalk just as the youngest boy was ready to pass by. My mind snapped as I watched the incident. I nearly stopped in the middle of the street to ask the oldest boy why he was being so incredibly annoying. But I didn’t need to. I knew the answer. See WHITE, page 16

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NOVEMBER 2009

The Business Journal

Zona: Why Faces Turn Red (It’s Not from the Cold) From Page 15 thing imaginable, and to this day I am embarrassed just thinking about it. But I’m sure they realized that we were just kids and we meant well. Who reading this hasn’t mistakenly walked into the wrong restroom or had a spell of hiccups in church? Once I phoned a pizza shop and told the woman, “Hi, I’d like to eat a pizza, please.” “Well,” she replied, “why don’t I make one for you?” I was almost too embarrassed to give her my name. When I was in elementary school, I volunteered to sing “Winter Wonderland” for my classmates. But I never understood one line in that classic holiday song since I did not know, nor had I ever heard anywhere else, the word “parson.” So my rendition went something like this: “In the meadow we can build a snowman and pretend that he is sparse and brown.” Made sense to me but Sister Mary Irma could not contain her laughter. Any veteran will tell someone about to enter the service, “Never volunteer!” My brother Jerry liked to tell the story about when his sergeant at Fort Sam Houston asked if anyone in the company could drive stick shift.

Jerry eagerly raised his hand since he back home had driven a 1950 Chevy with a standard transmission. “Great, Zona,” the sergeant said. “See that 14-wheeler over there. Drive it into San Antonio.” But Sergeant,” Jerry protested. “Get going, Zona. Now.” Imagine Jerry driving this huge rig 20 miles from Fort Sam Houston into San Antonio. Unable to shift gears, he drove it into San Antonio in ﬁrst gear, ﬁlling the streets with white smoke until a trafﬁc cop pulled him over. Jerry recreated that 20-mile excursion many times. And each time we laughed when he ended with, “And that’s why you never volunteer in the U.S. Army.” Nothing could possibly be more embarrassing than to suffer diarrhea far away from your favorite bathroom. A friend had an attack as he drove home, not quite making his destination and suffering the consequences. Running into the house, he yelled to his wife that for her own good she’d better not go near the car. I bet that car sure needed some detailing. Back when I played baseball in high school, I had one super stellar game. I ﬁelded everything hit my way at third base and belted solid line-drive hits in

my ﬁrst two at-bats. All was great until a hard-hit bad bounce ruined my day and struck me right in the eye. The opposing team laughed and jeered as my greatest day on the ball ﬁeld quickly became my worst. I relive that bad bounce to this very day and can still hear those guys mocking me. To add insult to this injury, the stitches on the baseball left an imprint on my face. It was the bounce that kept on giving – grief, that is. I felt like President George H.W. Bush must have felt when, suffering stomach ﬂu, he vomited on the Japanese prime minister at a state dinner in Tokyo. I know he just wanted to disappear. Similarly, I wanted to disappear. But you can’t and you know that you can never have that moment back. When my cousin Dennis was 7 or 8, we all came to realize that he was perfectly named because he was a real Dennis the Menace. On a family trip to Washington, D.C., Dennis accompanied his parents to the National Cathedral where they took in the wonders of that great building. His mother, my Aunt Rose, sat in a pew and gazed at the glorious stained glass windows before noticing that the light was on in one of the confes-

sionals. Rose leaned over to my Uncle Jim and told him that she thought she would go to confession since a priest was present. She entered the box and began the sacrament of penance. Surprised that the priest’s voice seemed rather highpitched as he gave her absolution and her penance, she left and knelt in an adjacent pew. Imagine her surprise when the priest’s door opened and Dennis stepped out. Aunt Rose would never swear in church but you can bet that Dennis received one cathedral-sized smack on the behind for his prank. Talk about embarrassing moments: Aunt Rose never forgot. When, late in life, she took quite ill and knew the end was near, that story always brought a big smile to her face. Those moments of embarrassment, even humiliation, that we have all experienced have certainly made a mark on our lives and sometimes enriched them. We could laugh about the episodes later, sometimes, like my brother Jerry. Even the CNN typist who misdiagnosed Alan Greenspan’s enlarged prostate must look back at that embarrassing typo as a lifetime source of laughter. I’m sure Andrea Mitchell does.

White: Jabbing, Poking Their Way Through Boyhood From Page 15 or if he thought it was just a crazy For years, I struggled with the question. frustration of watching my oldest son I was enlightened by my cousin’s poke and jab at his younger brothers husband. We were at a family picnic until the nipping and I was relating turned into a yell- If there’s no point, no purpose, a recent uproar ing match or a fullthe boys then that means there will be between blown brawl. in the car. “Why do you no end. “Oh, car trips,” do this?” I would Eric said, almost ask, utterly aggravated. wistfully. “I remember poking and I never knew if the look he always punching my brothers in the car.” had when I asked him that question “Why?” I nearly hollered at him. was one of uncertainty, conﬁdence “Why did you do that?”

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He looked at me with a similar look as my son (conﬁrming they do think it is a crazy question) and said with absolute nonchalance, “Because they were there. And I could.” I looked like he had just punched me in the gut. I processed the words in my head. So, there’s no other motivation? There’s no goal? It’s just a game? As I considered the pointlessness of it all a more horriﬁc realization came to me. If there’s no point, no purpose, then that means there will be no end. And, indeed, I was right. At 20, Robert now has names for his brothers – Dudie, Pokie and one that I can’t pronounce and is completely made-up. What I did not anticipate was the younger brothers catching on and, instead of getting upset and crying, they have learned to poke and jab right back. I came home one afternoon to ﬁnd that two of the prominently hung pictures of the four boys were sporting a sticky note with a somewhat unsavory name on them. I tore the sticky notes off. The next day, the stickies reappeared, both on Robert’s picture. Since

then, the stickies have been moved and restuck from one face to another innumerable times. They have become a point of conversation for relatives, neighbors and friends as they sit in the living room and notice the faces hidden by Postit notes. It’s always an adventure to see what the screen saver will be on the computer. They can ﬁnd the most creative artwork for just about any recent household occurrence. Lately, they have taken to editing the notes that I leave for them: Chores For The Day Robert-xxxxxxxxxxx: Exempt from all chores! Phillip-smells: Clean up the bedroom. Andrew: Fold the socks and put on all the underwear. David: Sweep the living room and the neighbor’s too! Love you, Mom my Dearest I read it and sigh heavily, knowing immediately who the culprit is. “Robert!” The author, Gail White, is an account executive with The Business Journal. Reach her at [email protected].

The Business Journal

YOUNGSTOWN - WARREN

Regional Chamber Report Regionalism in Valley: A Huge Step Forward By Chris Litton President Regional Chamber Foundation

T

17

NOVEMBER 2009

he recent agreement reached between the cities of Youngstown and Girard concerning the transferring of land for what may become one of the largest economic development projects in the United States in 2010 is more signiﬁcant than the nearly 400 well-paying jobs that may result. Why? Well, consider the path that was paved towards intergovernmental cooperation in the Valley. While this is not the ﬁrst time that cities and counties have come together for the common good of our community, it is one of the most visible displays of local government cooperation to date. This agreement has placed us on the threshold of a new era in the Valley. No longer will economic development be hindered by the mechanisms of extreme parochialism and the territorial turf wars that characterized much of the history of our region. This political fragmentation has offered nothing but impediments to businesses here and those who may locate here. Hopefully we have turned the corner on the days when we lost economic development projects to regions that could offer a more competitive package because their municipalities and townships worked in unison. I would like to believe that an understanding has been reached of what can be gained without political boundaries and biased agendas. By continuing to embrace parochialism, we not only inhibit economic growth, we support the deterioration of the social and cultural fabric of our communities. The ultimate good that may be realized from Girard and Youngstown’s cooperation is not only the expansion of V&M Star, but also that we may be a small step closer to achieving a form of

local government that embodies true regionalism. Unfortunately, attracting large economic development projects for the purpose of growth may not be the impetus to creating true regionalism. What will ultimately drive local governments to join forces will be, quite simply, survival. With a dwindling tax base and a greater segment of our population reaching retirement age and moving toward ﬁxed incomes, local governments cannot continue to subsist on the model of raising taxes to simply exist. State and federal funding apparatuses will eventually mandate some demonstration of local cooperation if they want to receive funding. The political boundaries that shape the Mahoning Valley were set in place to accommodate a 19th century model of government by horseback, not 21st century commerce. Hanging on to the vestiges of a bygone era does little to advance our community. However, progress is being made to streamline local government. There currently are efforts to coordinate the sharing of 911 service, public sector grant writing and road maintenance materials. Ultimately, these incremental steps forward will translate to a regional administration of government that has oversight of all community services. The Regional Chamber Foundation, like most nonproﬁts in the community, has a vested interest in seeing economic growth; in fact, it’s our job. The funding that we raise supports retaining and expanding existing businesses while attracting new business to the Valley. The V&M expansion project is a prime example of the work we do. Without having the optimal political climate, the cost of helping to grow our community increases. So let’s all applaud the cooperation of Youngstown and Girard in doing what needed to be done for the betterment of the Valley. Let’s also use this event as a stepping stone toward more community cooperation, less parochialism and eventually achieving a region with fewer political obstacles to growth.

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NOVEMBER 2009

October 23, 2009

The Business Journal

Interest Rates CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT PASSBOOK

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

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TERM

ANNUAL PERCENTAGE YIELD, 2-Week Trend

STATEMENT SAVINGS APY*

CF BANK (formerly Central Federal S&L) Wellsville

1 Year 24 Mos.

1.50 — 1.75 —

.10/ N.A.

CHARTER ONE BANK

12 Mos. 5 Year

.40 — 2.00 —

N.A./ .05

CONSUMERS NATIONAL BANK Salem

12 Mos. 4 Year

.60  2.50 —

.10/ .10

CORTLAND BANKS Cortland

1 Year 5 Year

.75 — 2.50 —

.50/ .25

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

1 Year 4 Year

.90  2.25 —

.30/ .30

FARMERS NATIONAL BANK Canﬁeld

1 Year 4 Year

.85  1.90 

.10/ .25

FIRST MERIT BANK New Castle, Pa.

1 Year 2 Year

.45  1.00 

N.A./ .05

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PA. Hermitage, Pa.

1 Year 5 Year

.50 — 2.25 —

N.A./ .10

1ST NATIONAL COMMUNITY BANK East Liverpool

1 Year 4 Year

1.00 — 2.30 

.20/ .40

FIRST PLACE BANK Boardman

6 Mos. 12 Mos.

.60 — 1.25 —

.25/ .25

HOME FEDERAL Niles

1 Year 3 Year

1.21  2.02 —

.50/ .60

HOME SAVINGS Youngstown

12 Mos. 5 Year

1.35 — 2.80 —

.35/ .35 N.A./ N.A.

Minimum $500 Minimum $500

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HUNTINGTON BANK Youngstown

1 Year 4 Year

1.20  2.05 

KEYBANK Youngstown

1 Year 3 Year 5 Year

.15 — 1.35 — 2.35 —

MIDDLEFIELD BANKING COMPANY Cortland

1 Year 13 Mos. 2 Year

1.26  2.02 — 1.91 

PNC BANK Youngstown

1 Year 43 Mos.

PNC BANK Conneaut Lake, Pa.

1 Year 5 Year

.75  1.55 —

N.A./ .05

US BANK (formerly Firstar Bank) Boardman

1 Year 59 Mos.

.30  3.00 —

N.A./ .10

*Annual Percentage Yield

.70  1.25 

N.A./ .45 .50/ .75 N.A./ N.A.

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

19

NOVEMBER 2009

BuildingWealth

SPONSORED BY

2009 Year-End Tax Planning Considerations Here are some things to consider as you weigh potential moves between now and the end of the year.

Year-end moves and the AMT

Deferring income to next year – for example, by delaying a year-end bonus – is a common year-end tax planning strategy. Similarly, individuals often look for ways to accelerate deductions Andrew M. Moyer, CFP® into the current year – for example, by paying deductible expenses in December rather than in January. If you’re subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT), however, these traditional year-end maneuvers may actually hurt you. Essentially a separate federal income tax system with its own rates and rules, the AMT eﬀectively disallows a number of itemized deductions, making it a signiﬁcant consideration when it comes to year-end tax planning. For example, if you’re subject to the AMT in 2009, prepaying 2010 state and local taxes won’t help your 2009 tax situa-

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tion, but could hurt your 2010 bottom line. Legislation earlier this year forestalled a dramatic spike in the number of individuals subject to AMT by temporarily increasing AMT exemption amounts for 2009. If you’re one of the millions of individuals still expected to be subject to AMT in 2009, however, that won’t be much comfort. Taking the time to determine whether or not you may be subject to AMT before you make any year-end moves can save you from making a costly mistake. If you’re not sure, talk to a tax professional.

RMDs suspended for 2009

When you reach age 70½, you’re generally required to start taking required minimum distributions (RMDs) from any traditional IRAs or employer-sponsored retirement plans you own. Individuals are required to take these distributions each year, withdrawing the minimum amount by the end of the year (individuals who turn 70½ during the year generally get until April 1 of the following year). Legislation in late 2008, however, suspended RMDs for 2009. (This suspension of RMDs also applies to amounts required to be paid to beneﬁciaries after an IRA owner’s or plan participant’s death.) This presents an opportunity for those normally required to take RMDs to postpone the receipt of taxable income.

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2010 Roth conversion rules

It’s also worth looking ahead to the special rules that will apply in 2010 when a traditional IRA is converted to a Roth IRA. Current limitations based on income and ﬁling status that prevent many individuals from converting to a Roth IRA will be eliminated. Also, if you convert in 2010, half the income that results from the conversion can be reported on your 2011 tax return and half on your 2012. This 2010 conversion opportunity might inﬂuence your 2009 year-end planning. For example, if you’re currently working but aren’t eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA, you might consider making nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA for 2009 in anticipation of making a conversion in 2010.

Stay informed

It’s always possible that legislation late in the year could extend some of the provisions above, or add new wrinkles. So, stay informed. A ﬁnancial professional can help you evaluate your situation and determine which year-end moves make the most sense for you.

The information presented in this article is not investment advice. Because each individual’s ﬁnancial objectives and goals vary, always contact your ﬁnancial adviser prior to making investment decisions.

Our diverse backgrounds, education, credentials and experience are key ingredients to the successful team approach we provide. You receive all the benefits you would expect from a large brokerage house with the high-touch personalized service of an exclusive boutique firm.

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20

NOVEMBER 2009

October 23, 2009

The Business Journal

Credit Union Rates

CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

Term

ASSOCIATED SCHOOL EMPLOYEES

1 Year 2 Year

1.30 — 1.95 —

FIRST CHOICE COMMUNITY (formerly RMI CO. EMPLOYEES)

1 Year 2 Year

OHIO EDISON/ PENN POWER

MORTGAGE LOANS

AUTO LOANS

Down Payment

Fees

Term

Rate

Type

$1,000 $1,000

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

5.70 6.20

Fixed Fixed

20% 20%

15 Year 20 Year

5.00 — 5.25 —

2+200 2+200

1.85 — 2.12 —

$500 $500

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

5.65 5.65

Fixed

20%

15 Year

5.50 —

0+costs

1 Year 2 Year

1.55 — 1.90 —

$1,000 $1,000

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

5.70 5.99

Fixed Fixed

5% 5%

15 Year 30 Year

4.75  5.375 

0+costs 0+costs

SEVEN SEVENTEEN

1 Year 2 Year

1.20  1.75 

$1,000 $1,000

Up to 48 Mos. Up to 60 Mos.

