Omaha World-Herald Outlook 2016

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

UNIQUE OMAH

outlook 2016

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OUT- OVERVIEW

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

uniquely omaha

Big or small? The Omaha area is a unique mix

By Michael Kelly World-Herald Staff Writer

You might call Omaha a big small-city or a small big-city.

Among U.S. metro areas, Omaha ranks 60th in population. But we are in the top 40 if you count just the folks inside the city limits — about 458,000 in 2015.

By either measure — metro or muni — we are far from puny. Our two-state metro area is certainly big compared to surrounding towns and rural communities in America’s breadbasket. Then again, it’s small next to the nation’s megalopolises.

Lots of us, though, think Omaha is a rightsize city — as Goldilocks might say, not too big and not too small. Just right.

I didn’t say perfect. Like any urban area, Omaha is a work in progress — and yet progress is evident.

I’ve written about the greater Omaha area for The World-Herald, as the expression goes, since they put the mud in the river. I’m going on 46 years at the newspaper, and I’ve seen a lot, including changes. The recent years, in my view, have been Omaha’s best.

Last year, editors asked me to write a book about my beloved adopted city, and I jumped at the chance. With demographers predicting the metro will reach the 1 million-population milestone in a few years (2023), it seemed like a good time to take stock.

The result, published in late 2015, is the beautifully illustrated (400-plus photos) “Uniquely Omaha,� which covers a lot of ground — attractions, artistry, events, enterprise and more, including humor and whimsy.

Because the book celebrated and explored what makes Omaha the “livable� place that it is, “Uniquely Omaha� also seemed like a good theme for our Outlook special section.

And if the Omaha area’s recent past has been good, well, so is the positive outlook.

Livable? A raft of “livability� rankings from around the country have put Omaha at or near the top, and there’s no reason to think that should change. No, Omaha doesn’t sit amid Alps. But if you like rankings, a mountain of evidence points to our town being a really good place to live.

Among the “No. 1� plaudits from elsewhere: Best big city in the Midwest (Money magazine); best city for an active lifestyle (WalletHub); and best American city in which to raise a family (Movoto real estate blog).

Omaha has ranked second in the nation among: best cities in which to get a job; best cities with high salaries and low cost of living; best cities for professional women; least-congested big cities; top cities for retiring baby boomers; best cities for starting a small business; and best cities in which to grow older.

With one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, Omaha attracts other high rankings for affordability, quality of life and as a place for young entrepreneurs.

It’s a fun place, too. Livability.com last year also named Omaha the nation’s No. 2 “foodie� city.

So many lofty rankings rolled in that the

Available now Nobody knows Omaha quite like Michael Kelly. He weaves stories, facts, history and oddities into “Uniquely Omaha: 101 Things to Know About the Big O,� a 168-page hardcover book.

Available in The World-Herald’s lobby and at local bookstores.

Order online at OWHstore.com or by phone at 402-444-1014.

Cost is $29.95.

MICHAEL KELLY

Omaha has a lot to offer, and Kelly’s book celebrates how unique the metro area is.

SARAH HOFFMAN/THE WORLD-HERALD

people, and a $1.2 billion headquarters is under construction. — Despite ConAgra’s decision to move its headquarters to Chicago, Omaha remains home to four Fortune 500 companies and lots of others that work globally. — With about $60 million in donations, Omaha is building a unique tri-faith campus, with a synagogue opened and plans moving forward for a church and a mosque.

From the growing suburban towns of Sarpy County to the western expansion of the city to the infill developments Ak-Sar-Ben Village and midtown Crossing to the growth on the Iowa side of the river in and around Council Bluffs, greater Omaha seems poised for greater things.

Omaha has changed a lot, especially in the past 20 years or so. A kind of quiet reserve about our city is replaced with steady confidence.

We’re all for chuckling at ourselves, though, and if outsiders tease us about our city sitting in the middle of nowhere, we’re in on the joke.

When Bette Midler opened a show at our glittery riverfront arena with a boffo musical number and received a standing ovation, her eyes glistened as she put her hands to her heart and quipped with a sigh of mock sincerity: “Omaha! I’ve finally made it!� The Omaha

Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce — named the nation’s top chamber in 2015 — enlisted Omaha writers, producers and artists to collaborate on a non-complacency slogan.

They came up with what they called an edgy one: “We Don’t Coast.�

No, we don’t coast — we innovate. We unite, we launch, we inspire. We kick, punch and create. We make waves. We boogie. We accomplish more together.

That’s the ideal, and it’s the kind of positive outlook that keeps a city on its toes. Setbacks occur and obstacles must be overcome, but a nimble city like Omaha can do so.

Writing “Uniquely Omaha� allowed me to think of my home broadly — and it only renewed my appreciation for it.

Yes, the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium is ranked among the world’s best and continues to expand. The Old Market, despite the fire this month that ravaged a beloved restaurant, a clothing store and upstairs homes, remains a top attraction for locals and visitors.

A sampling of highlights: — The Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting attracts 40,000 people each spring to CenturyLink Center Omaha, the venue that will host the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials this summer for the third Olympiad in a row. — Offutt Air Force Base and nearby defense contractors employ more than 10,000

audience roared with laughter.

Omaha values straightforward, no-baloney simplicity. Omaha’s airport maintains its modest name of Eppley Airfield. The Table Supply Meat Company in the 1960s changed its name to Omaha Steaks. The Mutual Benefit Health & Accident Association became Mutual of Omaha.

World-famous investor Warren Buffett, known as the Oracle of Omaha, has maintained a simple lifestyle in spite of his billions, still living in the modest house he bought near Memorial Park and Elmwood Park in 1958.

Near TD Ameritrade Park, the “Fertile Ground� mural — one of the five largest in the world — declares that Omaha is a fertile place for personal and community growth.

Outsiders see it, too.

The Wall Street Journal called Omaha “one of the nation’s biggest success stories,� and Kiplinger’s noted our “stereotype-busting cultural scene.�

In 1958, local and national figures were asked to predict what Omaha would look like in the early 21st century. Some envisioned us all flying personal rocket ships.

We’re not. But you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that Omaha has propelled itself forward in recent decades and laid a foundation for future generations.

OUTLOOK 2016

Taking a cue from the new book, “Uniquely Omaha: 101 Things to Know About the Big O� by Michael Kelly, this section explores what makes the Omaha area special.

Look for excerpts from the book throughout the section.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

OUTLOOK

ENTERTAINMENT & EVENTS

UNIQUELY OMAHA

World-Herald columnist Michael Kelly weaves stories, facts, history and oddities into a paint-by-number — 101 — portrait of the city he knows so well. Artistry and attractions, celebrities and celebrations, inventions and innovations — add it all up, and it’s Uniquely Omaha.

Overview

Omaha plays host to a wide range of entertainment, from pop stars to symphony concerts, one-act plays to Broadway musicals.

OUTLOOK

101

BIG O

ABOUT THE

THINGS TO KNOW

Pages 1 to 6 Which jobs are hot? Look here for a list. Plus, how Omaha and Nebraska rank as places to live and work, what young professionals are saying about the future, how startup founders grow their companies, what’s new at Berkshire Hathaway and an introductory column by Michael Kelly.

PLUS TAX & SHIPPING

ORDER ONLINE: OWHSTORE.COM OR BY PHONE:

$29.95

Real Estate & Development

Pages 7 to 12 Midtown development, the 70th anniversary of the Metro Omaha Builders Association and the business of real estate are all part of this section.

Plus, from “Uniquely Omaha,� how annexation has helped the city grow through the decades.

Health & Fitness

UNIQUELY OMAHA

OUTLOOK

FINANCE & INSURANCE

Pages 29 to 34 Learn how to protect your paper and electronic information, find out what financial planners think about money topics, determine your insurance needs, and see whether you’re ready for retirement.

Plus, mobile banking is putting more tools in consumers’ hands.

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and his vice chairman Charlie Munger are seen on big screens as they answer questions at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha.

OUTLOOK

REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT New developments continue on West Dodge Road near 192nd Street.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

OUTLOOK

HEALTH & FITNESS

Despite the cold winters, Omaha has been recognized by a number of organizations for its recreation opportunities and active lifestyle.

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Education Jobs

Pages 13 to 20 An update on construction projects at area hospitals. Want to know which hospitals have been most popular with expectant parents in recent years? We have the numbers.

Plus, how things are going at Think Whole Person Healthcare.

Finance & Insurance

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Entertainment & Events

Pages 21 to 28 Though big events regularly come to Omaha, there’s plenty to do here every day. Check out upcoming events, take a look at Omaha venues, get an update on the vibrant arts scene and find a list of popular entertainment districts and their offerings.

OUTLOOK

EDUCATION

Omaha South High Magnet School’s Commencement Ceremony at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs.

Education

Pages 35 to 46 Discover how colleges use study abroad as a tool to recruit students. Check out Concordia Lutheran Schools, green schools, the merits of grad school, and two programs that encourage students to attend community college. Looking for a job? Your alma mater might be able to help.

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Outlook Staff Special sections editor: Shelley Larsen Assignment editors: Kiley Cruse, Howard K. Marcus and Shelley Larsen Designers: Kiley Cruse and Tom Knox Writers: Michelle Bandur, Steve Beideck, Henry J. Cordes, Kiley Cruse, Cole Epley, Betsie Freeman, Cindy Gonzalez, Joe Hearn, Jim Hegarty, Joseph Janowski, Steve Jordon, Melinda Keenan, Michael Kelly, Howard K. Marcus, Susan Szalewski, Sue Story Truax, Todd von Kampen and Mike Whye Copy editors: Dan Sullivan and Melinda Keenan Section cover photos: The Associated Press, Kiley Cruse, Megan Farmer, Rebecca S. Gratz, Matt Miller and Kent Sievers Advertising information: Contact Dan Matuella, 402-444-1485 or dan.matuella@owh.com. For additional copies of Outlook, call 402-444-1419.

OVERVIEW OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Young Professionals Summit What: One-day conference aimed at personal, professional and community development When: 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 3 Where: CenturyLink Center Omaha Cost: $150 or $65 for students; scholarships available Attendance: About 1,500 Theme: Uncharted Organizer: Omaha Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Council Registration: omahaypsummit.org by Feb. 25

Last year was the 10th anniversary of the Omaha Young Professionals Summit.

B R E N D A N S U L L I VA N THE WORLD-HERALD

Young professionals look ahead

By Steve Jordon •

World-Herald staff writer

When you talk about the future, you’re talking young people. So who better to outline 2016 and beyond than young professionals?

Specifically, members of the governing board of the Greater Omaha Young Professionals Council, an affiliate of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

Talk to a few of them, and you’ll get a wide-ranging view of the metro area’s possibilities, issues and directions, from social media to public transportation, from gender identity to exploring neighborhoods, from volunteering to thriving in “a safe, happy place.” Here’s a sampling of their comments.

Lindsey Spehn, senior consultant, Gallup As chairwoman of this year’s Young Professionals Summit, Spehn heads a team working to assemble 1,500 or more people interested in developing themselves, their employers and their community.

“We increasingly are getting a seat at the table,” Spehn said. “We have a louder voice in the community now than we ever have had before. It’s a great opportunity and also a great responsibility to really maximize what we can be doing for our own organizations and for the Omaha community.”

The 2016 summit, set for March 3 at the CenturyLink Center, includes keynote speakers and breakout sessions on multigenerational workplaces, community redevelopment and collaboration, the art of finding opportunities, discovering your personal brand, charting your path to giving back, reducing crime and Omaha in 2025.

“I’m most excited about the talent that we have here now in Omaha, and the talent that we’re developing,” Spehn said.

The city’s 11th annual summit will give attendees a venue to start shaping themselves and their community, she said, but it’s just a starting point.

People may start new businesses or do something creative within their current jobs, she said. Or they could become involved with a new organization. Each person can answer this question: “What can I be doing to make this the best Omaha for everyone?”

Spehn said Omaha is alive with organizations, career opportunities, a favorable cost of living, a vibrant entertainment scene and other attractions.

“It kind of creates that perfect storm of a really exciting time to be a young professional in the greater Omaha area,” she said. “We have so many things as a city. We’re hoping that people can focus on how they can be the best versions of themselves and chart their own course.

“It’s about making Omaha a cool place to move to but also a place to stay where you can live, work and play for a long time. We need to rise to the occasion. We want to make our organizations and our community proud.”

Andres Torres, engineer, Valmont Industries Omaha could use some improvement to keep attracting and retaining young professionals, said Torres, who came to Omaha from his native Colombia intending to spend six months improving his English and ended up earning a master’s degree in engineering, getting a job and falling in love with the city.

“Omaha became home the moment I became involved in the community,” Torres said. “I’m passionate about Omaha. It’s a great city, and that’s something I can share personally with other people.”

He picked Omaha because it was affordable and he believed he could be immersed in English, rather than choosing a city with a large Hispanic population where he would mostly speak Spanish.

“The Midwest is a great place to learn English. People are so friendly and open,” he said.

But young professionals — he favors a broad definition, beyond 9-5 office workers — want to live in a city where they can make a difference in the lives of their fellow residents, he said.

“Community involvement and volunteer work — that’s important for young professionals,” Torres said. “Omaha is a place where connections are important. So when you are coming from another city somewhere, the main challenge is for you to meet people.

“If you are able to overcome that first obstacle, to connect with other people, that would be fantastic.”

He said that for many in Omaha, there are two degrees of separation. “If you meet someone, you probably both know someone else. But if you don’t know people, Omaha is a difficult place, especially if you come from another country. It’s a challenge to meet people and get to know people.”

His solution: Find a way for the many groups in the city to network with each other so that they can get to know what others are doing, broadening the network of contacts within the city.

“If we can bring the groups together, we can work together as a whole to make things sweet.”

Angel Starks, real estate agent, Nebraska Realty, Young Professionals engagement chair Starks’ dream is that 2016 will be a year when people in the Omaha area get out of their comfort zones.

“If we want to grow as a community and a city all together, we have to be able to increase our empathy and understanding of other cultures and communities,” Starks said. “The only way we find out about other individuals right now is through the news. ... Let’s face it, a lot of the time it’s very negative.

“People get that impression, instead of getting involved at an authentic level, actually knowing what’s happening and getting

information first-hand.

“Sometimes we ... need to go and explore and to know what great things we actually have here. People need to see things from different perspectives, whether it’s Village Pointe or Elkhorn or downtown or northeast Omaha.”

Starks’ call is for people to make an effort to find out what’s happening in all parts of the city and then follow through, trying new things in new places and with new people.

It’s easy to get stuck in a routine that’s comfortable but not stimulating, she said.

“I fell into that trap a few years ago. I was thinking about relocating elsewhere, just because I felt like Omaha had nothing to offer me,” Starks said. “I was taking frequent trips to Kansas City or different places that gave me some ideas. Then I realized that a lot of those things are here. I just have to reach out and find it.”

The most rewarding experiences can begin with things that are unfamiliar, she said.

“People tend to stay in their comfort zones,” Starks said. “I’d like to see more mixing of individuals, to see different areas of town together just a little bit more. I’d like to get people connected with Omaha in general.

“We’re all the city of Omaha. As we grow, we want to make sure we include everybody.”

Kenley Sturdivant-Wilson, fundraiser, Nebraska Humane Society, 2015 chair Omaha benefits from “locals” who stay; “transplants,” who move to town; and “boomerangs,” who leave their hometown but return.

And Omaha needs them all, Sturdivant-Wilson says.

“We want to make sure people understand that Omaha’s a great place to stay,” he said. “Omaha can’t compete with the beach, and you can’t compete with New York City or Chicago or Los Angeles. But Omaha has a lot of the things those large cities have to offer, and you can do them a lot cheaper here.”

Omaha, he said, offers what young professionals want: “A safe, happy place where they can thrive.”

The Young Professionals’ efforts for 2016 include backing legislation that would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The measure stalled in the 2015 Legislature.

“As a state, are we projecting the best baseline for people who want to move here?” Wilson said. “I think this is important for the next generation. They don’t want their friends to be discriminated against, and they don’t want themselves to be discriminated against. Having that law in place will help attract people.

“Ultimately, we’re becoming a community that’s more diverse in many ways. And that’s very attractive to young professionals.”

Scott Dobbe, associate architect, DLR group Looking ahead is what Dobbe does for a living.

“So much of what we do is focused on the near term, but the nature of my work is, we often have to project much further into the future,” the architect said. “The buildings we design take more than a year to construct, and sometimes much longer.

What we’re working on now could open in 2018 or

much later.”

Dobbe said young professionals “want to be here for a long time.

We’re interested in how it looks and feels today, and we have high hopes for that. But at the same time I’m concerned what the city will look like in 2025 or 2030 or 2050. We hope to be still around, and our kids are here.

“There’s things that happen in the city that maybe we don’t quite see yet — for example, the rapid transit system. I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, that’s great, but nobody rides the bus.’ It’s a hard comment to take. You have to start somewhere. ... There’s a lot of things we’re doing today that we won’t see the fruits of right away but will see in 2020 or 2050.”

The Dodge Street Bus Rapid Transit line, supported by a $30 million federal grant, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2018, with 27 stations on the route.

“I think that is the critical first link in the larger network to come,” Dobbe said. “I think there’s thought being given to, that this isn’t the end, that this is just the first step. And over time, maybe we’ll see westward expansion or north-south routes, that will really beef up our transit capabilities so it’s not such a leap to ride the bus.”

Dobbe, who is married and has two young children, said it’s important for the city. “I lived in a city (Chicago) with mass transit, and I didn’t need to waste my meager income on an automobile and car expenses. There’s a certain feeling of freedom from having a train pass or a bus pass and getting where I want to go.

“When you’re trying to recruit younger professionals,” he said, “if they’ve either grown up with or become accustomed to the convenience of transit, to move back to a very immature transit system is looked upon as a step backward.”

Dobbe grew up in Kearney, Nebraska, and returned to Omaha after his time in Chicago.

“It’s a great place to raise kids,” he said. “It’s a great place to live.

Exciting things happen in Omaha. But we can always be better.”

Contact the writer: 402-444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com twitter.com/buffettOWH

Wendy Townley, development director, Omaha Public Library Foundation, 2016 chair Social media gives Omaha a boost by letting people find ways to connect, opening the city’s gates to those who want to be invested and involved in the city’s future.

“I keep an eye on social media, and the number of events happening on any given day in Omaha is amazing,” Townley said. “They aren’t just concentrated downtown. They are out west, and in Sarpy County, and clustered in Benson and lots of places — fundraisers, art exhibits, pop-up retail shops, the local food scene.

“The sheer volume of events, big and small — the hope is that it’s making a rich experience for these men and women when they’re looking for something outside work.”

People coming to town or longtime residents who are starting their careers sometimes wonder how to meet interesting people and find ways to help their community.

“It’s a matter of keeping plugged in,” Townley said. “On some days you have to pick and choose where to go, because you can’t make it everywhere. It’s a matter of taking the initiative and knowing there’s other ways to get involved.

“Really, it’s just, pick an event and show up. That’s the quickest way to get involved. There is such a diversity of people and backgrounds and beliefs and interests.”

Omaha is attracting young adults, including many from other cities, said Townley, an Omaha native.

“I’m always amazed when I meet someone new who has taken a career path that’s completely different from mine, to learn what attracted them to that line of work,” she said. “The number of people you meet who are moving here, who are calling Omaha home for the first time — I’ve lived here all my life, and I’m proud that we have so many people that have been drawn to Omaha.

“There really is something for everyone in Omaha. The hard part is narrowing down where to start.”

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

Accelerators, incubators help boost startups FOUNDERS

Resources for entrepreneurs

Crumb founders Luis Lopez, right, and his brother, Danny Lopez, work on a project in their office at the Exchange Building in downtown Omaha. The brothers used business accelerator Straight Shot to build their company.

Crumb helps hospitals integrate otherwiseincompatible data systems that store patient information.

A sampling of business accelerators and incubators around Nebraska.

Accelerators Provide programming and often seed investment to help entrepreneurs build their companies quickly. The mentoring experience helps entrepreneurs determine whether a particular business concept has good potential for substantial growth. Seed investment typically ranges from $10,000 to $100,000 in exchange for about 5 to 10 percent equity. » Straight Shot 1111 N. 13th St., Studio 119 402-202-2795 http://straightshot.co Annually chooses a group of seven to 10 early-stage technology companies, makes a $20,000 investment in each and provides an intense three-month mentoring process.

Incubators These typically offer office space and a range of services that can include external management, development, accounting, legal and more. Time spent with an incubator is usually longer than with an accelerator.

H O WA R D K .

MARCUS THE WORLDHERALD

By Howard K. Marcus

B

» NMotion 151 N. Eighth St., Suite 500, Lincoln 402-770-9567 http://www.nmotion.co NMotion is a mentor-driven startup accelerator that focuses on highgrowth software and technologybased businesses in agriculture, sports, finance/insurance, HR and marketing technologies.

photos from family members. Johnson said an increasing number of residents are arriving at retirement communities with tablets.

From the staff perspective, LifeLoop tracks residents’ engagement, allowing staff to be proactive when they notice changes that may indicate health problems. Features for staffers let them share information with each other more easily and efficiently.

The idea for the product came along in early 2014.

“My husband and I had a couple relatives that were transitioning into senior-living communities, and we saw the need from a family perspective,” Johnson said. “We just felt a gap in communication with our relatives that had recently transitioned into those communities. The other big piece was that my husband’s grandmother was declining pretty quickly, and we felt like we missed some warning signs and should have probably had her in a higher level of care quicker, if we would have known that data.”

After working briefly with a couple of freelance software engineers, Johnson said, she realized more expertise was needed to develop the product.

That’s when she learned about The Garage by Aviture, an Omaha-area incubator.

Mark Griffis, managing partner of Aviture, said The Garage’s focus is on helping startups reach milestones.

“Whatever level they come in at, the goal is to get them to that next level,” he said.

To make that happen, The Garage provides mentorship, curriculum and the accountability to make sure the companies are progressing.

“The goal is to create viable high tech startup companies and ensure that they get to the next level,” Griffis said. “We try to create as much skin in the game as possible. In all of our companies, we’ve invested cash.”

Griffis, who also is CEO of Aviture, the software development firm that spawned The Garage, said the startups in The Garage can receive access to discounted software development services from Aviture in exchange for equity.

The length of stay can vary.

“Our big thing is to make sure that, when they leave, that they’re viable companies. We don’t want to just push them out the door and hope that they make it,” Griffis said.

“Our target is nine to 12 months. It really depends on whether we have an ongoing relationship with them or not.

A good example of that would be LifeLoop. They’re at the point where they’re making money, they’ve got cash flow coming in, they’re set up for the next round of investment, but the relationship has just been advantageous for them to continue to stay there and grow,” he said.

Johnson said being part of The Garage since April 2014 has been helpful in many ways, especially when it comes to accessing software developers. Unlike most incubators, the Garage allows startups to hire Aviture developers away if they wish to do so.

“Aviture has 90 developers. You can expose multiple developers to your project, which is what they’ve done.

They’ve pulled people on and off, and allowed us to give them some visibility into what we’re doing, so they can decide if this is something they want to do. So when it comes time for us to hire a developer, then we’ll be able to open it up to that group,” she said.

“Another big part of The Garage is the mentorship and just being able to bounce ideas off different people. It’s very valuable.”

LifeLoop has hired its first director of client services and its product is in use by 23 facilities in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Oregon.

“We’re very focused on sales right now and growing our block of business,” Johnson said.

World-Herald staff writer

usinesses are founded for all kinds of reasons. In Luis Lopez’s case, it was almost an accident.

Lopez had spent part of 2012 in Spain. After returning to Omaha in 2013, he wanted a laptop computer but didn’t have the money.

Then he found out about a business plan competition being put on by the University of Nebraska of Omaha that offered cash prizes.

He entered at nearly the last minute, coming up with an idea for a product called CardioSys. “It was kind of like a Fitbit for heart disease,” Lopez said.

His spur-of-the-moment entry was good enough to net him third place in the contest.

“I got like a grand out of it, so I went ahead and got the laptop,” Lopez said.

Then he decided he really liked his idea and wanted to pursue it.

He talked his brother, Danny Lopez, into helping him.

Together they set about looking for a way to turn the idea into a company.

They wanted to go through a business accelerator — an entity that provides short-term programming and other help to entrepreneurs, often including seed investment — in exchange for 5 to 10 percent ownership of the business.

After considering their options, the Lopez brothers thought about applying to an accelerator in Italy.

Then they learned about Straight Shot, an Omaha-based accelerator.

“I decided I’d rather build something here in Omaha than go halfway around the world,” Luis Lopez said.

They were accepted by Straight Shot and went through its program in 2013, along with seven other companies from Nebraska, California, Kentucky and North Carolina.

“The experience for us was awesome because we were able to go from zero to like 100 in just a month and a half,” Lopez said. “We put in a lot of work, but we quickly realized which things were not working.”

Along the way, CardioSys rebranded and changed its focus, moving from a specific heart-related product to development of a data-management system to integrate patient health information at hospitals.

The Lopezes call their company Crumb. Luis is the CEO. Crumb deals with everything from discrepancies in patient names to different computer languages in different systems.

“We get a problem that no one’s been able to solve, and we have to sit down and solve it,” he said. “We don’t have a year to solve it, we have two weeks or three weeks.”

After some initial success for the company, things took a downturn but now are on the upswing.

“Startups are a ton of work — really difficult,” Lopez said. “Tons of stress, high pressure. One day you’re at the top of the world. Next day you’re in the trenches, trying to figure out how you’re going to make enough money to get food tomorrow.”

For Crumb, the decision to go through an accelerator was well-considered. Another option would have been to work with a business incubator, which typically offers office space, pooled secretarial services, accounting services, legal assistance and other help to startups that have better-developed concepts and enough resources to work on developing their products for six months to three years or more.

“We felt that we were too early-stage to get into an incubator, without having proven anything,” Lopez said.

For another Omaha startup, LifeLoop, using an incubator was the right move.

LifeLoop founder Amy Johnson said her company’s product is a web-based lifestyle management and resident engagement platform for senior living communities that connects residents, families and staff.

“Not only does it connect them, but it does it how they want to be connected,” she said.

For example, family members can send messages to staff and residents, and can get a feel for what residents are doing by looking at photos of activities shared by staffers.

Residents also have access to staff-uploaded photos, an option to upload some of their own images, and can view

Contact the writer: 402-444-1397, howard.marcus@owh.com

» The Island of Misfit Toys 151 N. Eighth St., Suite 300, Lincoln 402-325-1527 www.nebraskaglobal.com or www. dontpaniclabs.com A co-working incubation space run

by Nebraska Global, a software investment company in Lincoln.

Companies in “the Island” work alongside expert entrepreneurs, software developers and other peers. » Omaha Startup Collaborative at The Exchange 1905 Harney St., Suite 800 402-345-5025 www.omahaexchange.co Provides a network of peers and mentors, actionable programming, and functional and flexible space for high-risk, high-growth startups to scale. » The Garage by Aviture 8802 S. 135th St. 800-590-4950 https://garagebyaviture.com The Garage is a business-tobusiness incubator that provides product development, capital and mentoring to high growth financial, health care and logistics startups. It helps entrepreneurs build worldclass products and learn how to run scalable technology companies. » Prairie Ventures 17117 Oak Drive, Suite A 402-398-2200 www.prairieventures.net Offers shared services (human resources, information technology support, finance/accounting, marketing and management) to small startups. » Year of the Startup 3100 Chicago St. 903-806-5349 www.yearofthestartup.com Year of the Startup offers shared housing, mentoring and seed funds to entrepreneurs in the early stages of starting a business. » Southeast Community College business incubator 285 S. 68th St., Lincoln 402-437-2524 https://www.southeast. edu/entrepreneurship/ businessincubationandcoaching In the resident incubator, business owners have their own offices, shared use of copy/fax/scan machine, and access to business coaches and peer networking – all in a professional setting. During the three-year period, incubator business owners are required to continue their education and/ or training, meet with business coaches and write a comprehensive business plan. » Central Community College Small Business Incubator Center

4500 63rd St., Columbus 402-564-7132 https://www.cccneb.edu/SmallBusiness-Incubator The incubator provides numerous services throughout the 25-county area served by Central Community College. It offers counseling services designed to address business problems and opportunities, a place to start a new business at affordable rents, and financial assistance (in the form of loans) to aid in starting a new business or continuing an existing business. » The Nebraska City Small Business Incubator American National Bank 920 Central Ave., Nebraska City 402-873-3338 www.nebraskacityareaedc.com This collaborative effort between Southeast Community College’s Entrepreneurship Center business incubator, American National Bank and Nebraska City Area Economic Development Corporation provides mentoring and business coaching to foster the growth, development and success of entrepreneurial businesses. » The Scott Technology Transfer and Incubator Center 6825 Pine St., No. 123 402-502-6000 www.scottdatacenter.com The Scott Technology Center’s incubator program targets cuttingedge, high-risk technology or engineering projects with promising economic outcomes and possibility for high growth. Companies in the Scott Technology Incubator can reside there for up to three years and work with strategic partners to help expand the business.

