Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly - Nov. 29, 2013

Business Weekly GREATER

FORT WAYNE

NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 5, 2013

Daily updates at www.fwbusiness.com

LOCAL NEWS

Let there be lights Firms get homes ready for holidays

PAGE 3

$1.00

The most valuable lesson is hope The Crossing works with Master Spas to provide job training

DOUG LEDUC

New routes to New York and Washington, D.C., from Fort Wayne were the most popular among respondents to a recent survey.

BY BARRY ROCHFORD brochford@kpcmedia.com

Travis Anderson knew something had to change.

As a freshman at Snider High School, he just couldn’t keep up. The books, the class work — he struggled to keep Staley his head above water. Graduation didn’t seem like a realistic possibility, especially with a GPA hovering around 1.4.

“My family and I were looking into alternative schools. And just as I was about to say screw it and give up, my grandma called my mother and told us about the Crossing,” Anderson, 18, said. “My dad and I went out there with my cousin and we checked into it, and I enrolled the next day and I’ve been here ever since. I love it.”

When the opportunity came to take part in a job-training program at Master Spas Inc. in Fort Wayne, “I jumped right on it,” he said.

To the point that Anderson kept bugging his teacher about it. And when he finally did arrive on the Master Spas production floor with his fellow Crossing Educational Center students, outfitted in matching fluorescent-orange T-shirts, he took quickly to the task at hand.

“Once I saw the gist of what we started out doing, which was rolling the big master tubs, I jumped right in — we all jumped right in — and took off doing it,” he said. n

FWA travelers covet nonstop, eastbound flight Grant could lessen startup costs for route

BY DOUG LEDUC dleduc@kpcmedia.com

Local officials are using a survey designed for business air travelers to build a case they hope will persuade an airline to add a permanent nonstop eastbound flight to scheduled service from Fort Wayne.

The five direct flights business travelers said they wanted most in the survey included two that would be new — to New York and Washington, D.C. — and three flights

From right, Isaac Harris, D.J. Spears, Zack Kerley and Crossing Educational Center team leader Tim Kruse roll fiberglass on a swim spa at Master Spas Inc. in Fort Wayne.

BARRY ROCHFORD

n

See CROSSING on PAGE 22

n

INSIDE

Vol. 9 Issue 48

See FLIGHT on PAGE 21

Local news .................... 3-7

LOCAL NEWS

PERSONAL BUSINESS

BizView .............................. 8

Park place

Rx for success

Construction starts on new industrial site in NW Fort Wayne

Hyduk guides Lutheran’s pharmacy services

PAGE 4

PAGE 12

Adams County .......... 10-11 Personal Business ... 12-13 Top List ............................ 14 BizLeads..................... 18-20

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GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n

fwbusiness.com

November 29-December 5, 2013

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November 29-December 5, 2013

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

fwbusiness.com

PAGE 3

Companies help deck the house with lights

BY LINDA LIPP llipp@kpcmedia.com

Below average Fort Wayne ranked the lowest of four Indiana cities rated in a new report on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality by the Human Rights Campaign.

The average score for the four cities in Indiana was 52 out of 100 points, below the average of 57 points for all 291 cities surveyed across the nation. Bloomington got 70 points; Indianapolis, 68; Evansville, 39; and Fort Wayne, 30.

Cities were included in the ranking because they were state capitals, among the 150 most populous cities in the country, one of three largest cities in a state or the home to each state’s largest public university. Twenty-five cities earned a perfect 100-point score on LGBT inclusivity, offering such things as nondiscrimination laws, equal employee benefits and cutting-edge city services.

Don’t have the time or tolerance for heights to scale a ladder and hang holiday lights in the trees and on the house? Hire someone to do it for you.

Illumination Solutions is one of a handful of local companies that sell, install, remove and store outdoor lights, and the demand for its service has been growing as the economy has stabilized, said co-owner Amber Smith.

“We can tell the difference, I would say, over the last three years,” she said. “And honestly, when it’s Christmas, people get giddy.”

Amber and her husband, Ed, launched Illumination Solutions as a landscape lighting service in May 2005, and got into holiday lighting the following Christmas.

Its commercial customers include all the Cap ‘n Cork liquor stores, and it installs lights at homes of every size and shape.

Lights are offered for sale or for lease, in strings of traditional bulbs as well as LED lights. The LED lights are more expensive upfront to purchase but use about 85 percent less electricity. It only takes about three years of use to make the extra cost

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Illumination Solutions provided the lights and the labor to make the season bright.

back in power savings, Ed Smith said.

The commercial-grade strings of lights are priced by the linear foot and are designed and custom cut to fit each home or business.

Because the purchase is paid for in the first

year, the cost for the rest of the service — putting them up, taking them down, storing them and replacing bulbs — drops to about 60 percent of the initial price in subsequent n

See LIGHTS on PAGE 7

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PAGE 4

GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n

fwbusiness.com

November 29-December 5, 2013

New guidelines take LEED process into the future The newest version of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, LEED v4, was launched Nov. 20 at its annual green-build conference in Philadelphia.

LEED v4 builds on the fundamentals of previous versions while offering a new system that prepares all LEED projects in a portfolio to perform at a higher level.

“LEED v4, at its core, provides insight into the synergies within the building system, providing solutions for optimizing performance, and ultimately achieving better environmental, economic and social outcomes in our buildings,” said Scot Horst, LEED senior vice president. “LEED v4 is the LEED of the future, where we challenge the marketplace to go further, to make the next great leap toward better, cleaner, healthier buildings where people live and work.”

GREATER FORT WAYNE

Business Weekly (USPS 024-494) Periodicals postage paid at Fort Wayne, IN 46802

BND COMMERCIAL Roger Koehlinger represented both the landlord, Huynh Properties IV LLC, and the tenant, LaVonne’s Clothing and Fashions,

in the lease of 1,600 square feet of space at 3520 S. Calhoun St. Koehlinger also represented the landlords, Richard and Rosalyn Henry, as well as the tenant, R&S Property Inc., in the lease/purchase of the 15,000-square-foot industrial building at 1003 Hartzell Road, New Haven.

Koehlinger represented both the landlord, Gottit Inc., and the tenant, Clifford Daugherty, in the lease of a 2,000-squarefoot commercial space at 6656-B St. Joe Road.

Koehlinger represented the tenant, Yong Meyer, in the lease of 6,664 square feet of space at 122 E. Rudisill Blvd. Steve Wesner represented the landlord, Rudisill Center Realty Corp.

3306 Independence Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46808 (260) 426-2640 Fax: (260) 426-2503 www.fwbusiness.com

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 3306 Independence Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46808 Published weekly every Friday, the annual subscription rate is $49.

Just In Time for Christmas Only at Freeman Jewelers

Since

Wesner repre- n sented both the landlord, Dymer Co. II LLC, and the tenant, Preci-

Reporter’s REAL-ESTATE SITE IMPROVES NOTEBOOK PROPERTY SEARCHES

Coldwell Banker Roth Wehrly Graber Realtors has launched a new website,

sion Wire Technologies LLC, in

the renewal of a lease of 20,040 square feet of space at 6320 Highview Drive.

Wesner also represented the landlord, Fort Wayne Properties LLC, as well

as

the

REAL ESTATE & RETAIL

tenant,

American Heritage Trails, in the

Linda Lipp

renewal of a lease of 23,808 square feet of space at 5865 and 5733 State Road 930 East.

David Norton and David Nugent represented the landlord, Fort Wayne Habitat for Humanity Inc., in the lease of the 7,000-square-foot industrial building at 629 E. Washington Blvd. to the tenant, H.O.P.E. Fitness & Sports Training LLC.

MovingIndiana.com., that makes property searches faster and easier. The residential real-estate site was designed to show every property in the area at one time using its map search. It features more than 43,000 properties, primarily in northern Indiana.

MovingIndiana.com supplements listing information with neighborhood and city information, blog posts and demographic data. It is further enhanced for mobile users with a search app available in Apple and Android stores.

STREBIG CONSTRUCTION Strebig Construction has completed the Empyrean Events and Catering remod-

eling project on the 25th and 26th floors of the PNC Center in downtown Fort Wayne.

If you have items for the real-estate and retail column, please contact Linda Lipp by e-mail at llipp@kpcmedia.com, by phone at (260) 426-2640, ext. 307, or by mail at Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, 3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808.

Evapar first occupant in new Fort Wayne industrial park

BY LINDA LIPP llipp@kpcmedia.com

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Road and other infrastructure work has begun on a new business park that sits on a highly visible parcel of land between Hillegas Road and Interstate 69.

The Rogers family, of Rogers Markets Inc., is developing the site, which already has found its first occupant in Evapar, an Evansville-base provider of electric generators, industrial engines and other products that has been operating out of rented space in Fort Wayne.

Strebig Construction has begun work on Evapar’s 9,500-square-foot Nucor building, which will go up simultaneously with the installation of the roads and infrastructure on the site, John Rogers said.

The family bought the 20-acre property several years ago with the intention of developing it as a business park. “It was always our thought that it was a good location, but everything was put on hold because of the recession,” Rogers said.

LINDA LIPP

Work on roads in the new business park has begun.

The property is zoned for industrial use, and could eventually be home to four to eight businesses — probably some sort of office/ warehouse operations — depending on the size of the lots they require. Karl Behrens, a partner of BND Commercial, said there is beginning to be some demand there that is not being met by current supply. n

See PARK on PAGE 7

November 29-December 5, 2013

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

fwbusiness.com

PAGE 5

Physicians group fills part State: Don’t forget sales tax when shopping online of medical park’s space The Indiana n

Department of Revenue

Reporter’s

NOTEBOOK

is reminding Hoosiers to make sure its sales tax is collected with any online purchases they make on Cyber Monday or during the rest of this year’s holiday shopping season.

Many catalog companies and businesses Doug LeDuc involved in e-commerce do not collect Indiana sales tax on purchases made by residents of the state, and in those cases the law requires Indiana consumers to pay a use tax, Bob Dittmer, a department spokesman, said in a prepared statement.

“Use tax is essentially a 7-percent tax on any purchases where the regular Indiana sales tax was not collected. If you make a purchase and the online or catalog retailer does not collect Indiana’s 7-percent sales tax, you are required by law to pay that same 7 percent as a use tax,” Dittmer said.

“When preparing your 2013 individual tax return at the end of the year, simply total those purchases, take 7 percent, and that’s your use tax. This does, of course, require you to either keep records of your online or catalog purchases or to rely upon your retailer to maintain a list for you,” he said. “And many online retailers do that.”

More than $1.9 million paid in use taxes was reported on 28,853 individual tax returns prepared by Indiana taxpayers last year. The use tax was reported on almost 1 percent of the 3.1 million individual income tax returns filed in Indiana.

Indiana has required the use tax since 1969; for more information, go to www. in.gov/dor/4710.htm#use.

BANKING & FINANCE

LNC SUBSIDIARIES RECEIVE FAVORABLE A.M. BEST RATINGS Lincoln National Corp.’s key subsidiaries, Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Lincoln Life and Annuity Co. of New York have had their A.M. Best Co. A+ financial

strength rating and aa- issuer credit ratings affirmed.

The credit-rating agency also affirmed a financial strength rating of A and an issuer credit rating of a+ for Lincoln’s stand-alone subsidiary, First Penn-Pacific Life Insurance Co. The outlook for all the ratings was stable.

Lincoln National Corp. (LNC) is an insurance and financial services company with a Philadelphia headquarters and its annuity operations based in Fort Wayne.

The ratings of Lincoln National Life (LNL) “primarily reflect its leadership position across its various business segments, strong and diverse distribution capabilities, good investment performance and solid level of risk-adjusted capital,” the agency said in a statement on them.

“A.M. Best notes LNL’s overall record in recent years of sustaining and improving profitability, including its continued favorable performance in managing both its universal life with secondary guarantees (ULSG) and variable annuity living benefit liabilities.”

IAB VOLUNTEERS TEACH FINANCIAL LITERACY IAB Financial Bank employees provided 24 individual classroom presentations on financial literacy at nine schools in Allen, Huntington and Wells counties to commemorate the American Bankers Association’s 11th-annual Get Smart About Credit Month.

The special month was established by the ABA to improve financial literacy among young adults on topics including credit scores, identity protection and paying for college.

Bank employees volunteered their time to present programs the ABA developed on the subject to more than 750 middle-school and high-school students after taking ABA training for the programs.

“Many young adults aren’t taught the proper way to handle their finances and credit at home, which can cause them to face economic challenges when they are older,” Joelle Schrader, a training and development director at IAB, said in a prepared statement.

“Partnering with local schools and educators allows IAB the opportunity to reach out to students and help them start off with a good foundation of financial understanding.” n

See BANKING on PAGE 6

BY LINDA LIPP

llipp@kpcmedia.com

Changes in their plans by members of the Life Science Education and Research Consortium of Northeast Indiana have prompted Parkview Health to reclaim some space in one of two buildings allocated for the consortium for Parkview Physicians Group offices.

Huntington and Trine Universities are using space in the 1819 Carew St. building, the former home of Fort Wayne Cardiology, in the Carew Medical Park adjacent to Parkview Hospital Randallia. Although the 1818 Carew St. building, joined to the other one by means of an overhead walkway, had never been completely vacated, it had been designated for use by consortium partners Ivy Tech Community College Northeast and Fort Wayne Community Schools.

Ivy Tech has put its plans on hold for financial reasons, and that has also affected plans by FWCS. “We’ve always had some primary care physicians (at 1818 Carew St.). Now we’re

refilling and back-filling,’ said Jill Ostrem, chief operating officer of PPG. Dr. Robert Schleinkofer, a family medicine practitioner, recently moved into the first floor of the three-story building. In addition to primary care/internal medicine practices, it also houses some doctors from PPG’s urology practice. There are several vacant suites left, particularly on the top floor.