5.99 5.99

Fixed Fixed

5% 5%

15 Year 30 Year

4.375  5.00 

0+costs 0+costs

STRUTHERS FEDERAL

1 Year 2 Year

1.00 — 1.51 —

$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

1.65 — 1.65 —

$2,000 $2,000

Up to 60 Mos. Up to 72 Mos.

5.75 6.99

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

N.A.

APY

Minimum

Term

Rate, 2-Wk Trend

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.

The Business Journal

21

NOVEMBER 2009

Storage Centers Serve Array of Customers Business owners store inventory, individuals store ‘expensive toys,’ furniture. By George Nelson

N

ow is the busy season for Shepherd Self Storage. As the leaves change colors and say farewell to the trees, heralding the approach of winter and the freezing weather that takes hold of northeastern Ohio, owners of cars, boats and recreational vehicles – unable, or unwilling, to leave “all those expensive toys” exposed to the elements – look for places to store them. “Right now we’re extremely busy,” reports Joe Sylvester, owner of Shepherd Self Storage, Boardman. Now is the season, he notes, to bring “all those expensive toys” into the building. “They’re coming in every day,” he says, from jet skis to 35-foot boats to 40-foot RVs. Just midway through October, Krysta Sylvester, Shepherd’s marketing manager, reports the two-year-old selfstorage center, within the building on South Avenue formerly occupied by Sam’s Club, is “completely ﬁlled” with boats, cars and recreational vehicles. Some demand is driven by local ordinances. Boardman, for instance, has zoning regulations that restrict how long parked vehicles can be left in driveways, Joe Sylvester notes. Lease rates for the typical car are $350 for six months; rent for boats and RVs is set by linear foot. The nice thing, he says, is while the designated move-out date is April 10, “they can bring an item any time they want.” There are also some longer-term contracts, he notes, and he has three customers in the military serving overseas who store their vehicles there.

Krysta Sylvester, marketing manager at Shepherd Self Storage, Boardman, says the two-year-old indoor self-storage center is “completely ﬁlled.”

Uses for space at area storage centers are varied, area operators report, with businesses and individuals taking advantage of them. Out of the 250 mini-units on the property, Joe Sylvester estimates that 60% are ﬁlled. In those units, which normally run $132 per month for the 10-by-10-foot space, homeowners store furnishings, for example, while

businesses store equipment and paper records. The units are also 20 feet high with a cage on top, which allows for adequate airﬂow, Krysta Sylvester says. Joe Sylvester notes that his climatecontrolled center is the only one in the area that has an indoor dock. Customers can park inside, where it is heated or cooled as needed, close the door,

put whatever they are picking up in their trunk and leave. “A lot of the other places you unload your stuff outside. Sometimes you’re alone,” adds Krysta Sylvester. “With our facility you don’t have to worry about it.” There are security cameras all around the building, which has 24-hour access for customSee STORAGE CENTERS, page 22

FROM PRINT TO MAIL, START TO FINISH... ALL UNDER ONE ROOF   

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             

   

*1st time customers only • Coupon must be presented at time of order $250 minimum order required (postage not included) One per customer • Expires 12/31/09

     

22

NOVEMBER 2009

The Business Journal

Storage Centers: Serve Array of Customers From Page 21 ers, and “it’s well-lit so you can feel a little bit better about loading and unloading your stuff.” Joe Sylvester also reports that he is getting considerable business from retailers who use Shepherd to store overstock of products for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Mall stores don’t have much storage space, so sometimes they need to store inventory offsite. Once, he observes, store employees, in many cases young women, had to go to storage centers late at night to load and unload inventory. “Now they can come in where it’s nice and dry and warm and lit,” he says. Other businesses that make use of Shepherd include a provider of gumballs and gumball machines. “One of our biggest is pharmaceutical reps,” he says. Since the storage center has WiFi, they can place orders there and “more or less conduct business in their own little space,” he says. As for nonbusiness customers, Sylvester says he also gets business from couples going through divorces or otherwise moving out of their houses.

Divorces “can be a headache for the self-storage owner,” remarks Neil Barkett, owner of Barkett’s Self Storage, Girard. “You get calls from one of the spouses wanting access to the other person’s storage unit and you have to go back to who signed the lease. You have to be cautious. You have to get written permission from the other spouse or it could put the storage owner in jeopardy of a lawsuit.” Customers have around-the-clock access to the units at the site, which has 24-hour video surveillance. Each has a code for the gate, so that if a salesman needs product at 4 a.m., “He can get it. He has access.” According to Barkett, business is “actually pretty good, considering the economy.” Out of 80 units, 70 are full, he reports. Sizes of his units range from 5-by-10 feet to 8-by-53 feet. Rates begin at $39 per month to “some very large units that go for $160.” His customers range from homeowners downsizing to individuals and families in the middle of a move. Barkett says he also gets a lot of companies, from large corporations to small businesses, that use space to keep smaller amounts of satellite inventory on hand.

At Storage & More of Canﬁeld, owner Tony Bettile reports his space is “completely full.” Customers use his units in the winter to store vehicles and summer furniture. They also use it during transitions – when they’re building a home or moving – or to store items when they’re trying to sell their home. “They get rid of things they’re not using,” he says. Bettile’s space, which isn’t climatecontrolled, goes for $69 per month for the 10-by-20-foot units. “In Boardman you could pay double that,” he says. In addition, he says his storage center is roughly ﬁve miles from any of the national chains he competes with “so we can afford to be very competitive.” Greg Carney, president of CarneyMcNicholas Inc., Austintown, recalls that at the beginning of the year business was soft – a lot of his ﬁrm’s work is tied to the housing industry, which continues to struggle – “but we had a pretty great summer,” he says. “Our year pretty much recovered and we exceeded our expectations this summer for volume of work.” Carney attributes some of the increased business to people who had had homes for sale that didn’t move at their initial asking price, “so they ﬁ-

nally sold for whatever they could.” The moving company offers two types of storage, full-service and portable self-storage. For the on-site storage, Carney-McNicholas personnel go to the location and pack and load the items, transporting them to the company’s main location in Austintown. “The place is secure,” Carney explains. “It’s not a come-and-go – the only people in and out are us.” The self-storage business “is a hair different” because the units have uses other than for household goods, Carney says. His ﬁrm uses Go Mini portable storage units they deliver to a site, load and then transport to a location of the customer’s choice. Remodelers often use the portable units, he says, and several were used for items from the homes damaged by the house explosion in Girard. Seasonal fruit stand operators also made use of the units, he says. Portable self-storage units are “the biggest-growing industry” in terms of the self-storage business, he says. Carney-McNicholas offers four sizes of units, at weekly, semi-monthly and monthly rates for the units themselves. There is an additional charge for transporting the units. .

GOMINI’S offers the biggest

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Construction

Storm Damage

� Three standard sizes 12, 16 and 20 foot, (that’s 4 feet longer than our competition.) � Sturdy weather resistant construction � Secure roller doors stow easily and out of the way

� Translucent roof allows lots of natural light to the interior Sports Teams

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� We can even store the unit at one of our indoor or outdoor facilities; no need to unload your items � Galvanized vents allow for airflow, reducing the moisture and humidity that cause mold � One step clearance allows for ease of access and avoids ground water problems

Churches Residential Moves

� No hassle delivery and pick-up of unit, just call, and we can deliver to another location

� Galvanized steel exterior with baked paint coating eliminates unit sweating

� Strong rails for tie-downs and hanging garments � Sealed pressure treated floor creates a moisture resistant barrier � Convenient to your schedule – allowing you to � Welded steel frame with durable steel siding load and unload at your own pace

GOMINI’S Owned and Operated by Carney-McNicholas Inc. 100 Victoria Rd.Youngstown, OH 44515 Call 1-800-433-5533 ext 3000, E-mail [email protected], or visiting www.cmcn.com/gomini.asp

The Business Journal

BY STACIA ERDOS

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Media Scope

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he changing way we watch TV is dramatically affecting ratings and advertising dollars and throwing the networks for a loop. And I now realize I’m contributing to the turmoil. I just got a DVR and I love it. I’m actually watching something other than just the news again. As a parent who works ﬁve days a week and runs my kids to their afternoon activities, I rarely get time to watch TV before 10 p.m. (and by then I’m half asleep). So I ﬁnally gave my cable provider a call and signed up for DVR. For the past three weeks, I have been taping away and watching new shows such as “Modern Family” and “FlashForward,” along with my old favorites whenever I want to, without missing a word. If I hear my 7-year-old’s “Mahhhhhhhhm!” lyrically drowning out the program, I can pause, go tend to whatever emergency I need to and continue or even rewind that part of the show and watch it again later. Did I mention I love it? Anyway, the Big Networks are not loving it. They’re also not loving the fact that people are increasingly going to online outlets to watch shows at their convenience. The chairman of NBC Universal, Marc Graboff, recently noted traditional TV viewing patterns are collapsing and the industry needs to quickly ﬁgure out how to make a proﬁt in a world where people can watch TV shows anytime, anywhere. The ratings people – The Nielsen Co. – recently met with its big clients, including the networks, Microsoft, Time Warner and Comcast to ﬁgure out how to measure not only new viewing habits, but also Internet media consumption in the home. The other problem with DVR or PVR or TiVo (whichever your cable provider calls it) is you can fast forward through the commercials. (Problem for them maybe, but not for

me.) Here’s a thought. Perhaps people wouldn’t blow through the commercials if they weren’t so loud. You have to sit, the remote in your hand on the volume button, just to protect yourself from suddenly being shouted at to buy something. That issue might be taken care of by legislators. A bill making its way through Congress would, for all intents and purposes, prohibit commercials from being substantially louder than the program. Let’s hope so. And speaking of advertising, how about the latest sky-high promotions ploy by ABC. No, it’s not balloon boy, it’s a giant “V.” The Washington Post reports ABC is sending a ﬂeet of skywriting planes over 15 cities to write large ominous red V’s in the sky to promote its new science-ﬁction show. A reporter points out that it will take about 400 gallons of fuel and three tons of carbon dioxide. So much for going green, Disney. Back to ratings for a moment, and this headline from the LA Times: “Jay Leno’s new time slot wreaks havoc for NBC afﬁliates.” They’re calling it The Leno Effect. NBC’s decision to substitute a low-cost talk show for a high-priced drama is reported to be undermining the audience for local 11 p.m. newscasts. Some afﬁliates are not happy with the show at all. As I reported in my last column, WFMJ won’t know how the Leno show is affecting its late news ratings until after the November ratings book. Now to tiny TVs. Just in time for Christmas, FLO TV a subsidiary of Qualcomm, has unveiled its portable “Personal Television” with a 4.5-by-3inch touch screen. The PTV will sell for $250 plus $8.99 a month for the mobile TV service. Certain channels will be provided with some shows on at the same time as regular TV. Service isn’t available everywhere. But after checking the coverage map, it appears the Mahoning Valley will have service. The question is, will PTVs with a monthly service charge provide a new source of revenue for TV executives, or will the PTV be another lump of coal in their stockings?

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Loud Commercials, DVT, ‘Personal’ TVs If commercials were not so loud, would we fast-forward?

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NOVEMBER 2009

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NOVEMBER 2009

The Business Journal

BY MONNIE RYAN

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tress Ava Gardner is buried in Smithﬁeld, N.C., and comedienne Gilda Radner in Stamford, Conn.? RootsWeb.com, a mostly free site supported by Ancestry.com, is another great resource for researching or Halloween this year, my your family tree. But there’s much granddaughter Jackie popped in more of interest here, particularly in to rummage through “grandma’s the Special Projects section. Scroll to store” in hopes of outﬁtting herself as the Ohio Table of Contents link, then a 1980s diva. Sure enough, she left click on “Penny Postcards From Ohio” with an outﬁt jazzy enough to rival to ﬁnd vintage photo cards of scenes Demi Moore in “St. Elmo’s Fire.” that may bring back memories. Other Hang on to anything long enough, projects include they say, and at some point it’ll be If you’re interested in bringing transcriptions on and back in style. But your family together social-net- tombstones church records; even if that doesn’t for most, visitors happen, most of us working style, try Geni.com are invited to subcherish memories mit appropriate information. of people and things we hold dear. Sometimes, it’s not old people you That, and getting updates from a need to ﬁnd. When we accidentally “family tree” Web site created by one broke a couple of cups and a plate of my cousins, prompted me to look from a china dinnerware inherited at some of the possibilities. from relatives, I looked for replaceIf you’re interested in bringing ments to complete the service for 12. your family together social-networkNoting the manufacturer and pating style, try Geni.com. The basic tern, I headed to Replacements.com. version is free; a “pro” version for You can search by manufacturer or $5 per month offers a few more serpattern for china, crystal, silver and vices. Once you start building your collectibles. I was unable to ﬁnd the family tree, invitations can be sent china I needed but did ﬁnd plenty of to relatives, who in turn invite other additions to my mother’s extensive relatives. Each member can add inforcollection of the old Autumn Leaf mation and create a personal proﬁle. pattern by Hall China Co. of East LivYou’ll also get reminders of birthdays, erpool – and, unlike in antique stores, anniversaries and other milestones for at relatively decent prices. which you can send congratulatory The older I get, the more forgetnotes, even gifts, through Geni. ful I become – and at no time is that Ancestry.com also offers the opmore evident than when I’m trying to portunity to set up a family tree at no remember the words to a song. Hearcost, but while there are lots of sources ing of the recent death of Mary Travers on the site to help you locate missing – we’d been to a Peter, Paul and Mary relatives, most cost money. If you’re concert in Cleveland not that long ago serious about collecting information – I recalled how much our kids loved on your family, it may be worth the the group’s music. Suddenly, strains price of admission. of “Stewball” – a little ditty about a Cemeteries can be great sources race horse that my son had fancied of family history as well. One site I – started running through my head. like is Interment.net, where you can The words, however, took off in a search burial records by location in different direction; those I found at most states, several countries and in Lyrics.com. The site has an alphabetinational and military cemeteries. cal searchable database, or you can do Still another site is FindAGrave. as I did, type in a title, keywords or com, which lets you search some 37 an artist’s name. Lyrics to current top million burial records, ﬁnd cemeteries songs are listed and can be played. and even add burial records. Perhaps Were I so inclined, I could have downmore interesting is the ability to ﬁnd loaded a “Stewball” ring tone for my graves of thousands of famous people cell phone. I’ll pass, thanks – didn’t (by location, claim to fame and more). like it that much. Did you know, for instance, that ac-

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The Business Journal

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NOVEMBER 2009

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NOVEMBER 2009

The Business Journal

The Business Journal

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NOVEMBER 2009

CharitableGiving Foundations Work Harder to Meet Needs By Dennis LaRue When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s easy to forget that your objective was to drain the swamp. – Author Unknown