Sources: Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, World-Herald archives

A FAMILY TRADITION SINCE 1921 Professional.

Proven.

(402) 339-1000

■

www.lueder.com

Pictured: Lifegate Church, West Dodge Campus

rotellasbakery.com

OVERVIEW OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Opportunities await in service industries

hot jobs Here are the “hot jobs” in eight employment categories, with the number of projected job openings this year (percentage change from last year); average hourly wage (average annual wage); and minimum education requirement.

HEALTH Registered nurse 478 (2.6%) $28.35/hr. ($58,962/yr.) associate degree Nursing assistant 285 (2.4%) $12.22/hr. ($25,412/yr.) postsecondary non-degree Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurse 231 (4.3%) $19.09/hr. ($39,712/yr.) postsecondary non-degree award Personal care aide 231 (7.6%) $11/hr. ($22,880/yr.) less than high school Social and human service assistant 183 (4.2%) $12.28/hr. ($25,538/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Child care worker 178 (3.2%) $9.54/hr. ($19,849/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Medical assistant 134 (4.1%) $14.90/hr. ($30,988/yr.) postsecondary non-degree award Medical secretary 124 (4.4%) $15.97/hr. ($33,225/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Receptionist or information clerk 118 (4.0%) $12.98/hr. ($27,006/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Home health aide 82 (6.8%) $11.92/hr. ($24,809/yr.) less than high school

MANUFACTURING Meat, poultry, and fish cutter or trimmer 326 (2.8%) $14.04/hr. ($29,204/yr.) less than high school Team assembler 187 (3.1%) $15.35/hr. ($31,926/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Welder, cutter, solderer, and brazer 124 (3.7%) $17.52/hr. ($36,452/yr.) postsecondary non-degree award Industrial machinery mechanic 119 (5.4%) $22.27/hr. ($46,326/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Machinist 98 (4.1%) $18.29/hr. ($38,060/yr.) postsecondary non-degree award Inspector, tester, sorter, sampler or weigher 95 (3.4%) $18.27/hr. ($38,012/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Computer-controlled machine tool operator (metal and plastic) 77 (6.0%) $17.04/hr. ($35,438/yr.) postsecondary non-degree award Laborer or freight, stock, and material mover (hand) 75 (1.9%) $13.30/hr. ($27,657/yr.) less than high school First-line supervisor of production and operating workers 48 (1.4%) $27.40/hr. ($57,000/yr.) postsecondary non-degree award Heavy and tractor-trailer truck driver 47 (3.6%) $20.87/hr. ($43,412/yr.) postsecondary non-degree award

EDUCATION Teacher assistant 207 (2.0%) ($22,974/yr.) some college/no degree Elementary school teacher, except special education 199 (2.0%) ($50,763/yr.) bachelor’s degree Middle school teacher, except special and career/technical education 71 (2.0%) ($52,423/yr.) bachelor’s degree Secondary school teacher, except special and career/technical education 155 (2.0%) ($52,128/yr.) bachelor’s degree Substitute teacher 110 (2.0%) $16.51/hr. ($34,334/yr.) bachelor’s degree Postsecondary teacher, all other 41 (2.0%) ($49,876/yr.) doctoral or professional degree Janitor or cleaner 79 (2.0%) $11.58/hr. ($24,103/yr.) less than high school Secretary or administrative assistant 73 (2.0%) $15.53/hr. ($32,307/yr.) high school diploma Office clerk, general 59 (2.0%) $12.53/hr. ($26,057/yr.) high school diploma Bus driver 40 (2.0%) $14.30/hr. ($29,732/yr.) high school diploma

By Melinda Keenan

REAL ESTATE/RENTAL Counter or rental clerk 37 (2.0%) $12.79/hr. ($26,612/yr.)

Maintenance and repair worker, general 26 (2.2%) $17.77/hr. ($36,977/yr.)

Secretary or administrative assistant 17 (2.7%) $15.53/hr. ($32,307/yr.)

Bookkeeping, accounting or auditing clerk 12 (2.7%) $16.29/hr. ($33,875/yr.)

Sales representative 6 (2.6%) $26.79/hr. ($55,716/yr.)

Janitor or cleaner 5 (2.2%) $11.58/hr. ($24,103/yr.)

Office clerk 4 (1.6%) $12.53/hr. ($26,057/yr.)

First-line supervisor of retail sales workers 4 (2.2%) $19.87/hr. ($41,336/yr.)

Accountant or auditor 4 (2.2%) $32.69/hr. ($67,995/yr.)

Landscaping and groundskeeping worker 4 (2.6%) $12.56/hr. ($26,123/yr.)

less than high school high school diploma high school diploma high school diploma high school diploma less than high school high school diploma high school diploma bachelor’s degree less than high school

FINANCE/INSURANCE

high school diploma bachelor’s degree

LEISURE/HOSPITALITY

bachelor’s degree bachelor’s degree high school diploma some college, no degree bachelor’s degree bachelor’s degree bachelor’s degree bachelor’s degree

TRANSPORTATION Heavy or tractor-trailer truck driver 526 (2.6%) $20.87/hr. ($43,412/yr.) postsecondary non-degree Laborer or freight, stock and material mover (hand) 141 (3.8%) $13.30/hr. ($27,657/yr.) less than high school Railroad conductor or yardmaster 60 (1.9%) na (na) high school diploma Locomotive engineer 49 (2.0%) na (na) high school diploma Signal and track switch repairer 41 (1.9%) na (na) high school diploma Rail car repairer 30 (2.0%) $21.37/hr. ($44,443/yr.) high school diploma Machinist 30 (4.2%) $18.29/hr. ($38,060/yr.) postsecondary non-degree Bus driver 29 (2.9%) $14.30/hr. ($29,732/yr.) high school diploma General or operations manager 26 (2.5%) $53.52/hr. ($111,319/yr.) bachelor’s degree First-line supervisor of mechanics, installers and repairers 25 (2.1%) $30.58/hr. ($63,615/yr.) high school diploma

NURSING

A bartender makes a drink at a Midtown Crossing bar. Bartenders are highly sought after in the leisure/hospitality category.

Customer service representative 121 (1.9%) $15.33/hr. ($31,871/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Loan officer 97 (3.4%) $37.02/hr. ($76,991/yr.) bachelor’s degree Teller 96 (2.0%) $11.97/hr. ($24,895/yr.) high school diploma Insurance sales agent 67 (1.6%) $27.07/hr. ($56,294/yr.) high school diploma Secretary or administrative assistant 66 (2.6%) $15.53/hr. ($32,307/yr.) high school diploma Loan interviewer or clerk 62 (3.4%) $17.66/hr. ($36,720/yr.) high school diploma First-line supervisor of office and administrative support workers 51 (2.0%) $23.93/hr. ($49,785/yr.) high school diploma Computer systems analyst 45 (4.4%) $36.35/hr. ($75,621/yr.) bachelor’s degree Personal financial adviser 41 (6.9%) $54.36/hr. ($113,077/yr.) bachelor’s degree Securities, commodities and financial services sales agent 38 (2.3%) $41.09/hr. ($85,472/yr.) bachelor’s degree

PROFESSIONAL Software developer, applications 123 (7.7%) $38.67/hr. ($80,430/yr.)

Accountant or auditor 107 (4.3%) $32.69/hr. ($67,995/yr.)

Interviewer, except eligibility and loan 103 (4.8%) $13.51/hr. ($28,097/yr.)

Computer user support specialist 81 (8.6%) $22.36/hr. ($46,505/yr.)

Network and computer systems administrator 66 (5.6%) $33.90/hr. ($70,511/yr.)

Computer systems analyst 65 (6.8%) $36.35/hr. ($75,621/yr.)

Computer programmer 61 (4.1%) $37.55/hr. ($78,105/yr.)

Software developer, systems software 55 (7.4%) $41.29/hr. ($85,891/yr.)

Sales representative 54 (5.8%) $26.79/hr. ($55,716/yr.)

Market research analyst or marketing specialist 53 (9.3%) $30/hr. ($62,402/yr.)

M AT T M I L L E R / T H E W O R L D - H E R A L D

SERVING

Combined food preparation and serving worker, including fast food 663 (3.9%) $9.06/hr. ($18,829/yr.) less than high school Waiter or waitress 323 (2.1%) $8.89/hr. ($18,499/yr.) less than high school Cook, restaurant 168 (4.0%) $11.03/hr. ($22,933/yr.) less than high school Cook, fast food 57 (1.0%) $9.03/hr. ($18,768/yr.) less than high school First-line supervisor of food preparation and serving workers 163 (3.9%) $14.73/hr. ($30,626/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Bartender 155 (3.5%) $9.09/hr. ($18,912/yr.) less than high school Maid or housekeeping cleaner 82 (3.2%) $9.63/hr. ($20,035/yr.) less than high school Food preparation worker 74 (1.9%) $9.29/hr. ($19,335/yr.) less than high school Hotel, motel or resort desk clerk 64 (3.9%) $9.70/hr. ($20,172/yr.) high school diploma or equivalent Host or hostess, restaurant, lounge or coffee shop 50 (2.1%) $8.89/hr. ($18,498/yr.) less than high school

World-Herald staff writer

W

hether you are looking for your first job or a career change, Nebraska businesses have an opportunity for you.

The hottest jobs in 2016 will be in the hospitality, transportation and health care industries, where businesses will be looking to fill thousands of new positions, according to the Nebraska Department of Labor.

In the food service business alone, nearly 1,500 jobs will be created for waiters, cooks, bartenders, and food preparation servers and supervisors, according to an analysis of labor data.

In transportation, more than 500 drivers will be needed to fill the seats in heavy and tractor-trailer rigs this year.

And in health care, the state will need 478 new registered nurses, 285 nursing assistants, and 231 licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses.

What is driving the job boom in these areas is simple. These three industries — leisure/hospitality, transportation/warehousing and health care/social assistance — are among the biggest in Nebraska.

Together, they account for 26.4 percent of the employment in the state, said Jodie Meyer, the research analyst who examined employment trends from 2014 to 2016 to make the job projections.

So a 2 percent or 3 percent job growth in these industries translates into hundreds of new positions.

“I think that these trends will continue,” Meyer said. “I actually took this list to see what the demand was in the current long-term projections for the 2012-2022 time frame, and all of them are anticipated to have high demand in the long term as well.”

But if these jobs aren’t what you’re looking for, Meyer also identified hot jobs in the other industry categories.

Among them, the state anticipates demand for software developers, accountants, teachers and teacher assistants, meat cutters/trimmers, welders, machine mechanics, and finance/insurance customer service representatives.

Job skills and salaries vary, according to information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Labor.

While the majority of the jobs require at least a high school diploma, some do not.

Those include personal care and home health aides, meat cutters, laborers, janitors and clerks. The average hourly wage for these jobs ranges from $9 to $14.

The top salaries go to jobs that require at least a bachelor’s degree. Personal financial advisers and general/operations managers in the transportation industry can earn six-figure annual salaries.

BRYNN ANDERSON/THE WORLD-HERALD

Openings for registered nurses are expected to grow by 2.6 percent in Nebraska this year. Second-year nursing students give a full body assessment to a mannequin during a nursing school student simulation.

PROFESSIONAL

R E B E C C A S . G R AT Z / T H E W O R L D - H E R A L D

Software developers are expected to be among the top earners among the hot jobs listed above.

5Y

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OUT- OVERVIEW

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

Completion of Precision Castparts deal tops Berkshire’s agenda — for now

By Steve Jordon World-Herald staff writer

Sure, 50 years of growth is good.

But what about the next 50 years?

Last May, shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. celebrated Warren Buffett’s golden anniversary at the helm of the Omaha investment company.

The decorations for the meeting at the CenturyLink Center were golden, the cover of the annual report was golden, and if the souvenirs weren’t really gold, at least some of them were shiny.

But in the world of investments, the yardstick is what you plan to do in the future, and there’s a well-worn adage: Past performance is not a predictor of the future.

With Berkshire, you could add, “as much as you might hope it is.”

From 1965 to 2015, Berkshire’s returns averaged 21.6 percent a year, twice the rate of the overall stock market.

There’s no telling what the average will be going forward, although Buffett says he expects to do moderately better, over the long haul, than the stock market as a whole.

Meanwhile, the idea is to take care of busi-

1

ness as it turns up.

The top item on Berkshire’s agenda this year: acquiring Precision Castparts Inc., the Oregon-based manufacturer of landing gear and other heavy-duty equipment for airliners and spacecraft.

The price is $32 billion in cash, plus assuming $5 billion in debt. The sale, which is on track, would boost Berkshire’s industrial manufacturing sector in a long-term growth business that is difficult for competitors to duplicate.

If there’s a challenge for Buffett and Berkshire in 2016, it’s a familiar one: Investing cash into businesses that have rosy long-term futures and are big enough to make a difference in Berkshire’s bottom line. The company accumulates about $1.5 billion a month that Buffett wants to put to work to make more money for the company’s 1 million-plus shareholders.

Chance are, that will happen in four basic ways: “Bolt-on” acquisitions.

Existing Berkshire businesses — 10 of them big enough to be members of the Fortune 500 by themselves — acquire related businesses and combine them into their operations. For example, Berkshire Energy acquired NV Ener-

gy, a leading Nevada power company, in 2013.

Chance are there are more businesses in the energy industry that will come under Berkshire’s spotlight, and other Berkshire businesses are scouting for bolt-ons, too.

Stock purchases.

Buffett and his investment lieutenants, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, continue to build their stock holdings by buying more of the same or buying significant blocks of shares in new companies they believe will gain long-term value. One way the value of the stock holdings grows: Companies buy up more of their own stock, which gives Berkshire-owned stock a bigger ownership share.

Acquiring big businesses.

The challenge for Buffett is to find companies big enough that their sales and profits are of a size that matters. Few private businesses are big enough, but Buffett has said he would look at smaller businesses in Europe to boost his entry into that market in hopes of later mega-purchases.

In Buffett’s acquisition-metaphor, big companies are “elephants,” and he is loaded with cash — more than $30 billion after the Precision

Castparts purchase — for the hunt.

Supplying cash for an acquisition partner.

In recent years Buffett has joined with 3G Capital, a Brazilian investment fund, to acquire and merge Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz Co., leaving management of such businesses to 3G’s cost-cutting operators. Buffett has said he would like to do more such deals and is open to helping other buy-out firms by supplying Berkshire cash.

Some of those acquisitions might become full parts of Berkshire’s herd of elephants, too, if the prices and circumstances are right in the future.

No doubt a combination of these options will take place in 2016, although how many and how often is uncertain.

One that is already on the agenda for 2016: Berkshire’s shareholders will meet at the CenturyLink Center on April 30 to hear from Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger.

That one, you can count on.

The Omaha World-Herald is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Contact the writer: 402-444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com twitter.com/buffettOWH

st Definitely many reasons

to be proud of metro Omaha

A variety of organizations have put the metro area and the surrounding states on noteworthy “best-of” lists.

OMAHA METRO AREA

No. 1 –– Best big city in the Midwest, Money, 2015 No. 1 –– Best U.S. cities for paid internships, Money, 2015 No. 1 –– Six great small cities for food lovers, the Wall Street Journal, 2015 No. 1 –– The top 10 cities to work in tech, SmartAsset, 2015 No. 1 –– The U.S. Healthcare Affordability Index (of 35 metro areas), Castlight Health, 2015 No. 1 –– Best cities for car drivers, NerdWallet, 2015 No. 1 — Best city for an active lifestyle, WalletHub, December 2014 No. 1 — Best metro area with 200,000 to 1 million people for business growth projects, Site Selection Magazine, March 2014 No. 1 — Best city to raise a family in America, Movoto real estate blog, January 2014 No. 1 — UNO is best college for veterans, Military Times, 2015

No. 9 — Happiest suburbs, Movoto blog, May 2014

No. 1 –– Best job market, ZipRecruiter, 2015 No. 3 –– Best cities for saving money, GoBankingRates, 2015 No. 4 –– Best cities for families, WalletHub, 2015 No. 10 –– Best cities for working women, Forbes, 2015

Site Selection Magazine, March 2014 No. 1 — Lowest average car repair costs, CarMD.com, June 2014 No. 1 — Most loyal fan base in college football, College Spun, July 2014 No. 2 — Top pro-business states, Pollina Corporate Real Estate, 2015 No. 3 — Best states for businesses and careers, Forbes, 2015 No. 3 — Most content states, 24/7 Wall St., February 2014 No. 4 –– Best-run states in America, 24/7 Wall St., 2015 No. 4 — Economic development efforts, Pollina Corporate, 2015 No. 5 — Least-stressed-out states, Movoto blog, June 2014 No. 5 — Top states for well-being, Gallup, February 2014 No. 7 — Top states for cost of doing business, CNBC, 2015 No. 8 –– Ten best states for drivers, Bankrate, 2015 No. 8 — Top states for quality of life, CNBC, June 2014 No. 10 –– Ten best states to retire, Bankrate, 2015 Top 10 — Best after-school programs, Afterschool Alliance, November 2014

NEBRASKA

IOWA

COUNCIL BLUFFS Top 10 — Great public spaces, Bayliss Park, American Planning Association, October 2014

LINCOLN

No. 1 –– Best states to live in, HomeSnacks, 2015 No. 1 — Number of corporate investment projects per capita,

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

STAYING ACTIVE

Skaters round the rink at ConAgra Foods Campus at 10th and Harney Streets, part of the annual Holiday Lights Festival in downtown Omaha.

WalletHub ranked Omaha No. 1 among cities for an active lifestyle.

No. 2 — Top foodie cities, Livability, 2015 No. 2 –– Best cities to find a job, Fortune, 2015 No. 2 –– Best U.S. cities for millennial college students, CNBC, 2015 No. 2 –– Fifteen best U.S. cities for millennial college students, OnlineColleges, 2015 No. 2 –– Best city for recreation, WalletHub, 2015 No. 2 –– Top theater venues in the Midwest (Orpheum Theater and Holland Performing Arts Center), Venues Today, 2015 No. 2 — Best cities for successful aging, Milken Institute, November 2014 No. 2 — Best cities for professional women, Movoto blog, March 2014 No. 2 — Least-congested big cities, HomeInsurance, June 2014 No. 2 — Top cities for retiring baby boomers (Omaha-Council Bluffs), Builder, December 2014 No. 2 — Best cities to grow older in, CNN Money, November 2014 No. 3 — Most affordable big cities in the U.S., Kiplinger, October 2014 No. 3 — Best cities to launch a startup, CNN Money, October 2014 No. 3 — Hardest-working towns in America, the SpareFoot Blog, August 2014 No. 3 — Best cities for young professionals, Forbes, August 2014 No. 3 — Best cities to start a business, NerdWallet, May 2014 No. 4 –– Top five cities to date a male “Star Wars” fan (Omaha-Council Bluffs), Match.com, 2015 No. 4 — Best cities to flip a house (Omaha-Council Bluffs), 24/7 Wall St., May 2014 No. 4 — America’s best cities for raising a family, Forbes, April 2014 No. 5 –– Best cities to work for a small business, WalletHub, 2015 No. 5 –– Best cities to work for a small business (Omaha-Council Bluffs), National Federation of Independent Business, 2015 No. 5 — Best metro areas (Omaha-Council Bluffs) for STEM professionals, WalletHub, January 2015 No. 5 — Best cities for quality of life, Nerdwallet, August 2014 No. 5 — Top metros for green-friendly apartments, Apartment Guide, February 2014 No. 6 — World’s best zoo, Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, TripAdvisor, 2015 No. 6 –– Top 10 cities for first-time homebuyers, SmartAsset, 2015 No. 6 –– Best cities for saving money, GoBankingRates, 2015 No. 6 –– 50 great affordable college towns in the U.S., Great Value Colleges, 2015 No. 7 –– Best job market, ZipRecruiter, 2015 No. 7 — Best cities for job seekers, NerdWallet, January 2014

PAPILLION

No. 2 — Best places to live, Money, 2015

Selection Magazine, March 2014 No. 6 — Lowest average car repair costs, CarMD.com, June 2014 No. 10 — Top states for business, CNBC, 2015 — Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, World-Herald files and Joseph Janowski

No. 2 — Least stressed out states, Movoto blog, June 2014 No. 3 –– Best-run states in America, 24/7 Wall St., 2015 No. 6 — Best states to retire, Bankrate, 2015 No. 6 — Number of corporate investment projects per capita, Site

TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS Employment Opportunities

AUTO & TRANSPORTATION Employment Opportunities

MECHANIC We are seeking a Class 8 Truck Mechanic.

Prefer someone with ability to overhaul engines and general repair to semi’s.

Must provide own tools.

Zeitner & Sons,, Inc. located in Omaha, Nebraska, is one of the Midwest’s leading refrigerated truckload carriers.

Zeitner is family owned and operated, and has been in the business for more than thirty years.

Benefits Benefi fits will include: Health, Dental, Life and 401k.

Apply in person at: Zeitner & Sons - 5516 South 27th St. Omaha, NE 68107

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

New developments continue on West Dodge Road near 192nd Street.

reaL ESTATE &

outlook 2016

8Y

OUT- REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

uniquely omaha: metro building blocks Omaha today sits in the midst of a twostate metropolitan area, a long way from its days as “Omaha City” in 1854. The term “Omaha metro area” has come to include a number of smaller cities that still embrace their own identity. And within the city limits are neighborhoods that once stood on their own.

A 1917 Nebraska law allows the city to annex areas unilaterally, the only limitations being that the annexed areas must be next to the city, under 10,000 people and inside Douglas County. With two notable exceptions — the annexations of the towns of Millard in 1971 and Elkhorn in 2007 — the system has worked with little controversy.

Nebraska’s annexation law has allowed Omaha to benefit from mostly orderly growth while adding to the city’s population.

The city largely has been able to recapture tax base as the metropolitan area expands, which helps the financial health of the central city. The Des Moines Register once called the ability to annex and grow “Omaha’s secret weapon.” Unlike cities such as St. Louis and Cincinnati, which still have the same municipal boundaries they had nearly a century ago, Omaha’s city limits grow practically every year.

In the late 1940s, the Nebraska Legislature came up with what the Register called “an ingenious solution” to the problem of suburban development.

The law created a miniature municipality, the inelegantly named sanitary and improvement district. Hundreds of SIDs have levied taxes to pay for streets, sewers, streetlights and other public amenities.

Eventually, SIDs are annexed.

A look at how Omaha grew through annexations:

benson

The Benson Theater opened on Maple Street in 1923 as a vaudeville house, movie venue and community space.

south omaha

A Bohemian band performs near Brown Park at 24th and O Streets.

1915: SOUTH OMAHA

The city tried to annex the town of South Omaha as early as 1890, when both communities were allowed to vote on the matter, and South Omaha fought it off. South Omaha voters again rejected attempts in 1907 and 1911.

South Omahans finally capitulated to the inevitable in 1915 and voted for annexation. Its borders at the time were roughly the Missouri River, F Street, 42nd Street and Harrison Street.

1915: DUNDEE

The hilltop community, also annexed in 1915, originally was situated between 48th and 52nd Streets and Capitol Avenue and California Street but spread quickly when a streetcar line was extended to reach it. The American Planning Association in 2011 cited the neighborhood for its “varied residential architecture, strong sense of community and ongoing commitment of residents to care for and beautify the neighborhood.”

dundee

The expansion of Omaha’s streetcar system in the late 19th century led to fast growth in the hilltop neighborhood.

florence

Businesses in the early 20th century included the Bank of Florence, an ice cream shop, a drug store, a bakery and a meat market.

1917: FLORENCE

When Florence was annexed in 1917, it was bounded roughly by the river, Read Street, 40th Street and Florence Heights Boulevard. Florence retains a small-town feel with businesses on 30th Street and a focus on the area’s history, which includes the Mormons’ stay in the area in the winter of 1846.

1917: BENSON

Benson, which became part of the city in 1917, was bounded roughly at that time by Blondo Street, 52nd Street, Pratt Street and 72nd Street. It has maintained a community feel with Benson High School and a revived business district that has gained a reputation as a top spot for craft beers.

1971: MILLARD

Millard was a tiny burg southwest of the city that grew fast after construction of a big Western Electric plant nearby in the late 1950s. As the town’s population sped toward 10,000, Omaha leaders said their city’s growth to the southwest would be cut off unless the area was annexed.

Millard fought bitterly, some residents even hanging an effigy of Omaha’s mayor, Gene Leahy. Courts ruled, though, that the state annexation law was constitutional. Millard appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

2007: ELKHORN

Four decades after the Millard battle, an annexation conflict played out again with Elkhorn to the west.

Its population reached 8,000, and Omaha began steps to annex. This time, the Omaha mayor who drew anger was named (Mike) Fahey, not Leahy. Elkhornites argued that it wasn’t simply a case of wanting to keep an identity, but also of wanting to provide their own city services. In a civic drama, Elkhorn itself moved to annex areas that would put the town’s population over 10,000 and out of Omaha’s legal reach.

But the move was made too late, and courts again ruled in favor of Omaha.

millard

Millard residents rallied in downtown Omaha to protest their community’s annexation.

Going it alone: RALSTON

In the late 1960s, the mayors of Ralston and Omaha shook hands on an agreement that Ralston would not extend its reach any farther than its roughly 1½-square-mile area. In return, Omaha would not make a move for annexation. The deal has held up for nearly 50 years, although annexation talk occasionally resurfaces.

ralston

Looking south from downtown Ralston at the corner of Main and 77th Streets in 1923. A viaduct in the background allowed railroad tracks to reach the Howard Stove Works and Crown Products. The viaduct was removed in the 1970s.

elkhorn

Founded in the 1860s, Elkhorn remained largely in its original village boundaries between West Maple Road and Blondo Street for its first century.

The city annexed nearby subdivisions in the 1980s and 1990s and ended up being annexed itself.

REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Agents all under one roof or spread out?

Approaches vary for real estate firms

By Cindy Gonzalez

OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK Local Realtors are encouraged about this year’s housing market:

World-Herald staff writer

H

ere’s a forecast local real estate leaders agree on: Omaha area housing sales in 2016 should at least match if not outperform last year’s record-breaking activity.

Individual companies diverge, however, when it comes to the type of office environment they think will best propel their troops to that outcome.

A couple of the biggest real estate firms — Nebraska Realty and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ambassador Real Estate — are launching the year with moves into brand new mega headquarters where hundreds of agents mingle and operate under one roof.

NP Dodge Real Estate has taken a different tacK, scattering residential sales agents among multiple satellite offices. The company in just the last few months opened two more sites along the popular Dodge corridor that shares its name.

Still another firm, CBSHome, has adopted a hybrid approach. While it has focused recently on consolidation, its agents still like the company’s handful of small “drop-in” stations across the metro area where they can meet clients or do miscellaneous business.

Lisa Ritter, former president of both the Nebraska Realtors Association and Omaha Area Board of Realtors, said industry leaders began to re-examine internal structures and operations following the national housing collapse. Factors also included rapidly changing technology and mobile devices that have agents depending less on traditional office quarters, said Ritter, who owns Regency-based Re/Max Results.

In that climate, Andy Alloway chose to re-brand his company and build a three-story headquarters with training rooms, child-care facilities and outdoor grilling and tailgate areas on the north side of West Dodge Road near 168th Street.

Alloway said he waited five years for the right spot on which to unveil Nebraska Realty, formerly known as Deeb Realty. He expects the collaborative hub to ultimately save administrative costs, as well as get more creative juices flowing as agents feed off one another’s ideas.