PPG hasn’t determined yet what else it might move into the building, but an obstetrics and gynecology practice is a possibility, Ostrem said.

A lot of physicians’ offices were relocated to the campus of Parkview Regional Medical Center as it was developed. But maintaining some physician offices at Carew also was important.

“We consider it an extension of the hospital campus,” Ostrem said.

The parking garage that serves both buildings is attached to 1818 Carew St. So students who park there and go to class in the 1819 Carew St. building will pass through n

See SPACE on PAGE 6

PAGE 6

GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n

fwbusiness.com

Multi-Property

AUCTION Production studio opens

Sat, December 14 @ 2:00 Auction Held at 1724 Lake Ave. - Fort Wayne, IN

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Commercial Properties off Lake Ave. will be offered separately, in combination or as a whole unit.

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A n c h o r Films, a new

n

Reporter’s

commercial NOTEBOOK ďŹ lm production company started by two area photographers, moved into a 2,000-squarefoot leased space on East Berry Street in November.

The company is a story-driven video production studio that creates content Joel Elliott for Web and broadcast, and specializes in time-lapse photography. Co-founders Matt Ayers and Brian Myers each have backgrounds in photography and business, Ayers having graduated from Huntington University with a business degree and Myers from Indiana University with a degree in telecommunications and a focus on video

MEDIA & MARKETING

design and production.

Ayers worked as a photographer’s assistant and Myers interned in Nashville working on prime-time video projects. “My clientele was growing, I started shooting video on my own, and as I gained skills, I started offering this on the side.

And ‌ then last year I got a job that was big enough that I needed help,� Ayers said.

Once the two began collaborating, they realized they enjoyed working together and decided to start Anchor Films. Examples of their work and their contact information can be found at their website, AnchorFilms.com.

ASHER GAINS CLIENTS Fort Wayne-based marketing ďŹ rm Asher Agency announced it had received

a media contract from the state of Indiana.

The contract includes the placement of all television, radio, print, outdoor and digital advertising for 21 state agencies.

Asher Agency was selected based on a best-value analysis by the state, in addition to Asher’s experience in statewide media buying for a number of private- and public-sector clients, the agency said in a release. “We are very pleased to be able to provide this service to the state and assist those agencies in getting their important messages disseminated to all media outlets in the state,� President Tom Borne said in the statement.

Asher also announced it had added 21 new Subway restaurant markets to its portfolio in Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. This brings the total number of markets Asher serves to 49, and increases its restaurant count to 4,787, making Asher the second-largest agency in the Subway system, the marketing ďŹ rm said in a release.

Asher added four employees to serve these new markets: Tonya Connor, senior vice president; John DelTatto, account supervisor; Jan Reed, account supervisor; and Meagan Vaughn, media buyer. Asher will open an ofďŹ ce in Oklahoma City, where the new employees will be located. “Obviously, this is a major leap forward for our agency,â€? Borne said in the statement. “It would not have happened without the talent, leadership and drive that all of our employees provide day in and day out.â€?

If you have items for the media and marketing column, please contact Joel Elliott by email at jelliott@kpcmedia.com, by phone at (260) 426-2640, ext. 308, or by mail at Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, 3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808.

n

November 29-December 5, 2013

SPACE: FWCS

may move classes Continued from PAGE 5

the ofďŹ ce area on their way. Ostrem sees that as an advantage, not a problem. “We think it’s exciting to have the students there,â€? she said.

Sue Ehinger, president of Parkview Hospital and afďŹ liates, agreed. “It’s believed that having close proximity to a health-care facility will offer students more exposure to hands-on opportunities,â€? Ehinger said.

In the meantime, Parkview and the consortium are continuing to work with FWCS to move its allied-health classes to the 1818 Carew St. building, and will review the addition of new partners that might align with the consortium’ mission, Ehinger said.

Huntington University is using the 1819 Carew St. space for a program that allows registered nurses to obtain bachelor’s degrees in nursing as well as a master’s in counseling. Trine offers courses leading to bachelor’s degrees in health-care management and emergency management and a master’s degree in biomedical regulatory affairs. Its doctorate degree in physical therapy program will begin in the fall.

n

BANKING: Agency

adds credit services Continued from PAGE 5

FINANCIALHOPE COUNSELING JOINS MONEY MANAGEMENT FinancialHope Counseling and Education has added to its ďŹ nan-

cial education and credit-counseling programs by joining Money Management International , the largest nonproďŹ t organization in the country offering those services. “This partnership represents our commitment to providing our local community and clients with the highest quality consumer credit counseling services and ďŹ nancial education,â€? Joe Schenkel, president and CEO of FinancialHope, said in a statement. For more information, call (800) 432-0420.

If you have items for the banking and ďŹ nance column, please contact Doug LeDuc by e-mail at dleduc@kpcmedia.com, by phone at (260) 426-2640, ext. 309, or by mail at Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, 3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808.

November 29-December 5, 2013

n

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

fwbusiness.com

PAGE 7

LIGHTS: More customers are choosing LED bulbs for their holiday decorations

Continued from PAGE 3

years, Amber Smith said.

Customers who may not plan to remain in their homes more than a couple years can choose the option of leasing lights instead.

And some who buy lights add more lighting to their displays in subsequent years.

Aside from the obvious convenience, safety is one of the key reasons people decide to hire someone to do the work for them, Amber Smith added. The clips used to affix the lights also are very secure; not one customer reported lights coming down in the Nov. 17 wind storms that swept through the area.

Generally speaking, a customer who calls Illumination Solutions or fills out a form on its website, Illumination-Solutions. com, can have lights installed in about a week and a half, Amber Smith said. “As it gets closer to the season, it gets harder.”

Tim Pancake, the owner of the Fort Wayne Brite Ideas lighting distributorship, said his firm typically starts getting calls about light installations well before Halloween. “This year, it was incredible.

We had more people call us in October with new orders than ever before,” he said.

The week before Thanksgiving, the company was booked solid. “Everyone

Let

LINDA LIPP

Illumination Solutions co-owner Ed Smith and Brent Grubb string lights on a large home northwest of Fort Wayne.

wants to go out and flip a switch the day after Thanksgiving and have all the lights go on,” he said.

A landscape architect, Pancake, of

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Cornerstone Landscaping, got into the holiday lighting business 10 years ago. “I knew I didn’t want to rely on snowplowing in the winter,” he said, “and this appealed to me in a couple of different ways.”

Not only was holiday lighting creative, it seemed to be a more predictable source of income than snowplowing, he reasoned.

“December 25th comes around every year, no matter what,” he said.

Brite Ideas does a handful of commercial projects — Afdent and DeBrand Fine Chocolates stores, for example — but the bulk of its business is residential.

Customers often have some ideas about what they want, and they can view examples of Brite Ideas’ offerings at SayItWithLights.com, “but most of the time they want to know what we think will look good,” Pancake said.

n

One of the things that makes Brite Ideas different is that it offers decorations that go beyond strings of lights. In addition to the traditional wreaths and garlands, customers can have snowflakes or lighted candy canes hung along the gutters and gables, lighted manger scenes on the lawn and other set pieces in the yard or on the roof.

The lighted decorations are “linkable,” each plugging into the other, to make things simpler. Although a few customers add to their displays each year, “probably 90 percent want to do the whole shooting match the first year,” Pancake said.

When they were first introduced, LED lights were only about 10 percent of the business. Now they are close to half, Pancake said. Traditional lights are usually good for about five to seven years, and LED lights might last a year or two longer.

Both Brite Ideas and Illumination Solutions do only exterior lights, but the Smiths are thinking of getting into the interior lighting business next year.

Bill Bodecker, co-owner of Rustic Hutch, thinks the market for professional indoor holiday decorating is growing, although his store hasn’t gotten heavily into that business yet.

“We have done some, but we’re not into it like we probably should be,” Bodecker said.

The store’s four designers do custom holiday floral arrangements for customers, but then it’s up to customers to put them up. Getting into more expansive home-decorating projects would require the store to purchase more supplies and hire more designers, Bodecker said.

Rustic Hutch usually orders its holiday decor products in January for the following season, and its suppliers work two years ahead, he also noted. Investing in what it would take to do more indoor decorating that far in advance presents a number of risks for businesses like his, Bodecker said.

“I think there is a real opportunity there.

You just have to get really gutsy.”

PARK: High visibility could attract prospects

Continued from PAGE 4

“I think we are rounding the corner,” Behrens said.

Behrens represented both the seller, Rogers Markets, and the buyer, EAP LLC (Evapar), in the purchase of its 2.3-acre lot.

Evapar’s new building will consist of a 4,000-square-foot office, showroom and

training center; and a 5,500-square-foot shop area for service and inventory storage.

Construction is expected by be completed by late spring of 2014.

Both Hillegas and I-69 are high-traffic, high-visibility roads, and Rogers expects interest in the park to increase as people see the development unfold. “I think that is going to get us some other prospects,” he said.

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GREATER FORT WAYNE

Business Weekly 3306 Independence Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46808 (260) 426-2640 Fax: (260) 426-2503 www.fwbusiness.com

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fwbusiness.com

BizView

thousholder@kpcmedia.com Publisher

Barry Rochford brochford@kpcmedia.com Editor

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Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly is a publication of KPC Media Group Inc.

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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 3306 Independence Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46808 Published weekly, the annual subscription rate is $49.

GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n

November 29-December 5, 2013

Does not compute

Terry Housholder

dleduc@kpcmedia.com

n

Entrepreneurs key to our future True or false: Innovation is the key to jobs and economic prosperity.

Jim Clifton says false.

“We may be dead wrong” that innovation creates jobs, he told listeners Nov. 12 at IPFW’s Omnibus Series lecture in Fort Wayne.

“Innovation has no value until a customer is standing next to it … We are wrong about innovation, he said.

“We have an oversupply of innovation and nothing to light it up … It’s about entrepreneurs.”

An entrepreneur is someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it. “We don’t want a tipping point where more Americans want security rather than risk,” Clifton warned.

Clifton’s book “The Coming Jobs War” was published in 2011 a year after the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership created its Vision 2020 strategic effort to improve the region’s economy.

That vision is focused on five pillars: entrepreneurship, 21st-century talent, business climate, infrastructure and quality of life.

Clifton, CEO of the polling and consulting business Gallup Inc., said research shows that state and national programs have very little to do with economic growth. It’s all about local effort.

“We know nothing works unless you have a very, very, very high spirit of free

n

EDITORIAL

enterprise,” Clifton said. He believes certain people — evenly distributed among all races and income levels — are born with the brain configuration that leads to entrepreneurial talent, and that talent — which is different than IQ — needs to be nurtured.

He said economic strategies should not focus on “fixing” weaknesses.

“Build strategy around strengths,” he emphasized. “And there will be no limits.”

He told Business Weekly that a “game changer” can be the formal early identification of entrepreneurs.

“We just did this in Omaha (Neb.),” he said. “We interviewed 3,000 highschool kids. We found 150 that are game changers, and so we’re putting those into significant, formal internships … The cities that can increase the amount of free-enterprise energy they have will win.”

Indiana’s world-class educational institutions help nurture some of the world’s best and brightest entrepreneurs. We need to find and encourage Hoosier entrepreneurial talent — home grown and global.

A version of this editorial originally was published by Business Weekly owner KPC Media Group Inc.

WHAT’S YOUR VIEW? Want to share your thoughts on something you’ve read? Business Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns. E-mail them to news@fwbusiness. com, fax them to (260) 426-2503 or mail them to Business Weekly, 3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808. Business Weekly reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length.

It was not surprising to see the confusion and attacks generated by the federal government’s effort to make the purchase of health insurance easier. We have seen it before. In business, universities and governments at all levels, new computer applications fail before they succeed.

Generally, there is nothing wrong with the computers. They work.

The problems most often arise with the people who design and write the complex programs needed to run the machines. This work often involves innocents who think they know what they need and experienced skeptics who know how difficult it is to integrate diverse systems and objectives.

Hoosiers, in particular, should understand n these problems. It was our governor, Mitch Daniels, who brought in IBM to design and implement a new computer system for our welfare programs in 2006. Something went wrong.

Perhaps our people failed to make clear Indiana’s needs to the IBM folks. Or maybe the problems were too complex for the team IBM assigned to the tasks. Whatever the cause, those Hoosiers on public assistance and the employees who worked with them were not well-served by the new system.

Of course, neither the Daniels administration nor IBM could be at fault. The administration was known for its sharp-minded, analytical approach to all matters. And IBM … What can be said about the most famous and experienced Morton J. computer company in the world?

Yet, somehow, something did go wrong. This Marcus marriage built upon the best intentions ended in divorce court in 2009, with the state suing IBM for $150 million. That was a modest demand considering the state had already paid $437 million to IBM for its failing effort.

Naturally, IBM countersued for $113 million for breach of contract.

No alienation of affections was charged, nor did anyone name a guilty third party.

The state kept $12 million in equipment for which IBM wanted payment. Apparently they were not wedding gifts. The judge also ordered the state to pay IBM another $40 million for the breakup.

The total cost of all this to the taxpayers of Indiana has yet to be determined. The matter is still in the courts and attorneys for both sides are still billing.

As far as I know, the federal health insurance debacle has not produced any similar lawsuits thus far. Yet the situation seems remarkably similar to the Indiana experience.

Health insurance, governed by politically appointed commissioners in the various states, is as sensitive an area as welfare. In addition, health insurance has many more interested parties capable of expressing their discontent with any attempt to modify the existing system.

The computer companies contracted by the federal government are not household names like IBM. They may become such by the time this current news cycle is over. But clearly, there must have been the same type of disconnect between the government and the contractors as we had in Indiana.

Perhaps Mitch could call Barack and tell him how to come out untarnished from this foul-up.