P

hilanthropies and United Ways are so busy meeting the basic needs of children and the elderly that they have to remind themselves that they’ve been diverted from their long-range goals of promoting economic development, job creation and revitalizing neighborhoods. “We’re getting more grant requests, says Patricia Brozik, president of The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley. “We’re very heavy into meeting with a lot of agencies [about funding basic needs] and donors are more targeted in their giving. They want to feed you if you’re hungry, put clothes on kids.” “Next year” is when the Home Savings Charitable Foundation will return its focus to economic development, says its president, Darlene Pavlock. “There’s an increased emphasis on disadvantaged children – and animal welfare.” With people abandoning pets they think they can no longer afford, Home Savings sees “more need for helping animals,” she says. “We’ve given $7,000 this year to Angels for Animals and other animal charities.” As he works to help agencies meet basic needs, the chief professional ofﬁcer of the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Bob Hannon, is also working to launch Success by 6,” a pre-kindergarten program for which U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, secured a $100,000 earmark. Success by 6 is designed to make sure all children are prepared to enter ﬁrst grade. Hannon expects the pilots this year in the South Range and Campbell school districts will lead to its expansion next year in Austintown, Struthers, Hubbard, Girard and Liberty schools. His primary focus, though, is raising enough money to meet the needs the recession has exacerbated. “We want to have the most impact we can on the most people,” he declares. “The agencies have understood,” telling him that “their needs are greater but their requests are about the same.” Traditional donors to the United Way, Hannon continues, are interested in providing “the basic essentials, food, clothing shelter,” but he sees the need to go beyond that. Agencies and causes that apply for grants from the funds of the dozen or so foundations David Sabine oversees “understand that the foundations are not where to go for more money,” says the senior vice president in Huntington National Bank’s trust department, that is, to makeup the shortfall from other donors’ inability to match their contributions from earlier years. Income from the stock and bond markets, the

Corrin Warren, Rita Bowden and Laura Bailey, lab assistants for Humility of Mary Health Partners, take blood for various tests.

sources of most funding, have fallen and so the foundations have been forced to dip into their principal to pay out the minimum the law requires – 5% of

Project Connect Gives Back

Volunteers joined social service agencies Oct. 22 for Project Connect at the Rescue Mission in Youngstown. Michael Fletcher got his hair cut by Nolan O’Renic from Tri Changes Salon. More pictures from the event, designed to provide free services for the homeless and the poor, are above and on the next two pages.

average assets. “We had these worries in 2000 and again last year,” Sabine relates, “no growth and we’re required to give away 5%.” Hence, pledges made over several years “is problematic,” as he describes the situation that he and the trustees of the foundations face. “We have to be more concerned about long-term pledges,” Sabine says. “Pledges have soaked up about all of our 5%,” leaving little discretion. Sabine remains optimistic since the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded in October, crossing 10000. “Next year is going to be better [to meet grant requests],” he predicts. With its income up 3% over last year, The Youngstown Foundation has “the luxury of sustaining [its] level of giving,” says Executive Director Jan Strasfeld. She describes herself and the trustees of the foundation as “good stewards” of the funds they manage, $74 million or so this year. “We invest like we’re a 40-year-old planning for retirement,” Strasfeld says of the foundation’s investment strategy, which today is 60% equities and 40% ﬁxed income. The trustees want to fund nonproﬁts that engage in improving “the quality of life, job creation and attracting business to the region,” Strasfeld says, “to support education and health care.” Of late, however, greater emphasis has been placed on ensuring that basic needs are ﬁlled. “We want to be sensitive to meeting critical needs and long-term sustainability,” she says. Since hiring Joel Ratner as president three years ago and redirecting its efforts to the Mahoning See CHARITABLE GIVING, page 28

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Charitable Giving: From Page 27 Valley, the Raymond John Wean Foundation has sought to fund nonproﬁts that work to improve the lives of those who live and work in “economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.” The Wean Foundation holds quarterly meetings for groups that guide them on how to apply for the 200 or so grants it makes over the course of a year. Last year grants ranged from $50 to Angels for Animals to $412,000 to the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative (see story page 1), its 2008 report says. Grants to the organizing collaborative total $500,000, Ratner says. Grants are issued with an eye to strengthening organizations so they can carry out their purposes, Ratner says. The Wean Foundation saw the value of its assets fall nearly $21 million in 2008, its annual report says, but it still gave away nearly $4.3 million. Those who apply “usually come in with reasonable requests that we review,” Ratner says. Strasfeld and Brozik say they have been spending more time in the ﬁeld visiting the nonproﬁts they fund or that seek funding. Both act as quasi-consultants as they offer their insights on how the organizations they support can stretch their budgets. All of the presidents and executive directors of the foundations stay in frequent contact as they keep the others informed of need and who’s applied for a grant and for how much. The Home Savings Charitable Foundation has

Dentist P.J. Snyder performs a free exam in St. Elizabeth’s mobile dental van as St. E’s dental coordinator Stephanie Gay looks on.

been restrained in its giving because “most of our investments are in United Community Financial Corp. stock” and regulators have instructed the company not to pay a cash dividend without their permission. Even so, says Pavlock, “We have other invest-

ments and we’re honoring all pledges, programs and scholarships.” The foundation will disburse $770,000 this year, she reports. Even when it can’t furnish funds, Home Savings can provide nonproﬁts with “gently used” ofﬁce CONTINUES NEXT PAGE

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supplies and used ofﬁce furniture, Pavlock says, and notes how Home Savings employees donate their time working in behalf of nonproﬁts. She points to help given Second Harvest Food Bank that “reduces waste [of fresh produce] so food doesn’t spoil.” And Home Savings has restored last year’s 20% cut to United Way, Pavlock says. This is good news to Hannon as he seeks new sources of funding. “Relying on workplace campaigns just isn’t enough any more,” he says, although he’s pleased to have added Turning Technologies and the Howard Hanna ofﬁce in Poland. Turning Technologies has pledged $7,000, he reports. United Way is shooting for $2.5 million again this year. Raising funds hasn’t been the same since the late 1970s when the Youngstown United Way pursued the largest employers and the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. could be counted on to make up the difference between goal and amounts pledged. A directed marketing campaign would help, Hannon says, because so many are only vaguely familiar with United Way and its role in the community. So that means continuing to visit small workplaces and educating employees about United Way and what its agencies provide. Helping this year is an anonymous donor who will match the sum raised though any workplace campaign up to $50,000, Hannon says. “So Turning Technologies goes to $14,000 from $7,000,” he notes. And any gift that exceeds $1,000 will also be matched dollar for dollar. Many of the contributions will be in the neigh-

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Beth Bartlett from Immaculate Heart of Mary and Colleen Boyle from St. Christine churches distribute free groceries.

borhood of $100, he expects. Hannon or his staff ask employees to give $2 a week, or $104 a year,

a ﬁgure he says they won’t miss if they use payroll deduction to give.

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Covelli Centre on Track for Operating Proﬁt T By Dan O’Brien

he Covelli Center is poised to show its ﬁrst operating proﬁt for a single year since the municipal arena opened in 2005. “I think we’ve done very well,” says Eric Ryan, executive director of the Covelli Centre. “July through September is always the most difﬁcult time” for indoor venues. We should end up with an operating proﬁt for the ﬁrst time in the arena’s history.” The Covelli Centre reported it lost $67,000 during the quarter ended Sept. 30 when ofﬁcials had budgeted for a shortfall of $162,000. Through September, the Covelli Centre has logged a proﬁt of $186,305 – the ﬁrst time that’s ever occurred over a three-quarter period for the arena. During the down months, Ryan notes, the Covelli Centre cut back on spending and took cost-saving measures such as locking in lower utility rates and placing some employees on layoff when events dried up. “We treat it like a business,” he says. Utilities expense during the quarter, for example, stood at $69,339, well below the arena’s budget of $116,451. Reducing the work force during the slow months helped save another $20,000, Ryan says. A concert by the rock band Journey last month also boosted the bottom line, he adds. “The show did very well, and we did have a few other rentals during the summer,” he says.

The key, Ryan observes, is picking the right to pay off the debt. events, and all indications are that the arena should This year, the city stands to pay about $800,000 be a very busy place over the next six months. “We’re in interest on the $11.9 million, leaving the city booked every weekend from November until April,” with a net loss of $600,000 related to the Covelli he says. Centre’s total costs. This is the ﬁrst season Mayor Jay Williams for the Youngstown Phan- During the down months, the Covelli Centre says the city expected toms of the United States the Covelli Centre to lose Hockey League, a new cut back on spending and took cost-saving money during the quarteam owned by business- measures such as locking in lower utility ter, but he is pleased that man Bruce Zoldan. The rates and placing some employees on layoff the arena’s management team played its ﬁrst game when events dried up. has finally turned the at the Covelli Centre Oct. corner toward an operat3 and drew 2,500 fans. ing proﬁt. Kyle Miasek, the city’s assistant ﬁnance director, “It’s clear it was a challenging quarter,” he says. agrees that the third quarter was helped by cutting “I’m certain we’ll have an operating proﬁt for the costs and landing the Journey show. “We’re trying ﬁrst time.” to bring at least one big event each quarter” to the The arena failed to end a year in the black during arena, he says. the three years it was managed by Global EntertainMiasek projects the arena could end the year with ment Corp. of Phoenix. The city and Global ended an operating proﬁt of $200,000 or more. “The city their management agreement in 2007. also saw $40,000 as a result of the admissions tax” The arena – previously named the Chevrolet afﬁxed to every ticket sold, he notes. Centre – received another boost earlier this year Still, the operating proﬁt isn’t big enough to cover when businessman Sam Covelli announced that his the annual debt service the city must pay on $11.9 company, Covelli Enterprises, would purchase the naming rights. million worth of notes it issued to construct the General Motors Corp., faced with declining arena back in 2005. sales last year, opted not to renew the three-year Earlier this year, City Council agreed to borrow agreement it signed with the city in 2005 for the money to pay on the interest as it has each year, naming rights. and has yet to lock in on a long-term interest rate

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Collaborative: Neighborhood Organizers Tackle Urban Blight From Page 1 within a nascent organization intent on improving the quality of life: The Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative. “There’s been 30 years of complacency,” says Phil Kidd, an organizer for the organizing collaborative, a nonproﬁt group whose mission is to employ a grassroots strategy that empowers people in the community to effect change. Kidd, reared near Pittsburgh, moved to the Valley a decade ago where he found a city struggling, but striving, to become better. “As a guy from the outside, I saw this community through a different lens,” Kidd says. “I found that there was this disconnect, that a lot of folks came to the conclusion that they can’t organize in any effective way. We can’t rely on the city alone to solve all of our problems.” Kidd, who served a little more than a year as Youngstown’s downtown development director, says his time in that post was a valuable learning experience. He concedes, however, that most of his duties involved public relations, not on working to solve problems that directly affect the community. “I wanted to tackle issues on the ground,” he says. Last year, Kidd joined the collaborative. In the last 18 months, the group has successfully recruited a host of young talent to help assemble the infrastructure for social and community reform. “The average age of the organization’s staff is 30,” relates the executive director of the collaborative, Kirk Noden. Since its inception in 2008, the organization has sponsored campaigns to shutter problem corner stores on Youngstown’s south side that sell alcohol, pressured slumlords to improve or raze dilapidated or dangerous properties, launched an effort to address poorly maintained rental properties in Warren, and helped to launch a comprehensive organizing campaign to deal with vacant properties that resulted in a survey that involved more than 150 community leaders and activists. It’s also helped launch initiatives related to na-

tional issues such as health care reform. The organization was also instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Youngstown Neighborhood Community Development Corp., a separate group that was incorporated and run by a board of directors. Ian Beniston, director of policy for the collaborative, relates that it spent six months helping to form the neighborhood community development corporation, but has no inﬂuence on its operations. “There needed to be a model for creating a neighborhood that is sustainable. Meaning: this is a neighborhood that has a future.” Among the first projects for the CDC is the Idora neighborhood, generally identiﬁed as the city’s southwest side, Beniston says. In the summer of 2008, the collaborative formed an informal partnership with the Idora Neighborhood Association and launched the corner-store campaign. That campaign targeted seedy corner stores that were havens for drug dealers, prostitutes, criminals and where alcohol and tobacco were sold to underage patrons. Since the campaign started, the Idora association has drawn more than 225 members and a number of meetings elicited demands that the city step up inspections of these stores. Additional pressure was placed on these cornerstore owners when citizens placed the Dry Precinct initiative on the ballot last November. Residents went to the polls and voted to stop the sale of alcohol at any problem corner store that refused to work with the neighborhood. “In some cases, it’s easier to buy a gun at one of these stores than a fresh tomato,” Noden adds. “The CDC could help rehab and help turn these corner stores into small grocers.” Another neighborhood projects the collaborative is helping is the South Avenue Corridor Community Development Partnership, a coalition of organizations that includes the Mahoning Valley Real Estate Investment Association, various churches, businesses, schools and the 7th Ward Citizen Coalition,

Inc., which acts as a ﬁscal agent to secure grants for neighborhood development projects. Seventh Ward Councilman John R. Swierz says the effort incorporates four block watches around South Avenue and the collaborative has provided resources that helps the effort along, including publishing and printing pamphlets, action plans and maps of targeted areas for demolition projects. “These partnerships are important,” he says. “Here, we have the Real Estate Investment Association at the same table with the MVOC.” Noden started his organizing career on Chicago’s west side 12 years ago after he was graduated from Kent State University with a degree in philosophy. He then spent three years as a community organizer in Birmingham, England. There, he helped establish Birmingham Citizens, a coalition of 33 institutions that included mosques, churches, schools and unions. Upon his return to northeastern Ohio, he started to work with community organizations such as Action. In many ways, Noden says, taking on the immense problems that impede growth the Mahoning Valley is much harder than organizing in Chicago or England. “One of the challenges we face is that there’s no model for revitalizing smaller, post-industrial communities,” he says. And, he relates, it’s going to take an enormous effort to reverse the mindset of a community that has experienced three decades of economic malaise. “Thirty years of disinvestment has had a signiﬁcant impact,” Noden says. The collaborative was formed in response to a study conducted by PolicyLink, a national research institute based in Oakland, Calif. The study advocated a strategy for the Mahoning Valley of growth and development that mixed grassroots organizing with healthy community development, Noden says. Concurrently, the Raymond J. Wean Foundation began to redirect its shift toward funding commuCONTINUES NEXT PAGE

Think Tank Lauds Application For U.S. Funds By Dan O’Brien

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he Brookings Institute, a Washington-based policy research organization, is turning its spotlight on the Mahoning Valley’s $32 million application for the federal government’s second round of neighborhood stabilization funding, more commonly known as NSP2. “We’re looking at particular programs that ofﬁcials are using in innovative ways, ways that are outside the norm,” says Sarah Rahman, an analyst in Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program. “NSP2 was designed to encourage multi-jurisdictional and multi-sector cooperation, and we think Youngstown was successful in this.” Brookings planned to feature a synopsis of the Valley’s application on its Metropolitan Policy Program’s Web site in October as part of its “Implementing ARRA” series, Rahman says. The latest round of stabilization funds – $2 billion – is paid for by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and Brookings is examining how communities hope to

spend the money to execute their plans. A decision is expected the ﬁrst week of December on which applicants across the country will receive funding. The Mahoning Valley’s application stands out because it combines the interests of nine urban communities along the Mahoning River – Lowellville, Campbell, Struthers, Youngstown, Girard, McDonald, Niles, Warren and Newton Falls – and would leverage private investments from area foundations and lending institutions, Rahman says. The region is among the hardest-hit areas economically in the country. More than 42% of all the mortgages issued between 2004 and 2006 were considered subprime, and Youngstown boasts the highest foreclosure rate in the state. “We’ve taken an interest in the recovery package, and we look at urban and metropolitan areas as engines of development” enhanced by transportation, infrastructure and the presence of a university, she says. Aside from the stimulus money, the Valley’s application would leverage $2.7 million from the Raymond J. Wean Foundation. Two banks would

add their support by providing another $8 million toward the effort. Moreover, Brookings says, the application highlights more than 20 institutions on board to help execute the program, should the region be awarded the funds. For each proposed goal, the application identiﬁes the agencies best prepared to deliver necessary services and programs. Another part that shows merit is Mahoning Valley’s plan combining both demolition and deconstruction – the latter being the careful removal of building materials so they can be reused. “It could spur green-friendly industries,” Rahman adds. The Brookings’ spotlight says the Mahoning Valley’s application represents an “unprecedented level of multi-jurisdictional collaboration for this region.” Although it cites efforts such as the Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity as a forum for sharing ideas toward development, the stimulus opportunity is “the ﬁrst time that these jurisdictions have taken formal action together to pursue common goals for urban revitalization and development.”