Location played a key role in determining where to plant the company flag, Alloway said. His firm also has a Sarpy County office.

“Visibility is absolutely paramount, it’s huge,” he said.

Vince Leisey, owner of the Berkshire Hathaway Ambassador firm, said most agents moved into their new mega headquarters this month and the remainder will in February.

Ambassador will occupy 60,000 square feet — double the space of its last corporate office. In all, the office building at 177th and Burke Streets, west of the Village Pointe shopping complex, has 105,000 square feet.

“It’s much easier to control your culture, and have it be what you want it to be, if you are in one location,” Leisey said.

He said there are economies of scale that make it financially beneficial as well.

NP Dodge’s Mike Riedmann acknowledges there are financial savings in consolidation. Nevertheless, he said, his company has opted to add rather than reduce its number of residential sales offices.

Having multiple offices in various parts of the city, Riedmann said, helps in recruitment of agents as well as in sales growth. And, he said, the consumer is better served by having a contact point that is closer to their home.

“We feel agents prefer to work in the market they serve and be closer to where they live,” he said.

NP Dodge’s recent opening of offices on 148th and West Dodge Road and in a converted Old Mill car dealership building brought to six the number of residential sales offices along the Dodge corridor between 35th and 204th Streets. The company has a corporate base and 17 sites altogether that support residential or commercial transactions throughout eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

CBSHome’s Scott Vogt said his firm believes it has the “best

results this year.

Andy Alloway of Nebraska Realty: 2015 home sales in the metro area surpassed 13,500 — up from each of the last few years when sales did not reach the 13,000 mark. He sees similar if not better Lisa Ritter of Regency-based Re/ Max Results: Talk of rising interest rates could lead to a busier spring than last year’s.

NEW DIGS

Scott Vogt of CBSHome: Rising apartment rents also will help stimulate home ownership.

Nebraska Realty’s new headquarters building at 17117 Burt St. It is representative of companies that use one building for its agents’ offices. Other Omaha-area realty companies use a series of smaller offices, and still others take a hybrid approach, with a headquarters building supplemented by satellite offices.

“We feel agents prefer to work in the market they serve and be closer to where they live.”

Vince Leisey of Berkshire Hathaway Ambassador: The “negative bounce” the industry thought it might get from the ConAgra headquarters exit hasn’t really impacted the market.

Mike Riedmann, NP Dodge of both worlds” by having two full-service real estate offices and the handful of drop-in offices across the metro.

The CBSHome corporate office at 159th Street and West Dodge Road and its newly built Sarpy County base each provide a spectrum of services, including experts to handle mortgage financing, closing services, title insurance.

Said Vogt, who this year became chief executive and president of CBSHome: “We love the sense of community that we get with our agents together and we like that all of our services are under one roof so they have easy access to everything we provide.”

At the same time, he said, the company’s drop-in stations allow for wider exposure for the brand and are a convenience for agents wanting a quick meeting or a place to copy documents.

To be sure, smaller real estate companies also have evolved in various ways.

Examples include the re-branding of the former Dundeebased Gold Coast Real Estate, which became the first local office of the national Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate brand. Owner Todd Simmons, joined by a husband-wife team formerly of CBSHome, have said they hope to expand from 10 to 100 agents in four years.

Alliance Real Estate closed, with the owner David Matney joining the ranks of Berkshire Hathaway’s Ambassador.

At P.J. Morgan Real Estate, the number of residential agents has grown while the headquarters has stayed at 7801 Wakeley Plaza, said Susan Clark, who heads residential sales.

Agents increasingly work from their home, car and via smartphones, she said. Yet they like to be able to drop in at a home base where they mix with colleagues focused on other areas of real estate such as commercial ventures and property management.

“It gives us the opportunity to learn from all aspects of real estate, and we think that helps us grow and be better at what we do.”

Mike Riedmann of NP Dodge: Lending standards have started to loosen more, opening a wider pathway for working millennials whose college debt had been weighing down credit scores. “We see a big wave of first-time home buyers coming,” he said.

Susan Clark of P.J. Morgan Real Estate: Her team this year already has seen an influx of first-time homeowners entering the market.

“That brings a lot of promise to 2016,” she said.

“We love the sense of community that we get with our agents together and we like that all of our services are under one roof so they have easy access to everything we provide.”

Scott Vogt, CBSHome

Contact the writer: 402-444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com

The city vs. the suburbs Urban centers are growing, but the draw of outlying neighborhoods always will be there.

Here’s how to decide which spot is right for you

and rebounded faster in recent years.

“I think cities and denser areas tend to retain their value a little bit more because it’s more expensive,” Ameer said.

“It’s more cost-prohibitive to get in, versus suburbs, where the affordability factor is widened and it’s typically easier for more people to get into that area.”

By Alyssa Karas

The Changes

CTW Features

Trendy neighborhood and nightlife? Or picket fence and easy parking? While American homebuyers continue to ponder the perennial question of where to settle — city or suburbs — the lifestyle, demographics and amenities of each are changing as well.

The Trends Americans have migrated en masse from the cities to the suburbs for decades, but the exodus has reversed in recent years, according to recent Census data.

More than half of the country’s 51 largest metropolitan areas reported faster growth in city centers than suburbs from 2010 to 2011, and 19 of the 51 major metros showed faster primary city than suburb growth in 20122013. That’s up significantly from 2000 to 2010, when only five city centers grew faster than their surrounding suburbs.

“I think there are always going to be people moving to the suburbs,” said John McIlwain, senior fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit research and education group for land use and real estate.

“We’re not talking about a blackor-white situation, but the great

ctw features

migration to the suburbs is over.

We’re now seeing incrementally more people living in either central cities or newly evolving suburban town centers.”

That said, a lack of affordable housing near city centers may drive new and first-time buyers toward walkable, city-like suburbs this year, according to housing predictions from real estate site Zillow.

“Rents will continue to increase at a brisk rate in 2016, but many potential first-time buyers are living in hot markets where buying a home is really expensive,” Dr. Svenja Gudell, Zillow’s chief economist, said in a state-

ment. “We’ll start to see more people in hot coastal markets forced to move farther from the core of the city to find housing.

When they get there, they’ll be looking for amenity-rich suburbs — mini-cities, with walkable cores and an urban feel.

“Millennials want to buy, but they are waiting longer than previous generations,” Gudell said.

Cara Ameer, a Realtor and broker associate with Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, has noticed a renewed fascination with cities in her clients. “First-time homebuyers tend to want to be in more in-town areas,” she said.

The Cost The top reason that suburbs continue to be attractive to homebuyers comes down, unsurprisingly, to costs. The main advantage of the suburbs is that housing per square foot is cheaper. Most suburbs offer bigger houses and more land.

Homes in the city do tend to offer “less bang for the buck,” Ameer said, because the limited space is more expensive. However, both Ameer and McIlwain point out that homes in urban markets might appreciate more than their suburban counterparts. McIlwain said prices in urban markets dropped less

“People always said the reasons these (homebuyers) were going out to the suburbs were the same ones their parents had,” McIlwain said. “But the suburbs today are not the suburbs of the ’50s and ’60s.”

The biggest demographic groups headed for cities are empty nesters and millennials, or those in their 20s and early 30s. “Many of them want to find ways to stay in the city after they get married and have kids,” McIlwain said.

Schools and safety are two big factors in choosing where to live, and those statistics are changing, too. Not all suburban schools are high-performing, and city crime rates have seen reductions in the last few decades.

With so many different choices, Ameer reminds her first-time homebuyer clients to be flexible and weigh their needs versus their wants. Buying a property needs to be a compromise, she said.

“This is not a forever property, remember that,” Ameer said.

“Get into something that makes sense for you financially and fits your lifestyle. As your life evolves, you can make the next step.”

9Y

10Y

OUT- REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

Aksarben Village, Midtown Crossing spur growth

By Howard K. Marcus

A

World-Herald staff writer

ksarben Village and Midtown Crossing, developments that reinvigorated long popular neighborhoods, continue to grow as hubs for visitors, workers, shoppers, diners and residents.

One of the most visible changes in the Aksarben Village area is the addition of Baxter Arena near 67th and Center Streets. The 7,898-seat arena, which opened in early October, is home to the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s hockey, basketball and volleyball programs and other school events. It also serves as a venue for concerts, galas and other events.

Street extensions around the arena are expected to spur additional development to the south and west, as space in the original development is nearly filled.

Already, a 237-unit housing complex has been proposed for a five-acre site south of 64th and Center. Broadmoor Development plans to build the project, the details of which must still be approved by the City of Omaha. The four-story structure would be the third phase of Broadmoor Aksarben apartments, which already includes about 400 units in Aksarben Village.

Apartments in the new project would boost the total number of units in the area to nearly 850.

Alchemy Development is finishing a 45-unit apartment project at 64th Avenue and Frances in Aksarben Village. Dubbed the “Cue,” that 26,600-square-foot building with enclosed parking brings to about 200 the number of apartments Alchemy has developed in the village.

Barb Terry of Alchemy said the market-rate apartments are expected to open ahead of schedule in June.

Aksarben Village is home to restaurants, retail, office buildings, apartments and town houses, hotels, a fitness center, a movie theater and a park with an amphitheater. For much of the 20th century, the site that stretched from Center to Pacific Streets was home to the AkSar-Ben Racetrack and Coliseum. The track’s final season was 1995; demolition of the facilities came in 2005.

Much of the rest of the former Aksarben property is home to UNO’s Pacific Street Campus, which includes the Peter Kiewit Institute, Mammel Hall, the Scott Conference Center and student housing.

Currently under construction near that campus is the $22 million St. John Paul II Newman Center on the southeast corner of 71st and Pacific Streets.

Through a nonprofit corporation, the Archdiocese of Omaha will own and operate the 100,000-square-foot center, which will include apartment-style housing for 164 students along with a chapel, courtyard, prayer garden, study space, social space and a rectory.

Deacon Tim McNeil, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said situating the center in the Aksarben area makes sense.

“Student residents will have easy access to bike trails, shopping and entertainment offerings, dining variety, Baxter Arena, UNO shuttle service and medical facilities. Almost everything a student wants or needs is within short walking and driving distance,” he said.

The center and its student housing are on track for completion this fall, in time for the start of classes.

Additional projects in the area include the Hilton Garden Inn Aksarben southeast of Frances Street and Aksarben Drive, UNO’s Center for Education Partnership at 68th Street and Mercy Road, UNO student apartments at 67th and Pine Streets, and UNO student housing and parking garage at 6450 Pine St. About four miles away, near Midtown Crossing at 31st and Farnam Streets, redevelopment has been substantial in the past several years.

At South 30th Avenue and Mason Street, a once-condemned 111-year-old building has become the 15-unit Himebaugh Apartments.

Nearby, at 30th Avenue and Pacific Street, the 22-unit Sycamore apartments are under construction.

One of the larger new-housing projects, planned for the Leavenworth and Park Avenue neighborhoods, will include 99 row houses on 12 sites. Each of the 1,100- to 2,000-square-foot homes, most with two-car garages, will sell for between $200,000 and $300,000. Uptown Urban Dwellings is the developer of the $26 million project, which is to be built in four phases through 2019. The project is awaiting City Council approval. The developer has already built some row houses in the area.

R E B E C C A S . G R AT Z / T H E W O R L D - H E R A L D

NEWly built

This new row house by Uptown Urban Dwellings at 809 S. 31st St. is part of an upswing in redevelopment and new housing in the area near Midtown Crossing at 31st and Farnam Streets.

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

ENERGIZED RENOVATED

SARAH HOFFMAN/THE WORLD-HERALD

The newly renovated Himebaugh Apartments at 30th Avenue and Mason Street are an example of the many buildings near Midtown Crossing that have been rehabilitated into new housing in recent years.

Near the intersection of St. Mary’s Avenue and Leavenworth Street, Urban Village is planning a 137-unit apartment complex on a triangle of land that once included a bar, thrift store, single-family homes and an industrial building.

The project is to include three buildings of about four stories each, said Scott Semrad, a partner in Urban Village. Among the one-, two- and three-bedroom units would be some two-story units.

Plans call for the complex to include 110 underground parking stalls and about 45 surface parking spaces, along with about 10,000 square feet of commercial retail space in a building on Leavenworth.

Over at Midtown Crossing, housing demand has been strong. The nearly 15-acre development, created by Mutual of Omaha and which includes the seven-acre Turner Park, extends from 31st to 33rd Streets between Farnam and Dodge Streets.

“Condo sales are doing extremely well, and the demand has picked up significantly in the last two years,” said Molly Skold, vice president of marketing and communications for

Midtown Crossing.

She said condominiums in the Crave building are nearly 90 percent sold. A second condo building — the Brix building — opened to the public for condo sales in 2014. Since then, 65 percent of available condos there have been sold.

“As a result of the strong demand for luxury condos, we are opening up to the public an additional 14 new condos (in the Brix building) in the beginning of 2016 and, based on sales, we might have to open up another 28 condos in 2017,” Skold said.

Apartment demand has also been substantial.

“We are currently 95 percent leased in our contemporary apartments and 96 percent in our luxury corporate apartments,” she said.

Mutual of Omaha’s real estate arm, meanwhile, continues to acquire and clear property east of Midtown Crossing, in the hope of making it attractive for development.

This story includes material from World-Herald staff writer Cindy Gonzalez and World-Herald archives.

Development of Aksarben Village has spurred growth in the surrounding area. After a lunch at Godfather’s Pizza, Rose Puetz, left, Ruth Evangelisti, center, and Nancy Butterfield, all of Omaha, head to watch a movie at nearby Aksarben Cinema.

“Condo sales are doing extremely well, and the demand has picked up significantly in the last two years.”

Molly Skold, Midtown Crossing

Contact the writer: 402-444-1397, howard.marcus@owh.com

We’re committed to building community

Transforming T f i U Urban b A Areas Utilizing Traditional Neighborhood Concepts Using Sustainable Design and Construction Practices Specializing in Multi-Family & Mixed Use Real Estate

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alchemydevelopment.com 402-972-8709

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REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Something to celebrate Since 1946, the Metro Omaha Builders Association has served the needs of members and homebuyers

By Mike Whye World-Herald Correspondent

A lley P oyner M acchietto A rchitecture

BLACKSTone 2.0

The Blackstone 2.0 redevelopment will cost about $7.4 million for GreenSlate Development and Clarity Development Co. The property at the intersection of 38th Avenue and Farnam Street will have about 16,000 square feet of retail space and 49 apartments.

A sampling of developments that should be visible this year MIDTOWN

Blackstone 2.0: This multielement GreenSlate Development and Clarity Development Co. project is poised to bring about 16,000 square feet of new commercial retail space and 49 new or renovated apartments to a half-dozen spots on or just off the Farnam Street corridor near 39th Street. That’s an infusion of about $7.4 million, with a completion date of 2016.

New apartments: Also in the Blackstone district, developers GreenSlate and Clarity are behind construction of two other apartment buildings that will bring a combined 90 residences and some commercial space to a former gas station site at 3824 Farnam St. and a former house site at 401 S. 41st St. That $14 million pair of complexes is expected to be done this spring.

Colonial Hotel: The iconic Colonial Hotel is proposed to be transformed from a boarding house to 40 upscale apartments at 38th and Farnam Streets. If all approvals are met, completion of the $8.2 million historic renovation project will happen in 2017.

Bank: A Dundee Bank branch will open in mid-2016 at 302 S. 38th St. in a rehabilitated building that was the longtime home of McFoster’s Natural Kind Cafe.

Highline Apartments: A total of 114 new apartments, two commercial bays and an outdoor swimming pool will be added to the current structure. The $16.7 million addition at 2100 Douglas St. will be southeast of its taller Highline counterpart. Completion is scheduled for this spring by NuStyle Development.

The Even: At 24th and Farnam Streets, this is a 132-suite hotel that stands out mostly because of its obsession with wellness. The $17.8 million, 105,000-square-foot project is expected to open in April and is being developed by Dr. Deepak Gangahar and business partner Kirti Trivedi.

Farnam 25: Renovation of the former 7,000-square-foot Smoke Pit BBQ building will house at least three new businesses and a new restaurant or brewery. The building will have 1,200- to 1,500-squarefoot retail storefronts, and the restaurant space will be about 3,700 square feet. Partners in the project are Adam Watson, Steve Elken and Michael Opatowski of Denver. Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture and Carlson Kennedy Construction are working on the project.

Aksarben area: Construction is expected this year on a 237-unit housing complex south of 64th and Center Streets near the Baxter Arena. Broadmoor Development is behind the four-story apartment structure with an outdoor swimming pool and attached garage. North of Center Street, in Aksarben Village, developers led by CFM Realty Advisors plan to build the Hilton Garden Inn Aksarben. The five-story $18.6 million hotel project would have 124 rooms, plus conference and meeting space and about 3,000 square feet of retail.

Infill projects: Assorted developers are in various stages of filling urban spaces with new or renovated housing. Among them is Uptown Urban Dwellings, which has started one of the area’s largest waves of new for-sale housing in recent memory. The $26 million project calls for 99 row houses on a dozen different sites throughout Leavenworth and Park Avenue neighborhoods. Mutual of Omaha’s real estate arm, meanwhile, continues its plan to acquire and clear property east of Midtown Crossing, in the hope of making it attractive for a developer or a business.

Crossroads: This year may be the first that Omahans see real progress on the planned Crossroads Village, to be built at the existing Crossroads Mall site at 72nd and Dodge

hdr

RIVER’S EDGE

The development on the Bluffs side of the river will include retail and office space plus about 350 residences.

Streets. Demolition is expected to begin this spring, with a planned opening before the holiday shopping season in 2017. In store for the project: About 410,000 square feet of retail space; a 125-room boutique hotel; a 10-screen cinema; about 150,000 square feet of office space; and up to 200 apartments.

Developers also have plans for “Collegiate Park,” a four-acre urban green space that will pay tribute to the state’s collegiate athletes.

Infrastructure on the site will include new utilities, including a 10-gigabyte fiber-optic and Wi-Fi network.

DUNDEE

49th and Dodge Streets: Omahabased Sage Capital has bought the property to build a multilevel apartment building. It will be four stories, with apartments on the top three levels, and retail and covered parking on the ground floor. The proposed construction project would be at least an $8 million investment with 3,000 square feet of retail space.

Theater: The Dundee Theater has been purchased by Susie Buffett’s Sherwood Foundation. It is to reopen as a theater – a date has not been identified publicly – after having been closed since May 2013.

BENSON

60th Street and Northwest Radial: City Ventures LLC is building a $12- to $15-million, 99-unit apartment building.

Downtown

The Capitol District: This project, which is to span Capitol Avenue to the Interstate, 10th to 12th Streets, includes a 333-room Marriott hotel, a 12-story apartment building, office and retail space and a parking structure that totals nearly 1 million square feet. The project is to be done in 2017.

HDR Campus: The HDR global engineering and architectural headquarters is to be finished by January 2019 in the area between Dodge Street and Capitol Avenue, from 11th to 12th Streets. The structure is to contain about 300,000 square feet, and an office tower would rise at least 16 stories and be connected to an approximately seven-story parking garage.

Holland Center for the Performing Arts: Construction could begin in mid-2017 on “mixeduse” space, which would include parking, event space and possible arts-programming space.

The Breakers: An old electricity plant is being reborn at Fourth and Leavenworth Streets as a 214-apartment complex along the Missouri riverfront. The nearly $40 million project on an 11.5-acre site is to be done in 2017.

NORTH DOWNTOWN

Future Forward LLC: A Peter

Kiewit Foundation-led group has assembled nearly 20 parcels over 25 acres containing 175,000 square feet of buildings. They are clustered around the Mastercraft Building, generally in an area a few blocks north of Cuming, south of Grace and between 16th and what would be 10th Street. Investment is about $7 million. The aim is to make leases affordable to a creative class of entrepreneurs, artisans and techies.

Nichols Flats: A $9.2 million, fivestory apartment and retail building at 16th and Nicholas Streets.

Developed by Dr. Deepak Gangahar and business partner Kirti Trivedi.

The Yard: A two-block tract bounded by 14th, 15th, Cuming and Mike Fahey Streets is to be transformed into a $50 million campus featuring a hotel, apartments, shops and a Kiewit international training facility that will span nearly 63,000 square feet.

The site is being redeveloped by NewStreet Properties and Noddle Cos. 12 & Cass: Lanoha Development is expected to begin a four-story mixed-use complex offering retail and office bays at 12th and Cass Streets, angled with a view toward the nearby TD Ameritrade Park.

Estimated completion is in 2017.

South Downtown

Tenth Street Market: The site of the former Omaha Postal Annex on Pierce between 10th and 11th Streets will include housing, retail and corporate projects.

The developer is Vic Gutman & Associates. Completion is scheduled for 2017.

10th Street Corridor: A variety of housing, retail and corporate projects. Also, a 19-unit town house project to be constructed near 10th and Pierce Streets by the development arm of P.J. Morgan Real Estate Co. Rail and Commerce Building: A $25 million renovation project to transform the mail terminal at 950 S. 10th St. into businesses, retail space and the future headquarters of Boyd Jones Construction.

Completion is scheduled for late this year.

13th Street Development: Developer P.J. Morgan Investments has purchased the former 492-seat movie hall, the Maryland Theatre, in the neighborhood along 13th Street and is seeking to revive the area as a trendy retail, office and entertainment venue. Clarity Development of Omaha has purchased properties on William Street, including homes, lots and a 127-year-old building between 12th and 14th Streets. Clarity also is building the 36-unit South Hill Rowhouses on 10th Street just north of William.

COUNCIL BLUFFS

River’s Edge: The 25-acre River’s Edge redevelopment project led

by Noddle Cos. is transforming the

old Playland Park. The project is to include retailers, entertainment spots, bike and walking paths, and about 350 residences. Council Bluffs also will expand its River’s Edge Park with a pavilion, water playground and small event space at the Iowa landing of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. The City of Council Bluffs and Iowa West Foundation will split the cost of the park expansion project, estimated at up to $7 million. Construction could begin by spring and be completed in summer 2017.

SARPY COUNTY

The Olde Towne Vision Plan: This project, under the direction of Bellevue Planning Director Chris Shewchuk, aims to redevelop Mission Avenue. The plan incorporates row houses, town homes and attached single-family homes mingled with commercial and retail buildings north and south of Mission Avenue from 22nd Avenue in the north to 23rd Avenue in the south, and from Washington Street to the west and Franklin Street to the east.

NorthWEST OMAHA

Flood-control reservoir and 220-acre recreational lake: The project will extend northwest from 168th and Fort Streets to just south of State Street. It will have a boat ramp, a hiking and biking trail, and picnic areas. It will open late this year under the management of the City of Omaha.

Antler View: The 245-acre project that stretches from 180th to 192nd Streets along West Maple Road will be a combination of apartments plus a commercial area. It is being developed by Rob Luellen, Paul Brown and Scott Brown, all of Quantum Real Estate, in partnership with Michael Vann and Tom Vann of Vann Realty Co. Antler View is expected to be a $150 million project.

West Grayhawk: This 16-acre commercial area southwest of 147th Street and West Maple Road is under construction. Coming this year to the Lockwood Development site are tenants including a Gordmans store and Fresh Thyme Farmers Market.

SOUTHWEST OMAHA

Lumberyard District: Lanoha Development is transforming a six-block swath along 135th Street between Millard Avenue and Q Street. Coming are a new Omaha police precinct, 346 market-rate apartments and a 35,000-squarefoot office and retail building.

— Compiled by librarian Jeanne Hauser from World-Herald reports

The Metro Omaha Builders Association annually organizes many popular events for those interested in buying, building and remodeling homes. The events include the Omaha Home Show, Remodel Omaha Tour, Street of Dreams and the Parade of Homes.

This year, MOBA is putting an extra touch on its events in recognition of the organization’s 70th anniversary, said MOBA Executive Director Jaylene Eilenstine. MOBA was founded in 1946, just as the post-World War II building boom was getting started.

One of the annual MOBA events, the Omaha Home Show, is at CenturyLink Center Omaha from April 1-3.

Eilenstine described the show as a place where the public can learn about items such as bathroom fixtures, electrical items and building materials, along with new technologies in the home building industry.

The show coincides with the Jaylene Remodel Omaha Tour, which Eilenstine is scheduled for April 2 and 3.

In that event, attendees tour remodeled homes.

Visitors to the home show and the remodeling tour will see not only new building technology but design ideas as well, she said.

A few weeks after the home show and the remodeling tour is MOBA’s Spring Parade of Homes, scheduled for April 30, May 1 and May 5 through 8.

Eilenstine said MOBA’s largest and most popular event is the Street of Dreams.

“We’ve been doing this for many, many years. This year it’s going to be at Bluewater in Valley,” she said of the lake development created by Lanoha Development Company.

“Because it’s our 70th anniversary, it’s going to be an even more exciting Street of Dreams. It’s been several years since we’ve had a Street of Dreams on a lakefront.”

Eight homes will be on display in the development.

“People like to come out and see the new floor plans, what’s new in design, interior design and landscaping,” said Eilenstine, adding that 20,000 people viewed homes during the 2015 Street of Dreams at Windgate, a development in the Elkhorn area.

Homes in the Street of Dreams are fully furnished and landscaped. Though some have already been sold, others were produced on speculation and will be priced from about $750,000 to $1.2 million.

Eilenstine said MOBA’s 300-plus members include high-volume builders such as Charleston Homes, Celebrity Homes and Legacy Homes that focus on a wide range of buyers, from first-time homeowners to empty nesters.

“They not only do luxury homes but also starter homes and the mid-sized homes,” she said.

Beyond hosting events, MOBA works closely with the Builder Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks out area high school students interested in the construction industry and encourages them to learn about the field. Over the years, the foundation has helped train more than 1,300 students in the Omaha metro area.

“There’s a shortage of construction workers in the home building industry right now,” Eilenstine said. “So that’s the foundation’s focus — to train these students so they can get into the field and get into the home-building industry.”

For its members, MOBA’s education efforts are ongoing. The organization offers continuing education units to members in the homebuilding trade.

“To be certified, our members need to keep up their education,” Eilenstine said.

One recent class covered changes in the building codes. Recent speakers in other classes have come from the Nebraska Energy Office, DuPont-Tyvek, and the Nebraska Concrete and Aggregate Association. MOBA also provides training seminars for builder licensing and offers general networking opportunities for its members and vendors.

K iley C ruse / T he W orld - H erald

Street of Dreams

This Caniglia Builders home features a two-story brick wall in the living room. The wall is a focal point of the home, which was part of the 2015 Street of Dreams in Windgate, a development in the Elkhorn area. According to Jaylene Eilenstine with MOBA, 20,000 people viewed homes during the 2015 Street of Dreams.

11Y

12Y

OUT- REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

Building on 70 Years Metro Omaha Builders Association

2016 4/1-4/3

MOBA.com

All Wired UP 6215 S 103rd St 402-689-0272 allwiredup4you.com

3803 N 153 St. 402-933-7224 charelstonhomesomaha.com

13709 Industrial Rd. 402-884-8600 fireplacestonepatio.com

Gregurich Plumbing 230 N West St., Valley, NE 402-359-9117

Lane Building Corp.

