A welcoming ceremony is planned when the initial Frontier flight arrives from Denver at 5:59 p.m. The 99-seat Embraer 190 aircraft will pass through twin water cannons as it taxis to the gate.

Denver-based Frontier initially will offer flights on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, departing from Denver at 3:10 p.m. and arriving in Cedar Rapids at 5:59 p.m.; and departing from Cedar Rapids at 6:35 p.m. and arriving in Denver at 7:43 p.m.

“We have been so pleased with the response to this new service between Cedar Rapids and Denver,” said Greg Aretakis, Frontier’s vice president of network and revenue. “It’s clear the Eastern Iowa region appreciates Frontier’s convenient, low fare service on the only mainline aircraft operating on the route.”

The launch of service to Cedar Rapids and other cities throughout the month of May brings the number of nonstop Frontier routes from Denver to a record 67 communities. The airline offers service to more than 70 destinations in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

Frontier will compete with United Express, which serves Cedar Rapids with more early morning and late evening daily and Sunday flights. Business travelers prefer to fly out early in the morning and return in the evening, allowing them to work a full day at their destination.

Business travelers are accustomed to paying higher fares due to the unpredictable nature and often short duration of their travel. Leisure travelers are more price sensitive, but more flexible in terms of when they can travel and return from their destination.

Tim Bradshaw, The Eastern Iowa Airport

A study of the impact of Frontier entering the Knoxville, Tenn., market showed significant lowering of airfares along competitive routes.

The study, commissioned by the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority and the East Tennesseans for Airfare Competition, showed that travelers making reservations seven days or less before departure experienced savings ranging from $198 to $707. The price range of tickets went from $561-$996 each way to $289-$363 each way, a drop of about two-thirds.

Before Frontier’s entry, all but one of the nonstop fares to Denver was above $300 one way, according to the study, noting that the only fare below $300 was a 30-day advance purchase fare at $277.50 one way.

Tim Bradshaw, director of The Eastern Iowa Airport, has said that landing Frontier will help stem the “leakage” of travelers to the Quad City International Airport in Moline in the wake of the Nov. 30 departure of AirTran, a no frills airline that provided nonstop service to Atlanta.

“Frontier will provide a low-cost alternative for passengers traveling to Denver and western destinations such as Los Angeles,  Seattle, San Diego and beyond,” Bradshaw said. “Business travelers are known to take Frontier to their destination and return by way of another airline. I think Frontier will attract both business and leisure travelers.”

Cedar Rapids has typically lost passengers to Moline as well as Des Moines and Chicago. Lower airfares usually have been cited as the reason travelers use other airports.

Airfares are set by the airlines without any involvement of airports or local authorities. Competition from other airlines is a major factor in airfare decisions.

In 2007, a decade after AirTran began service to Quad City International, The Eastern Iowa Airport lost 200,000 passengers the western Illinois airport. The leakage cost The Eastern Iowa Airport $3.5 million of revenue annually in Federal Aviation Administration entitlement funds, passenger facilities charges, parking fees and concessions.

The Iowa Office of Aviation has calculated that $2.6 million of Federal Aviation Administration entitlement funding is lost by Iowa commercial airports annually because of passengers flying from airports in neighboring states.

Last month, Bradshaw told the Cedar Rapids Airport Commission that passenger traffic improved 13.9 percent in March when compared with the same month of 2011. For the year, passenger departures were up 10.6 percent through March 31.

The Eastern Iowa Airport has an opportunity to capture additional market share between the departure of AirTran from the Quad Cities and the launch of Southwest Airlines service to Des Moines on Sept. 30. Southwest acquired AirTran in May 2011 and is taking over existing AirTran service from Des Moines to Chicago’s Midway Airport.

An early February KCRG survey of airfares from Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Moline to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Miami found that the price difference has narrowed significantly.

Over the last three years, the Eastern Iowa Airport regained Delta Airlines service to Atlanta and added Continental Airlines service to Houston. The Frontier service brings the total number of airlines serving The Eastern Iowa Airport to six with service to 11 nonstop destinations.

IOWA CITY — Some things just take time. That goes for business ideas, too.

Codi Josephson and Alisa Weinstein had casually talked about the idea of opening a fabrics and knitting supplies store as far back as 2000, while participating in a knitting group that met at Josephson’s house.

“We always thought, wouldn’t it be so great to have a space that had classes and had great knitting and sewing supplies,” she recalled. “We liked the idea of having a kitchen, too.

“We wanted all aspects of home ec class.”

But life took Weinstein to India and Josephson to grad school.

In the meantime, Josephson also spent seven years working for United Action for Youth.

But in late 2007, the pair discovered a good location with three rooms — one for yarn, one for fabric and one for classes just as they’d imagined — had become available on North Linn Street in Iowa City.

Spools of thread sit on display at the Home Ec Workshop in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Home Ec. opened for business in February 2008. The boutique offers high-quality fabrics and knitting supplies that are hard to find locally, Josephson said.

It also offers classes for adults and children rent sewing machines by the hour and sell sewing machines.

Plus there’s a coffee shop in the middle of the store.

“We want this to be a place where people can hang out,” Josephson said Home Ec. range of classes includes knitting (Weinstein’s specialty) and sewing (Josephson’s specialty) as well as quilting, screen printing and fabric dying.

Weinstein and Josephson teach classes, as do various community members.

Neither Josephson nor Weinstein has a business background.

“The business side is hard,” Josephson said. “It’s certainly not as much fun as picking out fabric.

“We’ve learned so much, that’s for sure. But it doesn’t just take a business degree to do this passion.”

And they appreciate working with each other.

“It would be hard to do this alone, so I’m really glad there are two of us,” Josephson added.

The key to her work day is coming in early to get the business aspects taken care of so she can interact with customers.

“I do a little of everything,” she said. “I mop the floor, bake cookies, help customers, give private sewing lessons, and a lot of nights I teach a class.”

She also manages to fit in her venture of making pet portraits.

“Those are really fun. People give me a picture of their pet, and I do a drawing of it on the sewing machine.”

Know a business owner or manager who should be considered for “My Biz”? Contact business editor Michael Chevy Castranova at michael.castranova@sourcemedia.net.

Boyd Gaming has agreed to pay $1.45 billion for Peninsula Gaming. The Las Vegas company will put about $200 million in cash into the deal and take on about $1.2 billion in debt. A $144 million note issued by Peninsula Gaming is also part of the financing.

Peninsula Gaming operates a total of five casinos, including the Kansas Star Casino near Wichita, Kans.; Evangeline Downs Racetrack & Casino in Opelousas, La., and Amelia Belle Casino in Amelia, La.

Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith said Peninsula’s casinos operate resilient markets in the Midwest and south with limited access to gaming. He said the deal will immediately add to Boyd Gaming’s earnings and increase its free cash flow.

“We are paying an attractive multiple for high-quality, high-margin assets,” Smith said.

Boyd Gaming operates 16 gaming entertainment properties in six states, including the Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino in East Peoria, Ill.

The sale, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close by the end of 2012.

“We had a really good fourth quarter in 2011 and we’re starting to see some real positives,” Ramlo said. “We’re starting to see some rate increases, which the property and casualty insurance industry badly needs.

“The good thing about the market changing is the competition is not as fierce. While you would be reluctant to increase rates to appropriate levels when competition for coverage is keen, you can do the right thing when your agents are not worried about losing a policyholder when rates are rising throughout the industry.”

Earlier this month, United Fire Group post sharply higher first-quarter net income and revenues.