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nity-development efforts and advocated following through with the recommendations contained in the study. “There seemed to be a synergy with Wean, and the MVOC was born out of that,” Noden adds. The Wean Foundation provided seed money for the organization, Noden relates. Since then, the organizing collaborative has attracted funding from the Walter E. and Carolyn H. Watson Foundation, the National Atlantic Philanthropies and other groups. “Our budget is $650,000 a year,” Noden reports. The bulk of that money – 60% – goes toward compensation for the staff and their training, Noden says. Other expenses include maintaining a Web site and supporting promotional efforts such as the Valley Voice, a quarterly publication devoted to highlighting the activities of the collaborative. “I think we’ve done a good job of attracting talent and acting as a catalyst for reform and change,” Noden says. Still, changing the hearts and minds of a community that has weathered so much is most difﬁcult, and it was expected that organizations such as the organizing collaborative would be met with skepticism. Chris McKee, a graduate of Youngstown State University who also holds a graduate degree from Yale, relates he wanted to return to the Mahoning Valley and establish a coalition within the theological community. He joined the organization about six months ago, noting he “wanted to work with the interfaith community and build relationships with the entire Valley. If congregations don’t have the support, then the nearby community suffers.” The organization plays a vital role in Youngstown’s

future, adds Bill D’Avignon, city director of community development. “What they do is necessary,” he says. “If there’s one thing we learned through Youngstown 2010, it’s that you can’t rely on city government to do everything. It takes people organizing in their own neighborhoods.” However, D’Avginon says, there are times when the efforts of the collaborative, however well-intended, clash with what the city can do and paint Youngstown in a negative light. One example: organizing efforts around abandoned houses that should be razed. Demolition is the responsibility of the city and its limited resources hinder all it would like to accomplish. “We have to respond to that,” he adds. The collaborative’s Noden responds that his group has evolved into an effective lobby for state and federal grants geared toward neighborhood revitalization. Its efforts have won support from Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, Warren Mayor Michael O’Brien, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “We’re powerless on our own to tackle these problems,” Noden says. “Some leaders see this immediately, for others, it takes time.” He also emphasizes there is no “quick ﬁx” to the challenges that face Youngstown and municipalities in similar situations and that no one is under the illusion these issues can be solved in a matter of a couple years. “We’re not re-creating the past. We want to create a future so these neighborhoods can thrive,” Noden says. “Hopefully, this is the start of 20 to 30 years of organizing. It’s a long process, a long undertaking.”

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t’s true: What goes around, comes around. Forty or so years ago, money was tight, so ﬁnding affordable outlets for family entertainment was a bit of a challenge. On Saturday or Sunday afternoons from early spring to late fall, we counted on toting the two kids to a local park to ride the swings or collect rust specks on their J.C. Penney Co. jeans from scooting down an old sliding board – all for free, thank you very much. No need to remind you that money’s tight once again. Although it’s now our grandkids we’re looking to entertain (thankfully not quite as often), the name of the game is the same. So it is that when we’re on kid-sitting duty and the ground isn’t covered by 3 inches of white stuff, it’s a good bet you’ll ﬁnd us at one of those same parks once again. Just about every town or township we can think of has at least one park. So getting to anywhere near all of them – much less trying to describe our experiences in the space allocated to this article – would be impossible. We’ll pick a handful and leave it to you to check the phone book or Internet for a park near you, pack a picnic lunch (sans alcohol, which is prohibited in most public parks) and head out for some old-time fun.

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ust because it’s where the whole thing started all those years ago – the ﬁrst of our two kids was born in 1963 – we started our search at Waddell Park in our hometown of Niles. Early on, we took advantage of the swings, slides and just letting the little ones run free and get too tired to refuse to go to bed. As they got older, outings included dips in the public swimming pool, ice skating on a makeshift rink or sledding down a hill at Wilder Field. Once they were too old to want to be seen with us anymore, the two of us teamed up to perfect our serves on the tennis courts or jogged our way through the park on our evening runs. Today, those metal slides have been replaced with plastic, and the much newer bocce court seems to get lots of use. The tennis courts have been replaced by a colorful play area for youngsters; and in between that and the still-open swimming pool is the new $4 million, 71,000-square-foot Mayor Ralph A. Infante Wellness Center where residents and nonresidents can enjoy programs on all but eight holidays a year. Of course, you still can watch baseball, softball, football, volleyball and, more recently, soccer games when they’re in play. Picnic tables dot the landscape too, but if you have a larger group, pavilions and cabins can be rented for parties, reunions and such. The large pavilion, which accommodates 100, goes for $25 a day for Niles residents and $50 per day for outsiders. Park Perks: As we visited, we searched for something that made each park special and worth a return visit (or several). Here, that Wellness Center wins hands down. Inside, there’s a regulation-size soccer ﬁeld, a 1/8mile cushioned walking track, a café and free WiFi access. There are annual fees to the walking track alone or full access to the entire complex including a room well-appointed with exercise equipment, but volunteer guides will give you a free tour.

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nother thing we love about community parks is that often they come with “pedigrees” – rich histories of why and when they were developed and by whom (Waddell Park is named for a long-time Niles industrialist). So it is with Buhl Farm Park in Sharon, Pa., a well-wooded and landscaped park that traces its roots back to industrialist Frank H. Buhl Jr. and his wife, Julia. Buhl, referred to as “The Father of the Industrial Shenango Valley,” had an active role in establishing and running several steel mills, most recently Sharon Steel Castings and Sharon Steel. He and his wife were active in their community as well, and in 1914, they developed the 300-acre F.H. Buhl Farm, adding several amenities and opening it to the public. The tradition continues today. In addition to several areas designated as arboretums, the wellwooded park features hiking paths, lots of picnic tables, ball ﬁelds and playgrounds (plus a ﬁtness trail built with donations from Sharon Regional Health System and First National Bank) and a lovely outdoor amphitheater at which By Monnie Ryan free concerts are held in summer months. Next to the small but scenic Lake Julia is a public swimming pool that looked especially inviting on the 85-plus degree day of our visit. Park Perks: Without question, a big attraction here is the Buhl Farm Golf Course. This nine-hole public course, open from mid-April until Nov. 1, is thought to be the only free golf course in the United States. Need a pull cart? Wow – that’ll set you back a whole dollar. If you prefer pay-to-play on 18 holes and a gorgeous clubhouse, the public Avalon at Buhl Park Country Club and course is in the park as well.

In Search of:

reunion or birthday bash. We passed several playground areas, including the “Firestone Funland,” an all-wood climbing station that looks like lots of fun, even to a couple of oldies but goodies such as us. Depending on the season, other parts of the park will be ﬁlled with activity, especially near “Harvey’s Firestone Park, Home of the Clippers” and the Ralph “Waldo” Ward Training Center, a complex that includes playing ﬁelds for various sports such as football. And in June, July and August, visitors are welcome to take in a free concert at the gazebo on Sunday afternoons. Park Perks: Here, it was the outdoor pool that caught our eye, mostly because of the colorful chute slide that’s rarely found in public pools. Apparently, local folks like it too; the day we visited was sunny but a bit on the cool side, even so, the place was (ahem) literally swimming with kids.

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drive south brought us to Columbiana and another park with a big-name history – the Harvey S. Firestone Recreational Park. Firestone, as most folks in these parts know, is the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. of Akron, but he was born near Columbiana and graduated from Columbiana High School in 1887. Even after he made his fame and fortune in the tire manufacturing industry, history tells us, he often returned to his hometown and the Firestone Homestead. He didn’t forget his roots when it came to community service, either; in 1933, he donated 52 acres to establish a town park that would be named in his honor after his death. Since then, the park has grown to encompass close to 70 acres. The enclosed pavilions that dot the park are particularly impressive – they seem perfect for a family

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fter an hour of photographing the beautiful dahlias, roses and other scenery at Mill Creek Park, we ventured on to Boardman Park, another of our favorites. If you have munchkins in tow, you’ll want to head straight for Kids’ Town, a wooden playground complex that looked so inviting the two of us actually thought about hopping out of the car and joining in the fun. Younger kids will love Tots’ Town, where the equipment is geared toward the under-5 crowd. The park’s calendar of events is ﬁlled with everything from educational programs to concerts in the Maag Outdoor Arts Theatre, which is open all year. A small-but-lovely gazebo not far from the entrance on Boardman-Poland Road is equipped with electricity so musicians can set up to practice or perform. The park also has several sports facilities including two tennis courts, a hardball ﬁeld, two softball ﬁelds, two sand volleyball courts and a hiking/biking trail. A new open-air Lariccia Family Bocce Pavilion reportedly is the ﬁrst public court in Mahoning County; when the courts are covered with a portable ﬂoor system, the pavilion can be used for other types of events. Also near the Boardman-Poland Road entrance is the Historical Village, which features four buildings, including the Oswald Detchon House, built somewhere between 1840 and 1870 and which now houses a museum run by the Boardman Historical Society. Park Perks: Without question, at least in our opinion, the focal point in this park is the St. James Meeting House, reportedly the oldest public building in Boardman Township. Originally the St. James Episcopal Church, the building now is used for other purposes; a few years back, for instance, we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of one of our daughter’s best friends here.

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Northside: Clock Ticks From Page 1 Forum subsidiary that operates Northside – “will effect the complete ﬁnancial and partial operational separation” of WRCS and Western Reserve Health Foundation from the remainder of Forum’s operations by Nov. 30. The requirement is regarded as the clearest indication yet that the creditors, known collectively as the consent parties (the banks and bondholders that hold Forum’s secured debt), are in the driver’s seat of the Chapter 11 case. The consent parties reportedly have long wanted an end to Northside’s continual drain on Forum’s other assets. They want Northside to stand alone ﬁnancially or to be sold or closed, a prospect hinted at with regard to a disposition plan ﬁled with the court. The new deadlines for Northside were not speciﬁcally mentioned during the Oct. 20 hearing on Forum’s motion to extend the use of cash collateral. That motion resulted in the stipulation and order amending the ﬁnal order to use cash collateral. At the start of the brief hearing notable for its cordiality compared to the contentiousness of earlier hearings in the bankruptcy, attorney Matthew Salerno, announced that an agreement had been reached to extend Forum’s use of cash collateral through Jan. 14. The attorney for Forum broadly alluded to qualiﬁcations, termination events and milestones that would be included in the submitted order. The stipulation and order to amend the cash collateral agreement was ﬁled Oct. 22 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the same day that Forum’s former president and CEO, Walter “Buzz” Pishkur, responded to the ﬁrestorm that erupted when Forum proposed paying him up to $9,000 per week for consulting services. That controversy erupted even before the revelations that Forum planned to lay off 52 workers and before it ﬁled a motion seeking court approval to hire an interim CEO, Charles Neumann, and pay his company, FTI Consulting Inc., $75,500 per week. Pishkur, who announced at the press conference that he would decline the position, said he believed Forum’s lenders wanted him out as CEO because he “stood in the way” of their plans. “They either wanted me out altogether or placed in a marginalized position,” he said, which would make it impossible to execute the recovery plans he developed. He said he began second-guessing his decision to accept the consultancy as it became apparent he was being left out of what was going on. Pishkur had served as Forum’s president and CEO nearly a year before stepping down at the insistence of the lenders. The hearing expected to occur Oct. 20 on the proposed agreement with Pishkur was postponed to Oct. 27, along with the agreement to hire Neumann. At press time the Ofﬁcial Unsecured Creditors Committee had ﬁled an objection to Neumann’s hiring. The creditors also had objected to the proposed consulting contract with Pishkur. The cash collateral order sets forth budget objectives and amends default events in the original cash collateral ﬁnal order approved in April. It also establishes new timelines for providing term sheets and reorganization plans acceptable to the consent parties as well as goals for getting statements and plans approved. The milestones, which risk triggering default events if missed, include getting the consent parties’ agreement on a term sheet for a plan

Joyce Pishkur joined her husband, Walter J. “Buzz” Pishkur, at his Oct. 22 press conference where he announced he would not accept a consultant position with Forum. He was ousted as CEO by lenders, he said, because he “stood in the way” of their plans.

or plans of reorganization they can accept “in their sole and absolute discretion” by Nov. 15; ﬁling the plan and related disclosure statements by Dec. 7 and seven days after Forum gets the consent parties’ agreement; failure to get approval of the disclosure statements by Jan. 15; or the failure to obtain conﬁrmation by Feb. 12. Among the various provisions in the order is the requirement that Forum and Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zutkin Capital – the investment banker hired at the lenders’ insistence – “continue to solicit offers to determine whether one or more” of Forum’s hospitals can be sold in a transaction resulting in the retirement of Forum’s obligations “in full in cash.” By Oct. 30, Forum is to deliver to the consent parties and the creditors’ committee a draft for an asset purchase agreement and a draft motion to approve bidding procedures and protections, and to advise potential purchasers that deﬁnitive bids will be due Nov. 13. On or before Nov. 30, the order continues, Forum and its ﬁnancial advisers shall

have obtained the consent parties’ agreement on the course to be taken: a merger or acquisition or to remain independent. Should a “deﬁnitive bid” acceptable to both Forum and the consent parties be submitted by Nov. 30, Forum is to execute a “stalking horse” purchase agreement with no due diligence or ﬁnancing contingencies with the purchaser and ﬁle a motion seeking approval of the purchaser or any “higher or better offer” and of “a sale process/bid procedures”; obtain approval of the sale process motion by Dec. 15; hold an auction by Jan. 15; and obtain entry of an order approving the sale by Jan. 19. Such an asset sale, in the view of the Regional Chamber’s president and CEO, Tom Humphries, might not be the worst of all possible outcomes. It could be good for the community, he offered, if a buyer in the health care business acquired it and saw the value in it. “So we can’t rule it out,” he said. He also lamented Pishkur’s ouster as CEO in September. “I thought Buzz was doing a good job,” he said.