14711 Industrial Rd. LaneBuildingCorp.com

7402 L St. 402-342-3050 Lifestylesby3E.com

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Croker, Huck, Kasher, DeWitt, Anderson & Gonderinger, L.L.C. 2120 S 72nd St. #1200 402-391-6777 crokerlaw.com

9770 S 142 St. 402-891-6500 ferguson.com

Habitat for Humanity of Omaha 1701 N 24th St. 402-884-4329 habitatomaha.org

14621 Industrial Rd. 402-334-8686 heartlandwoodfloors.com

Kuehl Capital Corp 14747 W Dodge Rd. Ste 1 402-391-7977

Nebraska Realty 17117 Burt St. 402-491-0100 nebraskarealty.com

Nebraska Title Company 14680 W Dodge Rd 402-861-9220 nebtitleco.com

3100 S 61st Ave. 402-504-7981 MUDomaha.com

Thompson, Dresser, Dorner, Inc. 10836 Old Mill Rd 402-330-8860

14306 Giles Rd 402-896-0900 watkinsconcreteblock.com

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Sherwood h d Homes H 14711 Industrial Rd SherwoodHomesOmaha.com

1120 S 101st St 402-344-7300 snbconnect.com

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6780 S. 118th St. 402-331-0662 ferguson.com

Lamp Rynearson & Assoc 14710 W Dodge Rd. Ste 100 402-496-2498

Ramm Construction 18214 Thayer St., Bennington NE 402-493-9291 rammconstruction.com

Blackman & Assoc 17445 Arbor St. Ste 200 402-330-1040 blackmanandassoc.com

Farnham & Simpson Law 220 N 89th St. Ste 201 402-393-2555 farnhamandsimpsonlaw.com

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Despite the cold winters, Omaha has been recognized by a number of organizations for its recreation opportunities and active lifestyle.

outlook 2016

Empowering you with a fearless tomorrow through stability and security today.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

14Y

OUT- HEALTH &FITNESS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

UNIQUELY OMAHA: HEALTH AND FITNESS

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

scenic walk

Docent Judy Schafer leads one of several groups on a stroller tour of the permanent collection at Joslyn Art Museum.

FIT CITY

People from elsewhere might not think of Omaha as a top place for parks, recreation and an active lifestyle, but various outside studies indicate that we know how to keep moving and enjoy life.

Omaha received the nation’s No. 1 ranking in 2014 from WalletHub, which looked at the 100 most-populated cities, for “how well they accommodate or encourage an active lifestyle.” In 2015, WalletHub ranked Omaha No. 2 among the 100 largest metro areas for recreation — based on 27 metrics such as the number of music venues, tennis courts, golf courses, playgrounds and bike-rental facilities, and the quality of walkable parkland. The Trust for Public Land, meanwhile, rated the city’s park system 19th-best in 2015, based on access, proximity, size and services. And Men’s Fitness magazine ranked Omaha the 23rdfittest city based on air quality, bike- and walk-friendliness, active lifestyle, access to healthy food and the quality of parks and “urban forests.”

Not bad for a town that sometimes endures temperature extremes and isn’t necessarily known for its outdoors. Lots of folks belong to health clubs, though, and companies have emphasized personal health for years, spurred on by William Kizer Sr. of Omaha, who founded the Wellness Councils of America in 1987. But an active, fit lifestyle starts with a city’s parks and the opportunities for recreation.

GREAT MIDWESTERN CITY

CHRIS MACHIAN/THE WORLD-HERALD

run through the woods

Katy Synan takes advantage of nice spring weather to run through some flowering trees in Elmwood park.

A headline in USA Today, no lie: “Sexy Omaha?” Seriously, why the question mark? As if there’s a question at all. In any case, the article quoted actress Anna Kendrick, who was in George Clooney’s “Up in the Air,” filmed partly in Omaha. “I swear to God, Conor Oberst (nationally known singer) came out of there, and where we were staying was near all these record shops and used T-shirt shops. It was like every person walking down the street was going to be the next big thing.”

Further reason to eliminate the question mark: Fit Pregnancy magazine ranked Omaha the seventhbest city in the nation for having a baby. The mag used 50 criteria, including low maternal mortality, breast-feeding rates, access to day care, stroller friendliness — and fertility. “Omaha is this really great Midwestern city,” said the magazine’s Peg Moline in an interview with NBC News.

“Very affordable, great air quality.”

Another reason for the high rating, she said, is that “my researchers tell me it is high sperm quality, too.” “Oh, good,” said NBC’s Natalie Morales. Peg: “Really important.” Natalie: “Good to know.” Peg: “It’s a very fertile city.”

— Excerpts from Michael Kelly’s “Uniquely Omaha: 101 Things to Know About the Big O”

Artists’ work created with healing hands T

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

healing art

Dale Chihuly speaks at an announcement by Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The Chihuly Sanctuary featuring the work of the glass artist will be part of the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center opening in 2017.

he Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, scheduled to open in 2017, hopes its Healing Arts Program will provide patients, visitors and staff with a tranquil, uplifting environment.

World-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly is creating an architectural installation as the centerpiece of the program.

The Chihuly Sanctuary will be a greenhouse-like structure that flows out from the cancer center and provides views of an exterior healing garden. The enclosure of about 6,000 square feet will feature five distinct areas with works by Chihuly, including its own indoor garden of colorful glass flowers.

“I hope the sanctuary becomes a gathering spot and respite for those patients who are not able to go outside and enjoy the garden,” Chihuly said.

Earlier plans for the program include a 7,700-square-foot healing garden, a large-scale metallic installation at the driveway and drop-off area by Los Angeles-based designer Rob Ley, and a 20-foot-tall painting

by Brooklyn-based artist Suzy Taekyung Kim that will appear in the center’s lobby.

“My goal is to provide clear views into the healing garden and to create space for patients, caregivers and researchers to

SARAH HOFFMAN/THE WORLD-HERALD

art on display

A water sculpture mimicking the Platte River and Sandhill Cranes are displayed in the main lobby of Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha. The hospital has several different art displays in the building. meditate or find a moment of peace,” Chihuly said in the video.

He said the sanctuary reflects his background in architecture and love for greenhouses. The Washington-based artist is known around the world for his large and elaborate glass sculptures. In addition to museums and private collections, his work appears in hospitals around the country.

His partnership with the Buffett

Cancer Center will be among his largest such projects.

The $323 million Buffett Cancer Center is a collaboration of UNMC and Nebraska Medicine. The National Cancer Institute-designated center will provide cancer research at the Suzanne and Walter Scott Cancer Research Tower and clinical treatments at the C.L. Werner Cancer Hospital.

HEALTH &FITNESS OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Technology can bridge patients, supporters C aringBridge, a website for families going through a serious illness or enduring a severe injury, has been a connector for millions of people across the globe since its creation 18 years ago.

Creating a CaringBridge page is free and can be done with a few computer keystrokes. A family may set it up as a private site or keep it open to the public.

People may post messages on a page and the family can place photos on it.

Wendy and Chad Larson felt stunned in 2013 after they learned their baby, Katelyn, was suffering heart failure and needed a transplant.

Wendy Larson’s sister set up a CaringBridge page for the family and their friends.

“It was a valuable resource for us,” said Wendy Larson, of Odebolt, Iowa. “You don’t know who you’re supposed to call.

You’re so overwhelmed.”

Katelyn received a heart transplant in 2013 at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha. Her mother said that people from Japan, China, Australia, Africa and Bosnia tracked Katelyn’s story on CaringBridge.

“It just takes my breath away to know that people I’ve never known have followed Kate and have prayed for her through CaringBridge,” Wendy Larson said.

Katelyn, now 2½, is doing well. “She’s smart and active and busy, and she’s tuned into everyone’s emotions,” her mother said. “She is all personality.”

June McAtee, a social worker at the hematology-oncology clinic at Children’s, said she and her colleagues frequently mention CaringBridge to parents as a possible resource. Some use it, and others don’t.

McAtee said families are stressed with responsibilities and concerns when their child is going through cancer treatment.

Through CaringBridge, she said, they can send a consistent and accurate message to their friends and supporters.

CaringBridge also is a central place where friends and followers can send support to the family, she said. Sometimes through CaringBridge they meet other families going through similar challenges.

15Y

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family caring

Chad and Wendy Larson with their daughter Katelyn. In 2013 Katelyn received a heart transplant. Wendy’s sister set up a CaringBridge page for the Larsons to keep friends and family updated on Katelyn’s condition.

The best at what we do because it is all we do Dr. Woodward • Dr. Fuller • Dr. Longley • Dr. Gill • Dr. Phillips Dr. McClellan • Dr. Burd • Dr. Hain

Caringbridge.org

healthy toddler

Now 2½, Katelyn Larson is doing well after receiving a heart transplant in 2013.

Entrepreneur Sona Mehring founded CaringBridge in 1997 after friends with a premature baby asked her to let acquaintances know how they were doing.

Mehring, who had studied computer science and runs her own technology consulting firm, decided to create a place on the Internet where people can monitor a patient’s health.

Shortly after that, Mehring kept friends and relatives informed over the new CaringBridge site when her grandmother and mother became extremely ill.

In 2001, she began to devote all of her attention to CaringBridge, which became a formal nonprofit organization the next year.

The organization lives on donations.

Some 72,000 families created CaringBridge pages in 2014. The same year, the organization took in $6.4 million.

More than 35 million people used CaringBridge in a recent 12-month period, Mehring said.

Nebraska Spine Hospital is proud to be named to the “100 Hospitals With Great Neurosurgery and Spine Programs”

by Becker’s Hospital Review.

Hospital Review BUSINESS & LEGAL ISSUES FOR HEALTH SYSTEM LEADERSHIP

402-572-3000

NebraskaSpineHospital.com/Beckers

Make a difference

in health care and wellness Whether you’re seeking to start or advance your career in health care, your next step begins at Creighton University.

We provide a challenging, values-based learning environment so you can truly make a difference in people’s lives. We partner with the area’s largest health care provider for our students to gain valuable insight and clinical training alongside health professionals. And distinct to Creighton, we offer eight health care programs in medicine, dentistry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, nursing, emergency medical services and public health—all on one walkable campus.

Creighton is also at the forefront of programs in today’s fastestgrowing areas of health and wellness. We offer a bachelor’s in healthy lifestyle management, a master’s in health and wellness coaching, and a graduate certificate in lifestyle medicine— through the convenience of online courses.

When you’re ready to provide exceptional discoveries and make exceptional strides, choose Creighton University.

Start your future in health care today. creighton.edu

16Y

OUT- HEALTH &FITNESS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

‘Think’ takes team approach to care The physician-led primary care facility on West Center Road features a variety of clinicians under one roof.

MIDLANDS 9thual Ann

By Howard K. Marcus

E

World-Herald staff writer

arlier this month, a new concept in Omaha-area health care turned half a year old.

Think Whole Person Healthcare, which opened July 6 in a gleaming new six-story building at 7100 West Center Road, brought together 24 primary-care physicians in a mega-clinic that serves about 48,000 patients.

The $45 million facility features a pharmacy, classrooms, auditorium, therapy gym and other amenities, including a coffee bar.

Think follows a patient-centered primary care model in which a family physician or internal medicine doctor works with other clinicians in a team approach to manage a patient’s medical conditions and avoid hospitalization.

One of the family physicians at Think, Dr. Bill Weeks, said the primary care model has proven itself elsewhere in the world.

“In other countries, you don’t just skip off to a specialist, just based on what you think you need. You go to your primary care doctor, and they determine if and who you should see if they can’t take care of it. That’s part of the reason that health care in other countries is less costly and just as good.”

The majority of Think’s physicians came from independent practices in the metro area, all but one of which has since closed. The other doctors were from CHI Health, Methodist Health System and Nebraska Medicine facilities. Though primary care physicians are at the heart of the enterprise, the clinic includes a variety of other clinicians.

Weeks said the team approach at the new clinic has provided significant benefits to patients and physicians.

The clinic’s in-house laboratory and radiology options have helped patients avoid the need for multiple office visits when testing is required, he said. The lab can handle 90 percent of the tests that patients need.

“They come in about a half-hour early, they get their blood drawn, and by the time we’re discussing their situation at the end of their encounter, the labs are ready to review,” Weeks said.

At many of the independent medical offices that consolidated at Think, quick availability of a wide range of lab work wasn’t typically an option, and patients were inconvenienced.

“Either they had to come in a week early for their lab work or they had to be called back with their lab work,” Weeks said. “So it’s both more convenient for the patient and much more efficient that you can talk to them right then and there and not play phone tag, not have it relayed to the patient through your nurse.”

He offered examples of the concept in action.

In one case, a patient called him after experiencing changes in vision.

“The on-call nurse sent an email to me.

I had tests scheduled at the clinic, appropriate for that symptom. He got the tests done, I met with him, he saw the optometrist. On his way out, he picked up a new medication for that problem, and we got him set up to see a specialist for a further workup of the problem.”

The same rapid process applies to imaging tests such as X-rays, ultrasounds and CT scans.

“If a patient comes in and is having a particular problem that requires an imaging test, such as a CT scan or an ultrasound, we can literally send them down the hall and get that test done,” he said.

A radiologist reads the test within about 15 minutes after it concludes, and results are discussed before the patient leaves the office.

“So a one- to two-day affair turns into a one- to two-hour affair. That’s just amazing,” Weeks said.

Patients also have benefited from Think’s in-house pharmacy, which in-

Will it rain?

Check the weather forecast today in Midlands.

OMAHA HEALTH EXPO April 9th-10th

SATURDAY, APRIL 9TH 10 am - 5 pm

SUNDAY, APRIL 10TH 10 am - 4 pm

ARENA

PLAN TO EXHIBIT • At the all new Baxter Arena H O WA R D K . M A R C U S / T H E W O R L D - H E R A L D

progress report

Dr. Bill Weeks, left, a physician with Think Whole Person Healthcare, checks the progress of patient Richard Robinson’s recovery following Robinson’s release from the hospital after an auto accident.

• FREE Parking • Includes the Senior Living Expo!

• Over 300 Exhibitors promoting healthy, holistic lifestyle choices and therapies including alternative medicine

new facility

The six-story Think Whole Person Healthcare building at 7100 West Center Road includes offices for 24 primary care physicians, a variety of other clinicians, an in-house pharmacy, a minor medical clinic and more. It opened in July. cludes 25 pharmacists. Some are clinical pharmacists, who hold doctoral degrees in pharmacy.

“Having a clinical pharmacist on the staff meet with the patients has been very helpful,” Weeks said.

The pharmacists review patients’ medications and their medical situation, and make suggestions to the physicians, who work closely with the pharmacists.

“It has saved on costs. We’ve been able to find cheaper alternatives,” he said.

“There’s numerous studies that show that this type of arrangement increases safety. My pharmacist will say, ‘This patient hasn’t had this lab test in the last six months, we should probably do that.’ It’s just an extra set of eyes on that patient’s situation,” he said. The pharmacists also improve accuracy of medication lists

when patients must go into the hospital and when they are discharged.

“We’re setting up protocols whereby the pharmacist gets notified when they’re ready to leave, so we can have medications ready for them,” he said.

For the physicians at Think, the need to make changes to their personal schedules — the clinic is staffed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. — took some adjustment, Weeks said.

“We knew from the beginning that’s what the concept was, so nobody could bark too loud,” he said. “It’s good and bad. On one hand, our hours vary every day, so you don’t get in a rut. Most of the time, days that we work late, we start later. Our long days have a three-hour break where we have our meetings, and we have a longer lunch break.”

Helping to keep the work schedules balanced is something that Weeks and other Think doctors have welcomed — the use of scribes to update medical records. Though most of the scribes listen remotely to the doctors as they examine patients, some scribes are in the exam room if that’s what the doctor wants.

In either case, the physician saves time that would otherwise have been spent updating patient records.

“We don’t have to have our nose in the computer the whole time we’re talking to the patient, and we’re not distracted by the electronic medical record,” Weeks said. “My patients have noticed. They’ve really commented on that. They say, ‘You look so relaxed. You seem more happy.

You’re more attentive.’ ” Weeks expects the Think concept is going to prove particularly effective for the growing number of older patients in the population.

“It’s definitely built for that. The person that can take advantage of most of the services are the older folks with multiple medical problems and multiple medications. It’s a great place to come even if you’re pretty healthy, but the system and the team approach are set up for that tough, chronic complicated patient.”

Weeks also said he and his fellow physicians anticipate that the Think concept will expand around the state and the nation.

“The model was set up so that it could be replicated. If you’re not in the hospital setting, I think most people would say that the best model to rein this enormous health care system under control is a primary care-based model.”

World-Herald staff writer Rick Ruggles contributed to this story.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1397, howard.marcus@owh.com Twitter.com/OWHhoward

• Over 50 educational workshops, demonstrations, presentations-all FREE! • Natural food dining experiences • Hair, Spa & Beauty Show • Sports & Fitness Clinics for kids- FREE!

SATURDAY: Walk for MS

Think Whole Person Healthcare 7100 West Center Road

Think facts » Beyond the 24 primary-care doctors and their office staff, Think Whole Person Health Care includes five physician assistants, a dentist, a palliative care physician, a psychologist, a podiatrist, an optometrist, three physical therapists, 13 clinical pharmacists, 10 retail dispensing pharmacists and 16 pharmacy techs. An audiologist will join the staff by April 1. » Sixteen of Think’s 24 primarycare doctors own 49 percent of the clinic. A management company owns 51 percent, and that company is owned largely by the management team. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska owns 25 percent of the management company.

Walk-in clinic ThinkQuick is a walk-in clinic on site for anyone experiencing minor medical problems. Hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

Patients whose physicians are part of the Think practice get the benefit of having their records accessible by ThinkQuick staff. “You’re not going to find an urgent care center that has your records in front of them. That’s nice,” said Dr. Bill Weeks, a family physician at Think.

SUNDAY: Walk for Alzheimer’s

www.OmahaHealthExpo.com or call 402-346-8003

“I don’t have time for colon cancer.”

That’s why I got screened.

Take the time.

Get screened.

SURVIVOR John Hardy - 43

SURVIVOR Chris Snowardt - 39

Colon Cancer Screening Saves Lives Colon cancer is the 2nd leading cancer killer in the U.S.

But it can be prevented.

Screening helps find precancerous polyps so they can be removed before they turn into cancer. Screening can also find colon cancer early, when treatment is most effective.

If you’re 50 or older - don’t wait.

Talking to your doctor and get screened.

SURVIVOR Marcy Jameson-Plautz - 35 For more information call the Nebraska Colon Cancer Screening Program at:

1-800-532-2227

Source: Think Whole Person Healthcare

Coming to Omaha – Fall of 2016 World-class, specialized rehabilitation programs for traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, pulmonary conditions and neurological diseases are coming to Omaha. Madonna’s rehabilitation patients rank in the top 1 percent nationally in terms of complexity. Our patients discharge back to community settings at a higher rate compared to industry benchmarks.

Madonna values its partnerships with physicians, trauma hospitals and post-acute care facilities. We currently treat patients at our Bellevue and Lincoln locations. We are pleased to announce the opening of Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital-Omaha Campus in October.

800.676.5448 | www.madonna.org/careers ®

HEALTH &FITNESS OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Tracking the shiny and new Expansions, renovations and relocations fill this year’s health system construction calendar

By Todd von Kampen World-Herald Correspondent

Hard hats and hammers all will remain familiar features around Omaha hospitals as 2016 progresses.

A year from now, Creighton University Medical Center’s newest home will be nearly ready just east of Bergan Mercy Medical Center. A new “one-stop shop” CHI Health clinic also is being built on the north side of the university’s campus to maintain emergency and other vital medical services in northeast Omaha.

Nebraska Medicine will be in the last phases of its nearly $400 million expansion of cancer and outpatient services at the Nebraska Medical Center.

Meanwhile, Methodist Hospital will be nearly finished with a 3½year, $77.4 million expansion and renovation at its 48-year-old campus at 84th and Dodge Streets.

Patients, employees and work crews at Methodist have grown so familiar with each other that Steve Goeser, Methodist Health System’s president and chief executive officer, jokes that he needs to line up additional projects so the cranes outside his office won’t be left homeless.

But in talking about likely post2017 improvements at 84th Street — such as an expanded emergency department — Goeser echoed his counterparts in noting the need to keep Omaha’s medical services updated and geographically relevant.

Methodist’s labor and delivery departments moved out of the hospital when a specialized Methodist Women’s Hospital opened in 2010 in the Elkhorn area. That made it possible, Goeser said, to “decompress” the 84th Street campus by freeing space to take on other patients and “create a larger, more modern surgical suite.”

Part of the employee parking garage was torn down to make room for the surgery project, which will create 15 operating rooms — all

Creighton University Medical Center

This rendering shows the new facility coming to the Bergan Mercy Hospital campus.

beam raising

UNMC and Nebraska Medicine employees signed steel beams which were raised during a topping off ceremony for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.

BRENDAN S U L L I VA N / T H E WORLD-HERALD

larger than the previous 12 — and add 44 private rooms. Cardiac services also will be consolidated in one area, Goeser said.

The demands of geography and modernization also are shaping the $135 million relocation of the bulk of Creighton’s teaching hospital.

First- and second-year medical students will remain on the university campus, but upper-level medical students will work and study in new and remodeled facilities at Bergan Mercy and other Omaha locations, said Todd DeFreece, vice president for operations.

CHI Health, which operates both the Creighton hospital and Bergan Mercy, is expanding the latter’s neonatal intensive care facilities and building a new Level 1 trauma center to absorb the patient loads currently handled at Creighton’s downtown site.

The 30th Street hospital’s projected shutdown in spring 2017 will leave the Nebraska Medical Center with the lone trauma center east of 72nd Street. By then, however, CHI Health officials expect to have fully opened a new Family Health Center — including an attached emergency department — at 24th and Cuming Streets on the north edge of the university campus.

The Cuming location will be CHI’s fifth in the metro area featuring daily “urgent care” services, family-practice doctors, obstetrics and pediatric services, and rotating specialists. Similar “one-stop

shops” opened last year at 161st Street and West Maple Road and at 42nd and L Streets, said CHI project manager Josh Olson.

Unlike the others, the 24th and Cuming clinic will have about 18 emergency beds and four “vertical rooms.” The latter will serve patients who come to the clinic — especially in the late-night hours — needing medical attention or observation but not necessarily hospital admission.

Though trauma patients will go to the new Bergan Mercy unit, DeFreece said, they could be stabilized at the Cuming site as needed before transportation. The Family Health Center will open next fall, but its emergency beds likely won’t open until the 30th Street hospital shuts down, he said.

The Nebraska Medical Center will move toward an expected fall completion of the $70 million Lauritzen Outpatient Center and Fritch Surgery Center near 40th and Leavenworth Streets. Work also will continue toward an expected mid-2017 opening of the $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center near UNMC’s Durham research towers, said Jennie Bartholomew, facilities planning and construction director.

But the first highlight on Nebraska Medicine’s busy 2016 construction calendar will be the opening of an expanded emergency department at Bellevue Medical Center.

The seven-room addition includes two “safe rooms” for mental-health patients in behavioral distress, Bartholomew said.

Two projects should wrap up this spring: a $21 million outpatient surgery center at Village Pointe and a new Neurosurgery and Pain Center in Clarkson Doctors Building North at the Nebraska Medical Center campus.

A new $17.5 million parking garage for employees and patients opened in December at 40th and Farnam Streets, Bartholomew said.

The past year also saw the addition of 20 inpatient beds in the Lied Transplant Center, the completion of a temporary helipad at Saddle Creek Road and Farnam Street and the opening of the second of three phases of an ongoing consolidation of women’s health services on the University Tower’s fourth floor.

Generations of Omaha families have made Methodist a vital part of their lives. With nationally recognized cancer and cardiac teams and the region’s only medical campus dedicated to women, Methodist is where innovation meets compassion, working together to advance health and save lives. bestcare.org

©2016 Methodist Health System

17Y

18Y

OUT- HEALTH &FITNESS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

Do’s and don’ts for beginner triathletes So you’re getting ready to race your first triathlon. You’ve done the training, you’ve logged the miles, you’ve missed parties with non-triathlete friends. You’re ready to race!

But don’t let all that hard work go to waste by making mistakes on race day. Speaking from experience, there are plenty of things not to do.

I could have shaved plenty of time off my finishing time from my first triathlon if I didn’t wear my entire closet of clothes. Let me explain.

I wore a running bra underneath the swimsuit for the pool swim. Then I put biking shorts over the swimsuit and a longsleeved shirt over the swimsuit and running bra. I wore gloves and a bandanna underneath my helmet for the bike portion, too.

I got hot before the run, so I took down the top half of my swimsuit that was underneath the long-sleeved shirt. Oh, and I put running shorts over the biking shorts, which were over the swimsuit.

What was I thinking? Well, I wasn’t. Here are some do’s and don’ts for race day: DO wear a one- or two-piece tri outfit. Ladies, if you need extra support, wear a running bra that dries quickly underneath the top.

Michelle bandur

livewellnebraska.com DO swim in a lake before race day. Many triathletes panic and quit the race when they first get in the open water.

Yes, train in the pool, but make sure you swim in a lake in your wetsuit, swim cap and goggles before race day.

DO clean your goggles so they don’t fog up, and you can’t see. I use baby shampoo.

Believe me, it works. And if you accidentally leave some in your goggles, it won’t burn your eyes.

DON’T forget to take off your wetsuit before hopping on the bike.

DON’T forget to put on your bike helmet. It is required for all triathlon races.

DON’T eat a salad or anything else that gets the bowels moving the night before a race.

You don’t want to waste time in the bathroom during the race or have an accident.

DON’T forget to drink water.

You don’t want to get dehydrat-

ed. It can happen even during a 5K race.

DO use a checklist to make sure you have everything with you before you leave the house: wetsuit, goggles, bike, bike helmet, bike shoes, running shoes, sunglasses, water bottles, etc.

There’s a lot of stuff triathletes need to race.

DO know the race course.

If you can’t drive the course beforehand, look at the map and run your transitions. Know where your bike is when you run out of the water.

DON’T try anything new on race day. Don’t wear new socks, new shoes, eat something you’ve never tried before. You don’t know how it’s going to fit, feel or react to you. Best to save it for training to see if it works.

DO thank the volunteers on the race course. We couldn’t do this crazy sport without them.

DON’T forget to smile, because after all, we signed up for this in the first place to have some fun, challenge ourselves and achieve something great.

Good luck!

Michelle Bandur is a TV Media Program chairwoman at Iowa Western Community College and a 4-time Ironman finisher. She writes occasionally for livewellnebraska.com.

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SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

19Y

Keeping up with baby BABY boom

Infant delivery totals from 2005-’14 reflect availability of more hospital facilities in metro area’s western and southern reaches

Newborn Brooks Marley receives her mandatory tests from RNs Jamie Kernen, right, and Lauren Martindale at Methodist Women’s Hospital.

The hospital opened in 2010 and recorded the most births in Douglas and Sarpy Counties in 2014.

By Todd von Kampen World-Herald Correspondent

I

THE WORLDHERALD

Infant deliveries, Douglas and Sarpy County hospitals, 2005-2014 Hospital

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 % share, 2014

Bellevue Medical Center* 171 606 683 765 830 6.47% Bergan Mercy Medical Center 2,812 2,713 2,958 3,026 2,959 3,106 3,409 3,316 3,417 3,423 26.70% Creighton University Medical Center 1,369 1,304 1,193 1,175 1,189 1,116 1,149 1,176 948 936 7.30% Immanuel Medical Center 719 692 785 736 706 548 567 591 564 549 4.28% Lakeside Hospital 704 899 1,156 1,235 1,370 1,193 1,142 1,149 1,023 976 7.61% Methodist Hospital** 3,569 3,771 3,807 3,696 3,664 1,507 Methodist Women’s Hospital** 1,779 3,410 3,597 3,835 4,342 33.87% Midlands Community Hospital*** 386 393 366 387 331 295 314 283 195 Nebraska Medical Center 2,436 2,669 2,495 2,533 2,643 2,171 1,894 1,792 1,759 1,755 13.67% Children’s Hospital & Medical Center 5 7 .05% * Opened July 2010. ** Infant delivery services were transferred to the new Methodist Women’s Hospital on June 21, 2010. *** Ceased infant deliveries in November 2013.

Source: Hospital Statistical Reports, Nebraska Health and Human Services System

Douglas and Sarpy County deliveries by health-care groups, 2005-2014 Group

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

% share, 2014

CHI Health* 5,990 6,001 6,458 6,559 6,555 6,258 6,581 6,515 6,147 5,884 45.9% Methodist Health System** 3,569 3,771 3,807 3,696 3,664 3,286 3,410 3,597 3,835 4,342 33.9% Nebraska Medicine*** 2,436 2,669 2,495 2,533 2,643 2,342 2,500 2,475 2,524 2,585 20.2%

% change, 2005-14 -1.8% 21.7% 6.1%

* Bergan Mercy, Creighton, Immanuel, Lakeside and Midlands. ** Methodist Hospital and Methodist Women’s Hospital. *** Nebraska Medical Center and Bellevue Medical Center.

Source: Hospital Statistical Reports, Nebraska Health and Human Services System

Mercy campus.