The Cedar Rapids-based insurer reported net income of $19.2 million, or 75 cents per share — up 230.2 percent from $5.8 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2011. Revenues rose 34.4 percent to $193.7 million in the quarter that ended March 31, from $144.1 million in the same period a year ago.

Randy Ramlo, United Fire Group

Net premiums earned rose 41.4 percent, to $146.8 million, in the first quarter of 2012, from $101.8 million in the same period in 2011.

Ramlo said the overall economy is not getting worse — as it has for the last couple of years — and there are some “pockets” of encouragement.

“I think it’s going to be a very slow improvement from year to year, and that’s kind of what we’re preparing for,” he said. “The recovery is probably going to take a dozen years from 2008, so we have a ways to go.

“We can’t invest banking on interest rates going up in the short term because we’re not sure they will. It’s a very difficult time to find places to invest your money that make sense from a safety standpoint that will give you any kind of return.”

Ramlo said the number of companies that are not renewing because they’re going out of business has slowed dramatically. He said payrolls are starting to increase and sales are improving for many of the businesses insured by United Fire Group.

United Fire Group acquired Pennington, N.J.-based Mercer Insurance Group in March 2011, expanding the territory of its property and casualty insurance unit to include businesses and individuals in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, Nevada and Oregon.

Ramlo said Mercer policies have begin the transition to United Fire Group’s computers, enabling the Cedar Rapids insurer to look for opportunities in new markets. He said that will especially be true for United Life Insurance, which expects to add even more policyholders in states along the East and West Coasts.

Fourteen No Frills stores are located in Nebraska, 12 of which are in the Greater Omaha market. Four stores are located in western Iowa.

No Frills is owned by seasoned retail executives. The company is led by Fred Witecy, a former Nash Finch employee who will rejoin the company following the acquisition.

After the sale closes, Nash Finch will own 24 supermarkets in greater Omaha, and 41 in the state of Nebraska. The transaction should be completed early in the third quarter of this year.

Nash Finch operated Econofoods and SunMart stores in Cedar Rapids and Marion for many years. The Minneapolis-based company closed its remaining Econofoods store at 2100 Edgewood Rd. SW in November 2006.

Nash Finch’s core business, food distribution, serves independent retailers and military commissaries in 36 states, the District of Columbia, Europe, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Azores, Bahrain and Egypt.

Gemmen noted in his letter that the industrial park’s proximity to rail, the city’s investment in infrastructure and the city’s growth strategy align this industrial park with the tight project timelines typical of today’s manufacturers.

Read the full story at www.icadgroup.com/news.

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Iowa City Area Development said the land in Iowa City’s Wind Energy Supply Chain Campus is the third to be designated under the Certified Shovel Ready Iowa program. A certification letter was presented to Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek by Jonathan Gemmen of Austin Consulting, the third-party certification party.

Iowa City Area Development Group has been working with Austin Consulting for several years to obtain the certification, ICAD Group Interim President Mark Nolte said.

“Since announcing its application, we have seen more interest in the park from manufacturing companies in wind energy and other industries. We look forward to sharing this official announcement with these potential projects.”

“Shovel Ready Iowa” was created by ICAD Group as an independent, third-party certification program designed to reduce risk for local communities and property owners as well as companies researching Iowa’s Creative Corridor for business location or expansion. The goal of the program is to create an inventory of available sites that are fully-served and ready for immediate development.

The program is available in Linn, Johnson, Jones, Benton, Iowa, Cedar and Washington counties. Property can be certified in one of five categories.

Nolte said the ICAD Group and Austin Consulting are continuign to work with developers, property owners, cities and utility partners to identify new properties for certification.

“Austin Consulting is currently reviewing potential applications for property in Marion, Cedar Rapids, Coralville and North Liberty.”

The Tipton Business Park and three sites at the University of Iowa Research Park were the first to receive “shovel-ready” status.

Iowa City’s Wind Industry Supply Chain Campus is certified in the manufacturing category. Factors considered in the certificaton process included highway, air service and rail service access, along with workforce training availability.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Mark Callan will remain as the foundry manager.  Plans include equipment updates and customer growth, all in Manchester.

“This acquisition is a wonderful growth opportunity for Dyersville Die Cast,” said General Manager Bob Willits. “The addition of aluminum and brass sand casting processes compliments our die casting operations.  Plus, we bring new value-added processes to the foundry.”

Dyersville Die Cast offers Ertl Foundry additional processes and services, such as advanced machining capabilities, powder coating, engineering and tooling support.

Dyersville Die Cast, founded in 1970, is a privately-held corporation with its headquarters located 25 miles east of Manchester on U.S. Highway 20.

Sister companies include Scale Models, an agricultural toy manufacturer established in 1978, and Moultrie Die Cast a custom manufacturer of aluminum die castings established in 2009.

Moultrie Die Cast is located in Moultrie, Ga.

The academy will be held from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Thursday, May 17, in the Economic Alliance boardroom, 424 First Ave. NE. Professional Development Academies are a program of the Economic Alliance designed to enhance workplace skills and make businesses more productive.

Guest speakers for the session will include Jim Schmitt and Steve Hammes of Integrus Consulting, Michael Harden of ESOP Consulting Services, Eureka Capital and Neil Brozen of BTC ESOP Services. They will explain how business owners can use the ESOP as an efficient tax strategy to facility an inside sale of their business to management.

Cost to attend is $10. Breakfast is included in the registration fee.

Please register at www.cedarrapids.org or by calling (319) 398-5317.

Justin Powrie, a services manager for the chain, said the closing was a corporate decision based on the economy. He said the company also was a restaurant at 3805 E. 53rd St. in Davenport.

Maryville, Tenn.-based Ruby Tuesday closed its other Cedar Rapids location at 217 Collins Rd. NE in September 2011, leaving only the Edgewood Road SW restaurant. The restaurant, which is located across Edgewood Road SW from Westdale Mall, opened in the fall of 2006.

Sandy Beall, Ruby Tuesday founder, chairman and CEO,  said recently that the company planned to close 25 to 27 underperforming restaurants before the end of this month. Sales fell 5 percent in the last fiscal quarter on a year-over-year basis at Ruby Tuesday’s company-owned restaurants.

Beall said the chain, which will continue to operate locations in Mason City and Urbandale, has had difficulty keeping up with competitors who rely heavily on advertising and big promotions to draw in customers.

The suddenness of the Cedar Rapids closing came as a surprise to some employees, but followed a pattern that Ruby Tuesday has followed at other locations that have closed. Powrie did not know why there was not more advance notice of the closing.

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A may build a new restaurant at the former site of Ruby Tuesday at 217 Collins Rd. NE, on the perimeter of  Lindale Mall.

The restaurant at 217 Collins Road NE would have seating for 140 indoor and 28 outside, in addition to a drive-through, according to a preliminary site plan filed with the city of Cedar Rapids. It shows a new 4,866-square-foot building and 95-car lot.

Chick-fil-A, a fast-food chain known for its chicken nuggets and whimsical advertising campaign (“Eat mor chikin”), has long operated a store in Westdale Mall.

The realty site said placed Iowa City No. 21 on its list of cities ranked on the strength of recovery in their real estate markets.

Listing prices are up 6.81% on a year-over-year quarterly basis, a REALTOR.com article said, and inventories dropped -26.24 percent. The Iowa City market’s foreclosure rate of only one in every 1,447 units is much lower than the national average of 1 in every 662 units, the article said, also noting the community’s low 4.2 percent jobless rate.