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Diary Details Depression’s Highs, Lows Those living through economic upheavals of 1930s didn’t know what next day, year would bring. By Dan O’Brien

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hose reading about the Great Depression from the vantage point of the 21st century know how it all ends. But those writing and living through those years of economic upheaval had no idea what the next day would bring, let alone the next year. That’s what makes The Great Depression: A Diary so compelling, relates James Ledbetter, co-author and editor with Daniel Roth of the economic diary written by Roth’s father, Benjamin, spanning 1931 to America’s entry into World War II in December 1941. “The thing that really gripped me,” Ledbetter said shortly before he was to address a crowd Oct. 19 of 60 faculty and students in Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center, “is that when you’re living through this economic turmoil, there’s no real sense of how long it will last. You don’t know you’re living in a Great Depression until you’ve lived through a Great Depression.” Ledbetter, editor of The Big Money, an online news magazine devoted to business and economics, and Daniel Roth, who along with his father founded what is today the ﬁrm of Roth Blair Roberts Strasfeld and Lodge in Youngstown, were at YSU to discuss the new book, published by PublicAffairs, a division of Perseus Books. The Great Depression: A Diary follows the observations and thoughts of Benjamin Roth, a young attorney in Youngstown who witnessed and recorded for posterity an economic journal of what the city was like during this period. Over a decade, Roth’s journal takes the reader from the chills of the economic calamity hitting Youngstown in 1931 stemming from the stock market collapse of two years earlier, to what appears to be some relief, optimism and modest growth during the height of the New Deal, and through another market crash, unemployment and recession from 1937 to 1939. “When I went into practice with my father just out of law school, one of my ﬁrst assignments was to read this diary,” Dan Roth recalled. Roth’s father said it was important for the young lawyer to understand the particular turmoil of the era, to unlock the mindset of many of the ﬁrm’s clients who lived through and experienced those years. “You’ll be working with clients who have never been able to get over the Great Depression,” Roth recalled his father telling him. It was always Benjamin Roth’s intention of someday editing the diaries for publication, Roth said. After his father died in 1978, Roth packed the diaries away and preserved them with the hope of fulﬁlling his father’s goal of seeing them published. That opportunity came in September of last year, when the ﬁnancial system began to unravel before the eyes of a very nervous world. Roth said he received a call from his son, Bill, who

Daniel Roth and James Ledbetter, co-editors of The Great Depression: A Diary, sign copies of the book at YSU Oct. 19

was working on Wall Street during the collapse. “He said, ‘If you’re ever going to do this, now’s the time.’ ” His son suggested that he send excerpts of the diary to Ledbetter and The Big Money, which debuted on the day Lehman Brothers ﬁled for bankruptcy. Late last year, The Big Money began running passages from Roth’s diary. “I was dumbfounded at how similar the situations were” after comparing the initial excerpts and the newspaper headlines of 2008, Ledbetter recalled. He then started working to determine just what format the diary should take – a book, magazine article, or a lengthy newspaper series. Thirteen publishers turned the project down because the diary contained little in terms of historical analysis or explanation that could carry a reader through the passages, Roth said. That’s when he and Ledbetter entered into a collaboration that prepared the diary for publication. “The result is that I’ve fulﬁlled the promise to my dad,” he noted. The book received favorable coverage in the New York Times and The Washington Post on Oct. 17, with the Time’s Joe Nolera devoting his column in its business section to the diary. Almost immediately after the Nolera piece, Roth said he began receiving e-mails from people all across the country whose parents grew up in Youngstown during the Depression. “It has been a thrill,” he related. Exposure in The Times also appeared to have

lifted sales Oct. 17, Roth laughed. “For about an hour, we were the No. 1 selling book on Amazon. com,” he said. The event at YSU was sponsored in part by the university’s history department, which has also produced an exhibit to coincide with a discussion and book-signing event Oct. 24 at the Ohio Historical Center for Labor and Industry, commonly referred to as the Steel Museum, in Youngstown. Martha Pallante, chairwoman of YSU’s history department, said the department was contacted through the publisher’s marketing agency and was asked if it would like to participate in some way related to the book’s release. “We said we were ready.” Over six-weeks, faculty and students enrolled in the department’s curatorial courses produced a series of 10 panels exhibiting photographs and the most expressive passages from the diary. “We’re a department that is very dedicated to hands-on history,” Pallante said. “This seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. I think the exhibit is very professional and truly interprets the book.” Ledbetter said the Roth diary tells us all a story of how fragile our economic system is and just how little we all know. “We still lack the equipment to understand why economies do what they do. This was one man’s point of view, one man’s voice,” amid the chaos and turmoil of the Depression years.

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How to Find the Right Fit For Your Small Business It’s not enough to interview and ﬁnd someone with the right skills; they also must have the right “ﬁt” for the organization. Every organization has its own corporate culture. When interviewing, take a look at your own company and ask yourself: • Do we encourage initiative, or do we demand adherence to structure? • Do we seek creativity or do we prefer an understanding of current traditions? • What exactly do we need done and what tools must an applicant bring to do the job? • If a candidate is looking for quick advancement, is that a possibility in your ﬁrm? Someone who works only to the job description probably won’t be happy in a company that is ﬂuid and loose about structure. Someone who is bubbly and friendly may not ﬁt well into a cubicle environment with little personal interaction or teamwork. These can be warnings of a poor match even though the person has the skills and experience to succeed. Just try not to make strict judgments and rule out people who could – and would want to – adapt.

Interviewing by Committee Group interviews are like writing by committee: they are no-win situations. The supervisor doesn’t develop a personal rapport with a group present and the applicant becomes confused about reporting lines. The important dynamic is between employee and supervisor and they need to meet in a private setting conducive to conversation. An exception is the small open ofﬁce where everyone works together as a team. In that case, the team is a single entity and should interview together.

If You Hire the Wrong Person When it looks like you’ve still hired the wrong person, ask yourself, “Can a little coaching or some extra guidance turn it around?” If the answer is no, don’t keep trying to make it work or stalling to avoid an unpleasant conversation. It creates an unhealthy atmosphere in the ofﬁce, poor morale among other employees, and keeps you and your organization from being efﬁcient and successful. SOURCE: Kate Perrin, founder and president of PRofessionals, Washington, D.C., and Patty DeDominic, founder and owner of PDQ Career Group of Companies in Los Angeles.

Red Flags on Resumes When you’re hiring, it can feel nearly impossible to wade through the stack of resumes and ﬁgure out who you should bring in for an interview. Here are a few red ﬂags that might help you eliminate a few more from the pile.

Consistent Spelling, Grammar Errors Unless you are hiring a proofreader or copywriter, a few spelling or grammar errors on an otherwise impressive resume should not be grounds for dismissing a candidate. However, a resume or cover letter riddled with such mistakes indicates a lack of professionalism.

Generic Cover Letter

Hiring the Semi-Retired Sometimes a small-business owner’s best prospective hire is the person who might be the ﬁrst to get overlooked – the semi-retired woman or man. Semi-retired employees are rarely looking to “climb the corporate ladder” or establish a professional reputation, as many have already done so. These women and men leave their egos at the door and, typically, are simply thankful to have a postcareer job. Concerns regarding career advancement are rarely a problem. Your younger employees can beneﬁt from having mature colleagues offer guidance and proper perspective. If your small business needs some workers who can be ﬂexible with their hours and who can handle working for modest pay and prestige, semi-retirees are often well suited for the job. Various studies and reports note the following regarding semi-retired employees: • They have a lower absenteeism rate, the result, in part, because of their discipline and fewer family problems that interfere with their jobs. • They suffer fewer accidents and ﬁle fewer workers’ compensation claims because of their focus and conscientiousness. • They have a lower turnover rate. They exhibit loyalty, often more so than younger workers.

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Whereas the resume gives you an overview of an applicant’s work experience, the cover letter provides an opportunity for reﬂection on how that experience could be applied to the position you hope to ﬁll. Candidates using boilerplate cover letters that don’t speciﬁcally address the job you have posted and how they ﬁt the position likely haven’t given this topic much thought, and are simply sending out their resumes indiscriminately.

Irrelevant Personal Information Watch out for candidates with a three-page resume listing their hobbies, religious afﬁliations and family status. This indicates a lack of professionalism, and more important, someone who may not have a solid grasp on the social boundaries appropriate to the work environment.

Inability to Hold Down a Job A few jobs lasting six months or less may indicate many factors, such as layoffs or better offers elsewhere, that don’t reﬂect negatively on the job seeker. On the other hand, if this seems to be a consistent employment pattern, you have the resume of a person who either grows restless and leaves jobs, has trouble getting along with co-workers and supervisors or is let go from jobs for sub-par performance or other issues. There will always be exceptions to these red ﬂags. If a candidate with one of them also seems worthy of an interview, by all means conduct an interview. Still, address the issue of concern during your meeting. SOURCE: National Federation of Independent Business. NFIB.com

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BuildingBetterBusiness Defend Your Business Against H1N1 Good hygiene prevents spread of germs, viruses throughout the ofﬁce.

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he H1N1 virus – the so-called “swine ﬂu” – isn’t any more deadly than a seasonal ﬂu, but it is transmitted more easily, reports the Los Angeles Times. Employers play a vital role in preventing the spread of the H1N1 virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control, seasonal ﬂu causes 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths every year on average. “Any places where a lot of people congregate, such as the workplace, become hot spots for spreading the ﬂu virus,” says Alison Southwick, spokesman for the national Better Business Bureau. “Employers can take a few easy steps to signiﬁcantly diminish the risk of spreading the virus around the ofﬁce, which will help keep employees healthy and the business operating through a tough ﬂu season.” The BBB offers the following advice to business owners on how to prepare for the upcoming ﬂu season and a potential outbreak of H1N1 ﬂu:

Encourage Employees to Stay Home The CDC strongly recommends that employees who have ﬂu-like symptoms stay home until at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever. This will reduce the risk of spreading viruses to other employees. Employers can encourage employees to stay home by allowing ﬂexible leave or alternate work schedules to facilitate employees taking care of their own health and that of their families. CDC also recommends not requiring a doctor’s note for employees with ﬂu-like symptoms.

Emphasize Good Hygiene Habits Good hygiene will greatly help prevent the spread of germs and viruses throughout the ofﬁce. CDC encourages employers to offer education on hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes in an easyto-understand format and in appropriate languages. Also consider providing hand sanitizer, no-touch trash cans and tissues. The CDC also recommends that employers encourage staff to get vaccinated for both the seasonal ﬂu and the H1N1 ﬂu virus.

Prepare Business Continuation Plan Following a disaster, 25% of all businesses that close never reopen. That number jumps to 50% those among that don’t have a continuation of operations plan, according to the Institute for Business & Home Safety.

A business continuation plan would help direct employees and management on steps to take if key leadership becomes sick or if a major catastrophe temporarily prevents business operations. Because large numbers of staff could contract the ﬂu, employers should ensure the business can continue

operating by training other employees to step in if key staff should become ill. For more advice on preparing your business for the ﬂu season, visit the CDC’s Web site, Flu.gov. For additional advice from BBB on managing a business, visit BBB.org.

Competition Beneﬁts Consumers

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remember going to the Golden Gloves fights at Struthers Field House in the 1970s. For the ﬁrst time that’s where I saw Boom Boom Mancini and Harry Arroyo ﬁght. I was never lucky enough to sit at ringside but no matter where the seat was, I never missed a fight back then. What was it that made me love the amaBy Pat Rose teur fights so much? BBB President The competition. It’s popular in some circles to bash competition. Some people think its bad for children, bad for schools, bad in the workplace. I disagree. Kids need to learn that there are winners and losers. If you want to be competitive, you can’t just say to the coach that you want to be the best pitcher. You need to practice, listen to experts and learn to be a winner. When you are a student in school, it is not enough to do only what is required so you can slide through with mediocre grades. Every student should strive to do the very best he or she is capable of; of course, some will do better than others. That’s life in school, in sports and in your career. Leaders can be identiﬁed early in their school life. They are the ones who volunteer for various clubs and projects. They strive for higher grades by doing extra assignments. They study hard and smart but also enjoy all aspects of school including the competition. They want to be winners. Your Better Business Bureau is noticing a huge increase in competition in the workplace. Greed and layoffs are the two most frequently touted sins of competition. However, they can be minimized with revised rules such as increased taxes on the very greedy and work replacement, retraining and length of workweek rules for employees. Society is changing and we must all understand

that rules must sometimes also be changed. Here is the good news for consumers. Competition is good for you and getting better all the time, thanks to the BBB’s new grading system for companies. What a huge and much-needed step from grades of “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory” to a letter grade system, A+ to F, with speciﬁc criteria used to evaluate every company in the same way. Companies now call us about a customer’s complaint before the customer even thinks about ﬁling a formal complaint with us. This is where we can best assist both the business and its customer. We are that respected neutral body, one that both can trust to be neutral, fair and capable. We are like the sage of olden times that people relied on for solid advice. More and more companies are asking us how they can do a better job. One of the easiest answers I give them is improve communication. Your customer won’t call me if it is a minor issue and you keep in close personal contact with him or her. Pick your most outgoing, empathetic employee who has good common sense, understands your product or service completely and loves to talk to people. Assign him or her to communicate with unhappy customers and provide customer service. Then deliver on this employee’s promises to your customers. I’ll probably never hear another complaint from one of your customers. Instead, I’m hoping they’ll send us letters complimenting you and your staff. That’s our favorite kind of communication with consumers. I have one ﬁnal suggestion: Come in and talk to me personally about issues you might have. I want to talk to you, especially if you don’t currently have a good BBB grade. It doesn’t help you, your potential customers or us when we are required to report that you have a C, D or F. Quite possibly, we can help you improve that grade – not overnight but sooner than you might think in lots of cases. Money can’t buy you a good grade but making a few changes and following some of our suggestions can. The author, Pat Rose, can be reached at pat@youngstown. bbb.com, or by calliing 330 744 3111.

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*To earn the $25 account bonus, your employees must enroll in CollegeAdvantage and start payroll deduction between September 1, 2009 and January 31, 2010. The bonus will be applied to their CollegeAdvantage account 90 days after they start payroll deduction and meet certain other requirements. Go to www.collegeadvantage.com for rules and details. If you are not an Ohio taxpayer, before you invest, consider whether your home state offers a 529 plan that provides its taxpayers with state tax and other beneﬁts not available through this plan. CollegeAdvantage is a 529 college savings plan offered and administered by the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority, a state agency. CollegeAdvantage is described in the current Offering Statement and Participation Agreement, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information; read and consider it carefully before opening an account. For a current copy of the Offering Statement, go online at www.collegeadvantage.com or call 1-800-AFFORD-IT (233-6734).