The transfer includes a full merger of the two hospitals’ labor and delivery departments at Bergan Mercy, which is reconfiguring its existing space and doubling the size of its neonatal intensive care unit from 26 to 52 rooms.

The consolidation might allow Bergan Mercy to unseat Methodist Women’s Hospital as the top individual hospital for births — but it also will leave the Nebraska Medical Center as the last hospital delivering babies near Omaha’s historic center. Methodist Hospital also originated near downtown in 1891, a year before Creighton’s teaching hospital, but moved west to 84th Street in 1968.

Sue Korth, vice president

and chief operating officer at Methodist Women’s Hospital, said she doesn’t perceive location as a prime factor in parents’ delivery choices, even when the mother’s pregnancy goes wrong.

Her still-new hospital lies 108 blocks west of Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, which was — and is — independent of Methodist Hospital but shares a skywalk with it.

Though her staff can no longer wheel a highly premature or distressed newborn to Children’s through that skywalk, Korth said, the Level III neonatal intensive care unit at Methodist Women’s Hospital can handle most such cases, and ambulances can quickly traverse West Dodge Road

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She added that her hospital’s 2014 total of 4,342 deliveries likely will have grown significantly once 2015 figures are totaled. “I don’t believe the number of deliveries in this county is going up,� Korth said. “We are the destination to have a baby because of the features we have on this campus.�

A lesser factor in the slump in CHI Health’s delivery totals, Strasheim said, happened when its

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Omaha hospitals came under full ownership of Catholic Health Initiatives at the end of 2012. Before that, Alegent Health, which acquired Creighton’s hospital and clinics earlier that year, was jointly sponsored

by CHI and Lutheran-affiliated Immanuel.

The latter’s withdrawal brought Alegent’s originally non-Catholic hospitals — Immanuel and Lakeside — under Catholic ethical standards that prevent Catholic hospitals and doctors from

performing sterilizations.

Both hospitals ceased those services, forcing mothers wanting them to go elsewhere for their births. “Women, if they’re going to be sterilized and have a C-section, often want to do that all at once. And we weren’t able to do that,�

Strasheim said. But “we are CHI Health, we are wholly owned Catholic and live by our ethical and religious principles. And that’s who we are.�

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t’s not that Omaha’s hospitals have never followed metro-area families in their migrations west and south from the city’s riverside roots.

But in the vital service of delivering babies, the city’s three major health care systems have used the past decade to catch up geographically while staying current medically.

That trend can be seen in each system’s combined state reports of Douglas and Sarpy County infant deliveries between 2005 and 2014 — a period in which Methodist Health System moved its labor and delivery services from Methodist Hospital near 84th and Dodge Streets to the new Methodist Women’s Hospital near the Elkhorn area.

CHI Health’s five hospitals in the two counties temporarily benefited from the 2010 move, building their share of infant deliveries from a bare majority in 2005 to 52.7 percent in 2011, according to Nebraska Health and Human Services System figures.

But their share had dipped to 46 percent by 2014, a year after the system formerly known as Alegent Creighton Health stopped delivering babies at Papillion’s Midlands Community Hospital in a cost-cutting move.

Methodist, meanwhile, grew its overall market share from 27.3 percent in 2011 to 33.9 percent in 2014 as its relocated departments continued to lead the two counties’ individual hospitals in total deliveries.

The third group, Nebraska Medicine, maintained its one-fifth market share in deliveries despite expanding into Sarpy County by opening Bellevue Medical Center in 2010.

Officials of all three groups agreed that the attraction of shiny new facilities has partly driven expectant parents’ choices over the past decade. “I think that, in general, people want to go to the newest place in town,� said Lisa Strasheim, CHI’s division director for women’s health.

But Becky Parks, Bellevue Medical Center’s nurse manager, said the phenomenon applies mainly to firsttime parents. “For people who have had babies before, it’s important to them how they’re treated and how responsive the staff is to their needs,� she said.

Further shifts lie ahead as CHI-operated Creighton University Medical Center moves west in 2017 from its downtown location to new facilities at the Bergan

20Y

OUT- HEALTH &FITNESS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

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• Treating more than 300 prostate cancer patients each month from over 25 states and several countries • Omaha’s first cancer center to receive the prestigious ASCO QOPI Certification for our excellence in cancer care • One of only seven community cancer centers in the US (2013) to receive special recognition by ASCO for our cancer research program • January 2016, Dr. Luke administered a FIRST in Human / FIRST in the World vaccine for prostate cancer on a Pfizer Sponsored Phase I Trial • Globally recognized as one of the top three centers in the world for Xofigo therapy for advanced prostate cancer • Working as a team with the area’s most Elite Urologists, Radiation Oncologists and Imaging Specialists • Highest patient satisfaction with over 250 Five Star Patient Testimonials on Healthgrades.com and Vitals.com • Comprehensive, personal care: all patients have 24/7 cell phone access to Dr. Nordquist and his team

A Global Leader in Prostate Cancer Research Cancer research is the only process available to discover and utilize new treatments for cancer patients. The Urology Cancer Center & GU Research Network is recognized by thought leaders, patients and pharmaceutical companies as a Global leader in the research of prostate cancer. We are frequently recognized for being the first and/or top enrollment site for U.S and international clinical trials. Our experience, network and focus have led drug companies (both U.S and abroad) to utilize our center for their most important studies. These novel treatments afford us a larger treatment arsenal than any other cancer center providing prostate cancer care.

With these research treatments Dr. Luke can craft the most personalized and precise treatment for his patients.

Prostate Cancer Treatment Considerations HORMONE/TARGETED TREATMENTS

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Cancer treatments are becoming cost prohibitive and are a leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. Our very dedicated team has tremendous experience and resources to obtain the necessary financial support for our patients so cost will never be a barrier to obtaining the best care. We meet individually with our patients to insure their insurance plan including prescription coverage is optimal for their cancer situation. In addition, our team has access to over 20 patient assistance foundations to provide support directly to our patients.

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Participation in cancer clinical trials can offer patients better treatment options.

These images demonstrate the before and after effect from one of our research treatments for a patient with prostate cancer in the bone.

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Hear why more than 250 patients have given us a 5 star rating on vitals.com and healthgrades.com 5.0 ★★★★★ “Several weeks ago I told a prostate cancer survivors group in Ohio that going to the Urology Cancer Center in Omaha was the best prostate cancer experience that I have had since my diagnosis 5 years ago. From the first phone call to the Urology Cancer Center I knew that this was going to be different. The professional, efficient and kind staff worked to overcome problems that I encountered in getting a specific new treatment. Dr. Nordquist’s approach gave me and my wife new hope in my fight.”

Steve B. “After being told in 2012 I had 6-12 months to live by another doctor, Dr. Luke came into my hospital room and told me otherwise.

My outlook quickly changed and I realized I had a fight on my hands but with Dr. Luke and his wonderful staff it has been a pleasant experience. In 2016 I remain free of cancer.”

Mary W. “I learned more about prostate cancer in my time with him than I had learned in the previous 12 years. I left his office with an understanding of my condition but more importantly, I left his office with hope.”

John M. “When faced with the biggest decision of my life, knowing every choice was a matter of life and death, I did what most newly diagnosed cancer patients do, I prayed. I

asked for a miracle, an angel and more time.

My prayers were answered when he sent me Dr. Luke Nordquist. Beyond the brilliance of his kind heart, the man is highly intelligent.

Dr. Nordquist is by my experience the only choice.”

Bill C. “I can not begin to tell you what I was feeling after I found out that my cancer had reared it’s ugly head again.. Fortunately a close friend of mine suggested that I talk to Dr. Luke.. OMG!! After seeing so many doctors, hospitals etc. you tend to get frustrated to say the least but the moment I stepped into the office of Dr. Luke...at ease.. It was amazing.

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Roger K. “My 2 brothers and I went in to Dr. Nordquist very sad and discouraged. We came out with new hope and a whole wealth of knowledge.

We are very impressed with his knowledge, the way that he explains things and he took all the time we needed.

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Mary P. “I survived prostate cancer for 15 years. I have dealt with many doctors and six different clinics over the years including Mayo Clinic.

In my opinion, Dr. Luke is better than any doctor I have had by four or five times. This doctor knows your cancer before you arrive and will make the best possible plan to fight this cancer and will immediately get you on this course of action. If you have prostate cancer and need help you will do yourself a great disservice if you do not come talk to this doctor face to face.”

Mark S. “I’ve had 3 different doctors since being diagnosed with prostate cancer 7 years

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Omaha plays host to a wide range of entertainment, from pop stars to symphony concerts, one-act plays to Broadway musicals.

ENTERTAIN-

outlook 2016 SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

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22Y

OUT- ENTERTAINMENT & EVENTS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

Uniquely Omaha: Events

U.S. Senior Open Golf Tournament

u.s. olympic swim trials

NCAA Men’s division i Basketball regional tournament

NCAA Men’s College World Series

Why do Omahans go crazy over big events? Without top-level pro sports, not to mention mountains or beaches, we are drawn to what gives us a little national attention. Truth to tell, we enjoy our moments in the sun.

College World Series

The College World Series has been called our own Kentucky Derby or Indianapolis 500, a nearfortnight each June when the national sports focus is on Omaha. The eight-team national baseball tournament is unique among NCAA championships because no other locale has permanently hosted an event for anything like the 60-plus years the CWS has unfolded in the Big O.

in the national eye

In a period of 16 months in 2012 and 2013, Omaha hosted six national sporting events that drew more than 1.1 million attendees.

“I don’t think any city in the country, and maybe in the world, has had a string like that in that time frame,” Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce President David Brown said after a run of events that created 46 days or nights of national TV coverage from Omaha. » March 2012, NCAA Men’s Division I basketball regional tournament: Attendance of 50,878 » June 2012, College World Series: 338,873 » June-July 2012, U.S. Olympic Swim Trials: 167,048 » January 2013, U.S. Figure Skating Championships » June 2013, College World Series: 341,483 » July 2013, U.S. Senior Open: 157,126

U.S. Figure Skating Championships

— Excerpts from Michael Kelly’s “Uniquely Omaha: 101 Things to Know About the Big O”

THE WORLD-hERALD

PUTTING ON A SHOW

Pyrotechnics highlight the National Anthem and opening ceremony during an evening session of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials at CenturyLink Center Omaha. The 2016 trials return June 26-July 3.

Omaha has built on success with Olympic Swim Trials

By Steve Beideck

T

World-Herald Correspondent

hat the 2016 USA Swimming Olympic Trials have evolved into a bucket list event for swim geeks and casual sports fans alike is a testament to how well the past two trials in Omaha were received.

Look beyond the easy headlines — one last go-round for Michael Phelps and how much success Missy Franklin can expect to enjoy after a rousing performance at the 2012 trials — and it’s easy to see how Omaha was awarded this event for the third consecutive time.

Harold Cliff, who has served as the CEO of the 2008 and 2012 trials in Omaha, said elevated expectations for the 2016 event are welcomed.

“People’s expectations in 2016 are pretty high,” Cliff said. “We’re trying to raise the bar again, and that takes a little time to get things designed again. We’re changing things up; obviously that will have to be a first-nighter experience to see what people think of it.”

The top two finishers in each event will qualify to represent the United States at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The top four finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle events also will qualify for the U.S. teams for the freestyle relays.

Tickets have been gobbled up faster than

ever for the June 26 to July 3 event at CenturyLink Center. Cliff said sales of eight- and four-day ticket packages already are well ahead of the pace of the past two trials.

Cliff said 7,300 all-session ticket packages have been sold for 2016; the total sold for 2012 was 5,200.

When the four-day options were made available — people can buy tickets for either the first four or final four dates — those numbers already have passed the record pace for 2012.

“We’re running double the numbers we did at this same time in 2012,” Cliff said. “With all ticket sales we’re well in excess of where we were at this time in 2012. There’s a very strong likelihood, if we continue to reach our targets, that we will sell out every session of the 2016 trials.”

As of mid-December Cliff said more than 27,000 room nights for Omaha hotels already have been sold. For the 2012 trials the final total number of rooms sold was 23,500 — an increase of 3,500 sold rooms seven months before the scheduled start of the event.

What those numbers show is that this event attracts many out-of-town guests who need these services instead of most event attendees being from the Omaha area.

With these types of numbers already coming in, event organizers are encouraged that they will be on target with their economic

impact forecast estimates of $35-$40 million for these trials.

“That’s good news for merchants and hotels and restaurants and bar people,” Cliff said. “Hopefully everyone will be smiling at the end of the trials. It’s shaping up to be very solid.”

The athletes chasing those elusive Olympic team berths also had a big say in the 2016 trials returning to Omaha. So did the crews who televised the event every night in prime time for NBC Sports.

“Swimmers, coaches, and even the media found the benefit of coming back to Omaha for many reasons, Cliff said. “The venue works really, really well. The airport is in close proximity to the venues, and so are many of the hotels.

“NBC has a considerable amount of comfort in the building because they know they have the space to get everything done the way they want it. It comes down to the event itself works in this venue, and that has already been demonstrated.”

Omaha faced a challenge from four cities — Indianapolis, St. Louis, San Antonio and Greensboro, North Carolina — to win the bid for the 2016 trials. Indianapolis and Greensboro withdrew their bids before the final vote.

“For many people it was more of a question of why would you want to change for the sake

of change,” Cliff said. “There were some very strong bids against us for 2016, but we put our very best foot forward on what we could get done and what we have done.”

Already more than 1,400 swimmers have qualified to participate in the 2016 trials. Most of them will be swimming in the morning qualifying sessions as only the top eight from the prelims advance to the evening finals.

They will be swimming in a pool that is slightly bigger than those used for the last two trials. Cliff said it will be one meter wider — 26 meters — with the length still 50 meters.

“It’s a technical thing because there has not been room to have lane ropes on the outside lanes,” Cliff said. “There was no lane rope next to the gutter system. Now we can use 10 lanes for the morning prelims and that will help make the prelims more efficient.”

There will be two or three days of overlap with the finals of the College World Series at the start of the trials, but that also is something meet officials have dealt with before.

They’ve also worked with more than 900 volunteers, and most are ready for another chance to again help make this a signature sporting event, with the nation watching for eight straight nights.

“Everyone is very pleased how 2016 is shaping up to this point,” Cliff said. “It’s a huge effort from a lot of people.”

ENTERTAINMENT & EVENTS OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

w!

D een van M eer

Disney’s Newsies

The cast of the North American tour of “Newsies.”

Nothing to do?

Maybe you’re just not looking hard enough

By Kiley Cruse World-Herald Staff writer

The entertainment scene is bursting with things to do in Omaha this year, from winter theater to summer festivals, and so much more. Here’s a sampling of upcoming performances and activities at popular Omaha-area venues.

ALL TICKETS

Love, Loss and What I Wore Through Feb. 14 on the Mainstage Omaha Community Playhouse 6915 Cass St. This collection of stories is told in sometimes-strong language by a cast of women sitting side by side, accompanied by illustrations from the book by Ilene Beckerman.

Their tales of life’s struggles and celebrations is woven with the common thread of the all-important outfits they wore for each occasion.

This production is presented in its original and intended form of scriptcentered storytelling.

Super Powers Through April 17 Omaha Children’s Museum 500 S. 20th St. This kid-sized super power training ground lets a child fly, scale, zip and smash his or her way through a real-life comic book city. Build your body and your bravery as you gear up to tackle challenges and complete missions. Scale skyscrapers as you climb up to building edges, zip across the city, leap from rooftop to rooftop and much more.

Go West! Art of the American Frontier from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Through April 17 Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge St. This ticketed special exhibit considers evolving notions of the American West. The 90 paintings, sculptures and American Indian artifacts, created between the 1830s and the 1920s, date from the West’s earliest visual history to the creation of its powerful romantic legacy.

Frost/Nixon Feb. 4 to 28 Bluebarn Theatre 1106 S. 10th St. Richard M. Nixon has just resigned the U.S. presidency in disgrace while British talk-show host David Frost has become a laughing-stock.

Frost risks everything on a series of in-depth interviews to extract an apology from Nixon. Nixon, however, is equally bent on redeeming himself in his nation’s eyes.

ON SALE NOW jac q ues lowe

The kennedys

Experience intimate images of President John F. Kennedy and his family in the “Creating Camelot: The Kennedy Photography of Jacques Lowe” exhibit at the Durham Museum from Feb. 13 to May 8.

La Fanciulla del West

Disney’s Newsies

Feb. 12 and 14 Orpheum Theater 409 S. 16th St. This Opera Omaha performance is set in the saloon of a California mining camp during the Gold Rush.

“La Fanciulla del West” (The Girl of the Golden West) has all the grit and grandeur of our greatest western films.

Feb. 16 to 21 Orpheum Theater 409 S. 16th St. They delivered the papers, until they made the headlines. Direct from Broadway comes this new musical from Disney.

Creating Camelot: The Kennedy Photography of Jacques Lowe Feb. 13 to May 8 Durham Museum 801 S. 10th St. The exhibit will showcase intimate and iconic images of President John F. Kennedy and his family and will explore how the news media used these images. Jacques Lowe was Kennedy’s personal photographer from 1958 through Kennedy’s early years in the White House. Lowe’s photographs helped create the “Camelot” legend of the Kennedy presidency.

A Celebration of Spielberg & Williams Feb. 13 Holland Performing Arts Center 1200 Dodge St. The Omaha Symphony takes on Steven Spielberg and John Williams — no collaboration between director and composer has spawned more movie blockbusters. Performances will feature the unforgettable music of their work in such films as “Jaws,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T.”

An Afternoon with Garrison Keillor Feb. 14, 3 p.m.

Holland Performing Arts Center 1200 Dodge St. Garrison Keillor, host of “A Prairie Home Companion,” shares his unique anecdotes about growing up in the Midwest, the people of Lake Wobegon and “late-life fatherhood.”

Japanese Doll Exhibit Feb. 18 to March 3 Lauritzen Gardens 100 Bancroft St. Discover ornamental Imperial dolls, or hina-ningyo, which represent the emperor, empress, attendants and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period (A.D. 7941185). The collection celebrates Japan’s Hinamatsuri, also called Doll’s Day or Girls’ Day.

Tangier Shrine Circus Feb. 18 to 21 Mid-America Center 1 Arena Way, Council Bluffs See circus performances by favorite acts featuring clowns, elephants, tigers and more at the familyfriendly event.

French Masterpieces Feb. 19 and 20 Holland Performing Arts Center 1200 Dodge St. An Omaha Symphony concert of French music, including Franck’s spirited symphony and Ravel’s jazzage concerto.

Nebraska Robotics Expo Feb. 20, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum 28210 West Park Highway (Interstate 80, exit 426) Ashland, Nebraska Watch robots created by 800 students compete in the Nebraska Robotics Expo.

See Events: Page 24

Starting at $19!

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OUT- ENTERTAINMENT & EVENTS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

DANCING FOR THEIR SUPPER

Spectators enjoy Dowds Irish Dance Academy dancers performing at Taste of Omaha at Lewis and Clark Landing in 2015.

Events: Need something to do? We’ve got you covered June 3 to 5 More than 50 restaurants set up booths in Heartland of America Park and along the riverfront.

Continued from Page 23

Plastic Drastic Feb. 26 to March 13 Rose Theater 2001 Farnam St. When a colossal storm dumps a mountain of plastic trash onto their shoreline home, young siblings must find their missing parents and fend for themselves. The boy and girl set out on the open sea where they encounter one monster after another, but nothing is as terrifying as when they shipwreck upon the monster they unknowingly created, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Sheila Hicks: Material Voices June 5 to Sept. 4 Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge St. Nebraska artist Sheila Hicks’ exhibit will feature large hanging installations, freestanding sculptures and weavings from across her prolific career.

Summer Arts Festival June 10 to 12 Downtown Omaha More than 100 artists from around America are featured in this juried show.

10th Annual Beertopia Extreme Beerfest Feb. 26 and 27 Ralston Arena 7300 Q St. Open to ages 21 and older with ID. Sample more than 300 beers including rare, special release, local, seasonal, import, craft and home.

Rave On: The Buddy Holly Experience

Jane Lynch: See Jane Sing Feb. 28, 7 p.m.

Holland Performing Arts Center.

1200 Dodge St. The Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner offers an evening of musical comedy, with more than a dash of wit, as she explores her love of the beauty and absurdity of the American standard and show tune.

City of Angels March 4 to April 3 Omaha Community Playhouse 6915 Cass St. This sexy, sizzling and smart film noir-style musical pays homage to glamorous 1940s Hollywood. Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, this show has two plots running simultaneously — the real world and the “reel” world.

Orchid Show and Sale March 5 and 6, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Lauritzen Gardens 100 Bancroft St. The Greater Omaha Orchid Society’s 29th annual orchid show and sale will offer prime specimens of these exotic plants up close and for sale.

11th Annual Omaha Film Festival March 8 to 13 Village Pointe Theater 304 N. 174th St. Celebrate independent filmmaking with more than 90 films, panel discussions and more. Last year, MovieMaker magazine named the event one of 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.

National Geographic Live — Untamed Wild With Cory Richards March 8, 7:30 p.m.

Holland Performing Arts Center 1200 Dodge St. North Face athlete Cory Richards is one of the world’s leading adventure and expedition photographers. He tries to capture the soul of exploration and has won awards at nearly every major adventure film festival.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella March 15 to 20 Orpheum Theater 409 S. 16th St. This Tony Award-winning Broadway musical offers a contemporary take on the classic tale.

R E B E C C A S . G R AT Z / T H E W O R L D - H E R A L D

project runway

Models walk the runway in the finale of Buf Reynolds’ collection, styled by EQ School of Hair Design, featuring Dangerous Designs, during the evening wear showcase of Omaha Fashion Week at The Yard in 2015.

Omaha Fashion Week March 15 to 20 Omaha Design Center 1502 Cuming St. The first fashion week of the year will include designs modeled by cancer survivors, and will bring together top talent in modeling and design.

The Christians March 24 to April 17 Bluebarn Theatre 1106 S. 10th St. Pastor Paul’s church has grown in 20 years from a handful of followers to a flock of thousands with the building size to match. Trouble is brewing as Pastor Paul is about to preach on a subject that will shake his congregation. This is a tale of America’s faith and the problems that come from changing your mind.

Honk! The Musical March 25 to April 10 Rose Theater 2001 Farnam St. Anyone who has ever felt “different” will understand what it feels like to be Ugly the Duck. Only his mama understands how lonely he is. When a blizzard hits, Ugly discovers there’s more to him than anyone knew.

Momentum: Go West!

April 1, 7:30 p.m.

Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge St. April 3, 2 p.m.

Arts Center at Iowa Western Community College 2700 College Road, Council Bluffs Momentum, Ballet Nebraska’s awardwinning mixed-repertory program, showcases the artistic range and choreographic variety of ballet as a captivating art form. Presented in partnership with Joslyn Art Museum, the ballet celebrates Joslyn’s featured exhibition and is inspired by the spirit and stories of the American West.

Semele April 8 and 10 Orpheum Theater 409 S. 16th St. Handel’s Semele is a darkly comic mythological story of a mortal woman’s tryst with a dangerous god. It’s an opera of lust, jealousy, and revenge.

First Folio! The book that gave us ShaKespeare

Omaha Symphony 95th Anniversary Gala

April 9-May 1 Durham Museum 801 S. 10th St. The First Folio is the first complete collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published in 1623, seven years after his death.

May 14, 8 p.m.

Holland Performing Arts Center 1200 Dodge St. Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons join the Omaha Symphony for an evening of entertainment to celebrate the symphony’s 95th anniversary.

Outcry Tour 2016

the Producers

April 13, 6:30 p.m.

CenturyLink Center Omaha 455 N. 10th St. See Hillsong Worship, Jesus Culture + Martin Smith, Kari Jobe, Elevation Worship and Brian Houston.

May 27 to June 26 Omaha Community Playhouse 6915 Cass St. “The Producers” is the absurd Mel Brooks comedy that follows producers Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom on their quest to become filthy rich.

Beethoven’s Violin Concerto April 22 and 23 Holland Performing Arts Center 1200 Dodge St. Hear Beethoven’s tour-de-force for violin paired with John Adams’s 20th-century masterpiece, led by guest conductor Andrew Grams.

Wild Kratts — Live!

May 5, 7 p.m.

Orpheum Theater 409 S. 16th St. This is a new theatrical stage show based on the hit PBS animated television series “Wild Kratts.” Martin and Chris Kratt engage audiences by sharing facts about animals through a large screen multimedia format, then pull on their Creature Power vests and gloves to show off the amazing abilities of animals — such as Rhino Powers and Caracal Powers.

The Music of Whitney Houston May 7, 7:30 p.m.

Holland Performing Arts Center 1200 Dodge St. Broadway sensation Rashidra Scott joins the Omaha Symphony to celebrate Whitney Houston. Hear her musical legacy with faithful renditions of “Saving All My Love,” “How Will I Know?,” “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?” and “I Will Always Love You.”

Luke Bryan: Kill The Lights Tour with special guests Little Big Town and Dustin Lynch May 12, 7:30 p.m.

CenturyLink Center Omaha 455 N. 10th St. The 2015 CMA entertainer of the year tours with his fifth studio album.

Superheroes!

May 28 Holland Performing Arts Center 1200 Dodge St. Today’s big screen comic book superheroes get their power from film score masters Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri and John Williams.

Hear the Omaha Symphony take on selections from Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, The Avengers, X-Men and more.

Odyssey’s Shipwreck! Pirates & Treasures

June 10 to 26 Omaha Community Playhouse 6915 Cass St. “Rave On: The Buddy Holly Experience” reinvents the tribute show with a high-energy, rock ’n’ roll extravaganza featuring America’s premier Buddy Holly interpreter, Billy McGuigan.

Skakespeare on the green June 23 to July 10 Elmwood Park 60th and Dodge Streets “The Taming of the Shrew” and “Macbeth” will show over three weekends.

Journey & The Doobie Brothers Aug. 6, 7 p.m.

CenturyLink Center Omaha 455 N. 10th St. This tour brings together two classic rock groups who helped define the “San Francisco Sound” in the early 1970s.

Nebraska Balloon and Wine festival Aug. 12 and 13 Coventry Campus 204th and Q Streets A nightly hot-air balloon launch and glow, food, Nebraska wines and family-friendly entertainment are part of the festival.

5 SECONDS OF SUMMER: SOUNDS LIVE FEELS LIVE TOUR Aug. 22, 7:30 p.m.

CenturyLink Center Omaha 455 N. 10th St. The Australian pop-rock foursome are behind such songs at “She Looks So Perfect” and “Don’t Stop.”

Fall Chrysanthemum Show

May 28 to Aug. 28 Durham Museum 801 S. 10th St. This exhibit takes visitors on a voyage through more than 2,000 years of seafaring history and contains more than 500 artifacts along with a variety of interactive games and challenges.

Oct. 1 to Nov. 18 Lauritzen Gardens 100 Bancroft St. In honor of 50 years of friendship with Omaha’s Sister City of Shizuoka, Japan, this show features an array of blooms, distinctive design components and gifts from the people of Shizuoka to the people of Omaha.

THE BOOK OF MORMON

Holiday Lights Festival

May 31 to June 5 Orpheum Theater 409 S. 16th St. This musical comedy follows the misadventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries, sent halfway across the world to spread the good word.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid June 3 to 25 The Rose Theater 2001 Farnam St. Dive “Under the Sea” as one of Disney’s all-time favorites splashes to life in this Broadway musical adaptation.