REALTOR.com is the official web site of the National Association of Realtors. The group’s Top Turnaround Markets list was topped by Florida markets, but the group noted a strong concentration of strong turnaround markets in the Midwest and West, including Iowa City, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Grand Rapids, Mich.

Sixteen years ago in the Kettelkamp house outside Marion, a business was born.

At the time, it was just the business of getting two girls in 4H to state with a batch of winning cinnamon rolls. But that effort took plenty of practice and created plenty of leftovers.

“We were already doing the farmer’s market, so we thought, let’s take them to the market and see what they think,” said Cindy Kettelkamp, who supervised her daughters’ baking efforts. “They liked them, so we started making them on regular basis.”

The money made from those rolls allowed one daughter to buy her first horse. And now, years later, it’s also behind the Marion-based bakery that Kettelkamp opened in April with one of those daughters, Emily Hamilton, 24.

“It was a 4H project gone wild,” Kettelkamp said.

The Kettel House Bakery and Cafe opened its doors April 19 with a kitchen full of pecan rolls, kolaches, brioche, jalapeno cheese hot bread and a unique concept. The mother-daughter team is opening up their bake house to other female entrepreneurs looking for a launching pad.

“We have a vision because it’s so difficult for women to break into business,” Kettelkamp said.

The Kettel House is asking other business-minded women if they want to join them in the renovated house at 945 6^th Ave. in Marion to incubate to see if their idea will stick and grow into a larger enterprise.

“This is women joining together to be strong and offer more to the community,” Kettelkamp said.

So far, three other female entrepreneurs have moved in.

One has a gourmet cake shop called “Take the Cake,” which complements the Kettel House bakery with its more than 50 flavors of cupcakes. The other two are gift card businesses, one of which is run by a middle school student, Kettelkamp said.

“We are always looking for that fit – a woman looking for a safe place to launch her business,” Kettelkamp said, adding that the female-run business incubator always has room for more. “We are always willing to sit down and talk to a gal and look at what she brings to the table.”

“If it’s a good fit, we make room,” she said.

In addition to bakery items, cupcakes and gift cards offered out o f the renovated home turned storefront in Marion, Kettelkamp said she brings in honey and beef from the family farm, and she and her daughter are planning to begin serving deli-style lunches in a few weeks.

Ice cream and pie could be next, she said.

“The people who have come in have been very pleased,” Kettelkamp said. “You can get a roll and kolaches hot out of the oven if you time it right. What’s not to like?”

From road projects to new city and county buildings, construction season is in full swing.  Some are due to flood recovery and others will repair or expand roads.

Here’s just a snapshot of what’s going on:

Marion’s Central Corridor Project started Monday, the Cedar Rapids Convention Complex is well underway, and the new U.S. Federal Courthouse is nearly finished.

For the past few years, it’s been slow as the recession and FEMA put a hold on construction projects.  But now, those crews have plenty to do.

It’s becoming an all too familiar sight and sound across Eastern Iowa — construction.

“I usually try to go out all around it if I can just because all the construction and the traffic,” said Erin Ward who spent Monday running errands in downtown Cedar Rapids.

But Center Junction’s Erin Ward says she knows the headaches equal jobs.

“My nephew and my son work in construction, excavating business, so there’s a lot of work and they have to keep the guys busy so it’s great if they keep this going,” said Erin Ward.

It’s a sentiment shared by the Carpenters Union Local 308.

“Throughout the corridor, it’s booming right now and it looks really good for the next three to five years,” said Carpenters Union Local 308 Business Agent Dave Hogan.

Hogan says construction workers, specifically carpenters, hit a rough patch during the recession and during the long wait for FEMA dollars after the flood of 2008.  But now, more projects underway means more interest from the unemployed looking for their chance to work in the currently flourishing industry.

“We’re getting a lot of calls from former members that got out when things got slow and now they’re seeing things pick up again and they want to come back,” said Hogan.

With so much work to be done, some fear outside contractors will bring in an outside workforce.  That’s something Hogan works actively to prevent by providing a capable workforce when new bids become available.

“I hope they continue to go with local employees, workers and help Cedar Rapids by putting more people to work,” Hogan said.

It’s a similar story in Iowa City as the university puts construction and renovation projects into high gear.  From Hancher Auditorium to the U of I’s Children’s Hospital,  Iowa City will see plenty of orange cones this summer as well.

The Carpenters Union also employs about 375 workers in Dubuque and Waterloo with plenty of projects to complete.

The Iowa Crops and Weather from USDA National Agricultural Statistics on Monday reported that 90 percent of the 2012 corn crop is in the ground after planting advanced 26 percent in the week that ended Sunday. Northwest Iowa had the largest increase with 39 percent, with each district of the state increasing at least 19 percent.

There were 5.1 days suitable for fieldwork during the week, compared with just 1.5 days the previous week.

Topsoil moisture levels were rated zero percent very short, 9 percent short, 83 percent adequate, and 8 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture was rated 4 percent very short, 16 percent short, 71 percent adequate, and 9 percent surplus.

Corn planting is 5 percent ahead of last year’s 85 percent and the five-year average of 79 percent. West Central Iowa producers lead the way for corn planting with 96 percent complete.

Fifty-five percent of the corn crop has emerged, six days ahead of normal. In East Central Iowa, 83 percent of the corn crop has been planted and 48 percent has emerged.

Soybean planting is 39 percent complete, just ahead of last year’s 36 percent and the five-year average of 30 percent. Soybeans have emerged in each district of the state.

Thirty-one percent of the soybean crop has been planted on East Central Iowa.

Ninety-five percent of the oat acreage has emerged, ahead of last year’s 86 percent and the five-year average of 76 percent. Seven percent of the oat crop has headed, 19 days ahead of normal. Oat condition improved to 0 percent very poor, 2 percent poor, 18 percent fair, 64 percent good, and 16 percent excellent.

Seventy-three percent of Iowa’s pasture and range land is rated good to excellent, equal to the previous week. Pasture and range condition rated 1 percent very poor, 4 percent poor, 22 percent fair, 48 percent good, and 25 percent excellent.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said the weather outlook for this week is positive and he expects farmers to finish planting the state’s corn crop in the next week to 10 days.

The company’s Interstate Power & Light utility plans to file the rate increase request on May 25 with the Iowa Utilities Board. The increase would apply only to the service costs on the customer’s natural gas bill, which average 30-40 percent of the total bill, company spokesman Justin Foss said.

IP&L is not the dominant natural gas supplier in the Corridor. Its local markets include Mount Vernon, Lisbon, Palo and Vinton.

Foss said natural gas bills have dropped about 19 percent since 2005 at IP&L, due mainly to lower wholesale natural gas prices.

IP&L’s last natural gas rate increase was seven years ago.

Specific factors driving the company to seek a rate increase will be disclosed at the time of the filing, Foss said. The increase is expected to vary between different customer classes.

The product offers a panorama view that allows business aircraft passengers to see a moving map of the outside world from any direction the iPad is pointed, as if the aircraft were transparent. It also provides intuitive, touch-based interaction with multiple maps and information displays, and the ability to control the Airshow ticker, which scrolls key information such as the estimated time of flight arrival. It offers a three-dimensional graphical representation of the world’s time zones.

The Airshow application will be available via the Apple iTunes App Store later this year. Rockwell Collins Airshow 4000 or Venue™ HD cabin management system users will be able to use the new app through a system upgrade.

