16 February 2016
Aquesta Financial Holdings declares stock dividend Jan. 29. Aquesta Financial Holdings, the parent company of Aquesta Bank, has declared a 20-percent stock dividend, payable Feb. 24 to shareholders of record Feb. 10. A shareholder owning 1,000 shares prior to the transaction will own 1,200 immediately afterwards. Since Aquesta records of ownership are maintained electronically, most shareholders will need to take no action to receive this stock dividend. For those shareholders who have not yet exchanged their old Aquesta Bank shares for the current Aquesta Financial Holdings shares, the stock dividend will remain in escrow until such old Aquesta Bank shares are exchanged. Any shareholders electing to receive paper shares pursuant to the prior exchange will now receive additional paper shares reflecting this current stock dividend. For additional information regarding Aquesta or Aquesta Bank, contact CEO Jim Engel at 704-439-4343.
NEWS - e
Huntersville’s new mayor speaking at Newsmakers Breakfast Feb. 25 John Aneralla, the new the news; questions are mayor of Huntersville, will asked by the audience. be in the hot seat at the BusiAneralla will address isness Today/Cornelius Today sues like regionalism, Newsmakers Breakfast Feb. I-77 and economic devel25 at The Peninsula Club. opment. A former president of the Doors open at 7:15 a.m. Lake Norman Kiwanis, which for networking. The bufmeets Thursday for lunch fet-style breakfast gets at Brooklyn South, Aneralla under way at 7:30 a.m. ANERALLA ran against former Cornelius The Q&A begins at 8 a.m. Mayor Jeff Tarte in the Senate District and concludes at 9 a.m. The cost to 41 primary in 2012. Aneralla was elect- attend, $12, includes a full country ed mayor of Huntersville last year. breakfast. The Newsmakers Breakfasts are an Reservations are required. Call 704open-forum discussion with people in 895-1335 with Visa or MasterCard.
Business Today
Novant seeks to expand Huntersville Medical Center Jan. 5. Novant Health has filed an application with the Healthcare Planning and Certificate of Need Section of DHHS’ Division of Health Service Regulation to expand Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center. The project is expected to cost $44.6 million. The expansion would be accomplished by relocating 48 acute care beds and one operating room from Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte. If approved, Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center would be licensed for 139 acute care beds and six operating rooms. A public hearing was held Dec. 17 at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center. According to state law, health-care providers must get approval to add facilities and equipment. The requirement seeks to reduce costs to patients by avoiding duplication in areas where they’re not needed.
CRTPO vote galvanized LKN opposition to tolls Jan. 22. You might call it Pyrrhic victory, one that causes as much harm to the winner as it does to those who appear to have been defeated. The Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization did just as expected last night, voting 50-12, based on a weighted voting system, to approve the concept of managed lanes and the plan to widen I-77 with tolls between Charlotte and Lake Norman. The City of Charlotte, with just one representative, had 31 of the 50 weighted votes in favor of the plan. Cornelius and Huntersville each had two votes; Mecklenburg, Iredell and Union counties each had two votes; and Davidson had one vote—all of whose representatives voted against the $650 million plan that comes with a 50-year pact with a bedeviled Spanish company called Ferovial, aka Cintra, aka I-77 Mobility Partners. The new Huntersville mayor, John Aneralla, said the outcome of WidenI-77’s lawsuit, Charlotte City Council’s directed vote in favor of the toll plan and the CRTPO vote, while expected, were disappointing. “Despite all the design flaws, the fact that no northern towns currently sup-
port the plan, the costs of the tolls over 50 years, no truck access regardless of millions invested in the intermodal, the 50-year right of way give away, the corruption of the project manager—some elected officials still want to go through with the project,”Aneralla said. Interestingly, in addition to Charlotte’s thumbs up, some of the towns that voted for managed lanes aren’t going to be affected by them, including Stallings, Weddington and Mineral Springs. Of course, Mooresville’s delegate voted for the tolls as well. Cornelius’ representative on the CRTPO, Mayor Pro Tem Woody Washam, voted “no,” saying that “the fight is not dead, we still have options to pursue.” The apparent victory of toll and managed lane advocates is Pyrrhic because political cost may be enormous. Some members of the Lake Norman business community are hardly on speaking terms with the mayors of Cornelius and Davidson, both of whom have taken less than ardent stands on the toll issue. Neither one responded to a highlevel position survey put out by the I-77 Business Plan, an anti-toll group that
meets each Tuesday at the Lake Norman Chamber. The pro-toll stands of long-time elected officials in Huntersville led to their defeat in the November elections. Aneralla, the new Huntersville mayor, said the notion of sticking with a 50-year deal—bad as it is—makes no sense, comparing it to a bad marriage, or “a coach that doesn’t change his game plan during a game when things aren’t working, a general that goes into a war with a plan and sticks with it despite losing ground to the enemy, and/ or a business that stays with a moneylosing product because it invested a lot in R&D. Only in government is this line of thinking considered acceptable.” Washam said the anti-toll forces will work harder in Raleigh to oppose the toll plan. Meanwhile, the Cornelius fire chief, Neal Smith, said I-77 Mobility Partners’ construction zone will create safety issues by narrowing lane widths and the barrier cutting off options on the left side of I-77. “Every project of this magnitude will come with issues until it is completed. We will have more difficulty accessing incidents due to the barriers. The main thing I encourage is to
educate the public on what to do in case of minor or major incidents,” he said. North Carolina laws allow for minor incidents to be moved prior to the arrival of emergency vehicles. The incident can be moved off the road into a safe environment. “This would help the traffic to continue to move and allow the emergency vehicle to gain access,” Smith said. If there’s a major incident or wreck, cars should move to the right and allow emergency vehicles to pass on the left, Smith said. The emergency lane is made for the publics use; emergency vehicles need to remain on the road in the left lane to pass. Smith said the department is working closely with Sugar Creek Construction to create access points on I-77 south of each bridge going south and north of each bridge traveling north bound. This will give the emergency responders points of access to enter in case of an accident in the construction zone.