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TIPS FOR CLIMBING THE CAREER LADDER, COMPILED BY MONNIE RYAN

Getting Ahead

Poor Managers Spark Exodus of Employees Supervisors need to watch for red ﬂags.

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hen top performers decide to jump ship, managers may want to consider a little selfreﬂection. Some 35% of executives interviewed by Robert Half International said good employees are most likely to quit their jobs because of unhappiness with management. Limited opportunities for advancement was the second most-common answer, cited by 33%. “Professionals seek strong leadership, particularly during times of uncertainty, and they also want managers they can learn from and who take an interest in their careers,” says Max Messmer, CEO of Robert Half International. “Employees want to see their efforts rewarded and acknowledged,” he says. “If offering a promotion isn’t an option right now, consider providing employees with professional development opportunities and the ﬂexibility to pursue projects that will help them expand their skill sets.” Most employees who are looking for new jobs will send out warning signals. Robert Half identiﬁes the following ﬁve red ﬂags for supervisors to watch for: • Noticeable change in attitude. A formerly enthusiastic staff member may seem withdrawn and indifferent. Look for changes in behavior in team settings as well as individual performance. • Longer lunch breaks, frequent absences. This may be a sign that someone is using the time for job interviews – or simply that the person is bored with the work. • Missed deadlines, more errors. Everyone misses a deadline from time to time, but apathetic workers make it a habit. Numerous errors from a previously conscientious employee are a sign of disengagement and may signal lost interest and an impending departure. • More professional attire. An em-

ployee who shows up for work wearing suits even though your company has a business casual dress policy may be going on job interviews. • A drop in productivity. A decline in performance or work quality and increased forgetfulness about deadlines, meetings and appointments could indicate a worker who is gradually disconnecting from the job.

Tips for Getting That Raise These days, getting a salary increase is tougher than ever. But Salary. com’s Maura Pallera says there are some steps you can follow to help you get the money you deserve. First, she says, keep in mind that salaries for similar jobs can vary due to industry type, geography and company size. Always take these factors into consideration when making a salary assessment. Then, demonstrate precisely why you deserve more money. Keep notes on the projects and tasks you’ve been assigned to show that you are a valuable asset. Be sensitive to your boss’s workload and pick a time to state your case when his or her stress level isn’t sky high. Decide ahead of time on a ﬁgure you’ll be satisﬁed with – and think how you’ll respond if the answer is no. (No emotional outbursts, please.) If you come to an agreement, ask for a date when the increase will become effective and follow up on verbal promises in writing – e-mail is ﬁne – after the meeting. If you’re turned down, remember that it’s not necessarily because of your performance; after all, money is tight at every company right now. Instead, think outside the paycheck envelope; be open to other options such as an extra vacation day or two, telecommuting at least part of the time or perhaps a compressed work schedule. These don’t cost the company nearly as much as a salary increase, but they can be reasonable rewards for you as an employee.

by George Farris

Zen and the Art of Lawn Maintenance In the past few weeks, we’ve worked on some challenging projects here at Farris — helping people make tough decisions and get their messages out. An Austintown healthcare pioneer retired from a business he had built and loved. In doing so, six beloved employees had to be laid off. A former hospital CEO was close to witnessing a turnaround when he was forced out by Wall Street bankers who felt he was blocking their plans to cash out of the Valley healthcare market.

married. But then not long ago, I realized there was something relaxing about cutting those neat rows of fresh-smelling grass. I find Zen with my 6.5 hp Toro. I love putting my ball cap on backwards, putting my iPod in my ears and singing “Rock and Roll Pain Train” along with Kid Rock as I watch those green pillars fall. My family claims I also get some fiendish thrill from embarrassing them by singing loudly on the front lawn as our neighbors stare and laugh.

On the flip side, we’ve been having Later in the shower, without a lot of fun helping market highespecially thinking about it, the demand products in answer comes to me. the client asks the solar energy field. To find answers, When where I got the idea, I We’ve had the seek action. chance to help local simply reply, “research” non-profit organiza— with a wink! tions get their messages out. We’re working on exciting levy issues and BOOKS GIVE ME A BREAK helping clients sell lighting products When I feel stressed or agitated, I on the internet. often head for the Library or a bookstore. There is something about CRAZY PLACE being around books that has always Our business is happy, sad, exciting made me feel better. It calms me and challenging — all at once. In down and helps me focus — even if one day we can go through more I don’t read the books! It may sound emotions than a therapist sees all funny, but it works for me. week. So how do we keep sane? And under all this stress, how do we I believe most of the ideas and come up with breakthrough ideas answers already exist in our brains. for clients? We can’t force them out, but we can let them reveal themselves. I know it Everyone is different, but for me sounds crazy, but the great marketwhen I need answers I seek an action; ing idea you got from Farris might when I need peace, I seek a place. have started with a Personal Pace mower and a can of gas. THE BIG IDEA When I need an answer, I have to Stay tuned and stay smart! move around. I can’t sit in front of a computer and think about it. I put the problem in my mind and then go to the gym and lift weights, go to Mill Creek Park and ride my bike, or just cut the grass. That’s right, cut the grass. I’ve used a lawn service since I was first

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PEOPLE, COMPANIES, MAKING NEWS

For the Record The Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University will honor its outstanding alumni at its 14th annual banquet Oct. 30 in Kilcawley Center. The Outstanding Business Alumnus award will be presented to John A. DePizzo Jr., Class of 1971. Jon Finizio Jr. (1985) has been named Outstanding MBA Alumnus. Ted F. Uehlinger (1999) Outstanding Recent Alumnus; and Richard J. Schiraldi, Outstanding Service Award. To make reservations, call 330 941 3068. An air cur tain specially designed for restaurant drive-through windows proved to protect workers from extreme temperatures and continuous inhalation of vehicle emissions. The six-month test was conducted at Arby’s store No. 5775 in Struthers. The air curtain was manufactured by Berner International of New Castle, Pa. The restaurant is one of nine Arby’s franchises owned by Niles Restaurant Business of Youngstown. James Grantz, a broker associate at Edward J. Lewis Inc., Youngstown, has leased 27,000 square feet of space at 1130 Performance Place in Youngstown to Transit Service Inc. The company will use its new location for ofﬁces, vehicle storage and maintenance. The ribbon was cut Oct. 12 at BNR Motorsports, 11979 Market St. in North Lima. The family-owned company sells motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles as well as Harley-Davidson parts, accessories and gear.

Ground was broken Oct. 15 for a new warm-water therapy pool at the Park Vista Retirement Community in Youngstown. Youngstown Tile & Terrazzo Inc., Canﬁeld, is the recipient of an award from the International Masonry Institute for work at Penn State University’s Shenango Campus in Sharon, Pa. A ribbon cutting was held Oct. 22 at the new location of the Down Syndrome Association of the Valley Center for Success, 945 Boardman-Canﬁeld Road in Boardman. The nonproﬁt organization provides support services and advocacy for individuals with Down syndrome and their families. Ambrosini’s has opened at 10826 Market St. in North Lima. The restaurant, owned by the Ambrosini family, boasts spaghetti sauce made from the recipe the family’s ancestors used when they cooked for the Pope at the Vatican. Bradley W. Mantzell has joined Gilbert’s Insurance and Consulting, Sharon, Pa., as vice president and commercial account executive. Suzan Aufiero, a cardiothoracic surgeon, has joined Sharon Regional Health System’s Heart and Vascular Institute in Sharon, Pa. Julian W. Proctor, a radiation oncologist, has joined Sharon Regional’s Cancer Care Center. Marilyn Davis-Lane, the new director of the Needle’s Eye Christian Counseling Center, Youngstown, was introduced at public events Oct. 23 and 24.

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*100 offer available for new Cortland Banks checking accounts opened between October 7-Dec.31, 2009, with a minimum deposit of $50 not currently on deposit with Cortland Banks. Offer limited to one per customer. To qualify you must have a new ACH Direct Deposit of your payroll, pension or Social Security beneﬁt. Offer not valid on account conversions, for accounts closed in the past 30 days, or in combination with any other offer. Checking account must remain open and active for a minimum of four months, to receive the $100 deposited into your account, if all conditions have been met. $100 is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT. Offer may be withdrawn at any time. Customers must mention where they heard about the promotion between October 7-Dec.31, 2009, or present this coupon during account opening. Application for Debit Card required. **Free Debit Card to those who qualify. Staff members at the Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Howland accept an oversized check for $124,000 Oct. 13 from U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan. The federal funding was earmarked by Ryan to help pay for the expansion of the center’s programs, which would serve as many as 78 more children. From left are Amber Thornton, Randy Beard, Bob Foster and Ryan.

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Global Entrepreneurship Week at YSU Monday, November 16 “Exporting In Today’s Economy” 2:00-3:15 p.m.-McKay Auditorium, Beeghly College of Education/YSU Panel discussion on exporting Open to the Public Must call to register: 330-941-2140

Tuesday, November 17 Women Entrepreneurs: Increase Your Possibilities In Today’s World 5:30-8:30 p.m. - DeBartolo Stadium Club, Stambaugh Stadium/YSU Panel discussion with women entrepreneurs Free parking is available in the M24 parking area. To register, please call 330-941-7181.

Tuesday, November 17 Williamson Symposium Series 7:30 a.m. Breakfast Presentation Jones Room/Kilcawley Center/YSU “State of the Angel Investing Industry” Featuring CATHERINE MOTT, Founder/CEO of BlueTree Capital Group and BlueTree Allied Angels Free parking in the Parking Deck on Wick Avenue. Call Christine Shelton at 330-941-3068 to place your reservation.

Wednesday, November 18 YSU Faculty & Staff/YBI Entrepreneurship Mixer 4:00-6:00 p.m. at Youngstown Business Incubator Celebrating Entrepreneur Magazine naming Youngstown as one of “The Ten Best Cities to start a business” For information contact Donna Walsh at 330-941-3385 or [email protected]

9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.-Open to the Public Both sessions-Cope Suite/Williamson Hall/YSU CATHERINE MOTT “State of the Angel Investing Industry”

Thursday, November 19 “Rise & Shine” IdeaLaunch Competition 7:30-9:00 a.m.-Cope Suite/Williamson Hall Open to the public For more information, contact Donna Walsh

Williamson Symposium Series Tuesday, November 17

CATHERINE MOTT, MBA ‘88, is the founder/ CEO for BlueTree Capital Group which facilitates and manages BlueTree Allied Angels (BTAA). BTAA is a regional group of accredited investors who aggregate their money, knowledge, and expertise to invest in early-stage companies. This members-only organization is designed to operate as a network of private equity investors. In 2002, she was recognized as one of Pennsylvania’s 50 Best Women in Business.

Events sponsored by the Williamson College of Business Administration, Monus Entrepreneurship Center, Small Business Development Center, Youngstown Business Incubator, WCBA Emerging Markets Initiative, Partners for Workplace Diversity, Youngstown Business & Professional Women, and the Garden Club Angels.

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The Business Journal

BY JEFFREY GITOMER

Sales Savvy

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Got Drama? What Kind? How many days do you waste focusing on other people’s drama?

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build your character, intelligence, knowledge, reputation, career, success or wealth. Yikes. Here are a few painful questions: • Do you spend more time on other people’s drama or your career? • Other people’s drama or your children? • Other people’s drama or building your personal brand? • Other people’s drama or your success? • Other people’s drama or your marriage? (Ouch.) IDEA: Put a stopwatch to it. Click when you’re watching or reading about other people’s drama, and click when you stop. Put the number into memory, and total it at the end of the day. Then multiply it times 365. Then divide by 60 (minutes in an hour) then divide it by 24 (hours in a day). Then look at the number in horror. That’s the number of DAYS you wasted focusing on other people’s drama. An hour a day equals 15 full, 24hour days at the end of the year – a three-week vacation’s worth of time wasted on what Brad and Angelina did, or what Lady Gaga is wearing, or how Octo Mom is surviving. • If you must have some drama, create a Facebook page. Reunite with some old friends or relatives. Not only is it fun, it will teach you Internet skills and social media skills. • Register yourname.com and start a web site. Do the same for your children or grandchildren. The Internet is here to stay; why not master your presence on it? • Read or listen to a self-help book. Attitude, creativity, service and networking are all skills you can improve, and are certainly more powerful for your earnings and your family than what’s happening to some drunken, drugged-out celebrity or some idiot trying for their 15 minutes of fame. • Take a walk. Clear your mind to think for yourself, instead of cluttering it with useless information. BONUS: When you take a walk, you also get the local weather report. Just look up. Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, conducts seminars, sales meetings and training programs. Reach him at 704 333 1112 or at [email protected].

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he checkout aisle of the grocery store was full of magazines. People, InTouch, US Weekly, Soap, and other assorted (or should I say sordid?) publications that can be summed up in three words, other people’s drama. They all had similar themes: who got divorced, separated, engaged, married or jilted. I looked at all the covers, smiled, and went about my business. But it got me thinking: What else is in the category of “other people’s drama” and what is the net effect to you? There are an endless number of celebrity news programs and crime shows on TV. Drivel about who did what to who. Watch them? Why? As if this weren’t enough, there are soap operas, where the drama never ends – for 20 years. Watch them? Why? To see how someone else’s life turns out? Why not focus on YOUR life? But wait! There’s more drama: News and interviews about what some dumb politician thinks, what some “expert” predicts or what some dumber radio talk show host thinks. There are also local TV news programs that feature killings, bombings, ﬁres, floods, kidnappings, the weather, politics and other assorted drivel and drama that ROBS YOU of your time. NOTE WELL: Business news is important. Especially when it pertains to your business and your economy. But wait! There’s more drama: Reality shows. Enough said. But wait! There’s even more drama: Your neighbor’s drama, your friend’s drama and your workplace drama could ﬁll volumes – your volumes. It dawned on me that if you just eliminated “other people’s drama” from your life, time management would no longer be an issue. Ever. You’d have 20 extra hours a week. Minimum. Maybe you could use that time to change your dorky voice mail, or build a Web site or blog, or something for YOU. Other people’s drama is a complete and utter waste of your time, energy and attitude. It does NOTHING to

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NOVEMBER 2009

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Think globally. Listen locally. WYSU 88.5 FM � � � � �

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The Business Journal

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MASTERWORKS

The Business Journal

51

NOVEMBER 2009

HolisticMedicine

Treating Whole Person, Not Disease Patients take responsibility with lifestyle choices. By Maraline Kubik

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ind. Body. Spirit. To achieve maximum well-being, these three elements of human existence must function in conjunction with each other and at their optimum. That’s the basis of holistic medicine, an approach to well-being that addresses the whole person and root causes of an illness rather than the symptoms. “It’s an art and a science – integrative care that combines the best of conventional allopathic medicine with complementary and alternative [therapies],” explains Donna Nowak, executive director of the American Holistic Medical Association based in Beachwood. The availability of holistic practitioners, Nowak says, is driven by growing demand from the public, individuals whose needs are not being met by conventional medicine or who want other options to surgery and medications. This is especially evident in Ohio, where those seeking complementary and alternative therapies such as chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, meditation and guided imagery must pay the full cost of treatment out of their own pockets. Most insurance companies, she explains, don’t cover holistic therapies. Nowak says she expects that to change as more providers recognize the beneﬁts of preventive care and the lower costs involved versus those required to treat illnesses and diseases after they manifest themselves. In 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available, Americans spent $33.9 billion out of pocket for complementary and alternative medicine, according to the National Health Interview Survey. Most of that – $22 billion – was spent on self-care products, classes and materials. Of that, $14.8 billion was used to buy nonvitamin supplements such as ﬁsh oil, echinacea and glucosamine. Adults in the United States also spent $11.9 billion to visit holistic health practitioners, the survey found. The $14.8 billion consumers spent on natural supplements equals about one-third of what they spent out of pocket for prescription medications. The $11.9 billion used to pay for visits to holistic practitioners is about 25% of what consumers spent out of pocket on physician visits. Holistic health, according to Suzan V. Walter, president of the American Holistic Health Association, “is an approach to life.” It not only considers the whole person, but mandates that individuals take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing by addressing the lifestyle choices they make every day. Walter explains the basic principles of holistic

Ted Suzelis is the Mahoning Valley’s only naturopathic physician. He sees patients at ofﬁces in Boardman and Newton Falls.

health in her book, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Body-Mind Disciplines. In the book, she writes, “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the key factors inﬂuencing an individual’s state of health have not changed signiﬁcantly over the past 20 years. Quality of medical care is only 10%. Heredity accounts for 18% and environment is 19%. Everyday lifestyle choices are 53%. The decisions people make about their life and habits are, therefore, by far the largest factor in determining their state of wellness.” A holistic approach to obtaining maximum wellbeing, Walter explains, addresses the importance of making good choices. That doesn’t just mean avoiding the dangers of things such as recreational drug use, drinking, smoking and engaging in unprotected sex, but the less-recognized dangers of excessive consumption of sugar and caffeine or harboring negative attitudes. “Combined with deﬁciencies in exercise, nutritious foods, and self-esteem, these gradually accumulate harmful effects,” Walter writes. “With time they diminish the quality of the ‘environment’ within that human being, and can set the stage for illness to take hold. Quality of life, now and in the future, is actually being determined by a multitude of seemingly unimportant choices made everyday.”