Consumers are told by a representative of Platinum Management Solutions from Denver, Colo., that the company has a corporate time-share buyer from Mexico who wants to purchase their time-share, according to the BBB. The consumer is then contacted by North South Title or Wade Capital Management, which claim to be the escrow agent for processing the funds and title work. They are asked by the company to wire a 10 percent processing fee to a bank in Mexico.

Once the funds are wired, the company suspends its contact with the consumer.

Wade Capital Management was the subject of a BBB warning on April 4. The BBB said that like Wade Capital Management, North South Title gives out a false address in Davenport and uses a website that borrows the same exact language and terminology as a legitimate company based in Santa Barbara, Calif.

The companies’ request for a wire transfer of money is a telltale sign of a scam, the BBB said, urging consumers never to wire money to companies or individuals they don’t know personally.

Efforts to contact North South Title were unsuccessful.

Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter flashes back 50 years to the time when the city of Cedar Rapids converted most of the major avenues into and out of downtown from two-ways to one-ways to better handle the volumes of traffic headed downtown.

“Everybody was going downtown,” Stoffer Hunter says of the time back then.

They don’t now.

Much of what made downtowns headed for the malls on the edges of cities years ago, leaving city cores in the lurch, forcing them to re-imagine what their future might hold.

Planning studies about reinvention fill bottom drawers and litter dusty shelves.

Along the way, more and more people started needing the downtown less and less.

“Part of what happens when downtowns went into decline was that people lost the feel and the importance and the comfort for being downtown,” says Ruth Fox, a landscape architect and planner who lives and works in downtown Cedar Rapids.

As downtowns such as Cedar Rapids’s come back to life, Fox says, it will take time for people to see that the new downtown is worth going to see and use.

Downtown Cedar Rapids as seen from Water Tower Place. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

“It’s going to take awhile for ‘a love of’ to come back to the downtown,” says Fox, of Ruth Fox Landscape Architecture + Planning.

‘LIFE HAS CHANGE’

Jeff Sanford, an urban planning consultant in Memphis, Tenn., and past chairman of the International Downtown Association, says cities such as Cedar Rapids don’t need so much to redevelop their downtowns as to redefine them as community assets, along the way putting to rest forever the memory of the downtown as the retail behemoth of a day gone by.

“Downtowns will never be what they were 30 and 40 and 50 years ago before the advent of the suburban shopping mall,” says Sanford, who came to Cedar Rapids a year after the 2008 flood as part of a delegation from the International Downtown Association.

“… Life has change. And so, too, does downtown Cedar Rapids have to change.”

In his trip to Cedar Rapids, Sanford says he saw downtown Cedar Rapids as a place that was becoming a residential neighborhood and an entertainment center as well as a business and employment center.

He saw that the downtown had a “great opportunity for continued growth.”

He particularly recalls the flood-hit area on the west side of the Cedar River across from the downtown, and he says it made him think of the Mud Island community across from downtown Memphis that was nothing 20 years ago and today has 5,000 to 6,000 residents.

“All that rose up from even less” than what’s in Cedar Rapids, Sanford says.

BRUSHING SHOULDERS

Brian Brandt, managing director at Principal Financial Group in downtown Cedar Rapids, says a downtown matters today because it is the “visible face” of a city’s business community and is the center of the arts, culture, entertainment and government.

These days, adds Brandt, chairman of the Metro Economic Alliance’s Community Development Innovation Council, Cedar Rapids’s downtown has become a “great incubator” for startup businesses because the downtown offers office space, business support and potential customers.

One of those startup entrepreneurs is John Schnipkoweit, a member of the Metro Economic Alliance’s board of directors who lives and works in downtown and would have it no other way.

Schnipkoweit helped start one company downtown, Ovation Networks Inc., which helps hotels and motels set up wireless computer networks and now has 50 employees, and he’s on to a second company, RecBob, which has six employees with hopes of growing bigger as it helps local adult recreational leagues across the country and the world manage their teams.

Schnipkoweit says he’s in downtown because that’s where he easily can brush shoulders with business associates and other idea people on the street and in the coffee shops.

“That to us is pretty valuable, those interactions,” he says. “There’s a reason that universities don’t spread their buildings over an entire city. They have a central campus.

“A downtown is much like that for business.”

As with other downtowns, Cedar Rapids’s business core has focused on housing in recent years, with the goal of turning a 9-to-5 world into a round-the-clock one. Schnipkoweit lived in downtown Kansas City, Mo., for three years in the early 2000s when he says the downtown housing market there began to boom.

“You have to build up critical mass, and I saw that happen in Kansas City. We don’t have that yet,” he says.

THE FRONT PORCH

Kris Gulick, a two-term Cedar Rapids City Council member and current president of the Iowa League of Cities, says he talks to officials in Iowa cities big and small who are trying to figure out a way to keep their downtowns relevant and alive.

Cities care about their downtowns, Gulick says, because they represent a concentrated center of property value — its property-tax revenue helps support services throughout the city.

Gulick’s council district consists of about half of northeast Cedar Rapids, much of which reaches miles from the downtown, as well as the flood-hit, westside Time Check Neighborhood, where residents can complain that the city spends too much time and money on the downtown.

Gulick says such a “perception” can’t be helped because the downtown, too, sustained great damage in the 2008 flood as did a number of city buildings located there.

“Surely, we have to replace those (city) facilities,” he says.

Urban planning consultant Sanford, who headed up the business improvement district in Memphis for 13 years and has consulted on downtowns big and not so big, says Cedar Rapids is far from alone in working to improve its downtown amid complaints from other parts of the city about it.

There’s no reason, Sanford says, that cities can’t do more than one thing at once. Streets can be fixed in residential neighborhoods even as downtowns are being revitalized, he says.

At the same time, though, Sanford says a downtown is a unique neighborhood, one that belongs to everyone who lives in a city. He says the downtown, too, is a community’s “front porch,” “often the first and lasting impression a visitor has of a community.”

“And so it would seem to me to be in the best interest of the city to work to make that impression a positive one,” he says.

“If misery loves company,” Sanford adds, he points to the city of Chicago as a place where he says former Mayor Richard M. Daley endured plenty of criticism from the neighborhoods outside the city’s core because of money spent in the downtown. The same was true in Sanford’s own city, Memphis, he recalls.

“But nothing breeds success like success,” says Sanford, who notes that $5 billion of growth in downtown Memphis over 15 years has made the voices against the downtown fewer.

Cedar Rapids planner Ruth Fox says she’s been amazed at people who she assumed would support downtown Cedar Rapids saying that the city is focusing too much on the city’s core. She says the city would be focused as much on another part of the city, say, Lindale Mall, if it for some reason was at the center of a natural disaster as the downtown has been.

“People don’t love their downtowns as much anymore,” Fox suggests.

Fox says you can’t buy love, but she says the investment in a new library, new riverfront amphitheater, new convention center and renovated arena and Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids will attract people to use them once those facilities are ready.

People love the places that they go to, she says, and she adds that could be telling, even for a new and changing downtown.

Iowans who were buying sport utility vehicles that went 19 miles per gallon a decade ago are now in line to buy subcompacts and compacts that are pushing and breaking the 40 miles-per-gallon barrier.

Subcompact cars such as the Chevrolet Sonic, Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit and Nissan Versa are now some of the hottest sellers by vehicle registration in the Corridor, along with the perennial mileage leader, the Toyota Prius.

The U.S. average hit its peak for the year of $3.941 a gallon on April 2.

Workers assemble Ford Fiestas at the production line in Cologne, Germany. (AP Photo)

“Given the ups and downs of fuel prices it’s at the top of more people’s minds than ever before,” said Dave Wright, the owner of Dave Wright Nissan Subaru in Cedar Rapids.

