Business Briefs for April 27, 2008
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Boat club open
Freedom Boat Club is open at Marina Del Ray in Madisonville.
The club, part of a network of nearly 50 clubs in the United States, provides an alternative to boat ownership and access to a variety of boats.
The phone number for Madisonville Freedom Boat Club is (985) 792-5115.
Master farmer tours
The LSU Agricultural Center has scheduled model farm field tours this spring and summer for producers completing the second phase of the Louisiana Master Farmer Program.
The program helps farmers and ranchers identify and adopt best management practices and focuses on environmental concerns, such as water quality, while maximizing agricultural productivity. Model farm visits are required for participating farmers to complete the program’s second phase and move toward Louisiana Master Farmer certification.
The remaining commodity-specific field days planned for spring and summer 2008 will be:
--Row crop producers: 8:30 a.m. May 9 at Robert Thevis’ farm in Simmesport.
--Cattle producers: 9 a.m. May 23 at Edgar Raymond’s farm in Oak Grove.
--Rice-crawfish producers: 9 a.m. June 6 at Jeff Durand’s farm in St. Martinsville.
-- Row crop producers: 9 a.m. June 20 at Jay Hardwick’s farm in Newellton.
--Rice-crawfish producers: 2:30 p.m. July 8 at Kent Lounsberry’s farm in Lake Arthur (held in conjunction with the Vermillion Parish Rice School).
--Rice-cattle producers: 9 a.m. July 11, at Kenneth LaHaye’s farm in Ville Platte (held in conjunction with the RiceTec variety tour).
--Sugar cane producers: time to be announced July 24 at Ronald’s Hebert’s farm in Jeanerette (held in conjunction with the Iberia/St. Mary Sugarcane Field Day).
More information on the Louisiana Master Farmer Program is available at (318) 613-9278 or from: dsmorgan@agcenter.lsu.edu or by visiting the Web site: http://www.lsuagcenter.com/masterfarmer.
Economic summit
The second annual Gulf Coast Economic Summit will be held May 15-16 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel and Gallier Hall at 545 St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans.
The summit is titled “40 Years from Civil Rights to Equanomics — Forging New Economic Opportunities in the Gulf Coast.”
Events and presentations will include small business institute; women and wealth workshop; subprime loan crisis; 1000 Churches Connect Program; federal, state and local procurement; and a career fair.
The summit is sponsored by the Rainbow PUSH: New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Rainbow PUSH/Citizenship Education Fund.
To register, visit: http://www.rainbowpush.org, fax at (504) 529-4232 or via e-mail at: noeconomicsummit@rainbowbowpush.org.
After April 30, registration is onsite only.
Land Bank dividend
The board of directors of Louisiana Land Bank has approved a $4.7 million cash patronage dividend to customers.
The Louisiana Land Bank reported loan volume of $841.5 million for 2007, a 19.7 percent increase from the $703.2 million in 2006. Assets increased by 18.5 percent to $856.8 million from $722.9 million a year earlier.
Net interest income of $19.5 million in 2007 was up 12.4 percent compared to the $17.4 million in 2006.
Louisiana Land Bank is part of the Farm Credit System and finances farms, country homes, rural recreational property, agribusiness and other rural real estate. It is headquartered in Monroe and operates branch offices in Alexandria, Crowley, Hammond, Monroe. Opelousas, Port Allen, Shreveport, Tallulah and Winnsboro.
Pond workshop set
The LSU AgCenter will conduct a Pond Management Workshop 9 a.m.-noon May 6 at the Folsom First Baptist Church Living Center in Folsom.
Speakers will discuss pond planning and construction, water quality, weed control, fish stocking and biological management.
The event is open to the public but participants must reserve a place by calling the LSU AgCenter extension office in St. Tammany Parish at (985) 875-2635.
A $5 fee is required to cover room cost and refreshments. Each participant will receive a copy of “Recreational and Farm Pond Management Guide.” The deadline to register is May 2.
For further information or to register, contact Rusty Batty, St. Tammany Parish county agent, at (985) 875-2635, or Carol Franze, LSU Ag Center watershed agent, at (985) 543-4129.
New RadioShack
Electronics retailer RadioShack has opened its seventh Baton Rouge store, a 2,500-square-foot location at 6246 Florida Blvd.
The company said the location, near the Ardenwood Drive intersection, offers improved hands-on displays, a customer-friendly layout and enhanced check-out areas for products ranging from GPS devices and wireless phones to batteries, satellite radios, flat-panel LCD TVs and gaming consoles and accessories.
RadioShack has 50 company-owned locations in Louisiana and 6,000 company and dealer stores nationwide.
New specialty stores
Charlotte, N.C.-based specialty retailer Cato Corp. announced the opening of a Cato store in Port Allen and the May 1 startup of an It’s Fashion Metro store in Baker.
The It’s Fashion Metro will be in Baker Citi Center at 280 Main St. Stephanie James will manage the new store, which will offer clothing, shoes, accessories and home décor items.
The Cato in Port Allen is in Kristen’s Corner Shopping Center at 3225 La. 1 S., near the Wal-Mart Supercenter. It sells value-priced women’s and girl’s apparel, shoes and accessories.
Charlotte Smith of Baton Rouge will transfer from the Cato store in Baker to manage the new store.
The Cato Corp. operates three store brands with more than 1,300 stores in 32 states.
New LWCC ratings
Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corp.’s “A” (Excellent) rating by A.M. Best Co. has been reaffirmed for 2008. In addition, LWCC has moved from financial size Category IX to financial size Category X.
LWCC is the state’s largest writer of workers’ compensation insurance, covering about 22,000 policyholders.
A.M. Best is a provider of ratings, news and financial data for the insurance industry worldwide.
LSU federal grant
The LSU Agricultural Center has received a federal grant to become the country’s 11th Center for Wood Utilization Research.
The grant, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, will allow the AgCenter to develop ways to make building materials out of wood fibers and used plastics and a way to recycle treated wood and the chemicals used to preserve it.
The grant was for $67,700, though the AgCenter expects future funding through the grant to be “considerably higher.”
Rice bran facility
NutraCea will hold a grand opening ceremony for its rice bran stabilization facility in Lake Charles on June 6.
The facility began production at the end of the first quarter. When fully operational, it will add approximately 30,000 tons of annual capacity to the company’s U.S. production.
The facility also includes 25,000 square feet of warehousing and will be a central distribution center for NutraCea products.
Deadline for Business Briefs is 5 p.m. Monday. Items can be mailed or delivered to the Advocate business editor, 7290 Bluebonnet Blvd, Baton Rouge, La. 70810; faxed to (225) 388-0371; or e-mailed to blamb@theadvocate.com. The opening or relocation of a business must include the address, the nature of the business and the names of the owner and/or manager. All other submissions will run at the editor’s discretion.
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