Prevention of disease and illness is preferable to treating someone who is already sick, says Ted Suzelis, a naturopathic physician with ofﬁces in Boardman and Newton Falls. Unfortunately, he says, most of his patients present themselves because they’re exhibiting bothersome symptoms. Suzelis is the only naturopathic physician in the Mahoning Valley and one of about 17 in Ohio. Across the country, he says, there are 4,000 or 5,000 naturopathic physicians in practice, most of them in Arizona, Oregon and Washington because that is were the three main colleges that offer degrees in naturopathic medicine are located. “In 15 states, Naturopathic doctors are primary care doctors. So, we have all the same rights and privileges as medical doctors other than hospital privileges,” Suzelis says. “In states like Ohio, we are much more limited to a consulting role. So we have to work in conjunction with people’s medical doctors.” Initial consultations last about 90 minutes, Suzelis says, and involve a detailed discussion about the patient’s health, history and lifestyle. Afterward, he may recommend nutritional therapies, herbs, homeopathic remedies or an exercise program. Or, he says, he may refer the patient to a chiropractor or acupuncturist. “It all depends on what’s going See HOLISTIC MEDICINE, page 52

52

NOVEMBER 2009

Holistic Medicine: From Page 51 with the patient.” Patients seek Suzelis out “because they need other alternatives,” he says. Conventional care may not address the root of their problems or they may be experiencing side effects from medications. Some may have chronic illnesses for which they know there is no cure, but they “are looking for some relief,” Suzelis explains. “Most want to take control of their health” and some are very motivated. With conventional medicine, Suzelis says, “people often aren’t proactive enough. They want an easy, quick ﬁx.” With naturopathic health care, patients take charge and are responsible for their own health through the lifestyle choices they make every day. Naturopathic physicians are trained in a fouryear medical school much like physicians pursuing conventional medical degrees, Suzelis says. “We receive similar training that a medical doctor would receive as far as basic training. But in addition to that we receive extensive training in different natural therapies to help our patients without medications,” he explains. Suzelis says he chose to pursue a career in naturopathic medicine rather than conventional medicine because of his personal philosophy. “I believe that the body has the ability to heal itself and by giving the right nutrients that the body can heal itself. ... I want to treat the person, not the disease.”

The Business Journal

Holistic Medicine Resources American Holistic Health Association P.O. Box 17400 Anaheim, Calif. 92817 Phone: 714 779 6152 www.ahha.org

American Botanical Council 6200 Manor Road Austin, Texas 78723 Phone: 512 926 4900 Fax: 512 926 2345 www.herbalgram.org

American Holistic Medical Association 23366 Commerce Park, Suite 101B Beachwood, Ohio 44122 Phone: 216 292 6644 Fax: 216 292 6688 www.holisticmedicine.org

American Massage Therapy Association 500 Davis St. Evanston, IL 60201 Phone: 877 905 2700 www.amtamassage.org

American Holistic Nurses Association 323 N. San Francisco St., Suite 201 Flagstaff, Ariz. 86001 Phone: 800 278 2462 or 928 526 2196 Fax: 928 526 2752 www.ahna.org

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine National Institutes of Health 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Md. 20892 Phone: 888 644 6226 www.nccam.nih.gov

American Association of Naturopathic Physicians 4435 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 403 Washington, D.C. 20016 Phone: 866 538 2267 or 202 237 8150 Fax: 202 237 8152 www.naturopathic.org

National Center for Homeopathy 101 S. Whiting St., Suite 16 Alexandria, Va. 22304 Phone: 703 548 7790 Fax: 703 548 7792 www.homeopathic.org

American Chiropractic Association 1701 Clarendon Blvd. Arlington, Va. 22209 Phone: 703 276 8800 www.amerchiro.org

The Cancer Cure Foundation 3541 Old Conejo Road, Suite 109 Newbury Park, Calif. 91320 Phone: 800 282 2873 or 805 498 0185 www.cancure.org

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The Business Journal

53

NOVEMBER 2009

Healing Therapies Help Find Inner Peace Not all illnesses are curable, but everyone can heal. By Maraline Kubik

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fter 30 years on the job, some people are ready to retire. Marsha Ray, a waitress at Bob Evan’s restaurant in Austintown, isn’t ready yet. Despite putting in more than eight hours on the job most days, she feels better than she has in years. Ray attributes her newfound energy, positive outlook and overall good health to the weekly massages she started getting just before Christmas last year. Then, the self-described “almost 60-year-old” says she felt “broken up” and was experiencing symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. Jill Lewis uses massage therapy to help alleviate Marsha Ray’s carpal tunnel symptoms. One of her customers, Jill Lewis, a says. Massage helps relieve that stress, is afﬂicted with an illness for which licensed massage therapist and owner smoothing and extending muscles. Bethere is no cure – some types of canof Jill’s Touch in Boardman, suggested cause the various systems in the body cer or a paralysis, she explains. Those she get a massage. are all interconnected, massage not with incurable illnesses can still expe“If I had known [how good it only affects the muscular system, but rience healing, reaching a point where was going to make me feel,] I would the circulatory, digestive, nervous and “mentally they are OK with what’s have been doing this for years,” Ray skeletal systems as well, she says. says. “I feel great. I’m more positive, Lewis also offers hot-stone mashealthier and I have a positive outsage, aromatherapy, massage for look.” Her carpal tunnel symptoms pregnant women have also subsided, Ray reports. “This Unlike massage, which incor- and reiki. Unlike massage, helps me so much I’ve already booked porates the manipulation of which uses the 9 o’clock Monday muscles to reduce stress, im- manipulation of mornings for the prove circulation and encourage muscles to reduce improve cirrest of my life.” relaxation, reiki gently redirects stress, culation and enMassage is not a courage relaxation, quick cure, Lewis energy to encourage healing. reiki gently redicautions, but it can rects energy to encourage healing. be extremely useful in helping her “Healing is different than a cure,” clients achieve and maintain health Lewis continues. A cure is something and balance in their lives. that rids a person of an illness while Muscles that are tense feel tight healing may apply to someone who and “ropey” rather than smooth, she

going on,” she says. “What healing means to me is connecting with source, God, angels, our higher self – whomever you ascribe to – to aid in a positive, forward movement toward personal, physical, spiritual or mental well-being, growth, balance and most important, inner peace.” The primary beneﬁt of reiki and massage is less stress, Lewis says. “It doesn’t change anything that is happening in your life; it changes how you react. It helps reconnect you to yourself so that you know where your limits are.” Reiki is often more appropriate for those who are uncomfortable disrobing for a massage because it does not require the same level of contact between therapist and recipient – “therapeutic touch is a similar modality,” Lewis explains. Some nurses are learning it, she adds, and many hospitals use it to promote quicker recoveries. “It is ancient but it’s becoming more popular,” Lewis says, as more people become aware of its beneﬁts. Lewis is a reiki master/teacher and in addition to reiki treatments, offers one-on-one and group training.

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The Business Journal

�� Legal Listings ��

Business Bankruptcies CHAPTER 11 09-43669 Stamford Industrial Group Inc., aka Net Perceptions Inc., One Landmark Square, 22nd Floor, Stamford, Conn. 06901. (Pending Bankruptcy Case Filed by Partner or Afﬁliate: 09-43448 Concord Steel Inc.)

Total Assets: $62,200. Total Liabilities: $14,306,445. 09-43729 Newton Square Co. Ltd., 1940 state Route 45, Salem 44460. No Summary Schedules ﬁled.

New Ohio Incorporations

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God Encounter Inc., Lowellville. Incorporator: Eric S. Jarrett. Filed by: E. Jarrett, 3132 Whittier Court, Poland 44514. Agent: Joe Thomas, 6219 New Castle Road, Lowellville 44436.

Mark L. Rosa Inc., Campbell. Incorporator: Mark L. Rosa. Filed by: Caporossi & Assoc., 213 W. Main St., Sharpsville, Pa., 16150. Agent: Mark L. Rosa, 457 Park Ave., Campbell 44405.

Mahershalahashbaz Treatment Center, Warren. Incorporator: Quantina Louise Thomas. Filed by: Quantina L. Thomas, 1548 Oak Knoll St. SE, Warren 44484. Agent: Same.

New Castle Market Inc., Boardman. Incorporator: James B. Dietz. Filed by: Friedman & Rummel Co. LPA, City Centre One, Suite 300, 100 E. Federal St., Youngstown 44503. Agent: James B. Dietz, City Centre One, Suite 300, 100 E. Federal St., Youngstown 44503.

Autoimmune Foundation of America, Cortland. Incorporators: Jacquelyn E. Nichols, Janeen K. Nichols, Suzanne E. Nichols. Filed by: Ken Nichols, 2129 Timber Way Drive, Cortland 44410. Agent: Same. Bloomﬁeld Township Historical Society Inc., North Bloomﬁeld. Incorporators: Roger Peterson, Lynn Parker, Dora Mae Peterson. Filed by: Mark S. Finamore, 258 Seneca NE, Warren. Agent: Dora Mae Peterson, 7759 state Route 45, North Bloomﬁeld 44450. Primo Bella Inc., North Jackson. Incorporator: Aniello Infante. Filed by: Incﬁle.com, 10943 Mayfield Road, Houston, Texas 77043. Agent: Aniello Infante, 5547 Mahoning Ave. #301, Youngstown 44515.

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OTM Inc., Youngstown. Incorporator: Jason McCray. Filed by: J. McCray, 268 Outlook Ave., Youngstown 44504. Agent: Jason McCray, 268 Outlook Ave., Youngstown 44504. Ken Altiero & Associates Inc., Austintown. Incorporator: Ken Altiero. Filed by: Roth Blair Roberts Strasfeld & Lodge, 600 City Centre One, Youngstown 44503. Agent: Ken Altiero, 3786 Oakwood Ave., Austintown 44515. Cowan Masonry Inc., East Liverpool. Incorporator: Chris Cowan. Filed by: Betras, Maruca, Kopp & Harshman LLC, 16233 St. Clair Ave., East Liverpool 43920. Agent: Chris Cowan, 9 Highland Colony, East Liverpool 43920. Likos Properties Inc., Youngstown. Incorporator: Mike Kerpelis. Filed by: Roth Blair Roberts Strasfeld & Lodge, 600 City Centre One, Youngstown 44503. Agent: Mike Kerpelis, 2 Short St., Campbell 44405.

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1804 Oak Street Inc., Youngstown. Incorporator: Thaer F. Samad. Filed by: Atway & Cochran LLC, 19 E. Front St., Youngstown 44503. Agent: Thaer F. Samad, 1804 Oak St., Youngstown 44506. GMH Technologies Inc., Poland. Incorporator: Gregory Matthew Hymes. Filed by: Gregory M. Hymes, 8671 Hilltop Drive, Poland 44514. Agent: Same. Duvall Davis Enterprises Inc., Youngstown. Incorporators: Antwan M. Davis, Patricia D. Williams. Filed by: Patricia Duvall Williams, 2051 Summer St., Youngstown 44511. Agent: CSC-Lawyers Incorporating Service, 50 W. Broad St., Suite 1800, Columbus 43215.

Penny’s Gourmet Sauce Inc., Youngstown. Incorporator: Charles Penny. Filed by: Matthew C. Giannini, 1040 S. Commons Place, Suite 200, Youngstown 44514. Agent: Same. YSJ Inc., Poland. Incorporator: John J. Savarise. Filed by: James A. Tadia, 46 S. Main St., Poland 44514. Agent: John J. Savarise, 7554 Cobblers Run, Poland 44514. R&R Blacktop & Concrete Inc., Austintown. Incorporator: Ruben Iamurri. Filed by: Stader & Kish CPAs Inc., 5400 Ashley Circle, Youngstown 44515. Agent: Ruben Iamurri, 4165 New Road, Austintown 44515. TLC Insurance Group Inc., Cortland. Incorporator: Joseph A. Carbone. Filed by: Joseph A. Carbone Co. LPA, 1370 Ontario St., 800 Standard Building, Cleveland 44113. Agent: Same. Hair Bows Inc., Warren. Incorporator: Joey Ewing-Wolanzyk. Filed by: Joey Michelle Ewing-Wolanzyk, 4043 Devon Drive SE, Warren 44484. Agent: Same. Fatboy Saloon Inc., Newton Falls. Incorporator: Richard L. Goodman. Filed by: Richard L. Goodman Co. LPA, 720 Youngstown-Warren Road, Suite E, Niles 44446. Agent: Same. Arrowhead Services Inc., Cortland. Incorporator: Robert H. Burn. Filed by: Arrowhead Transport Co., 2555 Greenville Road, Cortland. Agent: Robert H. Burn, 2555 Greenville Road, Cortland 44410.

New Pa. Incs. Willow Branch Productions, 390 Plain Grove-Nor th Liber ty Road, Volant 16156, ﬁlm production. Mad Trucking, 161 Dean Road, Sandy Lake 16145, hauling. Fictitious Name Owner: Madine Wygart. Fat & Skinny’s Inc., 4091 Skyhill Road, Pulaski 16143, bar/restaurant. KRC Express Inc., 5933 Sandy Lake/Polk Road Lot 2, Sandy Lake 16145, livestock hauling.