Wright said his sales staff now pores through FuelEconomy.gov, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s auto-fuel-economy website — fairly often with consumers — something that was unheard of a couples years ago.

American nameplates have joined import nameplates as favorites of the gas conscious.

“We’ve sold more of the subcompact car, the Sonic, than any other car we have,” said Scott Winker, general manager at Pat McGrath Chevyland in Cedar Rapids. The Sonic couldn’t have hit market at a better time, as gas prices spiked late last year, he added.

The subcompact Ford Fiesta, alongside the Hyundai Elantra, has become a strong seller at Zimmerman Ford Hyundai BMW in Cedar Rapids.

“To me, it feels like any car line we deal with has placed fuel economy front and center,” said Kevin Schwarzhoff, director of dealership operations.

Schwarzhoff said the dealership has been unable to keep the subcompact Hyundai Elantra, a model that features highway mileage over 40 miles per gallon, on the lot.

“We just sell as many as we can get,” Schwarzhoff said.

The Chevrolet Sonic was the top-selling subcompact in the Cedar Rapids-area market in March, with nine vehicles titled. It was followed by the Ford Fiesta and Nissan Versa, each with eight titled that month.

The Hyundai Accent was close behind with seven, according to the Dominion Cross-Sell Report, a market research service.

THE SIGN OF THE PUMP

These fuel-sipping — as opposed to fuel-gulping — subcompacts are trying to invade an economy-sized space traditionally dominated by likes of the larger Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.

While sales in the subcompact category are up sharply over year-ago levels, the top choice for the fuel-conscious buyer in the Corridor remains the Toyota Prius, a hybrid in the mid-sized class.

“We can really tell what’s going to happen with Prius sales as we look at the sign on the gas pump,” said Daryl Bulle, general sales manager at Toyota-Scion of Iowa City. “As soon as that (pump price) starts going up the scale, the sales of the Prius will go right along with that.”

The Prius still gets better overall fuel economy than any of the subcompacts, at more than 50 miles per gallon city mileage. It accounted for almost 79 percent of hybrid sales in the Cedar Rapids market in March, with 53 vehicles titled, according to the Dominion Cross-Sell Report.

Not all Priuses, or other fuel-sippers, are small.

Ann McQuerry of Cedar Rapids bought a 2012 Toyota V recently to replace her Ford crossover vehicle. It’s a notch larger than a standard Prius, but the fuel economy is almost as good.

Ecstatic would not be too strong a word to describe McQuerry’s feelings about the new car. Her six-foot, three-inch-tall son can sit comfortably in the back seat, or she can fit three child seats in a row.

“The V sits up higher and is easier to get in and out of,” said McQuerry, a Hawkeye Area Community Action Program child-crisis program employee. I fill up every week and a half, and the most I’ve ever put in is 10 gallons.”

For dealers, one danger of the fuel economy trend could be an erosion of high-ticket vehicle sales to lower-ticket subcompact car sales.

Fortunately, dealers say, automakers are boosting fuel economy in response to tougher federal regulations across the board.

Mid-sized vehicles such as the Chevrolet Malibu Eco offer lower fuel alternatives for those who have larger families or cargo needs.

THE MAGIC NUMBER

The magic mileage number for most new car shoppers at Zimmerman Ford Hyundai BMW is around 30 miles per gallon, according to Schwarzhoff. When customers hear that number, they begin to feel comfortable that they won’t be eaten alive by gas prices.

The dealership has at least 10 models that meet the 30 miles per gallon test, he added.

Miller, the Nissan and Subaru dealer, said his sales team spends more time walking customers through model offerings on the EPA’s FuelEconomy.gov website to give them a sense of perspective on fuel economy.

One point of the discussions is to explain that fuel economy isn’t just something intrinsic to a vehicle’s design and manufacturer. Another is that the customer could buy the most fuel-efficient vehicle available and still wind up unhappy if it doesn’t meet the customer’s other basic needs and preferences.

“How do you drive it, how do you maintain your car and how much does it really matter if you’re going to get 40 mpg instead of 43 mpg?” Wright asked.

He pointed out that maintenance issues such as underinflated tires and driving habits, like jackrabbit starts, can have as much effect on fuel economy as the specific model.

The surge in subcompacts is all the more remarkable in Iowa, a state that typically has been heavy on truck, SUV and minivan registrations. Some of the manufacturers that specialize in small “city cars” such as Smart and Fiat don’t even have dealers in Iowa — and the state only recently gained its first Mini Cooper dealership.

Whether relief will come from high gas prices and deflate the subcompact boom is a question that could be answered soon.

Alex Taylor

But the success of organizational leaders often depends on how well they manage and balance the direction of that board with the ongoing needs of the organization — its employees — and those of the customer.

And sometimes the needs of these three groups can be divergent.

A few local business leaders ascribe to the following three best practices to manage and balance their respective boards of directors with organizational needs:

1.  Clearly establish and agree to shared vision and goals for the organization.
2.  Be deliberate and focused in decisions, communications and actions toward these shared vision and goals.
3.  Above all else, be firm in your commitment to the customer.

Larry Jansen, the new CEO for Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co., based in Grinnell, explains his approach this way: “Early on, I established three priorities for the organization — invest in technology; grow revenues; and place an emphasis on strategic employee development.

“I’ve been very clear with the board and the organization about these priorities. All our efforts tie back to these priorities, and the company and board have rallied around these directives and are collectively supportive.”

Jansen says that a board should be strategic and leave the day-to-day operations to the organizational leader.

“If leaders don’t get shared commitment from their board toward strategic organizational vision and goals, then board members may overreach to micromanage some of the day-to-day operations. When this happens, the effectiveness of a leader is compromised.

Deliberate and focused communications reinforces company priorities and direction. So if board members or employees stray, a leader can legitimately refocus efforts back to the vision and goals.

Bruce Lehrman, CEO of Involta, a data services company in Cedar Rapids, reinforces company vision and goals by “celebrating wins and milestones” as the organization makes progress toward these goals.

However, the real challenge comes when a board member departs from shared goals and the best interests of the organization and/or customer. In this instance, leaders must demonstrate courage to stand up for the principals and underpinnings of the business vision and goals.

In addition to consistent, deliberate and firm communications to keep the board focused and aligned, a leader can validate this approach by measurable results to include employee satisfaction and profitable growth.

To this last point, a successful leader ultimately should stay focused on customer needs, desires and trends.

“Customers drive our decisions as well as industry growth and change,” according to Jay Beck, president of Robinson Rubber Products Co. in Minneapolis, Minn. “They pay our bills, keep our lights on, and help our company to stay relevant, our products useful, and our business profitable.

“As president, it’s my job to manage, balance and align our board and our organization with customer needs and desires, and keep the customer at the forefront for all of our strategic discussions, decisions and operations.”

At that same event, according to the Economist magazine, the association acknowledged this imbalance. It also noted that its members have been known to publish analysis that prop up the notion of big pay at the same time they also were doing work for large corporations.

To its credit, the association urged its members that, when they write articles about executives deserving more money, to disclose when those executives happen to be the same folk who give them money.

It’s about context, isn’t it?

Michael Chevy Castranova

Here’s what I mean. In her 2011 book “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend,” Susan Orlean tells an anecdote about visiting what she believed was the home of the owner of Strongheart, one of a whole breed of 1920s canine movie stars.

The author notes the house wasn’t quite as, well, palatial as she’d read in old Hollywood accounts. So she asked the current resident if indeed this had been the home of Strongheart’s owner.