EYE ON THE PIE

MORTON J. MARCUS is an independent economist, writer and speaker formerly with Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. He can be reached at mortonjmarcus@yahoo.com.

November 29-December 5, 2013

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

fwbusiness.com

PAGE 9

Study: Elevate Ventures’ work has big payoff for region

BY BARRY ROCHFORD brochford@kpcmedia.com

A study commissioned

by Elevate Ventures Inc., a nonprofit that oversees the state of Indiana’s 21st Century Fund and assists startups and early Clark stage companies in their growth, found that since the organization was created in 2011 it has had a $43-million impact on northeast Indiana.

The study, which looked at direct, indirect and induced economic impacts and was conducted by Chmura Economics & Analytics in Cleveland, was released earlier in November — two weeks after an audit by the accounting firm KPMG found that the Indianapolis-based organization was substantially in compliance in regard to conflict-of-interest issues that arose after it approved investments in Indiana companies with ties to Elevate Ventures’ board of directors (see sidebar).

Elevate Ventures provides a variety of services to companies across northern Indiana. Modeled somewhat after JumpStart Inc. in Cleveland, it offers startup assistance to entrepreneurs, and mentoring and business-development services to existing companies.

It also makes capital investments in Indiana companies through the 21st Century Fund, the Indiana Angel Network Fund, the Indiana Community Development Fund and the Indiana Diversity Investment Fund. The funds are supported with money from the state and federal governments, and by fundraising conducted by Elevate Ventures.

Using an entrepreneur-in-residence, Elevate Ventures provided entrepreneurial assistance to 17 companies in the 10-county northeast Indiana region during the period of time the Chmura study examined.

According to the study, those companies had an estimated 163 full-time workers with estimated annual revenue of $15.1 million.

With the help of Elevate Ventures, they were able to attract $18.2 million in total investment.

The total economic impact of the entrepreneurial assistance services offered

by Elevate Ventures, which can include matching a startup with angel investors, was $11.9 million, the study found. That $11.9million impact could support 112 jobs, according to the study.

For Robert Clark, Elevate Ventures’ northeast Indiana entrepreneur-in-residence, the study affirms what the organization is trying to achieve in the region.

“For me, (my work is) just a lot of activity, and when you see stuff like this,

Audit largely backs Elevate, but offers recommendations A review of Elevate Ventures Inc.’s business practices and investment decisions by KPMG that was initiated in July by Gov. Mike Pence found that the nonprofit was “substantially compliant,” although it found two instances in which the organization didn’t meet documentation requirements concerning potential conflicts of interest.

Pence called for the audit after The Indianapolis Star reported earlier this year that Elevate Ventures had approved a $500,000 investment in a company run by Elevate’s founder and board chairman, Howard Bates, and a $300,000 investment in a company run by Bates’ son.

The two findings in KPMG’s report, which was released Oct. 24, were: • There was no documentation to support that board members present at a meeting during which four potential conflict disclosures were made recognized Elevate Ventures’ CEO, Stephen Hourigan, as acting as the board’s compliance officer. Without the documentation, “it appears as if the Board functioned with no Compliance Officer during these disclosures,” KPMG wrote in the executive summary of its report.

• There was no documentation originally in the board’s minutes of a board member’s recusal from voting on a related party transaction.

it’s like, ‘OK, we’re really making a difference,’” said Clark, who works out of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership offices in downtown Fort Wayne. He also has an office at Trine University in Angola.

Through a program called “economic gardening,” Elevate Ventures offers services to existing, second-stage companies to help them grow. During the period looked at by the Chmura study, 34 companies in northeast Indiana took part in the economic-gardening program, which had a total economic impact of $31.2 million that could support 308 jobs. In 2012, those companies had 906 full-time workers and estimated annual revenue of $125.3 million.

The study also found that economic gardening provided a 17-percent increase in incremental revenue to northeast Indiana companies, for a total of $20.6 million. The incremental revenue is on top of additional revenue the companies saw as the state and national economies improved from 2011 onward.

“We’re successful, no doubt about it,” said Oliver Barie, Elevate Ventures’ regional outreach manager for northern Indiana.

“What we’re doing is working, clearly.”

According to the study, Elevate Ventures’ cost to provide services in northeast Indiana was $914,107. With its $43-million total economic impact, the organization’s benefit-to-cost ratio is 47.1.

The Chmura study found that in northeast Indiana, Elevate Ventures provided services to a range of companies representing different industries, including construction, education, health and trade.

KPMG also made a series of 25 recommendations for Elevate Ventures, including creating an executive committee to distribute the board chairman’s executive powers and stepped-up documentation and procedures for when potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed. It also recommended increased oversight by Indiana Economic Development Corp., which has a contract with Elevate Ventures to manage the 21st Century Fund and other funds, and provide business support services.

“We appreciate the constructive feedback in KPMG’s independent report,” Brad Rateike, a spokesman for Elevate Ventures, wrote in an email to Business Weekly. “The report affirms that Elevate Ventures is ‘substantially compliant’ and is operating in a manner consistent with its policies and contract with the IEDC. Over two and a half years, Elevate Ventures’ investment in Indiana entrepreneurs has brought positive results for our state’s economy and for Hoosier taxpayers. We value the relationship we have with the IEDC and are working with them to deliver a best-in-class service. The KPMG report has helped us outline a path to continue improving our organization and we are working with the IEDC to implement the KPMG recommendations.”

— BARRY ROCHFORD

Nearly half of them were in manufacturing, which is one of the region’s strengths.

“These aren’t just your on-the-line, $8-an-hour jobs,” Barie said. “Seventy-eight percent of these companies that we’re working with pay above-average annual wages for the industries they’re in.

So these are good-paying Hoosier jobs that are staying in Indiana and are going to be built in Indiana — by the assistance of Elevate Ventures.”

The Chmura study doesn’t attempt to quantify the numerous contacts and relationships that Clark has established with other area entrepreneurs, existing companies, potential investors and other funding sources — although that represents a significant part of his job.

“We point them in the right direction,” Clark said of area entrepreneurs. “So if they need to go to the (Northeast Indiana Small

Business Development Center) and they don’t know anything about business, I’m like, ‘Here, go talk to Jane (Rich) or Wes (Shie). They’ll help you put together some financials and then you can come back to us.’ … And then I can help take it to another level.”

He added: “It’s a lot of the resourcing — bringing all these things together for companies.”

Clark plans on using the study to help him meet a $1-million fundraising goal for northeast Indiana. About $750,000 so far has been raised in the region, and the funds will be used to provide additional investment assistance to area companies.

For example, Elevate Ventures has a total of $100,000 for what it calls high-potential startup grants. With a successful fundraising campaign, that total could increase to $200,000 to $300,000, Clark said.

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Adams County n PAGE 10

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InFocus

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n

November 29-December 5, 2013

THE 3-D ADVANTAGE New technology helps Decatur pattern shop save time, money

BY JOEL ELLIOTT jelliott@kpcmedia.com

A sand printing technology that dramatically reduces the time necessary to create sand molds and is relatively new to the United States has arrived at Hoosier Pattern Inc. in Decatur.

Until now, most of the independent pattern-shop owners using Germany-based ExOne’s S-MAX three-dimensional sand printer were Europeans. Hoosier Pattern is the first independent pattern shop in the United States to acquire the machine. Its value lies in the fact that it can manufacture sand molds and cores without needing to make a pattern or series of patterns.

“If you can imagine your inkjet printer it would operate very similar to that, only it’s printing layers of sand,” Hoosier Pattern owner Keith Gerber said. “Whatever it sees on your model, it prints, layer by layer, in the sand, so we are able to print cores or molds in … let’s say a week versus four weeks or more depending on the complexity of the part.”

Gerber purchased the machine for $1.5 million, spending an additional $200,000 to install it along with an overhead crane for its operation.

The machine operates by following a digital design, spreading foundry sand in extremely thin layers and then jetting binder, a resin, across the layers of sand to replicate the digital design. Once the printing process is completed, an industrial vacuum system sucks out the loose sand.

The S-MAX can process several different types of materials, including sand, glass and ceramics, and primarily will make parts for automotive, aerospace and industrial production. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed jet-binding technology in the 1990s, and over the years ExOne and others have worked to refine it.

The company that builds S-MAX, ExOne, has installed 72 other such machines, mostly in Europe, according to Harry Danford, ExOne’s director of sales for the Americas. The company generated

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Hoosier Pattern Inc. in Decatur will use its new S-MAX three-dimensional sand printer to make sand mold and cores.

about 73 percent of its revenue outside of the United States in 2012, Thomson Reuters reported, but Danford said he expects the sale to Hoosier Pattern to be the first of many in North and South America.

The University of Northern Iowa purchased one shortly after Hoosier Pattern did, and Danford is lining up more sales.

“I’m in Mexico right now, giving presentations, and they saw that they could compress their process from eight months to one month” using the S-MAX 3-D printer, Danford said in November. “So (expanding into the Americas market), that’s our goal.”

Danford said that of the 73 machines ExOne has sold globally, only 30 are as advanced as the S-MAX at Hoosier Pattern.

ExOne’s mission since 2008 has focused on bringing “3D printing to the world of the shop floor, industrial production,” CEO

David Burns told 3D Printing Industry magazine. ExOne’s website said benefits of using this type of technology include: • For high-volume casting requirements, molds for matchplates may be generated.

Since the tooling data is in digital form, the aluminum matchplates may be discarded after the production run, thus eliminating the need for pattern storage.

• Die casting material properties can be emulated by the strategic placement of chills.

• Production of the sand molds and cores is driven directly from the computer-aided design data, removing the need for producing a pattern as an intermediate step.

• S-MAX can produce elaborate, thinwalled, delicate or lacy cores that previous technologies could not.

ExOne is not the only company selling 3-D printers of such large scale, and

possibly not the only one selling them in the United States, according to Rachel Park, editor-in-chief of 3D Printing Industry, a trade magazine.

“They’re not the only ones scaling up,” she wrote in an email. “There were a lot of launches at Euromold last year,” referring to the annual world fair for mold-making and tooling, design and application development.

New areas of use for 3-D printing continually emerge, and demand is growing, Burns told 3D Printing Industry magazine: Three-dimensional printing technology “is transformational, and it is really difficult to forecast the trajectory of transformational technologies,” he said. “I do believe that the addressable markets for 3D printing are in the many billions of dollars, with more markets opening every day, as new materials (and) machines become available. So, I see explosive growth for 3D printing generally around the world.”

Three area pattern makers – Gerber, Dan Cade and John Hale – started Hoosier Pattern in 1997, and Gerber now is the sole owner. It operates from a 40,000-squarefoot facility in Decatur. Its more than 30 workers make patterns using 14 vertical computer-numerical-control machine centers, two horizontal CNC machine centers, two CNC lathes, two electric discharge machines and 3-D laser facilities. The shop produces patterns for a wide variety of automotive and consumer products, including marine products, submersible pumps, fire-hose apparatus and more, Gerber said.

“We can do from prototype equipment up to production equipment, serving the founding industry in the Midwest,” Gerber said.

The S-MAX 3-D printer greatly expands the shop’s capabilities, and can help “anybody who has a niche in the market and wants the cutting edge and to get out in front of someone else,” Gerber said.

“It’s really good for the prototype market to make castings. And the cool thing is, now your tooling is on a flash drive.”

November 29-December 5, 2013

n

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

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ADAMS COUNTY PROFILE

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POPULATION Population (2012) ....................................34,365 Growth since 1990...................................10.5% Unemployment rate (2012) .......................7.8% Unemployment rate (April 2013) ................ 6%

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POPULATION ESTIMATES

BY AGE IN 2012 Preschool (0 to 4) ...................................... 3,085 School age (5 to 17) ................................. 7,435 College age (18 to 24) ............................. 2,993 Young adult (25 to 44) ............................. 7,766 Older adult(45 to 64) ................................ 8,166 Older (65 plus) ............................................ 4,920 Median age ......................................................34.4

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POPULATION ESTIMATES BY RACE, HISPANIC ORIGIN IN 2012

DAILY DRINK SPECIALS!

Number % in county American Indian or Alaskan Native alone........... 111 ................0.3% Asian alone ...............................88 ................0.3% Black alone ............................ 133 ................0.4% Native Hawaiian and other PaciďŹ c Islander alone................7 ....................0% White alone .....................33,795 ............. 98.3% Non-Hispanic or Latino............................32,903 ............. 95.7% Hispanic or Latino.............1,462 ................4.3%

HOUSEHOLDS Households (2011)..................................12,220 Number % in county Family households ...........8,910 ............ 72.9% Married with children ......3,364 ............ 27.5% Married without children ...............................4,064 ............ 33.3% Single parents.......................932 ...............7.6% Other .......................................550 ...............4.5% Non-family households ...3,310 ............ 27.1% Living alone ........................2,985 ............ 24.4% Average household size............................. 2.77 Average family household size................. 3.38 Total housing units (2011).................... 12,987 Number % in county Owner occupied .............9,724...............74.9% Renter occupied .............2,496...............19.2% Vacant ....................................767..................5.9%

INCOME Per-capita personal income (2011) ........................................$29,566 Median household income (2011) ........................................$47,265 Median household income in 2000 (adjusted for ination) ..........$55,111 Change 2000 to 2011 .......................... -14.2% Poverty rate (2011) ...................................... 15%

EDUCATION (ADULTS 25+ IN 2011) Have H.S. diploma or more ....................... 84% Bachelor’s degree or more .....................13.3%

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EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT: ACS 2011 Total population 25 and older...............20,759 Less than ninth grade ................................. 8.3% Ninth to 12th, no diploma ......................... 7.8% High-school graduate or equivalent ................................................42.7% Some college, no degree ........................18.7% Associate degree......................................... 9.2% Bachelor’s degree ....................................... 8.3% Graduate or professional degree ........................................ 5%

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LABOR FORCE Labor force (persons 2012) ................. 14,480 BLS covered employment..................... 12,370 Average wage per job ..........................$31,833 Employed (2012)..................................... 13,345 Five-year change ...................................... -13.2% Unemployed .................................................1,135 Five-year change ........................................63.8% Number of jobs % in county Manufacturing ................. 4,270 ...............34.5% Average wage ............$41,444 Retail trade....................... 1,339 ...............10.8% Average wage ............$21,164 Health care and social assistance ............................927 ..................7.5% Average wage ............$25,652 Accommodation and food services .................................912 ..................7.4% Average wage .............. $9,825 Administrative, waste services .................................548 ................. 4.4% Average wage ............$17,088 Public administration.........411 ................. 3.3% Average wage ............$25,667 Wholesale trade .................407 ................. 3.3% Average wage ............$40,022 Construction........................356 ................. 2.9% Average wage ............$39,427 Source: Stats Indiana

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PersonalBusiness

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n

fwbusiness.com

November 29-December 5, 2013

“We are more involved in direct patient care than ever before” CAREER PATH

Name: Amy Hyduk Organization: Lutheran Health Network Title: network director of pharmacy clinical services and pharmacy residency program Length of time with the organization: 10 years Education: doctor of pharmacy degree from Butler University and MBA with health-care management endorsement from Indiana Wesleyan University

n

What prompted your interest in pursuing a career in pharmacy?

