SINCE WE LAST MET consin Bankers Association President Kurt Bauer as its president, succeeding Jim Haney who retired this past year after holding the post for the past 27 years. Bauer had been president and CEO of WBA for the past seven years, and prior to that role, he led the Arizona Bankers Association. March 4 The U.S. Department of Labor reported a total of 192,000 jobs were created in February, leaving the national unemployment rate relatively unchanged at 8.9 percent. Job gains occurred in manufacturing, construction, professional and business services, health care, and transportation and warehousing. March 4 Delta Air Lines announced it will add a daily, nonstop flight between Outagamie County Airport and Memphis on a seasonal basis beginning in June and running through Aug. 15. March 4 U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled NCR Corp. and Appleton Papers must take on most of the remaining responsibility of the estimated $700 million PCB cleanup expense from the lower Fox River, even though other companies and municipalities had a role in dumping contaminants into the river. In making the ruling, Judge Griesbach also ordered NCR and Appleton Papers to reimburse some of the other companies and municipalities for the costs they already paid toward the cleanup. Officials from both NCR and Appleton Papers said
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they will review options to ap peal the decision. The Fox River PCB cleanup – now in its third of an expected nine years – is the largest PCB river cleanup project in the country. March 4 The Fox Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau awarded a $112,000 Capital Development Grant to support a $225,000 facility upgrade project at USA Youth Sports Complex in Appleton. The project includes visitor restrooms, parking and security lighting at the facility which hosts a number of regional and national soccer, and youth baseball tournaments. The upgrades are expected to be completed by late June. March 7 A total of 49 semifinalists were named in the eighth annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest, including the following local entries: InterMeds, Marco Araujo of Green Bay; Matrix Reading Solutions, Richard Bowers of Hobart; BreadSt-Your Ave to the Web, Jeff Hayes of Neenah; SolarWindow, Jeff LeDuc of Appleton; PureTech Systems, Brad Schwei of Neenah; and Birdieworld, Brandon Taff of Neenah. The semifinalists were selected from a field of 220 first-round entries. Winners of the 2011 competition will be announced in June. March 7 Advance, the economic development arm of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, launched its new Brown County MicroLoan Program which provides loans between $5,000 to $100,000 for local entrepreneurs and small businesses to
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