The homeowner thought for a moment, then laughed. This hadn’t been the dog owner’s house, she replied — “This was Strongheart’s house!”

That Rin Tin Tin predecessor had been such a moneymaker, the movie studio was convinced the celebrity dog deserved its own address.

“Rin Tin Tin” is a lot like Pete Hamill’s “Why Sinatra Matters.” In each case, the author tracks how the book’s subject shifted cultural sentiment — at a time when dogs resided in the barn, not as pets in urban dwellers’ living rooms, and Italian-Americans were viewed as rambunctious intruders, not pop idols.

I think we’ve got to keep context in mind as the flames are whipped up during this presidential campaign, each time someone from the left or right pounds a fist to proclaim business executives should, or should not, take home that magic number of 99 percent more in income than the average American.

Certainly Mr. Andrew Schiff needs some context. He’s the guy who ended up in the newspapers across the country a few weeks ago for screaming that he felt he was “stuck like a rat in a trap” because — at $350,000 for his marketing director job for a big-time broker — he couldn’t afford his children’s private-school tuition, Connecticut summer rental home and other accoutrements of the very, very fortunate.

In that same Bloomberg News article, a New York accounting firm exec noted, “People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress.”

Yep, he’s got that right.

It is true that companies need to offer healthy compensation to attract and retain experienced eyes that can see where bumps in the road ahead might lie. Glossy business publications remind us of that at every opportunity.

And I surely am not going to be the one to contend people don’t deserve to be paid what they’re worth, at the going market rate.

But keeping things in context might light a way through the thicket of this debate.

Arf!

Jason Glass (see photo) joined Four Oaks in Cedar Rapids as its chief people officer. Glass was previously the human resources manager at Whirlpool Corp. in Amana.

Dean Borg

Louie Ervin

Jason Glass

Candace Kiekhaefer

Promotions

Aaron Plein (see photo) was promoted to vice president, branch manager and service delivery, for the Dupaco Community Credit Union’s Cedar Rapids branch located on First Avenue. Plein had worked as vice president, branch manager of Dupaco’s Manchester office.

East-West School of Integrative Healing Arts and Massage College in North Liberty promoted Candace Kiekhaefer (see photo) to associate director and director of education.

Central Iowa Power Cooperative promoted Louie Ervin (see photo) to assistant vice president, utility operations. Ervin most recently served as manager-transmission planning and tariffs.

Aaron Plein

Brian Sabel

Barry Stump

Board Members

Dr. Carmen Clemenson of Cedar Rapids was sworn in as secretary for the 2012-2013 Iowa Chiropractic Society board of directors and will serve a one-year term. Clemenson practices at Clemenson Chiropractic in Marion.

At its annual meeting, First Community Trust shareholders elected the following directors from the Corridor to serve for the ensuing year: Barry Stump (see photo), Cedar Rapids; Brian Sabel (see photo), Cedar Rapids; and Dean Borg (see photo), Mount Vernon.

Awards

Eastern Iowa businesses honored at the Goodwill of the Heartland annual awards ceremony in April were Suburban Extended Stay Hotel in Coralville and Hiawatha Care Center in Hiawatha. Procter & Gamble in Iowa City was named the 2011 Contract Partner.

Eastern Iowa winners at the American Council of Engineering Companies of Iowa’s Engineering Excellence Awards 56th annual conference were:

• Transportation Category, Grand Place Award, East Post Road Bridge replacement — Shoemaker & Haaland Professional Engineers, Coralville, city of Cedar Rapids, Public Works Department;
• Honor Award, Kirkwood Community College main campus entrance roundabout — Anderson-Bogert Engineers & Surveyors Inc., Cedar Rapids, Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids;
• Engineering Achievement Award, University of Iowa commuter parking lot 75 expansion with transit shelter — Shive-Hattery Inc., Iowa City, University of Iowa, Iowa City;
• Water & Wastewater Category, Honor Award, Atkins Water Treatment Plant — Snyder & Associates Inc., Cedar Rapids, city of Atkins;
• Buildings & Systems Category, Grand Place Award, Chemistry Facilities, Hach Hall — Henneman Engineering Inc., Iowa City, Iowa State University, facilities planning and management;
• Special Projects Category, Engineering Achievement Award, First Avenue Corridor Recovery and Protection — HR Green Inc., Cedar Rapids, city of Coralville.

Advertising work created by J.W. Morton and Associates on behalf of St. Luke’s Hospital won three gold awards and one bronze award in the 2012 Aster Awards. The work was created by Connie Collins, Kim Ketelsen, Kevin Northway and Kris Sullens. It also won a Service Advertising Merit Award in the Healthcare Advertising Awards, sponsored by Healthcare Marketing Report newspaper.

WDG Communications Inc. and Rockwell Collins, both in Cedar Rapids, were honored with a Gold 2012 Communicator Award of Excellence in the print category for Volume 16, Issue 4 Rockwell Collins Horizons employee magazine.

Seminars

“Evaluating Your Estate Plan: A Workshop for Farm Families” will be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., June 22, at the Linn County Extension Office, Suite 140, 3279 Seventh Ave., Marion. Kelvin Leibold, Iowa State University Extension farm and agribusiness management specialist, also will speak. Cost is $50, including lunch. To register, call (319) 377-9839.

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Statco DSI, a California-based engineering and fabricating company, has named Adfinity Marketing Group in Cedar Rapids as its agency of record.

Steffan is marketing manager for the Linn County Fair, which set this year for June 27 to July 2 in Central City. And she knows it involves keeping a lot of plates spinning at the same time.

Visitors to the fair have come to expect not only the standard fair food and plentiful 4-H activities, but also varied entertainment acts. Behind the scenes, volunteers and fair professionals are working to make it all go off as seamlessly as possible.

John Harms, who has been working as General Manager for the Great Jones County Fair since 1986, agreed with the notion it takes many hours and many people.

“It’s an 18-month planning process for us,” he said.

People watch as the Kamikaze revolves during the Great Jones County Fair last year in Monticello. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The Great Jones County Fair and Food-Fest, held each summer in Monticello, celebrates its 160th year this July 18 to 22. It is the state’s second oldest fair and the third largest.

“If the weather is good this year, we’ll be at about a $200 million budget,” said Harms, who works half-time, year-round.

“People just don’t realize all of the overhead associated with it, the amount of raw planning and communication to make it happen.”

Along with hiring Harms and a few seasonal office staff members — who work for about a four-month period — the Great Jones County Fair takes on about 150 temporary employees for the week of the fair to handle security, concert staging and logistics and work the gate entrances.

But volunteer efforts are also a huge part of the equation.

“I don’t know how many hundreds of volunteers we have,” he admitted. “Plus we also have service groups that we make a donation to based on the number of volunteers from that group we get helping in concessions, running scanners and parking cars.”

12,000 VOLUNTEERS

The Linn County Fair, by contrast, is a 100 percent volunteer-led effort. According to Jennifer Dunn, president of the Linn County Fair, it has a 15-member board of directors and a core of 20 associate-member volunteers to plan the fair each year.

They in turn rely on some 250 to 300 volunteers during the week of the fair.

“We had 12,000 volunteer hours for 2011,” Dunn recalled.

Perhaps especially with volunteer efforts, planning is important.

“We plan a year in advance, if not further,” Dunn said. “We are already talking about some events for the 2013 fair, which will be our 125th year.

“Normally as soon as the current fair is over, the next day we start planning for next year’s fair.”