Always knowing that I wanted to pursue a career in the health-care industry but unsure whether to attend medical school or a physicians’ assistant program, I began volunteering in a hospital during high school. I was placed in the inpatient pharmacy department of a community hospital in a suburb of Detroit and learned of the opportunities that a pharmacy career offered.

The pharmacists took me under their wings and showed me what services a health system pharmacist provides. That inspired me to pursue applying to pharmacy school.

How did you come to choose Lutheran?

The last year of pharmacy school is dedicated to completing clinical rotations in a variety of pharmacy settings (hospital, community, ambulatory care and industry). I completed three rotations in Fort Wayne, one of which was at Lutheran Hospital. I was so impressed by the variety of advanced pharmacy services that the pharmacy department had, how much the medical staff relied upon pharmacists here, the caliber of people working here and the exciting changes that the hospital was embarking upon.

At that time, Lutheran was getting ready to open up the Heart Pavilion and begin a pharmacy-managed anti-coagulation clinic, and it was working to open a dedicated orthopedic facility, expand its pediatric services, develop a verified Level

II trauma program and expand the Lutheran Transplant Center to include kidneys in addition to hearts. I recognized the exciting changes that were ahead and really wanted to be involved with them.

What are the differences between working in a hospital pharmacy operation and working in retail?

A hospital pharmacist is oftentimes more involved with a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses and other clinicians in providing care for patients. My pharmacists are on the patient care units providing dosing and monitoring services for a variety of medications that physicians have turned over to the pharmacy department to manage. That includes educating patients on their medications. The hospital pharmacist makes numerous interventions and recommendations to the physicians daily on the overall medication regimen for patients, which increases safety. This has a positive effect on outcomes, too.

My pharmacists are involved in all areas of the hospital — both inpatient and outpatient services.

We have pharmacists that round with physicians who represent disciplines including heart and kidney transplantation, critical care, family medicine and oncology. My pharmacists help lead antibiotic stewardship rounds where we review all patients with positive blood cultures to verify n

See HYDUK on PAGE 13

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

EARLY CHILDHOOD ALLIANCE Kevin Carey, an investment adviser with

PNC Financial Services Group Inc., and Ben Michael, information-technology manager at Fort Wayne Metals, were approved for three-year terms on the Early Childhood Alliance board of directors.

AWS/BENCHMARK Rosann McWherter joined AWS/ Benchmark in Fort Wayne as director of

human services. She has extensive experience in the health-care field and has a master’s degree in management.

Ragna Urberg was hired as corporate counsel. She most recently worked at Beckman Lawson LLP, and has been an adjunct professor at Trine University, Indiana Tech and ITT Technical Institute.

PERRY LAW OFFICE Attorney Michael Licari joined Perry Law Office PC in Fort Wayne. His practice

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Amy Hyduk joined Lutheran Health Network 10 years ago because of the advanced pharmacy services it offered, the caliber of its employees and the exciting changes the network was about to implement.

E-mail your People on the Move items to news@fwbusiness.com.

will focus on Social Security disability, collections and family law.

IVY TECH NORTHEAST Lucy LaHurreau was promoted to assistant professor in health information technology at Ivy Tech Community College Northeast in Fort Wayne.

Richard Washburn was hired as a fulltime faculty member in design technology.

Robert McMichael was hired as director of career services.

GRACE COLLEGE Paul Blair, who recently was hired as vice president of financial affairs at Grace College & Seminary in Winona Lake, received the School of Business Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, Eastern Illinois University.

SCAN SCAN Inc. in Fort Wayne announced its

board of directors for fiscal 2014.

Elected officers are: Carl Drummond, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, president; Larry Weigand, Weigand Construction, vice president of operations; Judy Pursley, community volunteer, vice president of resource development; and Dennis Pressler, Stony McWherter Urberg Licari Point LLC, secretary/treasurer.

Newly elected members are: Returning board members are: Patricia Javier Cattapan, Congregation Achduth Adsit, community volunteer; Kim BarnettVesholom; Linda Johnston, Tower Finan- Johnson, Ivy Tech Community College cial Corp.; Deborah Leonard, U.S. Depart- Northeast; Dave Davis, Lake City Bank; ment of Justice; Becky McCutcheon, Kathy Eikenberry, community volunteer; Lincoln National Corp.; Get Nichols, Michael Hausfeld, OmniSource; Diane Fort Wayne Community Schools; and Humphrey, community volunteer; Jerry Theingi Tin, East Allen Community Witte, PNC Bank; and Al Zacher, Zacher Schools.

Co./CORFAC International.

Re-elected board members are: Thomas Black Jr., Safer Worker Systems; Cathy Diamente, community volunteer; John McIntire, Hamil, Lehman & England PC; and Naomi Muselman, community volunteer.

November 29-December 5, 2013

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n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

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PAGE 13

HYDUK: Lutheran pharmacists are more directly involved in patient care than ever before

Continued from PAGE 12

that they are on appropriate antibiotic regimens. We implement processes to ensure prevention of hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic resistance. We also have pharmacists who see patients in our emergency departments, in our cystic-fibrosis clinics and in the Orthopedic Hospital’s preoperative Joint Camp program.

In the retail setting, the pharmacists are responsible for filling the prescriptions, and they do many of the same verifications as pharmacists in the inpatient setting. That includes processing medication orders and providing patient education. A community pharmacist does have a different level of involvement with the medical team compared to someone working in a hospital. It is more challenging for a retail pharmacist to make interventions and recommendations on medication therapies for a patient. There have been some recent changes with the scope of community pharmacy practice which enhances comprehensive care. Retail pharmacists now have the opportunity to provide immunizations to patients and various medication therapy management programs.

What are the greatest challenges of

your work?

Keeping up with the continual regulatory changes and staying current on the medical literature are challenges that most pharmacists face. My biggest challenge though is that I am never satisfied with where we are and am always looking to try to expand our services and continue advancing the role of pharmacists here. I need to continually remain cognizant of not stretching our resources too thin in order to accomplish that.

What do you enjoy the most about the work?

I love the fact that every day is different in my job. In my position, I am responsible for developing and managing the clinical pharmacy services for the network; protocol and policy development; managing the network medication formulary; overseeing medication safety programs; developing education for pharmacists, physicians and other clinicians; and overseeing the pharmacy residency program that I was able to implement here. I am the direct supervisor for the 39 pharmacists at Lutheran Hospital. I continually am faced with new challenges and constant changes in both the pharmacy world and with health care in general, which always keeps me on my

toes. I love working with a fantastic team of pharmacists in my department as well as with an excellent medical staff.

How is the pharmacy profession changing?

We are more involved in direct patient care than ever before. We are expected to provide a higher level of services by the physicians and manage aspects of patient care related to medications that only physicians used to manage previously. As we demonstrate our value in these areas and demonstrate the ability to further improve patient safety, improve patient outcomes and reduce health-care costs, this just furthers the demand for more advanced pharmacy services.

What does the Indiana Pharmacists Alliance do? What is your role as president?

The Indiana Pharmacists’ Alliance is the organization representing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians across Indiana.

The IPA works closely with the Indiana Board of Pharmacy, our legislators and lobbyists on legislation impacting medication management, scope of pharmacy practice and pharmacy regulations. As president, I work with the IPA board of

directors to help develop our legislative agenda and to lead the organization with professional outreach initiatives: providing timely educational programs for pharmacists, enhancing member engagement in the organization and working to ensure the continued viability of the organization.

What advice would you give a young person interested in a career in pharmacy?

Pharmacy school is very competitive and there is much more competition for jobs now in this profession compared to just a few years ago. Work hard in pharmacy school, intern or volunteer in at least one pharmacy setting, become involved in your state and national organizations, plan on completing one to two years of residency training upon graduation and make sure that you are going into this profession for the right reasons. A successful pharmacist has patient safety as the first priority, needs to be willing to accept the constant change in the profession and in health care in general and have excellent communication skills.

By Linda Lipp. To suggest an idea for “Career Path,” email news@fwbusiness.com or call (260) 426-2640.

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n PAGE 14

Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly Top List GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n

fwbusiness.com

n

November 29-December 5, 2013

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November 29-December 5, 2013

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

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Portee joins Don’t let your ideas pass you by. Put them in writing n Keyflow Creative KPC Media Group Inc. announced another addition to its Keyflow Creative team. Amy Portee joined the digital marketing company as a business development specialist with nearly 17 years Portee of sales and advertising experience in northeast Indiana.

Keyflow Creative, a division of KPC Media Group, provides website development, graphic design, social-media management, search-engine optimization, high-end photography, film and video production, marketing and e-commerce solutions to small and medium-sized businesses.

“We are excited to add Amy to our seasoned team of creative, tech-savvy experts,” said Terry Ward, COO of KPC Media Group. “We continue to grow not only because of our in-house talent, but also because of our consultant approach to meeting the needs of our clients.

“When you can sit elbow to elbow with a small business executive who trusts you to help them identify and prioritize a strategic and affordable plan to tell their story and attract attention, you are helping them envision the possibilities.

That is so exhilarating and one of our many strengths.”

Follow Business Weekly on Twitter: @fwbusiness

The minute I get a thought, I capture it.

For the past year or so, I’ve been texting myself through voice dictation. It works. It’s the same way I am writing this column.

Voice to text. It works.

I’m about to share with you some of those random thoughts. They are in no particular order, and as I paste them into this Word document I’m reading them aloud and altering them. (That’s how I edit.) I’m reading them and expanding them on the spot so they become even more valuable and applicable to a salesperson. You.

JEFFREY GITOMER

• How many of you cannot afford to buy what it is you are selling? And how does that affect your belief system? And how does that affect your passion to close the sale?

• Whoever said, “Thoughts are things,” only had it partially correct. The better statement is, “Thoughts become things when plans are made, belief is strong and action is taken.”

• In a game of “sales chess” you have to be thinking at least two moves ahead or you’ll likely lose your queen.

get to last year’s numbers. Not good.

WHAT’S THE REAL CHALLENGE WITH CRM?

Your customers don’t want to buy a ball bearing. They want to keep their plants producing. Customers want outcome, not product. Your customers do not want a can of paint, brushes and rollers. Your customers want a beautiful room or a updated look to the exterior of their homes. Sell outcome, not product.

Customer relationship management is the most purchased, least-used and least-adopted software in the history of computers.

Why? The salesperson looks at it as management’s tool for accountability. CRM adoption rates would triple if salespeople viewed it as something that could help them make a sale.

If you have CRM software for your sales and service people, and you have a 72-percent adoption rate, that means 28-percent of your sales team and/or your service team did not adopt it, and most likely hate it. I feel reasonably certain that of the 72 percent who did adopt it, a high percentage of them look at it as something they “had to do” rather than something that would help them.

BE SPECIFIC.

ON IMAGINATION AND “WOW!”

Is your presentation full of generalizations or customization? If you only generalize for the enterprise and generalize about the business, you will lose. But if you customize for your customers, they can visualize what’s in it for them, and they will buy.

Salespeople are missing huge opportunities for engagement and opportunities to gain response from customers by not being imaginative or creative in their communications.

• Show me a sales script and I’ll show you a boring message.

• Show me a slide deck prepared by marketing and I’ll show you a boring message.

• Show me an email prepared by a salesperson and I’ll show you a boring message.

Where’s the value? Show me the value.

Where’s the “wow!”? Show me the “wow!”

If you show me “wow!” and value, I will respond, I will engage, I will connect and I will buy.

Those are my thoughts and ideas at the moment. All captured the second they occurred to me. Hope they get you thinking, taking action and capturing yours.

WHAT DO THEY REALLY WANT?

ON QUESTIONS:

When someone asks you a question, ask yourself, “Why are they asking this, and what does this mean in terms of this person moving toward a purchase?”

There’s a motive behind every question prospects ask. And that motive is the sales driver. In reality they’re thinking to themselves, “If this function works, I can increase my sales.” That’s the motive, not the function.

For example, they may ask you, “Can this function take place?” If you answer “yes,” then you’ve gone right past the sale. If you answer “yes” and then ask, “What will this function lead to?” or, “What makes this function important to you?” you will then uncover the real buying motive. In sales this is known as the “hot button.” The reality is, it’s your money.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

• In sales, the largest chasm is the difference between knowing and doing. You already know everything; the problem is you’re not doing it.