Taste of Omaha

Nov. 24 to Jan. 1, 2017 Various downtown-area locations This monthlong festival begins with a lighting ceremony Thanksgiving night and features live performances, ice skating and fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

ENTERTAINMENT & EVENTS OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Baxter Arena, University of Nebraska at Omaha Opened: October 2015 Cost: $82 million Public vote: none Funding: private donations, public debt funded through facility revenue, university funds and private donations Major tenants: UNO hockey; UNO men’s basketball Seating capacity: about 7,800

CenturyLink Center Omaha

Ralston Arena

Opened: 2003 Cost: $291 million Public vote: 63 percent in favor Funding: private donations, public debt funded through city taxes, and state incentives from sales taxes paid by arenaarea businesses Major tenant: Creighton men’s basketball Seating capacity: about 18,300

Opened: 2012 Cost: $41 million Public vote: 80 percent in favor Funding: public debt financed through city funds, property taxes, keno revenue, and state incentives from sales taxes paid by arena-area businesses Major tenants: Omaha Lancers hockey; Omaha Beef arena football Seating capacity: about 3,500

Mid-America Center, Council Bluffs Opened: 2002 Cost: $74 million Public vote: none Funding: Iowa West Foundation, Harvey’s (now Harrah’s) Casino and state Vision Iowa Funds, with Council Bluffs providing a small amount of tax-increment financing Major tenant: none Seating capacity: about 6,700

Opened: 2013 Cost: $184 million Public vote: 56 percent in favor Funding: public debt to be paid back through arena operations, occupation tax on bars, restaurants, hotels and rental cars, and state turnback incentives from sales taxes paid by arena-area businesses Major tenant: University of Nebraska men’s basketball Seating capacity: about 15,000

Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln

Tale of the tape at area’s venues The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Baxer Arena is the city’s newest arena, opening in 2015.

The 7,800 seat facility is home to the Maverick’s ice hockey team.

By Henry J. Cordes world-herald staff writer

The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s $82 million Baxter Arena in 2015 was the fourth new arena to open in the Omaha area in the past 13 years. A fifth opened down the road in Lincoln two years earlier.

Baxter followed a national trend of purpose-built arenas, sized to the specific needs of a certain team or event. Because of that trend, it’s not unusual for a city today to have multiple arenas, though it’s arguable the number in the Omaha metro is high for a city this size.

Baxter Arena was built primarily for Maverick hockey, which for years had played at CenturyLink — but it also serves as home to Maverick basketball and volleyball.

Thomas Hazinski, a Chicago-based consultant on sports and entertainment facilities, said the potentially lucrative concert business is where the arenas are most likely to find themselves bumping into each other. Depending on the size of the act, promoters will likely have numerous facilities to shop to.

The three arenas on the Nebraska side of the metro area vary in size, from the 3,500-seat Ralston Arena to 7,800-seat Baxter Arena to 18,300-seat CenturyLink Center.

“The arenas all seem to have a unique identity and a distinct place in the marketplace, and the economy here supports live entertainment enough that they can all exist,’’ said David Bucksner, an Omaha concert promoter. “It is kind of wild when you think about it.’’

The 6,700-seat Mid-America Cen.

BRENDAN S U L L I VA N / T H E WORLD-HERALD

ter in the Bluffs faces a challenge in lacking an anchor tenant, having years ago lost the Omaha Lancers junior hockey team that now plays in Ralston.

However, “The MAC” has an advantage in that the building is paid for, its construction largely funded by gamblers’ casino losses. The facility has no debt overhang.

BAXTER ARENA There’s little question what’s the biggest financial driver for Baxter: Maverick hockey and its passionate fans, who hopefully will also enjoy a $7 beer or two.

UNO sold out its 17 suites, 750 pricey seats that come with special club access, and all 6,000 hockey season tickets for 2015-2016.

In addition to hosting 50 to 60 Maverick athletic contests each year, Baxter has become the new home for Omaha commencements.

It’s set to host those celebrations for UNO, Metropolitan Community College and most area high schools.

CENTURYLINK CENTER OMAHA If you want to see the impact of

arena competition, look at CenturyLink’s concert ticket sales.

When it opened in 2003, it was the only arena of its size in a 350-mile radius. It quickly became a regional concert goliath, attracting many of the biggest tours.

According to industry-tracker Pollstar, the nearly 340,000 concert tickets the Omaha arena sold in 2004 ranked it 17th in the world.

Yes, the world.

But along came Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena (2005), Kansas City’s Sprint Center (2007) and Lincoln’s Pinnacle Bank Arena (2013), all cutting into that business.

By 2013, CenturyLink’s concert ticket sales had dropped by more than half, though they’ve rebounded some since. Reduced takes from concerts are no doubt a big reason that the quasi-governmental agency that oversees CenturyLink has seen its annual profits drop from a peak of more than $5 million in 2008 to $519,000 in 2014.

CenturyLink continues to hold its own on concerts. Pollstar in 2015 ranked it No. 71 with 225,606 tickets sold. The arena had two of the larg-

est grossing concerts of the year.

Garth Brooks’ six-night stand in May was the No. 36 highest grossing concert, with more than $6.7 million in ticket sales. More than 101,000 tickets sold, nearly half of the arena’s concert tickets for the year. Taylor Swift’s two-night show in October ranked No. 142 with $3.1 million and 29,622 tickets.

Dixon acknowledges that CenturyLink’s biggest competitor will continue to be Pinnacle Bank, a similar-size arena that most concert promoters consider to be in the same market as CenturyLink.

During its first year, 2013, Pinnacle Bank attracted more of North America’s top 25 concert tours than CenturyLink did, though that reversed in 2014. Pollstar ranked Pinnacle Bank No. 123 in 2015 with 103,469 tickets sold.

RALSTON ARENA Ralston Arena General manager Stan Benis knows some people think the UNO arena will take a chunk of Ralston’s business. But as he said one of the advantages of his venue is its smaller size. That makes it a

great place for a singer or show that can’t sell more than 4,000 tickets.

“No (performer) wants to see empty seats, ’’ he said. “I think we do have a niche. I feel good about what we have for our upcoming year and meeting our goals.’’

MID-AMERICA CENTER Since Mark Vacanti of Caesars took over as manager of the Bluffs arena in 2012, he’s had to deal with a new competitor coming in almost every year — first Ralston, then Lincoln and now UNO. “The good thing is they’re not going to open one (in 2016),’’ he said. “It’s very unusual for a market this size.’’

Nonetheless, figures from the City of Council Bluffs show Caesars has been able to reduce operational losses from more than $700,000 to roughly $450,000 each of the past two years.

Vacanti has sought to leverage the facility’s convention space, which features an exhibition hall, ballroom and smaller breakout rooms. The arena has found a niche hosting medium-size floor shows that utilize both the arena and convention space, such as a master gardening show that recently drew 5,000 people.

“There are great opportunities, ’’ he said.

When it comes to concerts, Vacanti agreed the similar size between his arena and UNO’s is a problem, though he hopes to attract more tours in winter months when Baxter is booked for hockey and basketball.

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The Possibilities...For Catering

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OUT- ENTERTAINMENT & EVENTS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

Dining and nightlife

Cool menus, cold drinks in hot spots The Omaha-area dining-and-drinking scene has long been vibrant, with a mix of locally owned and chain establishments. What follows is a sampling of bars and restaurants in metro Omaha entertainment districts.

3558 Farnam St. 402-401-6068

Contact Gillian for options, availability & pricing at events@farnamhousebrewing.com

Le Breakfast, Le Brunch, Le Lunch!

Barley Street Tavern 2735 N. 62nd St. www.barleystreet.com

Select a date for your fundraiser. fundraaiser.

25% of the event sales will go to your organization

1777th & Center 402 934 9914 402-934-9914

156th & Dodge 402 408 1728 402-408-1728

1912 6201 Maple St. www.1912benson.com Aroma’s Coffeehouse 6051 Maple St. www.aromasbliss.com

EEasy as 1 1~2~3!

2 3!!

Let’s meet at....

Benson

The Beercade 6104 Maple St. www.thebeercade.com

Restaurant

120th & Blondo 402 991 8222 402-991-8222

Drive-Thru Open (Center St. Only) • All Locations Open Daily 6:30am-2:00pm

Serving Breakfast & Lunch All Day! www.lepeepomaha.com

Benson Brewery 6059 Maple St. www.bensonbrewery.com Burke’s Pub 6117 Maple St. www.burkespubomaha.com Burrito Envy & Tequila Bar 6113 Maple St. www.burritoenvy.com España Restaurant 6064 Maple St. www.espanaomaha.com

KENT SIEVERS / THE WORLD-HERALD

Fullhouse Bar 6135 Military Ave.

LOT 2

A meat and cheese board at Lot 2 Restaurant & Wine Bar in Benson.

Fusion BBQ 7024 Maple St.

Benson

Joe’s Cafe 6564 Maple St. www.joescafeomahane.com

k

Cree

Juice Stop 2119 S. 67th St. www.juicestopomaha. com Liv Lounge 2285 S. 67th St. www.livlounge.com Mai Thai 2279 S. 67th St. www.maithaiomaha.com

The Waiting Room Lounge 6212 Maple St. www.waitingroomlounge.com

Frances St.

Aksarben Village

Rd. ter Cen .

W

Baxter Arena

Godfather’s Pizza 2117 S. 67th St. www.godfathers.com Jones Bros. Cupcakes 2121 S. 67th St. www.jonesbroscupcakes. com

Tiger Tom’s Pub 7103 Military Ave.

64th Ave.

. y Rd Merc

67th St.

Frances St.

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit 1912 S. 67th St. www.dickeys.com

The Sydney 5918 Maple St. www.thesydneybenson.com Taita 6109 Maple St. www.taitarestaurant.com

Reverb Lounge 6121 Military Ave. www.reverblounge.com

Musette Bar 6020 Maple St. www.musettebar.com

pio

Pauli’s Lounge 6750 Mercy Road Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe 1908 S. 67th St. www.picklemans.com Ponzu Sushi & Grill 2110 S. 67th St., Suite 102 www.ponzusushiandgrill. com

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

THE WORLD-HERALD

NITE OWL

Spirit World 6680 Center St. www.spiritworldwine.com

Blackstone

Village Canvas and Cabernet 6457 Frances St., Suite 180 www.canvasandcab.com Voodoo Taco 2295 S. 67th St. www.voodootaco.com

Roast Coffeehouse 1904 S. 67th St.

Korean pork ribs at Ugly Duck Ramen, a pop-up restaurant open every Sunday at Nite Owl.

Archetype Coffee 3926 Farnam St. www.archetype.coffee

Max & Joe’s 3578 Farnam St. www.beercornerusa.com

Brothers Lounge 3812 Farnam St. www.brothersloungeomaha.com

Mula Mexican Kitchen & Tequileria 3932 Farnam St. www.mulaomaha.com

Corkscrew Wine & Cheese 3908 Farnam St. www.corkscrewwineandcheese.com

Nite Owl 3902 Farnam St. www.niteowlomaha.com

Crescent Moon 3578 Farnam St. www.beercornerusa.com

Noli’s Pizzeria 4007 Farnam St. www.nolispizzeria.com

Farnam House Brewing Co. 3558 Farnam St. www.farnamhousebrewing.com

Scriptown Brewing Company 3922 Farnam St. www.scriptownbrewing.com

Feta’s Gyro’s & Catering 119 S. 40th St. www.fetasgyros.com

Sullivan’s Bar 3929 Farnam St. www.sullivansbar.com

Huber-Haus 3578 Farnam St. www.beercornerusa.com

Creek Rd.

35th Ave.

Dewey Ave.

36th St.

DURHAMMUSEUM.ORG | 402-444-5071

UNMC

38th St.

ON DISPLAY THROUGH MAY 8, 2016

Blackstone District

Farnam St. 42nd St.

The Kennedy Photography of Jacques Lowe

ON DISPLAY THROUGH MAY 1, 2016

39th St.

41st St.

Dodge St.

Sa dd le

1620 So. 10th St. 402-345-8313 www.casciossteakhouse.com

Subway 6009 Maple St. www.subway.com

Lake St.

Pizza Shoppe 6056 Maple St. www.pizzashoppe.com

Mantra Bar and Grille 6913 Maple St. www.mantraomaha.com

Krug Park 6205 Maple St. www.krugpark.com

Dudley’s Pizza and Tavern 2110 S. 67th St. www.dudleysomaha.com

60th St.

Lot 2 Restaurant & Wine Bar 6207 Maple St. www.lot2benson.com

e Pa

7-Private Party Rooms • Seating up to 400 • Lots of Parking

63rd St.

Jerry’s Bar 6303 Military Ave. www.68104ever.com

DJ’s Dugout 2102 S. 67th St. www.djsdugout.com

Miami St.

Omaha Bicycle Co. 6015 Maple St. www.omahabicycleco.com

Leo’s Diner 6055 Maple St.

Littl

Owned & operated by the Cascio Family

Star Deli 6114 Military Ave. www.omahastardeli.com

THE WORLD-HERALD

Jake’s Cigars and Spirits 6206 Maple St. www.jakescigars.com

Aksarben Village STEAKS • CHOPS • SEAFOOD ITALIAN SPECIALITIES

66th St.

E N O R E NUMB Steakhouse

69th St.

72nd St.

Omaha’s

Hw y.

St. Andrews Pub 6102 Maple St. www.standrewsbar.com

Maple St.

Corby St.

Ika Ramen 6324 Maple St.

1106 South 10th Street • (402) 345-1576 • www.bluebarn.org

NW Radia l

Wirt St.

Infusion Brewing 6115 Maple St. infusionbrewing.com

Creating Contemporary Theatre For 27 Years

Bedford Ave.

52nd St.

Bedford Ave.

Hartland Bar-B-Que & Catering 5402 N.W. Radial Highway www.hartlandbar-b-que.com

THE WORLD-HERALD

ENTERTAINMENT & EVENTS OUT-

Cass St.

46th St.

48hSt.

Cass St.

Dundee Davenport St. 49thSt.

51st St.

50thSt.

Underwood Ave.

N. Saddle Creek Rd.

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Dodge St.

THE WORLD-HERALD

Dundee The French Bulldog 5003 Underwood Ave. www.frenchbulldogomaha. com

Amsterdam Falafel & Kabob 620 N. 50th St. Avoli Osteria 5013 Underwood Ave. www.avoliosteria.com

Goldbergs in Dundee 5008 Dodge St. www.goldbergsindundee.com

Beyond BBQ 4646 Dodge St. www.beyondbbqomaha.com

Le Quartier Baking Company 5026 Underwood Ave. www.lequartierbakingco.com

Blue Line Coffee 4924 Underwood Ave. www.bluelinecoffee.com

Marks Bistro 4916 Underwood Ave. www.marksindundee.com

Dario’s Brasserie 4920 Underwood Ave. www.dariosbrasserie.com KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

Canneles are on the dessert menu at Le Bouillon in the Old Market.

Dugger’s Cafe 4950 Dodge St. www.duggerscafe.com

Old Market

Dundee Cork & Bottle 614 N. 50th St.

le bouillon

Bar 415 415 S. 13th St.

Dubliner Pub 1205 Harney St. www.dublinerpubomaha.com Eat the Worm 1213 Howard St.

10th St.

J.D. Tucker’s 418 S. 10th St.

Falling Water Grille 555 S. 10th St. Harney Street Tavern 1215 Harney St. www.harneystreettavern.com Havana Garage 1008 Howard St. www.thehavanagarage.com Himalayas Indian and Bhutanese Cuisine 1010 Howard St. Hiro 88 1308 Jackson St. om.hiro88.com

Juice Stop 510 S. 12th St. www.juicestopomaha.com La Buvette Wine & Grocery 511 S. 11th St. www.labuvetteomaha.com Le Bouillon 1017 Howard St. www.bouillonomaha.com Little King 508 S. 12th St. www.littlekingsubs.com M’s Pub 422 S. 11th St. Status unknown due to January fire www.mspubomaha.com

The Hive 1207 Harney St. www.thehiveomaha.com J’s on Jackson 1101 Jackson St. www.jsonjackson.com Jackson Street Tavern 1125 Jackson St. www.jacksonstreettavern.com

The Market House 1108 Howard St. Status unknown due to January fire www.markethouseomaha.com

T. Henery’s Pub 318 S. 11th St. www.thenerys.com The Tavern 514 S. 10th St. www.thetavernomaha.com

O’Connor’s Irish Pub 1217 Howard St. www.oconnorsomaha.com

The Tea Smith 1118 Howard St. www.theteasmith.com

Old Chicago 1111 Harney St. www.oldchicago.com

Ted & Wally’s Ice Cream Shop 1120 Jackson St. www.tedandwallys.com

Omaha Prime 415 S. 11th St. www.omaha-prime.com

Tokyo Sushi 1215 Howard St.

Parliament Pub 1212 Harney St. www.parliamentpubomaha. com PepperJax Grill 1221 Howard St. www.pepperjaxgrill.com Plank Seafood Provisions 1205 Howard St www.plankseafood.com Roja 1212 Harney St. www.rojagrill.com Scooter’s Coffeehouse 1123 Howard St. www.scooterscoffee.com Sozo Coffeehouse 1314 Jones St. www.sozocoffeeshop.com Spaghetti Works 502 S. 11th St. www.spagworks.com

Trini’s 1020 Howard St. www.trinisoldmarket.com Twisted Fork Grill & Bar 1014 Howard St. www.twistedforkomaha.com Upstream Brewing Company 514 S. 11th St. www.upstreambrewing.com Urban Abbey 1026 Jackson St. www.urbanabbeyomaha.com V. Mertz 1022 Howard St. www.vmertz.com WheatFields 1202 Howard St. www.wheatfieldscatering.com Zio’s Pizzeria 1109 Howard St. www.ziospizzeria.com

Varsity Sports Cafe 4900 Dodge St. www.varsityromancoinpizza. com

.

Dr tt bo b A

Nicholas St.

Cuming St.

TD Ameritrade Park

Mike Fahey St. California St. Cass St.

Dodge St.

North Downtown

North Downtown Blatt Beer & Table 610 N. 12th St. www.blattbeer.com

The Old Mattress Factory 501 N. 13th St. www.themattomaha.com

Blue Line Coffee 749 N. 14th St. www.bluelinecoffee.com

Pettit’s Pastry 502 N. 16th St. www.pettitspastry.com

DJ’s Dugout 1003 Capitol Ave. www.djsdugout.com

The Session Room 1502 Mike Fahey St. sessionroomomaha.com

Goodnights 1302 Mike Fahey St. www.goodnightomaha.com

Slowdown 729 N. 14th St. www.theslowdown.com

Liberty Tavern 1001 Cass St. www.libertytavern.com

The Trap Room 733 N. 14th St. www.thetraproom.com

Nosh Wine Lounge 1006 Dodge St. www.noshwine.com

Zesto’s TD Ameritrade 610 N. 12th St.

dixie quicks

Black Oak Grill 220 S. 31st Ave., Suite 3107 www.blackoakgrill.com

Chicago Dawg House 3157 Farnam St. www.chicagodawghouse.com

Harney St.

30th St.

Turner Blvd.

33rd St.

THE WORLDHERALD

THE WORLD-HERALD

Lenny’s Sub Shop 3201 Farnam St., Suite 6104 www.lennys.com

Saints Pub + Patio 120 S. 31st Ave., Suite 5103 www.saintspub.com Thirst Tea Cafe 200 S. 31st Ave., Suite 4105 www.thirstteacafe.com

Barleys 114 West Broadway www.barleysbar.com Broadway Bar & Lounge 144 West Broadway Dixie Quicks 157 West Broadway www.dixiequicks.com Fiddlin’ Monkey Bar 154 West Broadway Glory Days Sports Bar & Grill 106 West Broadway gdaysbar.com

Mad Ox Bakery 215 West Broadway www.madoxbakery.com Pizza Counter 225 West Broadway pizza-counter.com

100 Block

Rodeo Saloon & BBQ 164 West Broadway www.therodeosaloon.com Scooter’s Coffee 149 West Broadway www.scooterscoffee.com T’z Sports Pub 128 West Broadway

lvd. le B svil e n Ka W.

y wa ad o r B W.

St. rce e i P W.

Council Bluffs

.

Ave rk Pa e.

Av en Gl

Wohlner’s Neighborhood Grocery & Deli 3253 Dodge St. www.wohlners.com

100 Block (Council Bluffs) 1892 German Bier Haus 142 West Broadway

t. tS 1s S.

Marcus Midtown Cinema 3201 Farnam St., Suite 6111 www.marcustheatres.com

Pana 88 3201 Farnam St., Suite 6107 www.pana88.com

Bluff S t.

www.thegreyplume.com

St.

The Grey Plume 220 S. 31st Ave. Suite 3101

Farnam St.

st N. 1

Grane 120 S. 31st Ave., Suite 5105 www.granewhiskey.com

Turner Park

St. nd N. 2

Glo Lounge 3201 Farnam St. www.glomidtown.com

t.

.

Ave nd kla Oa

Delice European Bakery & Cafe 3201 Farnam St., Suite 6112 www.deliceeuropeanbakery. com

S glas Dou

Midtown Crossing

Cantina Laredo 120 S. 31st Ave., Suite 5107 www.cantinalaredo.com

Crave 200 S. 31st Ave., Suite 4103 www.craveomaha.com

Cook Jeff King drizzles hollandaise atop Eggs Benedict at Dixie Quicks.

The restaurant’s Eggs Benedict was declared the best in the metro by the Omaha WorldHerald’s Food Prowl.

Dodge St.

Brix 220 S. 31st Ave., Suite 3103 www.brixomaha.com

480

THE WORLD-HERALD

Midtown Crossing

Cold Stone Creamery/ Rocky Mountain Chocolate 3220 Farnam St., Suite 2107 www.coldstonecreamery.com www.rockymountainchocolatefactory.com

Century Link Center Omaha

10th St.

The Diner 409 S. 12th St.

Jams 1101 Howard St. www.jamseats.com

eCreamery 5001 Underwood Ave. www.ecreamery.com

12th St.

Dolci Old Market 1003 Howard St. www.dolcioldmarket.com

El Parian Mexican Bar and Grill 302 S. 11th St. www.elparianbargrill.com

Subway 1212 Howard St. www.subway.com

Underwood Bar 4918 Underwood Ave.

14th h St.

Brickway 1116 Jackson St. www.drinkbrickway.com

THE WORLD-HERALD

Stokes Grill & Bar 1122 Howard St. www.stokesomaha.com

Pitch Pizzeria 5021 Underwood Ave. www.pitchpizzeria.com

Dundee Dell 5007 Underwood Ave. www.dundeedell.com

17th St.

Bricks & Mortar Bar and Bistro 1037 Jones St. www.bricksandmortarbarandbistro.com

Leavenworth St.

Stadium Club 414 S. 10th St.

Pageturners Lounge 5004 Dodge St.

14th St.

Jones St.

Boiler Room Restaurant 1110 Jones St. www.theboilerroomrestaurant. com

Nicola’s Italian Wine & Faire 521 S. 13th St. www.nicolasintheoldmarket. com

Old Market

Beansmith Coffee Roasters 1213 Harney St. www.beansmith.com

Blue Sushi Old Market 416 S. 12th St. www.bluesushisakegrill.com

Mr. Toad’s Pub 1002 Howard St. www.mrtoadspub.com

Howard St.

Jackson St.

Billy Frogg’s Grill & Bar 1120 Howard St.

11th St.

Harney St.

Barry O’s 420 S. 10th St. www.barryostavern.com

The Berry & Rye 1105 Howard St. www.theberryandrye.com

Michael’s Cantina at the Market 1102 Harney St. www.michaelscantinaomaha. com

Farnam St.

12th St.

Aroma’s Coffeehouse 1031 Jones St. www.aromasbliss.com

Gene Leahy Mall

13th St.

Ahmad’s 1008 Howard St. www.ahmadspersiancuisine. com

Matsu Sushi 1009 Farnam St. www.matsusushiomaha.com

Douglas St.

14th St.

13th Street Coffee & Tea Company 519 S. 13th St.

Old Dundee Bar & Grill 4964 Dodge St.

THE WORLD-HERALD

27Y

28Y

OUT- ENTERTAINMENT & EVENTS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

State of the arts

Still reeling them in and bucking all the trends

By Betsie Freeman World-Herald staff writer

A

record-breaking season for the Omaha Symphony.

The 10th anniversary of the Holland Performing Arts Center.

A versatile new building for the Blue Barn, the 26-year-old theater company described by its artistic director as “small but mighty.”

In Omaha and the surrounding area, the arts scene is thriving.

“I would say that it’s about as healthy as it’s ever been, ” said Tim Schmad, president of the Omaha Community Playhouse, which saw increases both in attendance and donations in the 2014-2015 season.

Symphony attendance increases were especially heartening, since they buck national trends: A National Endowment for the Arts study from 2012 found declining attendance at classical music concerts.

Nearly 69,000 people attended Omaha Symphony programs in the 2014-2015 season. The orchestra set a record with an average attendance of 1,369 per concert. And since 2001, paid symphony attendance has increased 23 percent, with ticket revenue up 20 percent.

Omaha Performing Arts, which operates the Holland Center and the Orpheum Theater, is enjoying similar success. Ticket sales for this year’s Broadway series, for example, surpassed previous seasons way before the first show came to Omaha, said Joan Squires, Omaha Performing Arts president.

Attendance at both venues exceeded 3 million people over the past decade, she said, averaging about 350,000 patrons a year.

Season subscriptions at the Playhouse increased nearly 13 percent in the 2014-2015 season and attendance went up 5 percent.

The Playhouse also raised close to $1 million in a capital campaign for building improvements: a new electrical and lighting system for the main stage, a new digital marquee in front of the theater and the creation of an entrance to the Playhouse lobby from an outdoor plaza. That work completed major renovations at the Playhouse that started in 2001.

Arts administrators say forward-looking donors and patrons keep the arts alive in Omaha.

Susan Clement-Toberer, artistic

MEGAN FARMER/THE WORLD-HERALD

Rare occurrence

The Blue Barn Theater opened its new location at 10th and Pacific Streets in September 2015. Few theaters across the country are currently constructing new buildings, according to Susan Clement-Toberer, artistic director for the Blue Barn Theater. “We are so lucky in Omaha.” director of the Blue Barn Theatre, credits people with vision — and the means and desire to support the arts — for the Blue Barn’s new permanent home.

“People here are unusual in their awareness that art brings life to a community and enhances it, ” she said. “It reminds me of Seattle in the ’70s when I lived there, when art-driven organizations were truly supported by both private and corporate donors.”

She said few theaters across the country are currently constructing

new buildings: “We are so lucky in Omaha.”

At 12,000 square feet, the new Blue Barn building at 10th and Pacific Streets nearly doubles the size of the theater’s previous quarters.

A $7 million capital campaign made the building possible.

All these things — and a number of other events and projects — indicate that the local arts and entertainment community isn’t standing still.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Baxter Arena, for in-

stance, had new concert bookings even before it opened. And Kaneko, the center created by noted artist Jun Kaneko and his wife, Ree, continues to offer innovative programs such as its recent exhibit focused on play and its new partnership with the Omaha Chamber Music Society to bring a variety of innovative concerts to the city.

You can expect more such collaborations, along with increased activities designed to get young people excited about music, theater and visual art.

Schmad said the Playhouse will continue several efforts to lure younger patrons: student prices and an emphasis on including more contemporary works among its season offerings.

And, as her group embarks on its next decade, Squires said it will have an increasing focus on community engagement.

“We are really forming some wonderful new partnerships and will continue to branch out, ” she said.

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FINANCE & INSUR-

outlook 2016

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

30Y

OUT- FINANCE & INSURANCE

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

UNIQUELY OMAHA: FINANCE When you swipe your credit card at a store anywhere in the developed world, chances are the payment’s electronic path goes through Omaha.

First Data, the Fortune 500 payment-processing giant, employs 5,000 in Omaha, where it was born in 1971. Though its headquarters left the Big O in 1992 and today are in Atlanta, Omaha remains the principal base of operations for the company’s financial services division.

First Data CEO Frank Bisignano said in 2015 that Omaha is the company’s “backbone” and its “heart and soul.” In its first year, First Data had 110 employees and $2 million in revenue, but nine years later it employed 2,000 and produced $50 million in revenue. Today the company has a payroll of 23,000, and a public stock offering in 2015 placed its value at more than $13 billion.

Other companies either processing or providing systems for payments: » PayPal, which has employed as many as 2,800 at its worldwide operations center in La Vista. » ACI Worldwide, with more than 500 staffers at 204th and Q Streets, founded in Omaha in 1975 as Applied Communications Inc., but with headquarters now in Naples, Florida. » TSYS Merchant Solutions downtown, also with about 500 employees.

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

Electronic Path through Omaha

Workers in the embossing area at First Data Resources’ credit card manufacturing facility in Omaha. In 45 years the company has grown from 110 employees to a payroll of 23,000.