The Business Journal

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NOVEMBER 2009

�� COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

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RECYCLING

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NOVEMBER 2009

New Mexico Medical Center Chooses Cboss Payment Portal BOARDMAN, Oct. 20 – Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, N.M., has selected Cboss to provide its central payment portal processing system that will allow patients to pay bills online. Gila Regional is a 68-bed, nonproﬁt hospital about 300 miles southwest of the state capital of Santa Fe. It is the largest hospital in a 100-mile radius, said David Furnas, chief information ofﬁcer. The Cboss system, which accepts any type of payment – credit/debit cards, e-checks, cash among others – from any payment source including kiosks and Interactive Voice Response, will allow patients to pay bills via the hospital’s main Web site.

40 Under 40 Tickets on Sale YOUNGSTOWN, Oct. 16 – Tickets are on sale now for the Fifth Annual 40 Under 40 Awards presentation, sponsored by the Mahoning Valley Professional 20/30 Club and the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley. The event will be held Nov. 19 at the DeYor Performing Arts Center here. The annual 40 Under 40 Awards honor professionals age 40 or younger who have excelled in their careers and demonstrated community involvement. Last year’s event raised more than $30,000 in sponsorships and $12,000 in ticket sales. Net proceeds for the Young Philanthropist Fund amounted to $14,500, bringing the four-year total donation to more than $55,500. This year’s event will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are $45 each and can be purchased by calling the DeYor box ofﬁce at 330 744 0264.

www.BusinessJournalDaily.com

OnlineDatelines

Valley Jobless Rates Drop YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Trumbull County posted a jobless rate last month of 13.5%, down from 14.2% in August, and the ﬁrst time the county jobless rate fell below 14% this year. In September 2008, the county’s unemployment rate was 7.5%. Columbiana’s unemployment rate for last month was 12.5%, down from 13.6% in August. The September 2008 rate was 7.1%. In Mahoning County, the September unemployment rate was 11.8%, down from 12.7% the previous month and up from 7.2% in September 2008. Youngstown’s jobless rate dropped from 14.4% in August to 13.3% in September. In September it was 9.5%. The unemployment rate for the YoungstownWarren- Boardman metropolitan statistical area was the highest among Ohio’s MSAs, 12.4%, just above the Weirton-Steubenville MSA’s 12.2% rate.

The Business Journal

Forum Health Expects ‘Clear Path’ by Nov. 30 YOUNGSTOWN, Oct. 20 – It should be clear by the end of November whether Forum Health Inc.’s foray into Chapter 11 will end in reorganization or a sale of its assets, an attorney told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kay Woods today. Attorneys representing Forum and its creditors met in bankruptcy court here for a hearing on Forum’s motion to extend its use of cash collateral, which ends today. Attorney Matthew Salerno, representing Forum, told the court that his client had reached a “major agreement” with its lenders on a consensual use of cash collateral through Jan. 14. “In relatively short order,” he said, there should be a determination on whether to pursue reorganization or a merger/acquisition; both are being explored. “I suspect that by the end of November there will be a clear path this case is going to take,” he said.

No More Ohio Franchise Tax COLUMBUS, Oct. 15 – The century-old state corporate franchise tax is coming to an end for most Ohio corporations, part of a broader package of reforms enacted in 2005. Once corporations ﬁle their 2009 franchise tax returns, and submit a check for any balance due, most will be done with the tax for good. The franchise tax dates to 1902. For most corporations, it represents a tax of either 0.4% on the net worth of the corporation or a tax of up to 8.5% on net income. The phase-out does not apply to a small number of corporations, primarily ﬁnancial institutions, which pay a 13-mill tax on their net worth.

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57

NOVEMBER 2009

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE ��

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INDUSTRIAL SITES

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NOVEMBER 2009

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October 23, 2009

The Business Journal

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.

7.65 8.65

HUNTINGTON BANK – Youngstown Up to 60 Mos.

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

6.55 7.09

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

6.99

6.99

PNC BANK – Sharon Up to 66 Mos.

7.24

PNC 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. 4.50

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.

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The Business Journal

October 23, 2009

59

NOVEMBER 2009

Mortgage Rates

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION AMERISTATE BANCORP INC. Boardman

TYPE

TERM

RATE, 2-Wk Trend

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�� FEES

FHA/VA Fixed

0% Down 3% Down

30 Yr. 30 Yr.

5.00 — 5.00 —

0+costs 0+costs

CHARTER ONE BANK Boardman

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.50  5.125 

0+costs 0+costs

CONSUMERS NATIONAL BANK Salem

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.50  5.125 

0+costs 0+costs

CORTLAND BANKS Cortland

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.375 — 5.125 

0+costs 0+costs

DOLLAR BANK MORTGAGE CENTER Cleveland

ARM Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

5 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.25  5.125 

0+costs 0+costs

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

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.625 — 5.375 —

0+costs 0+costs

FARMERS NATIONAL BANK Canﬁeld

Fixed Fixed

20% Down 20% Down

15 Yr. 20 Yr.

4.75  5.125 

0+costs 0+costs

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.

4.50  5.125  4.50  5.125 

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60

NOVEMBER 2009

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

IT FEELS GOOD ESCROWS TO BELONG! RESIDENTIAL From Swimming Lessons COMMERCIAL to Youth Sports Leagues, From to Racquetball, Visit ourDay Web Camps site and order services online! Thewww.citytitleco.com YMCA of Youngstown Atty. Donald P. Leone has programs for every member of the OH family. 5361 Market St. Youngstown, 44512 Why Not Join (330) 782-8810 Fax: Today? (330) 782-8819 It Feels Good To Belong!

October 23, 2009

The Business Journal

Mortgage Rates

IT FEELS TO BELONG! TYPE GOOD TERM RATE, 2-Wk Trend FEES

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION 1ST NATIONAL COMMUNITY East Liverpool

FHA Fixed

FIRST PLACE BANK Boardman

YOUNGSTOWN Fixed CENTRAL

Fixed

FLAGSTAR BANK Beechwood

Champion St., Downtown0% Down

HOME FEDERAL Niles

YMCA YMCA Fixed Fixed

HOME SAVINGS Youngstown

330-747-YMCA www.youngstownymca.org

BUSINESS JOURNAL INSTITUTIONAL AD 1/6V PAGE AD

HUNTINGTON BANK Youngstown

5.25  5.375 —

0+costs 0+costs

a D a v i s 0+costs 5% DownD . D .15&Yr.V e l m4.50 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.125  0+costs

FAMILY YMCA

0% Down

15 Yr. Rd.,4.50 — 0+costs McClurg Boardman 30 Yr.

5.00 

0+costs

15 Yr.

6.00 —

0+costs

Fixed Fixed

5% Down 5% Down

330-480-5656 30 Yr. 4.99  0+costs

15 Yr.

4.375 —

0+costs

Fixed

5% Down

15 Yr.

4.50 

0+costs

Fixed Fixed

3% Down 5% Down

15 Yr. 30 Yr.

4.625  5.125 

0+costs 0+costs

YMCA OHIO Fixed Of YOUNGSTOWN, 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.125  0+costs FAMILIES • STUDENTS SENIORS Fixed • INDIVIDUALS 20% Down 15 Yr. 4.75• — 0+costs Fixed YMCA 20%Membership Down 30 Yr. 0+costs Your Gives5.25 You — Access

KEYBANK Youngstown PNC BANK Youngstown

30 Yr. 30 Yr.

Fixed 20% Down 330-744-8411

HOWARD HANNA FINANCIAL THE Pittsburgh

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

5% Down 5% Down

FHA Fixed

to3%Two Facilities! DownGreat30 Yr. 5.25 — 5% Down

30 Yr.

5.125 

3% Down 30 Yr. 5.00  330-747-YMCA 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.25  www.youngstownymca.org Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 5.77 

WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE Boardman (Formerly Norwest Mortgage)

FHA Fixed

US BANK Boardman (Formerly Firstar Bank)

Fixed

5% Down

30 Yr.

5.44 

WeAll build strong strong families, rights reserved. *Privatekids, Mortgage Insurance because less than 20% down. strong communities.

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

© 2009 Youngstown Publishing Co.

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778 TRUESDALE RD. YOUNGSTOWN, OH 44511 330-788-4541

The Business Journal

61

NOVEMBER 2009

Employees’ Local Ties Draw VXI to City Los Angeles company spends $4 million to refurbish space at city-ownd 20 Federal Place. By George Nelson

V

XI Global Solutions Inc. executives began to notice a common denominator in recent years among several of its top employees: a Mahoning Valley point of origin. VXI saw how those employees were excelling at its various sites, prompting company ofﬁcials to take a “serious look” at establishing a call center here, said its vice president of operations, Tobias Parrish. “If they’re that good, what if we had 500 people from the Mahoning Valley working here? How good could we be as a company?” he said. “We felt that this was a perfect place for us to have a competitive advantage in the global economy.” Los Angeles-based VXI settled on Youngstown after a year-long search, and Parrish joined city ofﬁcials and representatives of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 15 at its new inbound call center at 20 Federal Place. The company is spending in excess of $4 million to convert the fourth ﬂoor of the building into space for its 503-seat call center. Until earlier this year, the space had been occupied by InfoCision Management Corp. of Akron, another call center ﬁrm with operations in the Mahoning Valley. Chris Butcher, senior operations manager, a native of Howland, said he has been with VXI for about two years, having left the Mahoning Valley to work for the company in Los Angeles. “We knew that they were looking for a call center in the Eastern time zone, and so we took it upon ourselves to let them know that if you want more people like us, to perform the way we perform, Youngstown probably would be a good place for you,” he said. Company ofﬁcials “spoke very highly” of their employees with local roots, “and as a result of that and the performance of those employees they decided that this would be a place that they wanted to check out,” conﬁrmed Mayor Jay Williams. That a “globally oriented company like VXI chose to expand their operations to Youngstown is something that is of extreme signiﬁcance,” he said. The “plug and play” space that VXI had been looking for to allow it to quickly establish operations wasn’t available a year ago when it originally looked at the area, said Walter Good, vice president for economic development, retention and expansion for the Regional Chamber. When the 20 Federal space became available, chamber ofﬁcials “quickly notiﬁed” VXI. “This was a very competitive process. The company had numerous sites that they looked at as part of the evaluation process,” Good said. In the end, the incentive package the city put together, the available work force and the region’s success with other call centers “made a very strong case that led to VXI launching the facility,” he said. Those incentives include favorable lease terms at the city-owned 20 Federal Place and $400,000

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams and VXI Global Solution’s vice president of operations, Tobias Parrish, cut the ribbon Oct. 15.

from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, funneled into the city’s Community Development Block Grant allocation to fund improvements at the space. A job-creation tax credit was also provided by the state. Williams acknowledged there has been “a lot of discussion and debate” about the ability of the federal stimulus money to create jobs, but said the use of the $400,000 to attract the $4 million investment and 500 jobs to the city is “a lot better than any return that you’re going to get on Wall Street.” Oct. 15 was also the ﬁrst day for the customer service center’s operations. Starting with 40 employees, VXI plans to add 40 to 50 employees every three weeks, for a total of 250 by the end of the year. In December, training will begin for another 100 employees who will take calls in January for what Parrish described as “the largest cellular provider in the United States.” The company expects to employ 500 in the space within a year. The call center positions pay a base rate of $9 to $10 per hour, depending on the client, plus “very attractive” incentives. “So basically if you perform you have an opportunity to make a lot of money,” Parrish said. Depending on the success of the local operation, VXI also has an option to lease space on the ﬁfth ﬂoor of the building, bringing additional jobs. Williams said.

“We want to bring diversity in terms of business. We don’t want to be a one-hit wonder,” Parrish remarked. “We want to bring diversity of programs so we can leverage all the talents this city can provide.” The transition so far has been “really good,” Butcher said. Training classes are full through the third wave of hires, he said. “We haven’t had a problem ﬁnding supervisors with the experience that we need to do the job,” he added. “We’re looking to have a lot of success here in Youngstown and make Youngstown our No. 1 site,” he said. “I can’t tell you how much it meant for us as a company to see folks showing up early for training, waiting in line, excited, couldn’t wait to get on the phones and show what they can do and the value they can bring,” Parrish said. “This has been from my perspective the best and easiest transition we’ve ever made in opening up a site.” Other companies operating call centers in the Mahoning Valley include West Corporation, AT&T, which last week announced an expansion at its Boardman site, and Verizon. “You build upon success,” Parrish said, and the success that other call centers have had in the area lends credibility when making the case to other companies that they should bring their back-ofﬁce operations here.

62

NOVEMBER 2009

The Business Journal

BUSINESSJOURNALDAILY.COM VIDEO SERIES

3 Minutes...

Daniel B. Roth

Gary Soukenik

Co-Editor The Great Depression: A Diary

CEO, Seven Seventeen Credit Union

W

any consumers are “disillusioned by some of the greed that’s been exhibited at some of the other ﬁnancial institutions,” says Gary Soukenik, CEO of Seven Seventeen Credit Union. As a result, he says, they are looking for options, including the ﬁnancial co-operative – or credit union – option.

hen his father gave him the diaries, “he explained that he had always hoped to have the time to edit all his work and publish it,” says Daniel B. Roth, co-editor of The Great Depression: A Diary. “He turned them over to me and said ‘One of these days, I hope you will do this.’ When the economy was collapsing a year and a half ago, I felt that if I ever was going to do it, this was the time in which to take those actions.”

New York Times Article?

Alex & Jorgine Shaffo, Owners

330-743-0920 Hours:

Monday-Friday 10:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m.

Located in the YMCA Building 17 N. Champion St. • Downtown Youngstown

NEW MENU EVERY DAY

The New York Times gave us roughly a half-a-page spread in the business section… I’ve been getting e-mails from strangers from all over the country. One fellow told me that he lives in Texas but his grandfather had owned a store on East Federal Street, now Federal Plaza, and ﬁled bankruptcy and they moved out of town and he had bought the book because he wanted to see what it was like in Youngstown during the 1930s.… To me the sale is not nearly as relavant as the fact that I did what I told my father I was going to do.

What Did You Learn? To be very, very conservative when it comes to investing money and saving money.

What Do You Remember? You didn’t do things that cost anything. Life was very simple.

M

Is that Happening Here? We’ve seen some growth but it’s been a little bit offset by some of the population deterioration in this area. We’ve seen many people moving out as they lose jobs.

Economy’s Impact? It’s basically collateral damage. We weren’t into subprime lending. We believe in very responsible lending – that’s part of our core value system. So, we didn’t get caught up in that. But, unfortunately, when people lose jobs and start working fewer hours, they can’t make their payments. At the same time, we’re trying to work with our members to try to help them by lowering payments, reworking loans …

Rate of Delinquency? Our delinquency might be as high as double what we normally would expect. Charge-offs are also increasing, but we’ve also increased our allowance for loan loss to make sure we have everything covered.

Visit BusinessJournalDaily.com to view video interviews with the Mahoning Valley’s most inﬂuential business and community leaders. Topics are always timely and pertinent.

The Business Journal

63

NOVEMBER 2009

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