SHOW ME THE MONEY, NOT THE PERCENTAGE:

Don’t give me a percentage. Give me a dollar amount. Example: You say, “We lost 7 percent of our customers this year.” Really?

How much is that in dollars? That will make you mad. Large companies refer to this as “churn.” I define churn as “management’s inability to keep customers loyal.” And these same companies who call it “churn” only present it as a percentage. Our churn rate is 3.2 percent.

Why doesn’t management have the intestinal fortitude to present that as a dollar amount? Answer: They don’t want anyone to know, and it places the burden on salespeople to replace the 3.2 percent in order to

JEFFREY GITOMER, a syndicated columnist, can be reached at salesman@gitomer.com.

PAGE 16

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November 29-December 5, 2013

Conflict can be a good thing — but only if you establish trust first The book has been around for a n while and is a resource for legions of leaders, but John Sampson still finds great value in Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” (Jossey-Bass).

Sampson, president and CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, is especially interested in minimizing two of the dysfunctions: absence of trust and fear of conflict. They are dysfunctions that he believes are closely aligned.

The other dysfunctions explored

by Lencioni: lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.

Rick Farrant All of the dysfunctions are endemic to organizations to greater or lesser degrees. But as Sampson works to bring a region together around achieving economic prosperity, he said developing enough trust to constructively confront conflict is crucial.

“Our inability to confront conflict restrains an organization from producing results — to get to the places they want to be. People are — particularly Hoosiers, as I’ve noticed — so respectful, so loving of one another, so careful that we don’t offend one another that we often don’t get to the real intimate details of conflict.”

Lencioni’s book emphasizes the importance of being a “miner for conflict” and notes that the first step is acknowledging that conflict can be productive.

“On the surface, an outsider might look at the conflict on a team and say, ‘Man, this is broken,’” Sampson said. “But in my mind, if an organization has enough trust that we can

BOOK SENSE

Q

differ and disagree passionately about things, that’s a good thing. We can still walk away and like each other.”

Sampson’s one big takeaway from the book: “The root of the (five) dysfunctions is an absence of trust between leaders and individual team members that unfortunately is all too common in the workplace.”

Less easy than identifying an absence of trust, he said, is working to build trust in an organization.

“I think it takes time,” he said. “Not a bunch of time, but it does take time.”

‘DAVID AND GOLIATH’ Ivy Tech Community College Northeast Chancellor Jerrilee Mosier read Malcolm Gladwell’s “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” (Little, Brown and Co.) on the advice of a professional colleague in the state of Washington.

One chapter stood out for Mosier. It was about a young man and woman who considered college choices based on prestige and ranking instead of whether the colleges could support them in their dreams.

“My friend and colleague works, as I do, as a community college leader,” Mosier said. “We know the high value and quality of education that students who attend our institutions receive, but we feel as though we are engaged in an uphill battle to reach parents and students and have them understand that the conventional choices for a college education might not be the best place for them.

“That a community college may be a better choice to help support them in their dreams.”

Beyond that one chapter, Mosier said she was also moved by the book’s stories about people who have “challenged conventional wisdom, societal norms or organizational structures to develop themselves and, in turn, change themselves and the environment around them.”

Her big takeaway from “David and Goliath” was continued admiration for the resilience of the human spirit: “Each of us has come up against giants that seemingly have thwarted our path to a desired outcome. It is always good to read of those who have won and to learn how they achieved their victory.”

‘THE COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP FIELDBOOK’ As the region works to form a collaborative approach to challenges, more than one leader has consulted David Chrislip’s “The Collaborative Leadership Fieldbook” (Jossey-Bass).

The book is rich with potential takeaways, but perhaps its greatest value is a seven-step approach to the collaborative process: • Agreement that shared concerns exist that should be addressed.

• Agreement to work together to address the concerns.

• Agreement on how to work together.

• Agreement on a shared understanding of the relevant information.

• Agreement on the definition of the problem or the vision.

• Agreement on the solutions to the problem or the strategies to achieve the vision.

• Agreement on the action steps for implementing the solutions or strategies.

If you’ve read a book that’s had a significant impact on your business practices or philosophies, you can share your reading experiences by contacting Rick Farrant, director of communications with Northeast Indiana Works, at (260) 469-4306 or rfarrant@neinworks.org.

BRIEFLY

INDIANA

STATE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FALLS TO 7.5% Indiana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October was 7.5 percent — three-tenths of a percentage point lower than the previous month.

From August through October, the state’s unemployment declined by 1 percent, which was the biggest threemonth drop in more than 20 years, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development said in an announcement.

During that same three-month period, the number of unemployed workers fell by 27,000, and the labor force grew by 6,000 workers, according to figures released Friday by the department.

The state added 6,600 private-sector jobs last month, led by: manufacturing, 3,600 jobs; construction, 1,700 jobs; and private education and health services, 1,300 jobs. Areas posting declines were: trade, transportation and utilities, which lost 800 jobs; leisure and hospitality, which lost

200 jobs; and professional and business services, which lost 100 jobs.

The nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October was 7.3 percent.

Rates for neighboring states were: Ohio, 7.5 percent; Kentucky, 8.4 percent; and Michigan, 9 percent. The rate for Illinois wasn’t available.

Nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rates for northeast Indiana counties were: Elkhart, 7.4 percent; Steuben, 6.9 percent; Noble and Wabash, 6.8 percent; Allen and DeKalb, 6.7 percent; Huntington, 6.5 percent; Adams, 6 percent; LaGrange, 5.9 percent; and Kosciusko, Wells and Whitley, 5.8 percent.

A LLE N C O U NT Y

PHILHARMONIC, MUSICIANS REACH TENTATIVE DEAL Union leaders and management of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic announced Friday they had reached a tentative agreement on contract negotiations that had lasted several months.

The tentative agreement will be presented to both the musicians and the board of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic for ratification. Both sides must ratify the agreement before it can be finalized and details released. Representatives of the two negotiating teams, Philharmonic CEO J.L. Nave III and union representative Campbell MacDonald, said in a joint statement that they expect to reach a final agreement by about the first week of December.

Points of contention had included proposed salary and benefit cuts. Nave said the philharmonic had worked toward cutting back every other part of the operation in order to support the musicians.

Rehearsals and concerts will continue as scheduled under the terms of the expired agreement until the new contract is finalized.

UPAF KICKS OFF ‘GOLD FOR THE CITY’ CAMPAIGN The Unity Performing Arts Foundation announced a $385,000 “Gold for the City” fundraising campaign so members of its

Voices of Unity youth choir can participate in national and international choir events next year.

UPAF CEO and founder Marshall White and Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry announced the campaign Nov. 21.

“How do you combat a negative outlook many youth are developing today? You create a climate where youth can benefit from the power of encouragement, hope, positive reinforcement and genuine support,” White said in a statement.

“That’s what the young people in the Voices of Unity experience each week of their lives. We as a community need to fuel and support that climate so that it will spread and reach more young people in our community.”

The choir has received its first-ever invitation to participate in the 2014 Choirs of America Music Performance Nationals June 19-22 at Carnegie Hall in New York.

It also will travel to Riga, Latvia, for the 2014 World Choir Games. The choir previously has won gold medals and been named world champion at the games.

November 29-December 5, 2013

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

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n PAGE 18

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NEW BUSINESSES Eco-Roof LLC 13906 Maple Drive Grabill, IN 46741 David Kaiser Five Knights LLC 6805 S. 900 East Hamilton, IN 46742 Mary E. Knight Five Beans in the Wheel LLC 4865 E. 775 South Hamilton, IN 46742 David Corcoran BMP Real Estate Holdings LLC 975 Lane 280 Hamilton, IN 46742 Michael A. Betten

READER’S GUIDE BizLeads is a collection of information gathered from northeast Indiana courthouses, state government offices and informational Web sites.

These listings are intended to help companies find new customers as well as stay on top of happenings with current customers, vendors and competitors.

New Businesses lists firms that were recently incorporated in the state of Indiana. Information is gathered from the Indiana Secretary of State.

Addresses listed may not be the actual address of the business.

Building Permits are issued by the Allen County Building Department during the specified period of time.

Real Estate is a list of agricultural, commercial, industrial, and residential real estate sales recorded by the state of Indiana.

Triple Star Mfg. LLC 18214 S.R. 37 Harlan, IN 46743 Mitchel Thompson

Bankruptcies are from the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Indiana.

For complete data involving a particular filing please access the The PACER Service Center, the Federal Judiciary’s centralized registration, billing, and technical support center for electronic access to U.S. District, Bankruptcy, and Appellate court records. Its Web site URL is http://pacer. psc.uscourts.gov.

Volkert Farms LLC 19801 S.R. 37 Harlan, IN 46743 Allan D. Volkert

Patents include the following: Patent number, local inventor and assignee, brief description, filed date and approved date. Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office.

A Lily’s Dew Drop Flower Shop LLC P.O. Box 22 17508 S.R. 37 Harlan, IN 46743 Andrew J. Miller

Listings may vary due to information availability and space constraints.

EAG Construction LLC 18214 S.R. 37 Harlan, IN 46743 Mitchel Thompson

Irwins Marketing LLC 10911 Cuba Road Harlan, IN 46743 Irwin Plank SLZ & Sons LLC 18214 S.R. 37 Harlan, IN 46743 Mitchel Thompson Och Manufacturing LLC 12120 Water St. Harlan, IN 46743 Elmer E. Lengacher Keeley Croft LLC 1530 W. 635 North Howe, IN 46746 Arthur Hadley P. Porter Place LLC 1530 W. 635 North Howe, IN 46746 Jane Hadley Maines Family Real Estate LLC 15134 Hunters Lane Huntertown, IN 46748 Joyce Maines Well Grounded Coffee House LLC 2609 Donna Lynn Lane Huntertown, IN 46748 Tamara Smith

BizLeads

Mudpie Tales LLC 4916 Hollopeter Road Leo, IN 46765 Valerie McCammon

Panoramic I LLC 104 S. Main St. Nappanee, IN 46550 Steven K. Walters

Caliban Systems LLC 4916 Hollopeter Road Leo, IN 46765 Valerie Mccammon

Panoramic III LLC 104 S. Main St. Nappanee, IN 46550 Steven K. Walters

C&M Industries LLC 11034 C.R. 50 Ligonier, IN 46767 Charlene A. Snavely

Panoramic IV LLC 104 S. Main St. Nappanee, IN 46550 Steven K. Walters

Checkers Cafe Inc. 11034 C.R. 50 Ligonier, IN 46767 Charlene A. Snavely

Michiana Diversified LLC 1051 E. Market St. Nappanee, IN 46550 Christopher G. Walter

Araceli Barrientos Contreras LLC 855 W. U.S. 6, Lot 20 Ligonier, IN 46767 Araceli B. Contreras

Timber Hollow Holdings LLC 102 Heritage Parkway Nappanee, IN 46550 Charles Zercher

Marshall Freight Logistics LLC 8521 N. 600 West-90 Markle, IN 46770 Cynthia Marshall

Ansari Family Holdings LLC 102 Heritage Parkway Nappanee, IN 46550 Charles J. Zercher

Big Nates Party Rentals LLC 4630 W. 700 North Markle, IN 46770 Nate Murchland

Timber Hollow Management LLC 102 Heritage Parkway Nappanee, IN 46550 Charles J. Zercher

Midwest Mobile Homes Inc. 124 E. Washington St Millersburg, IN 46543 Paul Comino

Nappanee Recycle LLC 70789 Tecumseh Drive Nappanee, IN 46550 Ronald G. Yutzy

Custom Woodfinishing Inc. 67827 C.R. 43 Millersburg, IN 46543 Joseph Yoder

Lawn Genie LLC 15921 Grand Willow Blvd.

Huntertown, IN 46748 Adam Davis

Sweet Peaks LLC 1110 E. 100 South LaGrange, IN 46761 James Fearnow

Memories and More LLC 244 S. Marion Road Huntington, IN 46750 Steven P. Karst

RKB Investments LLC 2657 N. Binkley Road Larwill, IN 46764 Roger A. Boggs

Custom Woodfinishing LLC 67827 C.R. 43 Millersburg, IN 46543 Joseph Yoder

RPDM Solutions Inc. 925 Poplar St. Huntington, IN 46750 Justin Williams

Retrospect LLC 2657 N. Binkley Road Larwill, IN 46764 Casey A. Boggs

Swygart Farms LLC 1391 W. 100 South Monroe, IN 46772 Aaron J. Swygart

Pleasant Acres MHP LLC 309 N. Jefferson St. Huntington, IN 46750 Justin R. Wall JGR Contracting Inc. 533 Warren St. Huntington, IN 46750 Richard Delaney Ellert Family Enterprises LLC 10323 E. 415 North Kendallville, IN 46755 Renee Harp The Midwest Culinary Arts and Science Institute LLC 407 Crestview Drive Kendallville, IN 46755 Jessica Hatton

Page 1 Investments LLC 109 EMS T36 Lane Leesburg, IN 46538 James Page Lakeland Power Wash LLC 199 EMS T13 Lane Leesburg, IN 46538 Eric D. Morrow Wolf Harbor Management Inc. 4160 E. Woodland Court Leesburg, IN 46538 Ralph Turner Jason Matthews Enterprises LLC 8055 E. CR 500 North Leesburg, IN 46538 Jason Matthews

n

Fisher Brothers Land Holdings LLC 902 N. 100 West Monroe, IN 46772 Kim Fisher Walkerton Properties LLC 104 S. Main St. Nappanee, IN 46550 Steven K. Walters JWH Rentals LLC 1954 Waterfall Drive Nappanee, IN 46550 James Hartman Union City Properties LLC 104 S. Main St. Nappanee, IN 46550 Steven K. Walters