— Excerpts from Michael Kelly’s “Uniquely Omaha: 101 Things to Know About the Big O”

Economic advice varies at different stages of life

By Sue Story Truax World-Herald Correspondent

Most of us go through several financial stages in our lives, starting with total dependency on others during childhood. We asked four financial planners to offer advice for some of life’s economic stages.

Participants are Paula Anderson Harris, independent advisor with Curnes Financial Group and registered representative offering securities and advisory services through Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, member of FINRA/ SPIC of Omaha; Patrick Moylan, partner with Moylan Kropp Retirement Planning of Omaha; Alicia Elmore, owner and managing partner of Plat1num One Investment and Insurance Group of Bellevue; and Mike Booth, a registered representative of Securian Financial Services Inc. at Heritage Financial Services LLC of Omaha.

Here are The World-Herald’s questions and the planners’ responses.

Q. What is your best financial planning advice for a recent college graduate in his/her early 20s with $18,000 in student loans, a monthly car payment of $200, a starting salary of $40,000 and an employer who offers a 401(k)?

Paula Anderson Harris: Take advantage of the matching portion of your company’s 401(k). This is “free” money. The student loan should then be the next big target to pay off. Once that is paid off, start a Roth IRA or look at life insurance. If the client is married and looking at buying a home, then life insurance should be looked at for the surviving spouse.

Patrick Moylan: Keep living like a college student who was surviving with minimal expenses. The most important piece of advice would be to live within your means.

By this I mean make sure you are not spending all that you are earning.

Make minimum payments on debts (if the student loan interest rates are high, then paying this debt could be more of a priority), start an emergency backup savings account with three to six months of nondiscretionary expenses, and take advantage of deferring monies to the employer’s 401(k) and make contributions up to the employer’s match, if offered.

Learn whether the student loan rates are fixed or variable and consider consolidating to the lowest fixed rate available. Set some financial goals to align with personal priorities such as paying down debts, saving for a down payment on a house, saving for further education or saving for a vacation.

Q. What is your best financial planning advice for a couple (she teaches high school math and he has just changed careers from teaching to selling insurance) in their mid-30s, two children in elementary school, $10,000 in credit card debt, a mortgage, a monthly car payment of $400 and Roth IRAs that haven’t been added to since the first child was born 10 years ago?

Alicia Elmore: Starting young is an advantage in building a foundation to financial stability. Although debt may be inevitable for larger purchases, saving is very important. Much of this begins by setting a monthly budget and building a safety net by continuing to make contributions for retirement savings. The quote “pay yourself first” is great advice.

Always take advantage of your employer benefits such as 403b’s, 401(k)’s and/or pensions, if available. Many of these plans will allow you to capture the company’s matching contributions and increase your savings dramatically.

In addition, at a younger age your biggest asset could be your income; therefore, consider ways to provide for income

protection such as disability insurance.

Most employer plans only cover about twothirds of your income before taxes, so that may not provide enough income for unforeseen circumstances. Not Paula Anderson Harris many families can live on half their income.

Find an adviser that will help you prioritize and make a plan designed for you and your needs, which could include supplemental coverage that isn’t attached to an employer’s plan.

Mike Booth: The Mike first priority is to pay Booth down debt on the credit cards even if that means missing out on a vacation or doing without the gym membership and enhanced cable TV package for a year until it’s paid off. The interest Alicia on credit cards is Elmore sometimes higher than what the couple would earn on investments, so debt reduction comes before investing for college educations and retirement. With two young children and this being a dual-income family, the couple should Patrick immediately make sure Moylan they have life insurance on both spouses either through their employers or individual level term policies that have death benefits equal to a minimum of three times each of their annual salaries.

Once these things are accomplished, then it’s time to put money away for future needs such as college educations and retirement. If either of the parents have access to a 401(k) or 403(b) through their employers, they should be taking advantage of salary deferral first, especially if the employers provide any sort of match to their contribution. Once the couple have taken full advantage of any employer match, the additional discretionary income can be invested in the Roth IRA, which is an after-tax contribution.

Q. What is your best financial planning advice for a couple in their late 50s who owe $10,000 on their mortgage and have no consumer debt but haven’t saved for retirement like they should have?

Anderson Harris: Without using the home as a piggy bank, they should start contributing as much as possible to their 401(k)’s/IRAs. Another option if they are somewhat healthy would be to look at life insurance. The life insurance could be the lump sum for the surviving spouse for retirement needs.

Elmore: It is never too late to start saving.

Developing a plan for your financial future is oftentimes challenging at any age. An advantage of being older than 50 is the option to fund retirement accounts using the catch-up provisions, which allow more than normal funding. The amount can change each year according to IRS guidelines. Saving outside of employer plans can help you get to your retirement goals faster. Also, reviewing tax-efficient ways to save and distribute money in the future could help you gain purchasing power including strategies to maximize Social Security.

It’s important to consider all options for savings to meet any of your financial goals.

There are advantages and disadvantages that may impact how we save, so use a

financial professional to discuss all options in helping you make the right decisions to meet your goals. It’s OK to feel as if you are behind in saving; actually, most people do. Although it is best to do it when you are young, know that someone will help you get where you want to be, if you open up to a trusted adviser and develop a plan.

Q. What is your best financial planning advice for a couple in their late 70s who own their own home, live on Social Security and small pensions, have no debts and children long gone from the home but who are finding that their medical expenses are rapidly deteriorating their savings despite traditional Medicare and supplements B and D? The couple have no long-term care insurance.

Moylan: They should potentially coordinate advice from a financial planner, health care professional and possibly an attorney. The financial planner should see if any changes will help the couple’s assets keep up with their costs. This will include reviewing living and medical expenses. The couple should review their Medicare supplements annually during open enrollment. Supplemental policies change yearly and so may the couple’s medications. These can impact premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.

The couple should consult with a qualified professional to be sure they have the best supplemental plans for their health care needs. The duo also should re-evaluate all assets to make sure they are allocated the best for their situation. Long-term care insurance has changed significantly through the years. Although traditional long-term care may be very expensive and the couple may not qualify, they may find a hybrid life or annuity product that could allow them to reposition an underutilized asset to meet their future needs. This may involve transferring an existing life insurance policy or an annuity that could better achieve their objectives. The couple may assess if their house meets their needs: Would downsizing, a condo or an apartment better meet their needs?

Booth: The cost of medications is one of the main medical expenses that impacts seniors, and Part D drug plans only cover a portion of that cost. With Medicare and a standard Medicare Part B supplement, there could be little out-of-pocket costs related to doctor visits and hospitalizations.

Manage drug costs by re-evaluating Part D coverage during yearly open enrollment to be sure the couple have the plan that gives them the best coverage. Other ways to reduce medication costs are to switch to generic drugs when possible and ask the Part D provider if the drug is less expensive by mail order. Sometimes deductibles and co-pays are waived if you receive your medication by mail order.

The amount this couple has in invested assets will determine the other priorities.

The No. 1 risk for this couple is long-term care; 70 percent of those older than 65 are expected to require such care. If long term-care insurance were affordable for the couple, it would be the first priority.

Unfortunately, at their age it will be very expensive.

If a couple has less than $100,000 in invested assets, then such insurance probably is not appropriate. It’s preferable that a couple be able to pay the annual premium from a small percentage of the total value of their invested funds so the remainder of the interest either continues to build or fund additional expenses.

C T W F E AT U R E S

LIFE CHANGES

Insurance coverage needs full attention

By Mike Whye World-Herald Correspondent

Major life changes — moving, vehicle purchases, starting a family — require plenty of thought.

Insurance coverage should be part of the process, agents say.

“It’s not only having the car insurance, the renter’s insurance or the homeowner’s insurance,” said Erica Wilkinson, a State Farm Insurance agent in Omaha.

“But the big concern is making sure that someone has the right limits. A lot of people think you just buy insurance, and it’s all the same, but it’s not.”

Although all states require vehicle owners to carry liability insurance, the amount of insurance varies among states. Nebraska requires vehicle owners to have at least 25/50/25, which means $25,000 per person injured if the policy owner causes an accident, $50,000 total bodily injury in one accident and $25,000 property damage. Iowa requires vehicle owners to have at least 20/40/15 vehicle liability insurance.

Wilkinson suggested purchasing higher amounts than what states require.

She noted that even a simple medical procedure can easily rack up thousands of dollars or the cost of another person’s vehicle can easily exceed $25,000.

As an example, she said a new Chevy Suburban can cost $70,000.

“That $25,000 wouldn’t even touch that,” said Wilkinson, who encouraged people to buy 100/300/100 coverage.

Wilkinson advised those not covered by an employer’s disability insurance to purchase a plan that equates to around 60 percent of their salary. The policy provides money to live on in case a person cannot work because of sickness or injury.

Wilkinson said discounts are available for those who buy multiple policies such as homeowners, vehicle, life, property and perhaps business policies.

Roxy Pettit, first vice president of the Harry A. Koch Company, an independent insurance agency in Omaha, said it’s possible to

bundle policies that are not all with the same company.

Pettit said an independent agency can offer homeowner and vehicle policies from one company and life insurance from another — and still provide a discount.

Pettit, who has been in the insurance industry for more than 35 years, said she works with others in the industry to find the best package of policies for the customer.

Among her suggestions: » Consider an umbrella policy to provide extra liability for situations that might go beyond the coverage of homeowner and vehicle policies. “An umbrella policy is to protect your assets,” she said. The smallest amount of coverage she offers under an umbrella policy is $1 million. » Purchase term life insurance while young.

Though premiums go up with increasing age, term insurance is an affordable way to obtain substantial coverage at relatively low cost. » Renters insurance can cover personal property and provide liability coverage for guests’ injuries.

“Our minimum is $20,000,” said Pettit, who advised getting coverage for replacement costs of items rather than actual costs.

Renters insurance also can pay for added living costs if an apartment must be vacated while damage is being repaired.

Wilkinson suggested that homeowners and renters document their property with photos or video and store the images in a safe place.

While comprehensive insurance may not seem worthwhile for an older vehicle, Pettit said, it might be required if the owner still has a loan with a financial institution.

Loretta Worters, vice president of communications at the Insurance Information Institute in New York, advised considering all options to get the best insurance coverage.

“Each company offers different things,” Worters said. “You might get a better rate with one over the other. That’s why we always encourage people to shop around.”

FINANCE & INSURANCE OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

31Y

Mobile banking rapidly changing industry

By Cole Epley

AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

World-Herald staff writer

F

or a technology still in its infancy, mobile banking has had an outsized impact on the way Americans conduct their day-to-day banking transactions.

More than half of all mobile phone owners with a bank account told the Federal Reserve Board in March 2015 they had used mobile banking technology in the previous year; 51 percent said they had deposited a check without stepping into a branch over that time, up from 38 percent in the previous year.

And even though just one in four bank customers self-identifies as “mobile first,� according to industry analysis from Javelin Strategy & Research, in 2015 the number of customers using mobile technology to conduct weekly bank transactions equaled and then surpassed the number of those who were doing the same thing in branches, later research from Javelin showed.

The traditional brick-andmortar banking model has been upended by mobile banking technology. Partly as a result, the number of bank branches has declined to at least a 10-year low, according to industry data.

The mobile technology is changing everything from how people pay their bills to how and where they manage their finances.

Bank officials say they expect continued growth, thanks in part to the continual addition of new features.

First National Bank of Omaha earlier this year added a FICO Score Meter for its credit card customers, for example, and in 2015 made it so that users could log in using a four-digit passcode.

More than 40 percent of the bank’s website visitors come from a mobile device, up from 30 percent less than a year ago, said Stephen Farrell, First National’s senior vice president of consumer product marketing.

He said the First National app is launched 70,000 times a day.

That’s a 60 percent increase over the year-ago period.

The largest bank in Omaha and Nebraska is not alone in double-digit growth in its digital channels.

Wells Fargo continues to see growth in the number of active mobile banking customers, said Kirk Kellner, president of the bank’s Nebraska region. The bank at the end of the fourth quarter reported 14 percent growth in active users, defined as those who had used the service at least once in the last 90 days.

The bank recently enabled customers to perform wire transfers using their phones and larger businesses can now manage corporate credit card accounts with mobile technology. “We continue to innovate on both the consumer and commercial sides,� Kellner said. “We want to figure out how to make people’s lives more convenient and give them what they’re asking us for.� “Anymore,� said Lindsey Miltner, Security National Bank of Omaha’s director of marketing, “it’s really expected that we have these tools available.�

That bank has had a consumer banking app for a few years and, in December, added a small-business app that gives users more flexibility to perform business banking tasks

KILEY CRUSE/THE WORLD-HERALD

off-site.

Of course, the rest of the 10 largest banks and even smaller institutions in Omaha also are on board.

The main attraction? Convenience.

Core Bank emphasizes that its mobile banking offerings let customers bank “on the go,� and American National Bank advertises that its technology gives customers the flexibility to do “just about anything you’d want to do.�

Banks know customers expect security, and Pinnacle Bank offers features like “security tokens,� which function as onetime passwords and an additional layer of security for users.

Part of the enhanced offerings at all banks have to do with the growth rate of smartphone use: the number of smartphone

users in the U.S. more than tripled from about 63 million in 2010 to an estimated 191 million in 2015, according to market research firm eMarketer. The other part has to do with the evolution of mobile banking technology. “As smartphones become more common and more versatile, they can play an increasingly large role in the interactions between consumers and financial service providers, retailers and other businesses,� the Federal Reserve Board study concluded. “The near-constant presence of mobile phones in consumers’ lives also makes them a potentially useful tool for the delivery of just-in-time financial information or as an aid in decision-making.�

Among the tasks that can be managed with mobile technology:  Deposit checks  Check account balances, sometimes without signing in  Pay bills, including setting up automatic payments  Transfer funds between accounts — and to friends’ accounts  Perform wire transfers  Review monthly statements, including accessing past statements  View categorized spending reports  Find tax statements  Redeem credit card points for goods or cash  Use fingerprint recognition, on select apps and devices, for added security  Find a branch or ATM  Connect with customer service agents for help

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Contact the writer: 402-444-1534, cole.epley@owh.com

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Calculated by the average daily balance method which applies a daily periodic rate to the average daily balance for the average daily balance calculation period. The average daily balance is determined by adding the full amount of the principal in Your Account for each day of the period and dividing that figure by the number of days in the period. Annual Percentage Yield (APY) accurate as of 01/15/2016. A Minimum of $100 to open account. Rate tiers are as follows: 3.01% APY applies to balances of $.01-$10,000 and 0.10% APY applies to balances over $10,000 as long as qualifications are met each statement cycle. Rate may change after the account is opened. 0.05% APY applies to all balances if qualifications are not met. You must make 12 or more point of sale transactions for a net total of $120 throughout the qualification period (evidenced by Your statement). Accounts must have a monthly recurring direct deposit. E-Statements are required for this account. No minimum balance required. No monthly service charge. Available to personal accounts only. One High Yield Checking Account per Social Security Number. ATM fee refunds up to $10 per month when qualifications are met. Ask us for further information about the fees and terms that apply to these accounts. Federally Insured by NCUA. Equal Housing Lendor.

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OUT- FINANCE & INSURANCE

Top 10 banks by deposit market share Deposit market share leaders

OMAHA 1. First National Bank of Omaha

6. Great Western Bank

Local deposits: $7.7 billion Market share: 26% Headquarters: Omaha

Local deposits: $1.3 billion Market share: 5% Headquarters: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Local deposits: $4.1 billion Market share: 14% Headquarters: San Francisco

Local deposits: $1.3 billion Market share: 4% Headquarters: San Francisco

2. Wells Fargo

3. Mutual of Omaha Bank Local deposits: $4.1 billion Market share: 14% Headquarters: Omaha

4. U.S. Bank

Local deposits: $2.6 billion Market share: 9% Headquarters: Minneapolis

5. American National Bank Local deposits: $1.7 billion Market share: 6% Headquarters: Omaha

7. Bank of the West

8. Pinnacle Bank

Local deposits: $865 million Market share: 3% Headquarters: Lincoln

9. Security National Bank of Omaha Local deposits: $627 million Market share: 2% Headquarters: Omaha

10. Core Bank

Local deposits: $356 million Market share: 1% Headquarters: Omaha

LINCOLN 1. Union Bank and Trust Co.

Headquarters: Lincoln

2. Wells Fargo

Local deposits: $318 million Market share: 4% Headquarters: Milford, Nebraska

Local deposits: $1.9 billion Market share: 25% Headquarters: Lincoln

Local deposits: $1.3 billion Market share: 17% Headquarters: San Francisco

3. U.S. Bank

Local deposits: $867 million Market share: 11% Headquarters: Minneapolis

4. Pinnacle Bank

Local deposits: $565 million Market share: 7% Headquarters: Lincoln

5. Cornhusker Bank

Local deposits: $385 million Market share: 5% Headquarters: Lincoln

6. West Gate Bank

Local deposits: $331 million Market share: 4%

7. Farmers and Merchants Bank

8. Great Western Bank

Local deposits: $260 million Market share: 3% Headquarters: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

9. First National Bank of Omaha

Local deposits: $225 million Market share: 3% Headquarters: Omaha

10. The Cattle National Bank and Trust Co. Local deposits: $188 million Market share: 2% Headquarters: Seward, Nebraska

NEBRASKA

1. First National Bank of Omaha Local deposits: $9.4 billion Market share: 16% Headquarters: Omaha

2. Wells Fargo

Local deposits: $6.7 billion Market share: 11% Headquarters: San Francisco

3. Mutual of Omaha Bank Local deposits: $4.1 billion Market share: 7% Headquarters: Omaha

4. U.S. Bank

Local deposits: $3.6 billion Market share: 6% Headquarters: Minneapolis

5. Pinnacle Bank

Local deposits: $3.3 billion Market share: 5% Headquarters: Lincoln

6. Union Bank and Trust Co. Local deposits: $2.3 billion

Market share: 4% Headquarters: Lincoln

7. Great Western Bank

Local deposits: $2.3 billion Market share: 4% Headquarters: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

8. Bank of the West

Local deposits: $1.7 billion Market share: 3% Headquarters: San Francisco

9. American National Bank Local deposits: $1.4 billion Market share: 2% Headquarters: Omaha

10. Cornerstone Bank

Local deposits: $1.2 billion Market share: 2% Headquarters: York, Nebraska

Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (as of June 30, 2015)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

Protect your vital Keeping your personal information private is becoming increasingly difficult. That’s because your email address, phone number, credit card and bank account numbers, and especially your Social Security number are worth a lot of money to both legitimate businesses and scammers.

Many businesses want to know as much about you as possible so they can sell their products and services or target ads at you, and the thieves just want to steal from you.

In the wake of data breaches, evolving online threats due to our increased reliance on computers and other electronic devices, and the growing number of socialnetworking sites used in our everyday lives, there can be a high cost if you don’t clean out old files, update your security software and back it up. Maintenance of your electronic devices can help prevent the loss of valuable and personal information to hackers.

Computer records

Experts from the Better Business Bureau and the National Cyber Security Alliance suggest some steps that can be taken for your digital protection.

Keep all critical software current: This is one of the best security measures you can take. This includes security software, web browsers, document readers, operating systems and any other programs or apps that you use regularly.

Lock your web-connected devices: You lock the front door to your homes, and you should do the same with your PCs, mobile phones, smartphones and tablets. Securing your devices keeps prying eyes out and can help protect information in case your devices are lost or stolen.

Keep a clean machine: Running the most recent versions of your security software, apps, mobile operating system and web browsers is the best defense against malware, viruses and other online treats.

Don’t forget your mobile life: Delete unused apps and keep the operating system on your mobile device up to date. One added benefit of deleting unused apps is more storage space and longer battery life. Getting rid of junk also can help speed up your computer.

Clear your email: Save only those emails you really need. Your inbox is likely stuffed with offers, logistical arrangements and other outdated materials. Get rid of emails you don’t need and be sure to empty your deleted mail trash folders. If you must

Jim Hegarty

Consumer Watch keep old messages, move them to an archive.

Manage subscriptions: Unsubscribe to newsletters, email alerts and updates you no longer want, and going forward, think carefully before giving out your email address and other information to third parties.

This can help prevent unwanted email and spam if your information is shared with others.

Back it up: You can lose all of your files as a result of internal hardware problems, loss, theft, viruses or other damage to your digital devices. Copy important data to a password-protected external drive or a secure cloud site on a regular basis, and keep external drives in a safe place after performing a backup. Delete or archive older files such as numerous drafts of the same document.

Dispose of electronics securely: Deleting files does not remove them from your computer, and they can be recovered from your hard drive, scanners and even printers. When you dispose of old electronics, look for facilities that shred hard drives, disks and memory cards or destroy them yourself.

Get ahead of the scammers: Passwords are easily compromised, especially when you use the same password for multiple accounts.

Visit the National Cyber Security Alliance’s website at stopthinkconnect.org/2stepsahead to learn more about “two-step verification,” also known as two-step authentication and multi-factor authentication. Many of the Internet’s most popular email services, social networks and financial institutions offer this key security step free of charge, but you must opt in to enable it.

Paper records Although there is a great amount of emphasis on the high-tech ways identity thieves steal personal information, the risk of having your information stolen from paper documents still exists.

Shred anything that you wouldn’t want in the hands of a criminal.

Shredding is an important way to help prevent identity theft and financial fraud, and here are some tips

from the New York Times to help you decide what to shred.

Information with your Social Security number: This is the most important piece of information about your identity that thieves would love to acquire for tax fraud, new credit cards and fake bank accounts.

Mailings from your bank: This includes policy changes or advertisements that may not have your account numbers on them. Knowing where your money is can help scammers piece together more information about you.

Monthly bills and statements: They can contain sensitive account information or even your SSN. Receipts or checks with your signature: Thieves can use them to copy your identity.

It is recommended, when shredding, that you use a shredder that doesn’t simply cut paper into long strips, because it’s easy to put them back together. Instead, go for a confetti, cross-cut or diamond-cut shredder. It’s nearly impossible to reassemble a document that’s been run through one of these machines.

You should also check with BBB at bbbinc.org to see when there is an upcoming free “Secure Your ID Day” or “Shred Day” event near you, or you can visit your local county’s website to see whether there are shredding programs or secure recycling events for electronics.

There are a variety of ways that you might find out that your personal information has been compromised — a phone call from your credit card company inquiring about suspicious charges or bills that arrive in the mail without warning or being turned down for a loan. While there is no way to completely prevent identity theft from happening, incorporating some “best practices” into your life, on and off-line, can minimize your risk.

If you find that you need assistance with an identity theft problem or have specific questions on what you can do to protect yourself, BBB suggests that you contact the Identity Theft Resource Center at 888-4005530 for help at no cost. Their expert advisers are trained to provide you with one-on-one assistance for all types of identity theft.

Jim Hegarty is president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving Nebraska, South Dakota, the Kansas Plains and southwest Iowa. Contact him at jhegarty@bbbinc.org or 402898-8520.

Your Vision …Our Financial Experts …

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keeping your paperwork?

The Better Business Bureau’s recommended period of retention for various financial documents: Credit card receipts: Shred once reconciled with your monthly statement Bank deposit/ withdrawal slips: Shred once reconciled with monthly statement Bank and credit card statements: Keep at least 7 years Canceled checks: Keep at least 7 years Statements on IRA contributions, pension and profit sharing, retirement plans: Retain Insurance policies: Keep at least 6 years after the termination of the policy Settled insurance claims: Keep at least 4 years after the termination of the policy Income tax payment checks: Retain Income tax returns and worksheets: Keep 7 years from filing date Medical bills: Keep at least 3 years, 7 years if tax-related Residential bills: Keep at least 1 year, but retain bills for large purchases for insurance purchases Deeds, mortgages, legal documents for home: Retain Paycheck stubs: Shred after reconciled with W-2 form and taxes are paid Utility records: At least 3 years

FINANCE & INSURANCE OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

33Y

Are you ready for retirement?

Joe Hearn

ON RETIREMENT

Retirement is more than a math problem. There are many other things involved. The following will give you an idea if you’re ready or still have some work to do.

Do you know what you want to do in retirement?

Ask 6-year-olds what they want to be when they grow up, and chances are you’ll get an answer like astronaut, fireman or superhero. No need to worry about feasibility or practicality when you’re 6. Just pick something that sounds awesome and/or involves flying.

Ask an 18-year-old the same question, however, and you’ll probably see a wave of anxiety wash over his or her face. That’s because college is just around the corner and the “What do I want to be?” question is starting to take on some urgency.

I’ve helped hundreds of people plan for retirement over the years, and there’s a similar dynamic when you ask

people about retirement. Ask a 40-yearold what he wants to do when he retires, and you’re likely to get the grown-up version of “astronaut.” Buy a sailboat.

Plant myself on the beach. Climb Everest. Retirement is decades away, so they usually just list some things that sound fun and that don’t involve work.

Ask a 60-year-old, however, and you’re likely to get a different reaction.

The decision has some urgency. Sure, it will include some items from the Bucket List, but they’re not planning a vacation. They’re deciding what to do with the next 20 or 30 years. That can be intimidating. What to do with all that time? What will provide purpose and

satisfaction? What will be interesting and challenging?

If retirement is on the horizon and you’re feeling a bit of anxiety about how you’ll fill your days, here are 10 questions that should help get you thinking about what to do during retirement.

1. If you could relive your life, knowing everything that you know now, what would you do differently?

2. What are your highest ideals andor priorities?

3. If you died tomorrow, what would be your top five regrets?

4. If you were to design an improved version of yourself and your life, how

would it be different?

5. Who are the people that matter most to you and whom do you matter to?

6. Reflecting back on your life, when were you the happiest and why?

7. What skills or talents do you have?

8. What hobbies or activities do you enjoy?

9. What are five things that you would stop doing tomorrow if you could?

10. What would you say if you were at a cocktail party and someone asked you, “Why do you want to retire?”

A quick word of warning: If you’re feeling burned out from years of stress and overwork, then maybe all you want

to do during retirement is “Nothing!”

That can be rejuvenating for a while, but it will get boring. Your goal should not be to do nothing. It should be to do what excites you. You can definitely take some time to recharge your batteries, but after that, you need a plan that will keep you challenged and provide meaning and fulfillment.

Maybe that means returning to school or starting a second career. Maybe it means volunteering or starting a small business. Maybe it means traveling the globe or mastering a new hobby.

Whatever it is, have a plan. Don’t retire just to escape your job. Retire to pursue things that you’re passionate about.

Do you know the ‘with who’ and where of your retired life?

The ‘who’

A mistake I often see people make as they transition into retirement is underestimating the importance of their friends and family. It’s exciting to enter retirement and embark on a new adventure, but don’t forget to consider how your new plans will affect your existing relationships.

Meaningful relationships can help reduce your stress, increase your happiness and foster a sense of belonging.

They can help give purpose, improve self-worth and provide support during difficult times. Take a few minutes to list the people you’d like to see and spend time with during retirement, such as your spouse, kids, grandkids, parents or close friends. How will the plans you’ve made so far affect those

relationships?

For example, where do the grandkids live? How often do you want to see them? Will they be visiting you or vice versa? How will that influence where you decide to live or what type of house you decide to buy? How about your parents? Are they still alive? Are they healthy? What are their plans for care as they age? Will they need your help?

Do you have close friends apart from your job or does most of your interaction occur when you show up at the office or job site? Are those people retiring when you do? If not, what’s your plan to fill the void? How will your list of friends change during retirement?

How will it stay the same?

What should you be doing now, given the answers to all of those questions?

Think through those things and then pick up the phone and call people on the list. Talk through the issues involved.

By having a plan and investing in key relationships, you’ll greatly improve the odds of a fulfilling retirement.

The ‘where’ Few decisions are more critical to happiness during retirement than where you decide to live. As with most decisions, deciding where to live begins by gathering information and comparing options. You need to identify what things will be important to you during retirement and then choose a place that reinforces your primary objectives.

One important consideration is taxes.

Some states are tax-friendly and others aren’t. Once you don’t have your job

anchoring you in place, you have more freedom to evaluate your options.

States that are generally considered to be the most tax-friendly to retirees include Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida and Delaware.

States that are good, but not great, include Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

States that are generally considered to be least tax-friendly to retirees include California, Oregon, Montana, Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. Almost as bad are Utah, North Dakota, Iowa, Maine and Massachusetts. The remaining states have a

mixture of favorable and unfavorable tax policies.