Steffen and Dunn started volunteering with the Linn County Fair in 2005 and 2006 respectively, with the goal of helping the fair grow.

And grow it has. In 2006 they saw about 6,000 people through the gate — this year they expect some 40,000.

“Our fair has grown 400 percent in six years, with an average of about 20 percent increase each year,” Steffen said.

To foster that growth, they’ve turned to sponsorship and partnership opportunities as a way to fund the various elements of the fair.

“When I came on to the fair in 2005 that was the year we implemented a sponsorship program,” she recalled. “We have grown the program and now refer to it as our partnership program as they partner with us to make it successful.”

The Linn County Board of Supervisors also has committed funding to support the fair.

“We have a lot of great sponsors from the private sector and more sponsors means more entertainment,” said Dunn.

It also enables the Linn County Fair to remain free.

In Jones County, Harms said this year he expected anywhere from 80,000 to 100,000 visitors to the fair in five days.

“Sponsorships are critical, and we have impressions to sell,” he said. “It’s a good-time advertising concept. and we put names on everything we can.”

A fair’s entertainment lineup can be the biggest draw, and deciding on and booking that talent is no easy task.

“As we look at the lineup, we make a wish list,” Harms said. “We think about who we want to have, who is coming up the ranks hot and fast.”

The Great Jones County Fair has worked with a booking agency out of Ohio for the past 40 years, a partnership that Harms said has been key for them.

“They have a good feel on the pulse of our community. And they are well thought of in the industry, so when they take our offer to (singer) Toby Keith’s management, they pay attention,” he noted.

FOCUS ON FARMS

Organizers said they work hard to strike a balance between appealing to the traditional agricultural crowd and drawing in new fair visitors.

“Our goal is to not only bring in the long-standing events but also bring in at least one new event every year to keep the fair new and fresh,” Steffen explained.

“If we didn’t grow or change that fair won’t be there,” Dunn said. “But people expect the traditions of the fair.

“We don’t want to lose sight of 4-H programs and we stay true to the core values of 4-H. We want to make sure we continue to instill that in kids and bring the community out to see these projects.

“But we also need other reasons to come out as well.”

“We have agricultural roots and we don’t ever want to leave that behind. But today we sell music,” Harms added.

“People expect to see quality entertainment.”

In the end, that social impact keeps the fair going year after year.

“Without county fairs, we lose our history,” Steffen said. “It is a place where grandparents can take their grandchildren to teach them about our culture and learn about Iowa’s agricultural past.

“It is also a place where the new generations can teach their parents about the up-and-coming technology and culture. With out county fairs our past will die and our future will suffer.”

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The agreement between Rockwell Collins and Caterham F1 Team calls for collaboration to define aviation technology that the team can use in its quest for the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile Formula 1 World Championship, Rockwell Collins announced Friday, May 11.

The Rockwell Collins logo will appear on the Caterham F1 team car, in the pits and elsewhere.

The size and interests of the Formula 1 audience complement Rockwell Collins’ international growth strategy to establish stronger local presence in key markets, according to Colin Mahoney, Rockwell Collins vice president, commercial systems marketing and sales.

Twenty-five years later, the professor emeritus, who retired in 2007, has co-authored a new ISU study that could make another splash, but for different reasons.

Walmart opened 45 stores in Iowa between 1983 and 1994, then took a five-year break on opening new Iowa stores. Beginning in 1999, another wave of store openings began that brought Walmart to 59 stores in 55 different communities.

Stone’s 1988 study found Walmart’s arrival hurt retailers competing head-on with Walmart in the same merchandise categories, but had a positive effect on retailers that sold different kinds of merchandise.

Retail sales tended to fall in surrounding non-Walmart towns, and the initial sales jump towns received from a Walmart opening tended to taper off as competing retailers closed or cut back.

Now, ISU’s research find that Walmart has been an overall retail boon for small Iowa towns with Walmart stores and the drain on surrounding towns has stabilized.

Real per capita sales in Walmart towns increased an average of 11 percent after the stores opened and fell to about 5 percent after 15 years.

Sales in a control group of towns without Walmart stores declined by an average of 25 percent, but had stabilized by the end of the 15-year post-opening study period.

Early Walmart store openings in the late 1980s focused on smaller communities, the report said. They tended to increase general merchandise sales in the community by about $9.8 million, the report said, possibly because Walmarts were relatively new and attracted many customers from outside the host town.

In the 1990s, the size of new Walmarts increased to about 90,000 square feet and they could conservatively generate $22.5 million in annual sales. Host communities gained a more modest $7.8 million in net retail sales.

Iowa State University emeritus economics professor Ken Stone and Georgeanne Artz, a visiting assistant professor of economics in ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, are authors a new study on Iowa communities 15 years before and after Walmart. (Bob Elbert/ISU News Service)

Stone said his biggest surprise from the research was the stabilization of retail sales in non-Walmart communities.

The reasons weren’t probed in the study. Stone’s best guess is that control group of communities stabilized because they have discount and specialty retailers such as Hy-Vee, Fareway, Family Dollar and ALCO. Those retailers have adjusted their strategies to cope with Walmart.

Stone’s 1988 study raised the ire of top Walmart officials including founder Sam Walton, Stone said, and launched him in a new direction of speaking and consulting on how best to cope with Walmart in Iowa communities.

One criticism of the original study was that it ignored Walmart’s store site selection criteria. If Walmart chose high-growth areas for its stores, they said the study and others like it would underestimate the negative effects of a Walmart on the retail economy, and overestimate the positive effects.

The new study addressed the concern by reaching back 15 years before the Walmart stores opened. That historical analysis of retail sales in the community over that period made it clear that most of the small communities were already in an extended trend of retail decline before the Walmart stores opened.

Coping with Walmart is a daily fact of life for stores like J.T. Hadherway Co. in Monticello. The family-owned department store has made adjustments like ending apparel sales because a Walmart less than ten miles west in Anamosa made apparel lines unprofitable, and focusing more on things like selling high-quality fabrics not available at Walmart to quilters.

“We felt a ripple when the Walmart came, but we never tried to compete with Walmart,” said founder Julie Tuetken, who now works for her son Chris part-time at the store.

Tuetken said that Walmart in earlier years would send employees into J.T. Hadherway to benchmark her prices so that Walmart could undercut them. She said J.T. Hadherway’s strategy has been to offer products that are in local demand that customers can’t find at Walmart, and to offer service that leaves customers smiling.

Stone said the fate of small community retailers that were competing directly against Walmart is the sad part of the situation, but it’s clear that having a Walmart helps communities by improving sales tax collections.

Communities might be inclined from the study findings to offer incentives to attract Walmart stores. Economists generally agree that incentives should only be used when they do not harm the competitive position of other local firms, the study said, but municipal leaders might find it to the town’s overall benefit.

The ISU study analyzed over 20 Iowa communities with populations between 3,000 and 20,000, in which Walmart stores opened no later than 1994, and an equivalent number of non Walmart communities.

If small towns with Walmart stores were overall gainers and small towns without Walmarts have stabilized, it might seem that everyone’s coming out OK in the Walmart game.

That’s not true, Stone said, because retailing has swooned in small Iowa towns with populations of 2,500 or less. Those towns are not only too small to attract a Walmart but other discount or specialty retail chains, Stone said. Their retail sales have declined by about 33 percent over the 15-year period.

Stone hadn’t planned to work on any more Walmart studies, but changed his mind after the Economic Development Quarterly asked him to write the lead study for an edition devoted exclusively to Walmart studies. He said he still takes a strong personal interest in the mega-retailer.

The Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation is included in the Fair Authority’s financial statements.

The Fair Authority reported operating revenues of $20,638,067 for fiscal year 2011, an increase of 9.6% over the prior year. Revenues included $7,032,703 from Fair admissions, $3,352,538 from Fair concessions, $3,055,586 from Fair entertainment and $1,999,394 from interim events.

Operating expenses of the Fair Authority for fiscal year 2011 totaled $20,380,922, a 12.5% increase over the prior year. The Fair Authority reported operating income of $257,145 for the year ended October 31, 2011 compared to operating income of $719,616 for the prior year.

Foundation revenues were $2,961,268 for fiscal year 2011, a 36.1% decrease from the prior year. Revenues included operating grants and contributions of $917,464, capital grants and contributions of $1,500,000 and charges for service of $539,593.

The Foundation had administration and promotion expenses of $1,332,970 during fiscal year 2011, a 5.4% decrease from the prior year. The Foundation also provided capital contributions of $1,451,872 to the Fair Authority from contributions.

A copy of the audit report is available for review in the Iowa State Fair Authority’s Office, in the Office of Auditor of State and on the Auditor of State’s website at
http://auditor.iowa.gov/reports/1260-0110-0000.pdf.

They’ll spend about eight percent more on Mother’s Day than they did last year. The National Retail Federation expects Americans to spend $18.6 billion this holiday. That breaks down to about $152 a person. Last year, Americans spent, on average, $140 on the holiday.

Eastern Iowa businesses are already seeing people rush in to spend cash on mom. It’s becoming a busy time for many with the holiday just a couple of days away.

Workers at Nadia’s Salon and Spa are selling a lot of gift cards right now. People typically spent about $100 there, for the special women in their lives. Salon workers said they’ve continued to see sales go up for Mother’s Day each year. The Nadia’s crew said sometimes mothers like the gift of a relaxing salon treatment more than a typical gift, like chocolate.

“Usually chocolate doesn’t last very long but a message is something that is actually beneficial to you. You can actually have time to relax and you don’t have as many extra calories as you do with chocolate,” said Nadia’s Adrienne Bailey.

Restaurants are also preparing for a busy Sunday.

Cibo Fushion in Cedar Rapids is holding a Mother’s Day brunch, like it has for five years now. They call it a grand bunch with everything from seafood to prime rib. The restaurant owner said he nearly doubles his staff to honor Mothers on what has become one of their biggest brunch days of the year. With just a couple days to go, the food preparations are already beginning.

“Mother’s are very special. So, I think that’s the day that everybody, no matter what, it is that people come back and see mom and take care of mom and thank mom for being a mother,” said Cibo Fushion Owner Tony Kassouf.

The brunch takes place Sunday, May 13 from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The office will provide flight support services for European business aircraft operators.

“Europe’s airspace is growing more complex with increasing congestion and regulations,” said Steve Timm, vice president and general manager, Flight Information Solutions for Rockwell Collins. “The expansion of our presence in Europe and new capabilities to support European operations will allow us to better serve flight departments that face these complexities and provide the most efficient and cost-effective routes possible for their flights.”

Rockwell Collins will continue to serve the needs of European-based flight departments that fly outside of Europe with Ascend International Trip Support.

The Dutch-based insurer recorded net income of $675.3 million for the quarter that ended March 31, up 59 percent from $423.8 million in the same quarter of 2011. Sales rose 25 percent to $2.3 billion in the first quarter of 2012 from $1.8 billion in the same period last year.

Earnings  before taxes in AEGON’s Americas unit, which includes Transamerica, slipped 13 percent to $378.5 million in the first quarter from $435.5 million in the same quarter of 2011.

Following a year of considerable transformation, AEGON’s businesses made a strong start in the first quarter of 2012, according to Alex Wynaendts, AEGON chief executive officer.

“Our successful efforts to reduce costs across our organization have created greater focus while also contributing to higher earnings,” Wynaendts said. “Our emphasis on serving the growing demand for retirement planning solutions led to the substantial increase in pension deposits in the United States and our third-party asset management business succeeded in capturing a significant inflow of new business.

“In keeping with one  of our key strategic objectives, we delivered early on our target to generate a greater proportion of earnings from  fee-based versus spread-based business.”

Wynaendts said AEGON was pleased with the low level of impairments during the quarter, the lowest in four years. He said maintaining the company’s strong capital position will continues to be a priority.

“AEGON’s first quarter results confirm the resilience of our franchise and that the actions being pursued by management are the right ones,” Wynaendts said. “We look forward to resuming a dividend payment, which will be decided during our upcoming annual general meeting of shareholders.”

A central Illinois farmer plants corn in Auburn, Ill., on April 24. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday projected a sharply higher corn surplus and a drop in the average price per bushel. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday forecast a sharply higher corn surplus after a bumper 2012 crop is harvested, slashing the average price from a record $6.25 per bushel in 2011  to as low as $4.20 per bushel.

The USDA report, if realized, would mean less income for Iowa corn farmers, reduced production costs for the state’s livestock producers and potentially lower food costs for consumers.

The USDA is predicting corn ending stocks of 1.88 billion bushels, up 1 billion bushels from the previous projection. The agency said the season-average corn price is projected at $4.20 to $5 per bushel, down sharply from the 2011-2012 record projected at $5.95 to $6.25 per bushel.

Dan Roose, president of U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines, said Thursday’s report signals a market shift.

“The report shows that the corn market is moving out of its bull cycle and into a supply-driven bear market,” Roose said. “Our corn carryout (surplus) is projected at almost 2 billion bushels.

“The caution on that is we still have to grow that crop. A lot can happen between now and the end of the harvest.

“The weather is still 75 percent to 80 percent of the market. If you don’t have the crop, even if the demand is poor, it kind of compensates for it.”

Don Roose, US Commodities

Corn production nationally in 2012/2013 is projected at a record 14.8 billion bushels, up 2.4 billion from 2011/2012. A projected 5.1-million acre increase in harvested area and higher expected yield is expected to sharply boost the overall crop.

Roose said the USDA is projecting the national average corn yield at a record 166 bushels per acre, which is 2 bushels per acre above the 1990-2010 trend. He said that reflects the rapid pace of planting and corn emergence as well as the forecast of a cooler, wetter growing season.

Iowa has typically generated corn yields about 10 percent higher than the national average. That would put the state’s average corn yield at 180 bushels per acre or higher.

The USDA said corn exports for 2012/2013 are projected to be 200 million bushels higher than in 2011/2012 on abundant domestic supplies, lower prices, and higher expected China demand. Record foreign corn supplies, however, are expected to limit the increase in U.S. corn shipments.

Roose said the next USDA report on June 30 will provide Iowa-specific planting and yield figures, which should give a more accurate projection of total corn crop production and average price per bushel.

Roose said Thursday’s USDA report shows that soybean supplies will be very tight for the 2012-2013 crop. He said South American farmers are expected to raise their production from this year’s low harvest of 1.1 billion bushels, but a drought in Brazil could affect overall production in the region.

Iowa farners have indicated they plan to plant 8.8 million acres of soybeans, down from 11 million acres in 2002-2003. It would mark the third time in history that Iowa farmers will plant less than 9 million acres of soybeans.

The USDA is projecting soybean yields at 43.9 bushels per acre, up 2.4 bushels from 2011.

“With beginning stocks projected at 210 million bushels, 2012/2013 soybean supplies are projected at 3.43 billion bushels, up 4 percent from 2011/2012,” the government report noted.