Head Inspections LLC 1311 Scots Lane New Haven, IN 46774 Utah Head Land Ho of New Haven LLC 8721 Seiler Road New Haven, IN 46774 Gary Adam Gary L. and Sandra L. Adam LLC 8721 Seiler Road New Haven, IN 46774 Gary L. Adam Steve’s Lawn Repair LLC 10706 Stellhorn Road New Haven, IN 46774 Steve Henderson Better Homes Investments LLC 12202 Parent Road New Haven, IN 46774 Wesley J. Parker MGSR Enterprises LLC 615 Main St. New Haven, IN 46774 Mary A. Grotrian ZX LLC 68207 Clunette St. New Paris, IN 46553 Chad Halle

PAGES 18-20 GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly n

November 29-December 5, 2013 Bat Properties LLC 112 W. 12th St. Winona Lake, IN 46590 Barbara A. Teeter

Roman Properties LLC 7811 Glacier Creek Drive -92 Roanoke, IN 46783 Michael Romary

Country Club Apartments of Richmond LLC 835 Anchorage Road Warsaw, IN 46580 Jian Zhen

Hummel Group Inc. 8015 W. U.S. 20 Shipshewana, IN 46565 Brent Hoober

Boot Creek LLC 3985 W. Old Road, #30 Warsaw, IN 46580 Daniel McKibbin

AJ’s Heavenly Scents Inc. 1150 E. Country Lane Shipshewana, IN 46565 Angela R. Yoder

Elpidia Gonzalez LLC 920 Anchorage Road, Lot 31 Warsaw, IN 46580 Elpidia Gonzalez

Pathway of Indiana Inc. 240 E. North Village Drive Shipshewana, IN 46565 Curtis Yoder

Dek Pit LLC 3985 W. Old Road 30 Warsaw, IN 46580 Erin McKibbin

Heckaman Real Estate Group LLC 9526 S. S.R. 15 Silver Lake, IN 46982 Amy Parker

Osvaldo Avendano-Vazquez LLC 2441 W. 250 South, Lot 8 Warsaw IN 46580 Osvaldo Avendano Vazquez

NEW HAVEN

Perrin Dental Laboratory LLC 5715 W. 1200 North 35 South Whitley, IN 46787 Lori J. Perrin

Antonio Martinez LLC 3762 W. Old Road 30, Lot 652 Warsaw, IN 46580 Antonio Martinez

RESIDENTIAL BUILDING PERMITS

Flat Spin Aviation LLC 4557 C.R. 72 Spencerville, IN 46788 Gregory D. Maxwell

Andros Management LP 2562 Walton Blvd., Suite 301 Warsaw, IN 46580 Lane A. Lingofelter

FORT WAYNE ABOITE TOWNSHIP

MLKM LLC 6993 Tee Trail Syracuse, IN 46567 Jason T. Miller Richcreek Farms LLC 5676 E. 650 North Syracuse, IN 46567 Randy Richcreek Wawasee Harbor Yachts LLC 600 S. Huntington Syracuse, IN 46567 Jack E. Jamison Hochstetler Woodworking LLC 3085 S. 600 West Topeka, IN 46571 Alvin W. Hochstetler EFB Properties LLC 7184 S. 100 East Warren, IN 46790 Paul Burcham Ed’s Lawn Service Sales and Rentals LLC 7184 S. 100 East Warren, IN 46790 Paul Burcham Salt and Light Properties LLC 216 N. Wayne St. Warren, IN 46792 Lori Frettinger Gabriel Martinez-Alcala LLC 2441 W. 250 South, Lot 38 Warsaw, IN 46580 Gabriel Martinez-Alcala

Clear Financial Solutions Inc. 1 EMS B 37, Lot 23 Warsaw, IN 46582 Thomas Lahmon Autumn Homes LLC 347 N. Buffalo St. Warsaw, IN 46580 Paul D. Refior Nandapurkar Holdings Inc. 1037 Mariners Drive Warsaw, IN 46582 Milissa Griffith Pendry Powder Shop Inc. 275 W. 250 North Warsaw, IN 46582 George Pendry

Cook Family Farms Enterprises LLC 2614 Wildwood Lane Winona Lake, IN 46590 Keith C. Cook Light Rail Coffee LLC 1101 E. Canal St. Winona Lake, IN 46590 Flying Fish Inc.

COMMERCIAL BUILDING PERMITS Schenkel Construction Inc. 10905 Gateway Blvd. $7,000

Windsor Inc. 2707 Grenadier Court $275,645

ADAMS TOWNSHIP D-S Total Homes 4210 E. Tillman Road $260,000

ALLEN COUNTY ABOITE TOWNSHIP Stuart Berk Homes Inc. 15117 Fenway Pass $300,000 Granite Ridge Builders Inc. 8408 Backwater Drive $183,310

LAFAYETTE TOWNSHIP Westport Homes of Fort Wayne Inc. 11119 Yalumba Pass $147,100

D.D.A Farms LLC 7399 W. 200 North Warsaw, IN 46580 Daniel J. Kierpaul

LAKE TOWNSHIP

Poynter Plumbing & Heating LLC 160 W. Van Vleek Waterloo, IN 46793 Rachel N. Gibson

Sterling Homes Inc. 2202 Cedar Ridge Cove $120,000

Ares Division LLC 345 Cobblers Way Waterloo, IN 46793 Gretchen Behnke IMO Field Services LLC 105 Southland Court, Apt. A Waterloo, IN 46793 Justin Shroads

Bob Buescher Homes 12930 Yellow River Road $325,000

PERRY TOWNSHIP Granite Ridge Builders Inc. 2622 Stonecrop Road $152,000

November 29-December 5, 2013 ST. JOSEPH TOWNSHIP Westport Homes of Fort Wayne Inc. 7305 Dry Creek Court $183,550 Granite Ridge Builders Inc. 10073 Chapmans Cove $269,471

REAL-ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

8919 La Belle Place From Harjit S. Pabla to Jonathan A. and Elise E. Chadwick $78,500 7902 Hidden Cove From 3030 LLC to Westport Homes of Fort Wayne Inc. $49,900 5031 Pinebrook Drive From Ihnen Mickell to Jeffery S. and Lisa Byram $68,000

46804 1817 Paveys Glen Run From Patrick E. and Laelya Goodman to Matthew C. Shroyer $86,000 9819 Illinois Road From Rick A. and Sharon J. Meyers to Magnifi LLC $400,000 9915 Illinois Road From Rick A. and Sharon J. Meyers to Magnifi LLC $400,000 224 Spring Forest Court From Andrew M. and Heather L. Denchik to Nicholas A. and Katherine L. Davey $119,000 9915 Illinois Road From Magnifi LLC to First Federal Bank of the Midwest $490,128

9613 Yearling Drive From Michael D. Bollinger to John L. Reynolds $83,500 5635 Cresthill Drive From Donald B. Marshall II and Donna M. Marshall to Robert and Denise Graham $219,900 714 Currie Hill St. From the estate of Ralph G. Lindeman to George H. Bonner $105,000 9718 Crown Point Drive From Cheryl E. Kammeyer to Donna M. Marshall $114,900 6709 Quail Ridge Lane From Sara M. Solomon to Shawn P. and Shanna L. Melton $100,000

2733 Alstone Manor Drive From Southwest Development at Covington Road LLC to Ronald W. and Susan L. Glotzbach $37,500 8716 Sandpiper Court From Earl L. and Elizabeth Ann Kahn to Homer H. and June M. Hardesty $162,000 3931 Summersworth Run From Cynthia L. Specht to Eric and Ashlee M. Burnworth $138,750 3203 Treebark Lane From Thomas V. and Sandra J. Doty to Mark C. and Tamra K. Hoffman $280,000 3216 Twisted Branch Place From Jason and Sarah Bransteter to Todd and Kristen Smith $134,000

46805 478 Charlotte Ave. From Mark Childs to Tabetha M. Crooks $77,900 3339 Ivy League Drive From Jeffrey A. Tracey to Than Win and Ra He Mar $60,000

4029 Blythewood Place From Freddie Mac to Philip S. Labrash $114,500

5180 Coventry Lane From Paul R. and Jeanette O. Bridgett to Edward D. Sigl $137,500

623 Kenwood Ave From Juliana Pashov to Ronald A. Falls $50,000

6440 South Bend Drive From Allen County sheriff to U.S. Bank NA $30,518

10035 Hearthside Place From Richard W. Evans to Michael and Tilli Horsley $340,000

646 Tennessee Ave. From Allen County sheriff to CitiMortgage Inc. $63,399

2826 Cunningham Drive From Marianne Connett to Roxanne L. Fisher $161,900

2020 Wood Moor Drive From Mark M. Suedhoff to Charles J. Whalen $385,000

2112 St. Joe Blvd.

From Clifford I. Garwood II and Sarah Garwood to Robbie Garwood $79,119

2115 Lake Front Drive From 3030 LLC to James and Ann T. Underwood $53,000

9928 Red Twig Place From Susan M. and Gregory A. Bock to Jason and Stacey Fleming $212,000

8409 Spring Forest Drive From Darlene M. Degener to Cody R. Williams $143,000 7319 Inverness Commons From Kathleen J. Buck to Robert T. Keen Jr. and Elizabeth A. Keen $307,500 9419 Skyhill Drive From Lucia A. Fouts and Robert A. Grubbs to William J. Watterud $235,000 4821 Live Oak Court From James C. and Stephanie D. Fryback to Leslie A. Wade $142,900

2327 Blue Harbor Drive From HUD to J. Wright LLC $117,600 311 Pequeen St. From Manuel C. and Benita E. Aguilar to Guilleruo Aguilar $92,500 4435 Leeward Cove From the estate of Ruth Hall to Robert W. Moberg Jr. and Diane S. Moberg $70,000 1715 N. Glendale Drive From William H. Cooke to Kevin Kauss $86,000

2130 N. Anthony Blvd.

From Roger T. and Cynthia M. Haggenjos to Brian Schneider $94,000 2301 Kenwood Ave. From 1st Source Bank to HUD $96,141 1727 N. Coliseum Blvd.

From Shirley A. Vonderau to Alex A. Palermo $18,500 2219 Forest Park Blvd.

From James E. Swope to William D. and Allison M. Zimmerman $325,000 3021 Curdes Ave. From Jasbinder Singh to Timothy Bartlett Jr. $99,800

fwbusiness.com 4021 S. Lafayette St. From DBD Contracting LLC to Oak Properties LLC $23,000

346 W. Branning Ave. From Mark A. and Jane Walls to Carlotta Jones $32,900

1205 Columbia Ave. From Allen County sheriff to Freddie Mac $92,000

2417 Drexel Ave. From Harley N. and Katherine A. Stouder to Marcus and Timika Suttle $15,000

4727 Old Mill Road From Thomas P. and Patricia A. Aylward to Scott A. and Melodie S. Thompson $249,000

1914 Kentucky Ave. From Allen County sheriff to Jeffery Simpson $22,000

3306 Smith St. From Maria Almanza to Agripina G. Trejo $7,000

3345 Parnell Ave. From LPP Mortgage Ltd. to John Croghan Jr. and Donna G. Croghan $42,500

4122 Robinwood Drive From Amfire Properties LLC to Equity Trust Co. $12,000

1314 Ferguson Ave. From Ashley M. Renkenberger to Amanda M. Thacker $46,500

2927 Westbrook Drive B-415 From the Jennifer E. Grabill trust to Ryne Otis $12,000 1723 Alabama Ave. From Ferdinand and Karen Moussou to Margaret H. Rader $104,000 2220 Kenwood Ave. From Lucinda C. Atkinson to Abbey K. Bunnell $88,000 1230 Lynn Ave. From HUD to Kenneth S. and Margaret J. Eber $32,520 2231 Charlotte Ave. From Matthew and Janel Sprunger to Christine Ostrander $71,000 2723 Roscommon Drive From US Bank NA to HUD $132,062 3246 Parnell Ave. From Ronald J. Straessle to Derek J. Hoyle $52,650 1103 Northlawn Drive From Thomas A. Swihart to Devin J. Swihart $86,500

3132 Smith St. From Gourlie Property Management Inc. to Ashley Custer $20,000 4115 Avondale Drive From Lillie M. Shears to Isaias Vera-Giutierez $6,000 4111 Abbott St. From William G. and Jacquelyn Williams to Yellow Door Enter LLC $32,550 2814 Plaza Drive From 2814 Plaza Drive Land Trust to Lucero Reyes $17,000 1124 Baxter St. From Fannie Mae to Jesus P. Ruiz $13,220

3531 Bowser Ave. From Amfire Properties LLC to DBD Contracting LLC $13,800 2615 Shadyoak Drive From Allen County sheriff to HSBC Mortgage Services Inc. $29,753 4835 Bowser Ave. From Allen County sheriff to Freddie Mac $222,900 2915 Ashcroft Drive From the Betty J. Burns irrevocable trust to Katreena Caldwell $89,000

4704 Beaver Ave. From Jeffrey H. and Carolyn S. White to Paul M. and Laura A Veldman $147,500 1215 Nuttman Ave. From Otho & Brough LLC to Dyron O. Farrell $53,000 1116 Nuttman Ave. From Richard L. and Kay A. Schory to Chad and Katharine Gregg $73,500 2646 Fox Ave. From Ronald K. And Billie J. Wichman to Perera Sriyan $10,000 442 W. Wildwood Ave. From Allen County sheriff to Midfirst Bank $17,626

BANKRUPTCIES ADAMS COUNTY

3506 Mono Gene Drive From Evangeline Naselaris to Leah A. Incremona $14,500 4519 Gaywood Drive From Fannie Mae to Tent Campell $9,050 4751 Winter St. From Oak Properties LLC to Sister Oak Properties LLC $25,000

