2theadvocate.com | Business | Business Briefs for Aug. 2, 2009

Advocate business staff
Published: Aug 2, 2009

4-H Museum, Hall

The Louisiana 4-H Museum has opened in Mansura in Avoyelles Parish. The building also houses the extension offices of the LSU AgCenter and Southern University AgCenter and the Avoyelles Commission of Tourism.

Rose Anne St. Romain, museum director, said the museum’s artifacts represent the attributes of 4-H that have modeled youngsters into adults. The museum includes images and documents, combined with high-tech exhibits.

The Hall of Fame features a touch-sensitive screen with information and photos about individuals selected into the hall.

A digital presentation features the museum’s mascot, “Frankie the 4-H Fox,” and the LSU AgCenter’s “Character Critters,” who tell stories about character education.

The museum also features a three-dimensional miniature parade of 4-H projects and programs.

Area individuals inducted into the Louisiana 4-H Hall of Fame in 2009 are Denise Turner of Lafayette Parish; Mansell Slaughter of East Baton Rouge Parish; Nancy Marceaux of Vermilion Parish; Loretta Guidry of Lafourche Parish; C.L. Flowers of East Baton Rouge Parish; and Diane Duhe of St. John Parish.

Survey assistance

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries economists and representatives of the South Central Planning and Development Commission will be available to assist eligible participants in filling out and completing the Fisheries Recovery Cooperative Research Surveys in a series of workshops this month.

Register for any workshop by calling SCPDC at (800) 630-3791 or (985) 655-1051. Visit the SCPDC Web site at http://www.scpdc.org/fisheriesassistance and LDWF at http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/.

Dates and area workshop locations are:

--Aug. 11, Hackberry Community Center, 986 Main St., Hackberry.

--Aug. 14, Lafitte Senior Center, 4927 Treasure Drive, Lafitte.

--Aug. 18, LSU Ag Center, 1105 W. Port St., Abbeville.

--Aug. 25, South Lafourche Library, 16241 E. Main St., Cut Off.

All workshops begin at 1 p.m.

Internet workshop

A free workshop about Internet marketing and sales opportunities will be held at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at the Eden Park Branch Library at 5131 Greenwell Springs Road.

Local businessman Zakee-Michael Nasheed will present the workshop.

Registration is required. For additional information or to register, call (225) 231-3240.

Bond limit increased

The U.S. Small Business Administration has increased the limit for surety bond guarantees on federal contracts to $10 million from the previous $5 million.

SBA partners with the surety industry to help small businesses that would otherwise be unable to obtain bonding in the traditional commercial marketplace. Under the partnership, SBA provides a guarantee to the participating surety company of between 70 and 90 percent of the bond amount.

The contracting officer must certify that the guarantee is in the best interests of the government.

“Raising the surety bond limit is a critical step in making sure small businesses in the construction and service sector have access to federal contracting opportunities that will help drive economic recovery,” SBA administrator Karen Mills said. “These changes support small and emerging businesses nationwide, particularly construction contractors who have seen their markets hurt by a poor economy and lagging construction.”

For more information on SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee Program, including Surety Office contacts, go online to http://www.sba.gov/osg/ .

Target in Hammond

A Target store has opened in the Hammond Square shopping center in Hammond.

Stirling Properties, developer of the Hammond mall, said the 127,380-square-foot store is one of 17 new stores opening across the country featuring a P-Fresh Prototype concept with expanded food offerings.

Additionally, the Hammond location has a pharmacy and Starbucks coffee shop.

Patent workshop set

The Louisiana Small Business Development Center’s Technology Center at LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business and the LSU Libraries will host a patent workshop at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Bluebonnet Regional Library at 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd.

The “Brand Names and Trademark Workshop” is designed for inventors and researchers who need basic information about trademarks and search techniques. A trademark attorney will answer questions.

The workshop is free but registration is required because seating is limited. For additional information or to register, visit http://www.

lsbdc.org/events.aspx, e-mail acarrasq@lsu.edu or call LSU Libraries at (225) 578-4680.

Lighthouse stamps

The U.S. Postal Service is selling first-class stamps that commemorate five Gulf Coast lighthouses — including one in Louisiana — that survived recent hurricanes.

The stamp series is on sale at the Postal Service’s 34,000 retail locations across the country and features the octagonal Sabine Pass lighthouse in southwest Louisiana. The lighthouse was built in 1856 and deactivated by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1952. Since 2001, the Cameron Preservation Alliance has preserved and restored the tower.

Other lighthouse stamps include the 64-foot Biloxi, Miss., Lighthouse, which survived a 26-foot Hurricane Katrina storm surge; the Sand Island, Ala., Lighthouse off Mobile Bay; the Fort Jefferson Lighthouse in Florida; and the Matagorda Island Lighthouse in Texas.

Scientist gets grant

An LSU scientist has won a $314,139 National Science Foundation grant to study ways to harness geothermal energy.

Blaise Bourdin, an associate professor with the LSU Department of Mathematics and an adjunct faculty member with the LSU Center for Computation and Technology, received the grant. It’s funded through the federal stimulus bill, or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Bourdin’s research will examine the ways scientists can expand the use of geothermal systems, creating a clean, renewable, affordable and widely available energy source. Bourdin is focusing on enhanced geothermal systems, the energy created from water circulating through man-made cracks in rocks deep underground.

Bourdin and other researchers will combine mathematics, computational science and engineering research to better study these systems. The NSF funding will support the research of two undergraduate students and one graduate student for three years.

Impact Web site

Entergy Corp. and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change have launched a new Web site —http://www.entergy.com/makeanimpact — that is designed to help visitors take action to reduce their carbon footprints.

The Make an Impact Web site offers tools for employees, customers and communities to better manage their individual impact on the environment, reduce their energy usage and become part of the solution to global climate change.

The site’s features include:

--A custom-built carbon calculator that offers a personalized CO2 footprint analysis and action plan.

--Profiles of Entergy employees who are making an environmental difference in their own unique ways.

--A user-generated list of local environmental resources.

--A kids section with environmental tips, resources and games.

Women’s workshop

LSU’s Women in Business program will hold its eighth annual workshop 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Aug. 22 at the Ione Burden Conference Center on the grounds of the Rural Life Museum at 4650 Essen Lane.

The workshop is designed to help female entrepreneurs start their own businesses.

Topics include generating business ideas, writing a business plan, marketing on a shoestring budget, legal issues, financial recordkeeping and setup, a bank’s point of view and balancing family and new business issues.

Women in Business is housed in the E.J. Ourso College of Business’ Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute.

For registration information, contact Carol Carter at cacarte@lsu.edu or go to http://www.bus.lsu.edu and click on “more COB events.”

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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