46807 46806

3407 Fairfield Ave. From A1A Corp. to Eisaman Real Estate Inc. $12,000

342 Lexington Ave. From Alliance Realty Capital LLC to Strategic Redevelopment LLC $13,000 1239 Kinsmoor Ave. From HUD to Bad Robot LLC $18,000 456 W. Lenox Ave. From James A. Gatewood to Wayne L. Morris $32,500 222 N. Seminole Circle From William A. and Joan M. Sheets to Lynuel O. Fish $57,900 4832 S. Calhoun St. From Gary L. Hamilton to KPC Investments LLC 185,000

Brandon J. Schwartz 339 Stevenson St. Decatur, IN 46733 Assets: $74,550 Liabilities: $75,080 Kimberly K. Ameter 840 Chalet Drive, Apt. 108 Berne, IN 46711 Assets: $23,608 Liabilities: $53,770 Elsa Y. Cerna-Quintana 1075 Angus Drive Decatur, IN 46733 Assets: $98,026 Liabilities: $119,000

ALLEN COUNTY Mary E. Dutt 1420 W. Wallen Road Fort Wayne, IN 46825 Assets: $855 Liabilities: $58,472 Kimberly M. Bohde 6024-B Fairfield Ave. Fort Wayne, IN 46806 Assets: $11,296 Liabilities: $45,366 Milton Smith 4901 Fairington Drive, Apt. 117 Fort Wayne, IN 46825 Assets: $1,500 Liabilities: $23,600

Brian K. Gordon 3783 Fieldstone Chase New Haven, IN 46774 Assets: $107,164 Liabilities: $150,201 Willie E. Harris 4534 W. Lafayette Fort Wayne, IN 46806 Assets: $124,275 Liabilities: $194,929

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Briana I. Portee 631 Tennessee Ave., Apt. 108 Fort Wayne, IN 46805 Assets: $8,450 Liabilities: $43,134 Terri A. Squires 1838 Vance Ave. Fort Wayne, IN 46805 Assets: $8,250 Liabilities: $64,895

Gilbert L. and Kathy E. Jasmine 313 W. Paulding Road Fort Wayne, IN 46807 Assets: $16,750 Liabilities: $35,009

Sarah M. Gamble 5604 Robin Run Fort Wayne, IN 46835 Assets: $22,910 Liabilities: $46,412

Heather L. Hamilton 1802 Babcock Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46819 Assets: $1,000 Liabilities: $22,635

Sara E. Swihart P.O. Box 119 Woodburn, IN 46797 Assets: $74,825 Liabilities: $66,305

Alyss A. Norris 4309 Scokian Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46835 Assets: $8,305 Liabilities: $59,576

Paul D. and Debra M. Stonebraker 7435 Country View Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46815 Assets: $6,050 Liabilities: $36,759

Whitney L. Gorman 3207 Eastbrook Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46805 Assets: $3,350 Liabilities: $9,540 Gary R. Coulson Jr. and Dodie J. Coulson 931 Mannes Pines Cove Fort Wayne, IN 46814 Assets: $198,050 Liabilities: $259,248 Annie N. Nelson 4011 Vail Court Fort Wayne, IN 46808 Assets: $1,497 Liabilities: $36,984 Rolando C. Castillo 726 Drexell Ave. Fort Wayne, IN 46806 Assets: $16,805 Liabilities: $54,889 Micheal W. and Nicole D. Fuller 4932 Bahama Lane Fort Wayne, IN 46815 Assets: $12,700 Liabilities: $55,831 Jeremy L. Yarian 1655 Lakeview Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46808 Assets: $4,060 Liabilities: $21,816 Ladetha A. Lee 6123 Lunada Fort Wayne, IN 46816 Assets: $70,700 Liabilities: $80,987 Catherine M. Holycross 5703 Kelso Lane Fort Wayne, IN 46818 Assets: $2,525 Liabilities: $13,714 Matthew R. Gardenour 16721 Amethyst Parkway Fort Wayne, IN 46845 Assets: $233,718 Liabilities: $256,635

Kenneth R. and Dawn E. Lawson 6024 Becker Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46835 Assets: $61,725 Liabilities: $76,416 Tamella R. Jones 13405 Redding Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46814 Assets: $5,325 Liabilities: $20,360 Vanessa R. McCarty 7404 Meriwood Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46835 Assets: $2,000 Liabilities: $17,865 Kelly M. Rothgeb 1649 Hobson Road Fort Wayne, IN 46805 Assets: $14,175 Liabilities: $22,675 Michael A. Mattern Jr. 3301 Portage Drive, Apt. 53 Fort Wayne, IN 46802 Assets: $350 Liabilities: $35,646 Katrina V. Cooper 235 W. Williams St., Apt. 2 Fort Wayne, IN 46802 Assets: $8,710 Liabilities: $54,487 Krystal L. Jenkins 1434 Spy Run Fort Wayne, IN 46805 Assets: $5,400 Liabilities: $96,631 Krista Denison 7312 Wrangler Trail Fort Wayne, IN 46835 Assets: $162,850 Liabilities: $116,771 Cherlyn R. Verhest 1212 Polk St. Fort Wayne, IN 46808 Assets: $5,650 Liabilities: $18,663

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Brandon J. Cochren 541 Pine Grove Lane, Apt. K Fort Wayne, IN 46807 Assets: $10,200 Liabilities: $21,039

HUNTINGTON COUNTY

WELLS COUNTY

Ryan L. Robinson 448 Mayne St. Huntington, IN 46750 Assets: $59,060 Liabilities: $70,765

Breanna K. Sauers 3106 Santa Lisa Court Fort Wayne, IN 46805 Assets: $5,784 Liabilities: $35,578

Timothy J. and Dorothy A. Shake 9326 N. 200 West-90 Markle, IN 46770 Assets: $4,400 Liabilities: $88,916

LAGRANGE COUNTY

Johnny L. Parker Jr. 5516 S. Harrison Fort Wayne, IN 46807 Assets: $6,335 Liabilities: $73,037 Angela L. and Chad S. Sanderson 2637 Northgate Blvd.

Fort Wayne, IN 46835 Assets: $32,700 Liabilities: $76,839 Ashley R. Andrews 5506-2 Old Dover Blvd.

Fort Wayne, IN 46835 Assets: $9,109 Liabilities: $67,322

DEKALB COUNTY Rosario G. Martinez 1825 Laverne Ave., Apt 242 Fort Wayne, IN 46805 Assets: $900 Liabilities: $7,288

Byron E. Chase 1000 Park Drive LaGrange, IN 46761 Assets: $173,510 Liabilities: $234,544

WHITLEY COUNTY George J. Ray Jr. 113 E. Ellsworth, Apt. 2 Columbia City, IN 46725 Assets: $3,375 Liabilities: $36,341

Eva-Marie Proszkow, Silver Spring, Md. Jason S. Byassee, Highlands Ranch, Colo.

Keith E. Mathias, Parker, Colo.

Earl C. Pilloud, Parker, Colo.

Daniel A. Pier, Englewood, Colo.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Falls Church, Va. Filed: June 19, 2012 Approved: Nov. 19, 2013

NOBLE COUNTY Dickie W. and Debra D. Rodman 200 N. Park Ave. Kendallville, IN 46755 Assets: $69,862 Liabilities: $81,763

Jeremiah J. Dafforn 8896 E. South Circle Drive Churubusco, IN 46723 Assets: $120,450 Liabilities: $81,306

Robert G. Colgan 216 Scott St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Assets: $1,100 Liabilities: $22,615

Joshua A. and Christina J. Swartz 107 N. Line St. South Whitley, IN 46787 Assets: $115,165 Liabilities: $115,893

Sue E. Johnson 2283 S. U.S. 33 Albion, IN 46701 Assets: $284,112 Liabilities: $302,508

Adam C. Giammo 3144 S. 600 East Columbia City, IN 46725 Assets: $3,320 Liabilities: $33,226

Nicole L. Green 2111 Lincolnway S. Ligonier, IN 46767 Assets: $75,050 Liabilities: $115,554

PATENTS 8,589,404 Semantic data integration Kirk Dunkelberger, Fort Wayne

8,585,770 Implant sleeve for cement hip stems Jason D. Meridew, Warsaw John R. White, Winona Lake Mark A. Bollinger, Fort Wayne Biomet Manufacturing LLC, Warsaw Filed: July 12, 2011 Approved: Nov. 19, 2013

8,585,769 Acetabular liner system Stephen J. Vankoski, Fort Wayne Charles D. Persons, Columbia City Tyler Boggs, Warsaw Zimmer Inc., Warsaw Filed: Sept. 26, 2011 Approved: Nov. 19, 2013

Internet Directory www.fwbusiness.com IT SUPPORT & SERVICES • Innovative Technology Group, LLC Contact: Bob Peters 3201 Stellhorn Road Fort Wayne, IN 46815 260-818-0135 itgnei.com

START-UP CAPITAL & ENTREPRENEURAL NEW BUSINESS RESOURCES • Northeast Indiana Innovation Center Inc. Contact: Gulya Alexander 3201 Stellhorn Road Fort Wayne, IN 46815 260-407-6442 niic.net

Economic concerns at forefront of lawmakers’ upcoming session (AP) — Indiana lawmakers will be dealing with two broad categories of issues when they reconvene next year: Battles they would gladly take on and those they would rather avoid.

Amending Indiana’s gay-marriage ban into the state constitution and stepping into the continuing education struggles between Republican Gov. Mike Pence and Democratic Schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz clearly fall in the latter category, while just about anything they could do to improve the economy would fall into the former.

When House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, outlined House Republicans’ top four legislative priorities — early education, road funding, elimination of the personal property tax and closing the jobs “skills gap” — earlier in November the unifying theme was a focus on the state economy.

“These four issues: the skills gap, early childhood education, road funding and fair business taxation must be our priorities this session. It’s my hope that we can work together as we did last session to find solutions that Republicans and Democrats can stand together on and say we’re moving Indiana in the right direction,” Bosma said during lawmakers’ “Organization Day,” which typically sets the tone for the session.

Indiana received some welcome news Nov. 22, with word that the state unemployment rate had dropped to 7.5 percent — the best it’s been since 2008. Pence credited the state’s “pro-growth policies of fiscal responsibility” for the drop in the state’s jobless rate. And Indiana has maintained a strong balance sheet, from a cash reserve of roughly $2 billion to a “AAA” bond rating shared by just a few other states.

But that fiscal success has not filtered out across the populace, as legislative Democrats often point out.

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House Minority Leader Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, and Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, have argued that the state needs to address pressing problems like stagnant earnings for most Indiana workers. The state’s per-capita income, a key measure of how well most residents are doing, is far below the national average.

Pelath and Lanane argue it is not enough to make new jobs. Instead, they say the state must create jobs where residents can resume pre-recession spending to effectively kickstart the state’s economy.

But it will be hard to tackle that disparity while a constitutional ban on gay marriage sucks the air out of the room, they said.

At the core, Pelath argued, is the political reality that Bosma faces of having to protect the right flank of himself and his members.

“Let’s do a little bit of political analysis here: I think the biggest reason this is still on the table is you have Republican members who are quaking in their boots over people like Eric Miller and Micah Clark and they’re worried they’re going to get primaries and they’re going to be running to Speaker Bosma worrying about their primaries. I understand that makes it difficult on the speaker,” Pelath said.

Miller and Clark are both leaders in the religious coalition pushing the gay-marriage amendment.

Pelath added that Bosma will “have an easier time governing if he eliminates this from consideration.”

Bosma dismissed any concerns, saying that lawmakers effectively know how to walk and chew gum at the same time. He has also indirectly blamed the media for overplaying the gay-marriage debate.

“It will receive 95 percent of the coverage and it will take 5 percent of the attention,” Bosma said of the proposed amendment.

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November 29-December 5, 2013

REGION’S WORK-FORCE AGENCY HAS NEW NAME The Northeast Indiana Regional Workforce Investment Board has started going by a new name — Northeast Indiana Works — as part of a rebranding effort.

The agency said in a prepared statement it was rebranding to promote its programs and services more effectively and accomplish more with its outreach strategies.

“The new name also serves as a statement of the organization’s and region’s

commitment to providing skilled workers to meet the needs of employers,” the statement said.

The board helps upgrade training skills and provide job leads for more than 40,000 are workers each year and provides customized training and hiring assistance annually for more than 1,200 employers.

WorkOne Northeast, Be SomeOne Now and Jobs for America’s Graduates are some of the programs it operates or oversees in the region, which includes Allen, Adams, DeKalb, Grant, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley counties.

November 29-December 5, 2013

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PAGE 21

FLIGHT: Airport is waiting to hear from US Airways on possible Philadelphia route

Continued from PAGE 1

it wanted the airport to keep, to Atlanta, Dallas and Orlando, Fla. Service to Minneapolis was the only other destination among the top 10 in the survey the Fort Wayne International Airport already had. The other four were Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Denver and Las Vegas.

Los Angeles would be out of reach for commuter aircraft.

When asked about the possibility of a private-public partnership that would reduce an airline’s cost of adding the service at the airport, 73 percent of respondents expressed support for the concept.

It could be a key for air service development at the airport.

“The numbers show people are going there and it has been our top-requested destination for some time – that’s what I’ve heard is that we need a Northeast destination,” said Jessica Miller, air service and community relations manager for FWA. “It’s very important to the community and something we are pursuing.”

The dozen destinations most traveled to for business purposes in the survey included Philadelphia, and New York and Washington, D.C., were high on the list. Travel agencies serving the region also reported eastern air hubs were popular for business travel.

The survey showed 58 percent of respondents reported their companies flew internationally, and Deborah Sorg, corporate travel manager for Grueninger Travel Service, said “all three cities would afford us more international connections.”

Some international trips from Fort Wayne would be easier via Philadelphia, New York or Washington, D.C., because they would require travelers to only make one connecting stop on the way to their destination, she said.

“International travelers hate to fly out of Indianapolis because when they get back … they may have flown overnight, all night long, then have three hours to get home. It is not fun.”

Because they have many attractions, New York and Washington, D.C., are popular for leisure as well as business travel out of Fort Wayne, Sorg said.

Any time Fort Wayne International can add a direct flight, “there always are advantages to customers saving time and saving headaches. Nobody likes to transfer in Chicago during the winter and it’s the same in Detroit,” she said.

“Any new service to Fort Wayne is a boon in my own opinion. At a travel agency roundtable I attended in Fort Wayne there were a handful of agents and they all said the same thing,” Sorg said.

“We know how many people we have

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“We have had conversations with Southwest, US Airways and Frontier — we talk to quite a few carriers to keep the lines of communication open just in case an opportunity were to open down the road.”

Jessica Miller Fort Wayne International Airport

who are driving to an alternate airport to depart from, and based on the service and based on the pricing, a new flight would reduce the number of people that are flying from airports other than Fort Wayne.”

The survey was developed with input from a Regional Air Service Committee co-convened by the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority and the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership’s Vision 2020 initiative.

A little more than 350 individuals took the online survey during the first half of the year. After it was completed in July, Greater Fort Wayne Inc. had the results analyzed and they were released Nov. 21.

Although it was designed for business travelers, anyone who noticed a link to it on Fort Wayne International Airport’s website could take it, and 40 percent of the respondents were leisure travelers.

The first question in the survey asked if the respondents flew for business or leisure/ pleasure purposes, and “if they said ‘leisure’ it would skip to the customer service questions at the end or airport amenity area, so we knew who the leisure travelers were and their data was obviously a little different,” Miller said.

The airport had directed readers to the survey in its newsletter, as had Greater Fort Wayne; 60 percent of the respondents were business travelers.

The survey was designed for business travelers because their air travel spending habits are more persuasive to airlines when they are planning routes. They are more likely than leisure travelers to pay full price for air travel arranged closer to the date of departure, which makes them more profitable. Business travel also can be less seasonal, which can help keep seats full throughout the year.

Mainstream carriers with daily scheduled service at Fort Wayne International “love our market because it’s a business travel market and they know they’re going to be profitable here,” Miller said.

Allegiant Travel Co. has found success locally with a different model; it specializes in leisure travel and does not fly every day out of Fort Wayne to the destinations it

reaches from FWA. Among the mainstream carriers, “our air fares are pretty competitive — often within $100 to $150 of South Bend and Indianapolis — but will be slightly higher here because we have a lot of business travelers whose companies are paying for their travel,” Miller said.

When the airport encounters evidence of demand for a direct flight that is not offered by the airlines serving it, “that certainly starts the conversation with new carriers,” she said.

“We have had conversations with Southwest, US Airways and Frontier — we talk to quite a few carriers to keep the lines of communication open just in case an opportunity were to open down the road,” Miller said.

Airlines already at FWA also could be approached about adding a direct eastbound route out of Fort Wayne, and she said that would be less expensive than bringing a carrier to the airport to start new service.

American would gain a Philadelphia hub if it is able to complete a merger it announced earlier this year with US Airways, and that could provide an opportunity to expand service at FWA. “The last time we met with US Airways was in October, and they really like the

idea,” Miller said. “But, they can’t make a whole lot of decisions right now.

“At this point we’re kind of just waiting on this merger to settle because they’re not meeting with many airports as they bring together the two airlines.”

The airport authority was awarded a $600,000 grant by the Office of Aviation Analysis through its Small Community Air Service Development Program to support efforts to expand service at FWA. In the grant application, “our first ask was to put the money toward US Airways toward Philadelphia. We asked as secondary, ‘Can we also target other carriers to a Northeast hub?’” Miller said.

“What we’re going to try to do is leverage that money with an incentive package we can give to a carrier that would lessen its startup costs and kind of take the risk away from it and share (the risk) with ourselves.

It’s a risk-sharing incentive plan.

“It’s almost required anymore that airports share the risk with the carrier when they’re launching a new route,” she said.

“The startup risks are real high and they want to know the community is invested in the route also and want to know we’re behind them.”

The details of a risk-sharing incentive plan have yet to be worked out.

PAGE 22

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November 29-December 5, 2013

CROSSING: State-accredited nonprofit school has grown to include 15 campuses

Continued from PAGE 1

ON THE WEB

Master Spas has partnered with Crossing Educational Center’s Fort Wayne campus to give students like Anderson — those who thought school wasn’t for them, those who have dropped out, those who have struggled with drugs, those who have been in gangs and watched friends and family members go to prison or worse — not only relevant, valued work skills, but something greater.

Hope.

“I can see the difference they’re making to try to teach them life skills, show them that they can be loved … and to bring them into a workplace — to give them a program to not only learn with other kids their age, but also have the skills they can get out of the workplace and do well in life,” said Terry Valmassoi, Master Spas’ president.

“These kids have come in and done a great job in kind of a tough work environment.”

Crossing Educational Center was founded in 2003 by Executive Director Rob Staley, who for 20 years was an administrator and principal at Concord High School in Elkhart.

As a principal, Staley was — and still is — no-nonsense when it came to education.

When students messed up, in many cases they were expelled. And once they left the school, they were off the radar.

Q For more information about Crossing Educational Center, go to CrossingEducation.com.

Except, he said, they weren’t. They’re kids. Their futures hadn’t been written in stone. They could still achieve something.

The Elkhart County sheriff one day invited Staley to come talk to some of the jail inmates. Staley recognized many of the faces; they’d been in his classrooms. After enough discussions during which Staley asked them how they would operate a school, he decided to start Crossing Educational Center, often simply referred to as the Crossing.

The state-accredited nonprofit school has grown since 2003 to include 15 campuses in Indiana, and it has contracts with 34 school districts to educate students. Its Fort Wayne campus, which has about 100 students and opened three years ago, operates out of the Youth for Christ Primetime Community Center near South Side High School.

Crossing students earn credits by completing online courses at their own pace.

They also receive faith-based mentoring and are required to take part in job-training programs. In addition to Fort Wayne, the Crossing has northeast Indiana campuses in

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“When they graduate, if they want a job, all they have to do is come back through those doors and they’ve got a job here because we know that they have the experience and they’ve already gone through the program, and they’ve already been trained.”

Michael Rees Master Spas Inc.

Butler, Ligonier, Nappanee, Pierceton and Goshen.

Through Indiana’s open-enrollment law, Fort Wayne Crossing students are enrolled with East Noble School Corp., which then passes the school funding to Crossing Educational Center.

“We’re pulling in kids who have really probably gone through almost every education program offered in the city and they have just failed miserably for one reason or another,” Staley said.

Crossing educators take to the streets to find students. They hang out in parks, go to basketball games, visit community centers. Much of the Crossing’s enrollment is driven by word of mouth, through people like Anderson’s grandmother.

About six months ago, Valmassoi was at a business forum where Staley was the guest speaker. Staley’s account of the Crossing’s mission to educate struggling students struck a chord, and Valmassoi decided Master Spas needed to get involved.

The only question was how. So Valmassoi asked Michael Rees, director of manufacturing at Master Spas, and some other employees whether the company, which is one of the country’s biggest producers of hot tubs and swim spas, could make job training available to the Crossing’s Fort Wayne students. They walked the production line, ruling out any job too dangerous or too highly skilled.

This fall, during the Crossing’s first quarter, students began working three-hour shifts at Master Spas’ Fort Wayne factory, rolling fiberglass insulation on hot tubs and swim spas that each retail for several thousand dollars and detailing them once they rolled off the production line.

Rolling the fiberglass insulation is part of the lamination process, which helps ensure the hot tubs and swim spas can reach and hold the user’s desired temperature.

“It has to be done correct. You can’t deviate from it. You have to learn the process,” Rees said.

Just because they’re students doesn’t mean Master Spas is lenient when it comes to their work. Each work crew is supervised

by a Crossing team leader and a Master Spas employee who make sure they know how to do the job right.

“That’s exactly why this is working because the leadership and all the way down to the employees at Master Spas have made this model work because they believe in the program,” Staley said.

Far from being overwhelmed, the Crossing students quickly became adept at rolling.

Some even showed enough promise that they were taught how to use the chopper gun, a machine that shoots the mixture of fiberglass and resin onto the molded hot tubs and swim spas.

“That is an extremely skilled position; that is a skill they can use at any fiberglass facility anywhere in the world,” Rees said.

“We didn’t expect that. We didn’t anticipate them being able to learn that.”

The Master Spas work program, which began training a second group of students in November, is the first the Crossing has developed in Fort Wayne, but it falls under an umbrella of work-readiness initiatives provided to students at its various campuses.

In addition to training programs with other companies, the Crossing has started its own microbusinesses, including a tree-service business and a lumber yard in Goshen.

The job training provides students with real-world skills. It also helps nudge them to think more about their futures than the challenges they faced in the past.

Staley said: “The big thing that’s going on here is the kids are regaining hope, and then they gain a purpose and then they have an identity. And pride.”

Since he started attending the Crossing 2 1/2 years ago, Travis Anderson’s GPA has risen to about 3.0, he said. He’s on track to graduate next spring, and he’s considering enlisting in the Navy or the National Guard.

He acknowledged that at times he still struggles to stay motivated, but with graduation nearing, each day gets a little bit better.

“That’s one thing I like about the Crossing,” he said. “They help you out one on one, whether it’s in school or out of school.

The teachers really help you keep going.”

For its part, Master Spas’ involvement in the job-training program, born initially from a desire to help at-risk students, could result in something that one day helps its bottom line: more skilled workers.

“When they graduate, if they want a job, all they have to do is come back through those doors and they’ve got a job here because we know that they have the experience and they’ve already gone through the program, and they’ve already been trained,” Rees said.

“They’re ready to step into the job and start off.”

Staley smiled when he heard that.

“That’s music to my ears,” he said.

November 29-December 5, 2013

n GREATER FORT WAYNE Business Weekly

fwbusiness.com

PAGE 23

The man who keeps Pokagon State Park working

BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com

Pokagon State Park, with all of its mechanical devices, vast property and just shy of 1 million visitors a year, is like taking care of a small town.

The man who makes sure it all works is Tim Glasper, the resident maintenance foreman.

“It really is like running a small town,” said Ted Bohman, Pokagon property manager.

Glasper is in charge of it all. He’s like the department head of the water, sewer, streets and grounds departments — the park superintendent, so to speak.

“Basically my responsibilities are all of the facilities and the grounds,” Glasper said, “as well as Trine State Recreation Area.”

(Trine is Pokagon’s sister property.)

There’s a sewer plant that handles waste from Potawatomi Inn and a variety of facilities. There are three water plants to provide drinking water to the campgrounds and Potawatomi and another two in TSRA. There are roads to be maintained. There’s lots of grass to cut. Trails have to be kept clear for hikers.

If you think it’s work putting your dock out in the spring and taking it in in the fall, consider all of the slips just in front of Potawatomi Inn alone.

Glasper is quick to point out he has a fulltime crew of seven who, he says, make him look pretty good. In peak times, as many as 35-40 work in Pokagon.

“There are no I’s out here. It’s all we,” said Glasper.

One of the biggest challenges Glasper faces comes when Pokagon’s refrigerated toboggan slide opens and treats guests to thrilling rides on a quarter-mile refrigerated track.

For Glasper and the crew that will work for him this winter, operating the toboggan slide, keeping the ice just right on the track, cleaning off the track and making repairs when necessary is one of the toughest assignments for the entire year.

“To me, and I’ve said this for years, the winter season is always the toughest because it’s always cold,” Glasper said.

“The toboggan slide is a great draw, but it’s a maintenance nightmare because everything you do over there is by hand,” Glasper said. “You can’t get a piece of equipment to do anything over there, so everything is

a job.”

Glasper and crew will start making the ice layer on the track for its Thanksgiving opening this week. At some time during the season, the track — which has a boiler system in addition to a refrigeration system to help regulate the temperature — will be warmed up and melted to remove the ice and replace it with a fresh, smooth layer.

Since the 1970s the track has been refrigerated to create the ice that can propel sleds at speeds of some 40 mph. It is all a controlled system.

“I can make ice on this thing at 70 degrees,” Glasper said, but when the sun is shining, it is tough to keep the track in shape on the coldest of days.

“We finally have that system over there pretty well perfected. We put a ton of money in it this year,” Glasper said. That includes two new chillers, replacing much of the infrastructure of the tower and a general spruce-up of the structure, which has been in place since the 1970s.

There was a big push this year with getting Trine State Recreation Area open Nov. 2, when a soft opening was done, with the grand opening coming next spring. Work has been going on at the nearly 200-acre property since about 2008, on top of taking care of the 1,200 acres at Pokagon.

“Now there’s going to be those bugs we have to work out,” Glasper said, including staffing TSRA, making sure equipment is on hand to do maintenance and dealing with the logistics of hauling equipment back and forth from Pokagon to Trine.

Glasper had done a few projects in the park in the 1970s with his father and began working in maintenance at Pokagon fulltime in 1983. Being outdoors lured him to Pokagon.

He finds himself doing all sorts of work, from working as a licensed sewer plant operator to crafting some special touches in native wood to grace parts of the restoration work being done in the Group Camp buildings.

Talking about a project that was just completed, Glasper stops to look to the sky to point out a bald eagle flying over.

He’s outdoors, exactly where he wants to be.

This story originally appeared in The Herald Republican, which is published by Business Weekly owner KPC Media Group Inc.

MIKE MARTURELLO/THE HERALD REPUBLICAN

Pokagon State Park maintenance foreman Tim Glasper stands in front of the chillers used to refrigerate the park’s quarter-mile, two-track toboggan slide.

Business Weekly

November 29-December 5, 2013

Photo by John Hartman of Fort Wayne

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