Taxes aren’t your only consideration, of course. Other important criteria include climate, community, culture, size, affordability, recreation, crime, health care facilities, public transportation, proximity to an airport and employment opportunities.

As you think through your plans and consider these criteria, you’ll notice that your options narrow quickly. Once you decide who and what are important to you, your decision on where to live should become pretty easy. And when all of those things are present — when you have meaningful pursuits with people you care about in a place that you enjoy — you’ll be well on your way to a rewarding retirement.

Do you know how much it will cost to retire?

How much do I need?

When it comes to retirement, that’s the question I get asked the most. Not surprisingly, the answer is different for everyone. Some can live like kings on $50,000 per year. Others would have a hard time scraping by on 10 times that amount.

It all depends on the type of lifestyle you want to live.

Because there is no hard and fast rule, people often end up saving randomly and then hoping that it will be enough. This is a little like traveling without knowing where you’re going: Great if your only criteria is to get “somewhere, ” but less than ideal if you have a particular destination in

mind.

So how do you figure out how much you’ll need? A competent adviser can help you perform a detailed calculation, but let’s look at a quick and easy way to come up with a rough estimate.

A popular rule of thumb says that you’ll need about 85 percent of your pre-retirement income during retirement in order to maintain your standard of living. Multiply your current income by .85. If you were to retire today, that’s approximately how much you’d need to pay the bills.

For example, if you’re making $75,000 a year now, you could bid work adieu and likely get by on about $63,750 because increased spending on things

like health care would be more than offset by reduced spending on things like taxes, 401(k) contributions and your mortgage.

It’s important to note that the 85 Percent Rule is a bit of a minimum standard. If your retirement plans involve things like expensive travel or hobbies, you might want to plan on replacing a greater percentage of your income to avoid running out of money.

Also, if you’re many years away from retiring, you will want to adjust your income for inflation before calculating the 85 percent replacement ratio. To do a thorough estimate of retirement expenses, you can download a free budget worksheet from the retirement toolkit

at www.IntentionalRetirement.com.

Now that you know about how much income you’ll need, it’s time to figure out where that money will come from. Some are lucky enough to have a pension, but most will need to rely on a combination of savings and Social Security to fund retirement.

Recent research by Aon Hewitt shows that a person will need Social Security plus savings worth about 11 times their annual income in order to hit the 85 percent benchmark and maintain their standard of living through their retirement years.

Charles Farrell did similar research several years ago and concluded that the typical person should aim to have

about 12 times his annual income (plus Social Security) saved for retirement.

To track your progress, he suggests having three times saved by age 45 and 6.5 times by 55.

With that in mind, divide your assets by your income. What’s the number?

If your goal is to have an asset/income ratio somewhere around 11 or 12, how are you doing? Are you on track or do you need to make adjustments — save more, change your asset allocation, work longer, downsize your plans?

Again, this is just an estimate, but it is helpful to put your savings in context. After all, retirement shouldn’t be based on your age, but on whether you have enough saved to fund your desired

Do you know how you’re going to pay for it?

As you transition into retirement, you will move from the accumulation phase to the distribution phase. This transition has a lot of moving parts, and the difference between a good strategy and a bad one is usually the difference between, well, a good retirement and a bad one. So how can you create a predictable paycheck?

Step 1: Create your retirement budget.

Decide how much money you will need each month in retirement by creating a detailed retirement budget. You can download a free budget worksheet from the retirement toolkit at www.

IntentionalRetirement.com.

Step 2: Evaluate your potential income sources.

There are five primary sources of

retirement income: Social Security, pension, personal investments, passive income like rental property and work (usually part time). Evaluate which income sources will be available to you during retirement and estimate how much income you can derive from each.

Step 3: Compare your budget with your income.

Is your anticipated income enough to cover anticipated expenses? If not, you may need to delay retirement or find ways to trim your retirement budget.

Step 4: Decide on a claiming strategy for each income source.

With Social Security, you can claim early, on time or late. You might be entitled to spousal benefits.

A number of strategies are available

when pulling money from your investments, such as dividends only, guaranteed income, systematic withdrawal and a time-segmentation strategy, to name a few. All that just to say that for each source of income, there is usually a way to maximize that income based on your unique situation.

Step 5: Retire. Review. Recalibrate.

Having a predictable paycheck doesn’t stop once you retire and turn on your various sources of income.

Take time each year to review your withdrawal strategy and make changes as necessary. Some questions to ask yourself: Is my withdrawal rate sustainable? Is my income still sufficient and keeping pace with inflation? Is my asset allocation still appropriate? Is the amount of risk I’m taking still suitable?

Has the value of my assets changed significantly? Has my life expectancy changed?

Your answers to those questions will help determine whether you need to make changes to your investment and/ or distribution strategy.

How can you make your money last longer?

I said earlier that one way to extend the life of your nest egg is to maximize income from sources like Social Security.

Another way is employ dynamic spending where possible. Take a look at your retirement budget. How many of your expenses are non-negotiable versus discretionary? If most are non-negotiable, then you will probably be forced to draw money from your investments during inopportune times.

If, however, you’re able to set up a budget that has a certain level of discretionary spending, then you can put that spending on hold during down years and extend the life of your nest egg in the process.

Housing and transportation are two of the biggest nondiscretionary retirement expenses. Downsizing your house and cars or entering retirement with them paid for will give you a great deal of flexibility.

I kept things pretty simple in this article. When you start considering things like inflation, longevity and market fluctuations, the complexity of the predictable paycheck multiplies quickly.

If you want to take a deeper dive into some of those issues and tailor them to your circumstances, it’s a good idea to meet with a competent adviser.

Do you intend to make all those things happen?

As we finish up the key things you need to do in order to be prepared for retirement, I want to share one last thing that is arguably more important than any other when it comes to having a meaningful retirement. You need to be intentional.

Every retirement building block — finances, friends, pursuits, distribution planning, Social Security, health care, housing, etc. — takes intentional action on your part if you want to move it from dream to drawing board to reality.

Unfortunately, those things can sometimes seem daunting, so we ignore any sense of urgency and tell ourselves that we will take care of it all “someday.”

Here’s the thing: The longer you wait, the less you believe yourself when you say “someday.” Your dreams

begin to atrophy. Your opportunities vanish. You aim lower. You talk yourself out of things. You run out of time.

Before you know it, it’s too late.

As a popular inspirational saying puts it, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.

Discover.”

Retirement is the ideal time to take that advice to heart, but take a closer look at it. The personal pronoun “you” is implied throughout. YOU throw off the bowlines and sail away from safe harbor. YOU explore. YOU dream. YOU discover. Everything requires action.

The author understood that we all have a deep-seated need to live a life of meaning and fulfillment. He also under-

stood that most of us have a tendency to procrastinate. What are some practical ways to overcome that inertia and build real momentum in the direction of your goals?

Start small When it comes to retirement, I encourage people to dream big but start small.

Sometimes we quit before we begin because the task just looks too big. The easiest way to overcome this is to take your plans and your to-do list and break them down into incredibly small tasks.

If your goal is to lose 20 pounds before retirement, start by walking around the block once tomorrow morning. Then go around twice the following morning. Then three times. Then buy a pair of running shoes. Talk a friend into going with you. Jog to the park. Sign

Answer YES to all the questions.

up for a 5K. Before you know it, you’re making real progress toward your goal and it all started by walking around the block.

This “start small” strategy can work for just about anything, whether it’s reaching your savings goal or mastering a new hobby.

Start now Gavin Johnson, a pastor at my church, once said, “You will be who you are becoming.”

You’re never going to wake up one morning and be something that you haven’t been becoming little by little, day by day, for years. A caterpillar doesn’t go to bed as a fuzzy little worm and wake up the next morning a beautiful butterfly. That transformation from egg to larva to pupa to butterfly takes about half its life.

Answer NO to

Joe Hearn is an Omaha financial planner. He can be reached at 402-331-8600 or by email at joe@intentionalretirement.com.

Applying that idea to retirement, you’re not going to wake up the day after you retire and be something different from what you were becoming for the previous five, 10 or 20 years.

Money, plans, friends, skills, logistics and knowledge don’t magically appear out of nowhere once you’re no longer working. You need to start building those things now, because when you enter retirement you will be the person you’ve been becoming all along.

Get help

As you’ve no doubt noticed by now, retirement planning has a lot of moving parts. Maybe you feel competent to handle those issues on your own. Maybe you would benefit from some help.

If you fall into the latter category, don’t be afraid to hire a competent adviser to assist you.

34Y

OUT- FINANCE & INSURANCE

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

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Dave Skutnik

LUTCF Charter Financial Services Grand Island 308-675-1881

Renaissance Financial 402-682-3900

Plat1num One CFP CLU, ChFC Investment & Insurance Group Vintage Financial Group, LLC Heritage Financial Network Inc. 402-690-0962 402-932-7233 402-934-9505

CLU, ChFC, CASL, CLTC Northwestern Mutual 402-390-8248

CFP, CLU, ChFC Guy Strevey & Associates 402-493-0253

CLU, CFBS, CLTC MassMutual Nebraska 402-397-8600

Knights of Columbus 402-884-0364

Renaissance Financial 402-682-3920

Bryan Holen

Plat1num One Investment & Insurance Group 402-690-9623 or 308-236-2001

Ameritas Insource Inc 402-827-4467

CRSP DC Retirement Strategies 402-401-2326

Lori A. Gartner

Kay E. Georgiana

Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC Vice President - Investment Officer 308-968-0150 or 1-800-658-4435

LUTCF, MSFS Principal Financial Group 402-462-6871

R Douglas Hoops Chad A. Horsham Hoops Insurance Services 402-652-8163

Nate Kruse

LUTCF, CLU, ChFC New York Life 402-657-9750

Ben Larson

CLU Kelley Financial Services 402-991-7595

CLU, ChFC Renaissance Financial 402-682-3900

Northwestern Mutual 402-483-7871

Renaissance Financial 402-682-3900

Ryan Miller

Jamison Moeller

Todd A. Morris

Michael Murphy

CFP, CLU, ChFC Northwestern Mutual 402-891-2304

Northwestern Mutual 402-960-7141

CFS Renaissance Financial 402-682-3904

New York Life Ins. Co. 712-325-0126

Kevin P. Pearce

Jason Peplinski

Craig Pfeifer

Neil J. Pfeifer

S. Kent Porter

Mark E. Prince Nicholas J. Ramaekers Patrick J. Ramaekers LUTCF, CLTC Mutual of Omaha 402-916-5122

LUTCF, CFS PJ Ramaekers & Associates 402-331-3337

CLU, CFS PJ Ramaekers & Associates 402-331-3337

Steve Ryan

Chris Schaedel

Paul Schlieker

Daniel J. Scholz

Mark Scholz

Jeff R. Shreeves

Landon Troyer

F. Joe Vlock

LUTCF, CLU, FSS Pearce Financial Services 402-502-6900

Scott Royal

Northwestern Mutual 402-390-8282

MBA, FSS, LUTCF FICF, MBA FP Wealth Management Inc. Lincoln Knight of Columbus Wayne 866-603-7047 402-992-1156

Chad M. Rutar CFP, ChFC, CLU Renaissance Financial 402-932-9005

Richard Strevey Brad S. Swiggart Michael F. Tews

CFP, RFC Strevey Financial Services 402-445-2288

CLU, ChFC Marcotte Wealth Management 402-926-2850

CLU, CLTC Northwestern Mutual 402-379-6960

Lewis P. Linkugel Financial Services 402-423-9500

Mike Owens

Northwestern Mutual 402-379-6960

Vintage Financial Group 402-932-7233

Lewis Linkugel

CLU, LUTCF, FSS Nelson Murphy Insurance & Investment 402-963-0206

Kyle Fuchtman

LUTCF, CFP Heck & Moeler Financial Services 402-492-8444

Jonathan Leymaster

Physician Advisors 402-858-2064

Timothy Flott

Compass Benefits Wealth Strategies & Employee Benefits 402-201-2715

Tony R. Larsen

John L. Lord

Vintage Financial Group LLC 402-932-7233

Northwestern Mutual 402-483-7871

Principal Financial Group.

308-237-2717

Northwestern Mutual 402-391-6651

Brad R. Burwell James R. Christensen Jr. Greg V. Cismoski

CLU, CLTC Northwestern Mutual 402-390-8287

CLU, CLTC Northwestern Mutual 402-483-7871

AEP, ChFC, CASL, LUTCF, MDRT, IAR Insurance & Investment Specialist LUTCF, FSS Farm Bureau Financial Services Renaissance Financial HealthMarkets Insurance Agency 402-462-2920 402-884-6802 402-517-0732

New York Life Ins. Co. Burwell, NE 308-346-4786

Bob Burk

CLTC Northwestern Mutual 402-483-7871

CLU ChFC Northwestern Mutual 402-391-6651

CLU, ChFC, CASL, CLTC Northwestern Mutual 308-384-2790

Northwestern Mutual 402-933-7555

FICF Knights of Columbus 402-379-0180

Northwestern Mutual 402-484-3895

CLU, ChFC, CAP New York Life Ins. Co. 402-496-6446

Renaissance Financial Corp.

AAMS, CMFC, CRPC 402-682-3943 Heck & Moeller Financial Services 402-401-2309

CLU, ChFC PM Financial 402-491-3400

LUTCF Prudential 402-861-3679

ChFC, CLU Ameritas Financial 402-397-1952

CLU, ChFC Midwest Capital 402-571-1505

LUTCF Ameritas Financial 402-779-7342

LUTCF, FSS Nelson Murphy Insurance & Investment 402-963-0205

LUTCF, CLTC New York Life Ins. Co. 402-496-6450

Richard D. Vonderlage Justin D. Wanek Heritage Financial Services 402-964-2277

CFP, CLU, CLTC, ChFC Northwestern Mutual 402-390-6320

About MDRT

James T. Wapelhorst Raymond Welsh Thomas G. Whiteing Brian Wickstrom Michael R. Williams ChFC, CLU, CASL Northwestern Mutual 402-379-6966

CFBS, LUTCF MassMutual Financial Group 402-385-2449

Renaissance Financial 402-682-3900

CLU, ChFC Northwestern Mutual 402-391-6651

Williams-Deras & Associates 402-398-9898

Greg Wilson National Investors 402-333-3656

Warren “Tony” Wolpa Lincoln Financial Group 402-392-1018

Founded in 1927, the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), The Premier Association of Financial Professionals, is an international independent association of more than 38,000 of the world’s leading life insurance and financial services professionals from more than 450 companies in 74 countries. MDRT members demonstrate exceptional professional knowledge, strict ethical conduct and outstanding client service.

MDRT membership is recognized internationally as the standard of excellence in the life insurance and financial services business.

When Making an Investment Decision, You Should Have a Round Table Discussion.

There are 172 current Million Dollar Round Table Members in the Nebraska area.

Those pictured are participating members who brought you the information included in this Financial times.

Omaha South High Magnet School’s Commencement Ceremony at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs.

EDUCATION

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UNIQUELY OMAHA: EDUCATION university of nebraska medical center

Widely known in the national medical community for its cancer and transplant centers, as well as for its treatment of Ebola patients, the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha is more than a center of education, research and patient care. It’s also an economic engine that a civic leader and philanthropist said is in “the business of healing.”

If UNMC and its hospital partner, the Nebraska Medical Center, were a private business, said Walter Scott, it would be Omaha’s fifth Fortune 500 company. Since 2007, UNMC facilities represent an investment of $700 million.

Dr. Harold Maurer, UNMC’s former chancellor who later served as its chief fundraiser, knows how to wedge his way into the wallets of the wealthy. Quipped Scott: “As cancer patients, the most alarming thing, maybe the most terrifying words that can be said to us, are ‘You have cancer.’ As philanthropists, the words that scare us are ‘Dr. Maurer has a new idea.’”

At an event celebrating the groundbreaking for the $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, Scott said: “Omaha is home to this new and exciting business — the business of healing.

And the value of that, my friends, is priceless.”

Scott, chairman emeritus of Peter Kiewit Sons’ Inc., was a donor for the cancer center, Omaha’s largest public-private project.

CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY

Creighton University is such an Omaha institution that it’s easy to take it for granted. But it is unique.

Among the 28 Jesuit universities in the United States, Creighton is the only one that includes not only an undergraduate curriculum but also law, medical, dental and allied health schools and, as part of CHI Health, a hospital.

Omaha is crawling with Creighton-educated doctors, lawyers, nurses, dentists, physical and occupational therapists, teachers, businesspeople and others. The university’s footprint on its hometown is huge.

And just as Omaha has grown, Creighton has expanded its reach. The city’s recent improvements along the riverfront, including a convention center-arena, a baseball stadium and a performing arts center, have been met more than halfway by CU, growing eastward toward the river.

Creighton educates more than 8,000 students per year — 4,000-plus undergraduates and a similar number of postgraduates. They come from all 50 states, and about two-thirds of the students come from outside Nebraska.

Creighton’s national profile was raised in 2013 by its move to the Big East Conference.

Bluejay teams now compete with universities in metropolitan New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. The exposure, it is hoped, will help with student academic recruitment. Omaha fans support the men’s basketball team, with average attendance of about 17,000, ranked fifth in the country.

Impact of UNMC and Creighton Among its peers in similarly populated areas, the academic medical industry in Omaha had the largest economic impact on the communities it serves. That is according to a 2012 analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges, based on the combined impact of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Creighton University Medical Center.

As a city, the Omaha market outranked medical industry centers in peer markets such as Rochester and Albany, New York; Little Rock, Arkansas; Tucson, Arizona; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, all with similar metro populations.

Paul Umbach, president of Tripp Umbach, the consulting firm that conducted the analysis, said Omaha is poised to take yet another step.

“Omaha is already a major economic player in the academic medicine industry,” Umbach said, “with an exceptionally bright future to join the top-tier centers.”

Creighton celebrated two groundbreakings in 2015: a new Creighton University Medical Center, costing $135 million, on the campus of Bergan Mercy Medical Center; and a $35 million medical building at 24th and Cuming, adjacent to the longtime CU campus.

university of nebraska at omaha

It’s long past time to knock off the pervasive modesty, UNO’s chancellor says, and to tell the school’s story in a no-brag-just-fact way. Fact is, the University of Nebraska at Omaha has raised its profile and its reach in many ways, with campus academic expansion, a move to NCAA Division I in sports and the 2015 opening of 7,898-seat Baxter Arena.

B R E N D A N S U L L I VA N / T H E W O R L D - H E R A L D

Business of healing

University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine employees sign steel beams which were raised during a topping off ceremony to recognize a major milestone in construction of the $323 million project, the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, in August 2015.

Founded in 1908, the school became the municipal Omaha University in 1930 and entered the state system in 1968 as the University of Nebraska at Omaha. UNO was a commuteronly school until the late 1990s, when the first campus housing opened. The university since has expanded to the south on the former site of the Aksarben racetrack, which is home to more student housing, the Peter Kiewit Institute for engineering and technology and Mammel Hall, home of the business college.

Roskens Hall was renovated as the new home of the College of Education, and the former Engineering Building became the College of Public Affairs and Community Service. The university also opened a new Biomechanics Research Building and a Community Engagement Center.

And in 2011, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching reclassified UNO from a master’s degree-granting to a doctoral/research institution.

UNO continues to educate locals, with 87 percent of the student body coming from Nebraska, the highest percentage in the NU system and the most ethnically and racially diverse. Students enjoy global experiences, with expanded study abroad through the university’s International Studies and Programs. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 international students from 117 countries study at UNO. The alumni association achieved a milestone of 100,000 living graduates, of whom 43,000 live in the Omaha area. “I can’t imagine a more exciting time at UNO than what we’re going through right now,” alumni president and CEO Lee Denker said in 2013. “Enrollment is up, and when you look around campus you see cranes for new buildings.

We’re doing things that our alums from 50 years ago could not imagine.”

BUSINESS SCHOOL

THE WORLD-HERALD

Creighton University’s Heider School of Business located in the Mike & Josie Harper Center. Creighton University enrolls more than 8,000 students each year.

bAXTER ARENA

UNO opened its $82 million, 7,898-seat Baxter Arena in 2015, home to the university’s signature hockey team. Adding to the excitement was that the Mavericks earlier in the year made it for the first time to the “Frozen Four,” the final four of NCAA Division I hockey.

UNO basketball and volleyball teams also play at the arena, which is available for other community events, such as high school graduations and the Aksarben Coronation & Scholarship Ball. Naming rights were purchased for $4 million over 10 years

by Baxter Auto, whose late leader, Tal Anderson, was a UNO alum and athlete.

New home rink

B R E N D A N S U L L I VA N / T H E W O R L D - H E R A L D

The new home of the University of Nebraska at Omaha ice hockey team, Baxter Arena.

— Excerpts from Michael Kelly’s “Uniquely Omaha: 101 Things to Know About the Big O”

How to negotiate a better financial aid package Danielle Douglas-Gabriel The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Your high school senior is basking in the glow of college acceptance letters. Three or four schools want her to join their class of 2019, and nothing can bring her down, except for the cost.

Unless you’re one of those lucky families whose kid receives a full ride, chances are the scholarships and grants schools offer will fall short of what your child actually needs.

And that means you might want to start negotiating.

Many families don’t realize it, but there is often wiggle room in financial aid awards. FAFSA, the form the government and col-

leges use to determine need- and some merit-based aid, doesn’t capture all circumstances that might affect a family’s ability to pay for school. For instance, there’s no line to include the cost of caring for an elderly parent or special-needs child, the kind of expenses that could warrant more aid, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Edvisors.com, a college-planning website. So if you weren’t able to share that kind of information with the school, now is the time to bring it up to see if that shakes free some more assistance.

What’s more, your family finances may have changed since you filled out the FAFSA. A job loss or any sort of salary

reduction is also the kind of special circumstance that could lead a school to increase a child’s scholarship or grant funding.

If you do decide to negotiate, you can appeal to the school’s financial aid administrator for what’s known as a professional judgment review. Gather up every piece of documentation of any changes to your family finances or special circumstances that could impact your ability to pay for school. If the financial impact is significant enough, the school may adjust your child’s award.

Keep in mind that families can appeal for more financial aid throughout college, not just

for freshman year. Even if your financial circumstances change in the middle of the semester, there is still a chance that the school could reassess your need.

Some schools also are willing to adjust their award to match a better offer from another college. The schools would have to be at least equally ranked and your kid would have to be a pretty good student, said Susan Hanflik, an educational consultant.

“Students can say ‘Hey, this school has offered me this, but I’d really like to come to you. Is there any more money?’ ” she said. “Sometimes there will be and sometimes there won’t, but it is worth asking. Every school

wants really good students, and they are going to give merit aid to make that happen.”

But don’t head into the financial aid office looking to haggle over pricing, Kantrowitz said.

“Colleges are not car dealerships, where bluff and bluster can get you a better deal.

Very few colleges will make a revised financial aid offer when a student gets a more generous financial aid offer from a competitor,” he said.

He added that even when a college will review the financial aid offer from another college, they never get into bidding wars for students. They’re mainly looking for information that they may have overlooked.

EDUCATION OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Graduate degree can boost a career, but when is it the right choice?

the world - herald

By Susan Szalewski World-Herald Correspondent

T

rying to land a job or promotion? Looking for a new career, a better income or a way to broaden, enhance or update your skills and bring more to your current job?

Then a graduate degree might be right for you. But anyone considering graduate school should first carefully weigh the benefits and options, officials at Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha said.

A graduate degree generally translates into a higher income, but it might not be a good economic investment in some lower-paying fields. Employers can make the degree more attractive by offering help with tuition and other costs, or a college can help find scholarships, loans or other financial aid — or woo students with fellowship offers or research opportunities.

Some people know the general field they want to study, but not the particular degree or certification they want. Many seek advanced degrees in a different field from what they earned their bachelor’s degree in, sometimes to switch careers but often as a way to build higher-level or creative thinking or to learn ways to mine information, said Deborah Smith-Howell, UNO

dean of graduate studies and associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Another consideration is whether to move on to graduate school right after college graduation or gain some job experience first.

At UNO, most graduate students have worked first, Smith-Howell said. They may have realized they want a more focused approach or skill set at work and went back to school to obtain it, she said.

The same is true at Creighton, where about two-thirds of graduates are part-time students, said Gail Jensen, Creighton dean of graduate school and College of Professional Studies and vice provost of learning and assessment.

Deciding on a school can be tough. Smith-Howell recommends beginning with a broad search of schools and whittling down the list.

UNO graduate students typically learned about their school through word of mouth, particularly from employers or trade associations, she said. Many schools also hold open houses or graduate fairs.

Potential graduate students could look at college websites, or stop by a school’s admissions office or visit with professors and students in a chosen field, Jensen said.

Earning a degree is more than accumulating credit hours, Smith-Howell said. She urged getting recommendations on courses and learning about the types of experiences a graduate student would have.

Potential students also should think about whether they could persist through the demands of a graduate program and look at how graduates of that program have fared in the work world, said Mary Chase, Creighton vice provost for enrollment management.

Ask yourself, she said, would your studies force you to think in diverse ways, and does the school and its professors have the values you share?

The school has to be a good fit for the student, the administrators stressed.

Sometimes the right college might be where a person earned an undergraduate degree, Chase said, but not always. “Sometimes it’s time to fly the nest, but there are many Creighton students who would go to no other place because of their experience as an undergrad.”

Colleges offer flexibility for people busy with work or families, including online classes. A Creighton doctorate in education program has students in 38 states and extends well beyond Omaha, Jensen said.

The working, experienced

students bring valuable knowledge to the classroom, Chase said, and can apply what they are learning to their work and talk to their professors about that experience.

More people are obtaining graduate degrees, and the degrees are becoming increasingly valuable, Jensen said. In the United States and elsewhere, “credentials are important,” she said.

Sometimes a graduate degree is necessary just to get an interview, she said.

Graduate degrees do more than increase employability and opportunities for career advancement. They offer intangible benefits, too, including learning about oneself and the world, becoming more fulfilled and challenged, Smith-Howell said.

Chase suggests looking at graduate school as a way to invest in oneself, to learn how to think critically and creatively, but most importantly, to be formed as a person.

“I became a better parent because of my degrees,” she said, “a better person.”

Smith-Howell said the cost of tuition is comparable to the price of a new car.

And while a new car might last 10 years or so, the benefits of an education last forever.

Steps for applying to graduate programs The application process for graduate school should begin months before the term starts.

The first step is to fill out an application and complete any requirements, which might include providing references or a writing sample, interviewing with school officials or taking a graduate school admissions test.

Even within the same university, graduate programs vary on what they require of applicants. Some programs don’t require any admissions tests, while others might weigh test scores as just one factor among many. On-the-job experience might weigh heavily in some programs.

Next, a college collects applicants’ credentials, including school transcripts, before the entire application goes to an admissions committee.

If selected, a student would meet with a faculty member to decide on courses, goals and ways to enhance the experience of being a student.

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N ebraska W esleyan U niversity

RWANDA

Ten Nebraska Wesleyan University students joined forces with Step Up for Rwandan Women, a local nonprofit, to build a trauma-counseling center in Butare, Rwanda. Their study-abroad program in the summer of 2014 was led

by Gerise Herndon, the university’s director of gender studies.

Study abroad options add dimension to decisions on college choice Schools say coursework in foreign countries is an eye-opener for students

By Todd von Kampen World-Herald Correspondent

In choosing a college campus, some young people want to know just how far off campus they can get.

The opportunity to study abroad — or to at least have the chance to experience another country during college — can be a difference-maker when one chooses which school to attend, say officials at Nebraska Wesleyan University and Hastings College.

Like many other four-year institutions, the two colleges offer formal and informal opportunities to take courses or do research in other nations. Service projects and periodic foreign tours by their musical ensembles and sports teams provide other chances for students to see the world through another culture’s eyes.

Many come back and say, “I always thought the world had to be organized in a particular way, but now that I see a different way, I realize the way I thought isn’t the only way,” said Sarah Barr, Wesleyan’s director of global engagement.

Even a short trip abroad has “a transformative nature” for people just starting adulthood as they make their way in an unfamiliar country, added Liz Frombgen, who supervises Hastings’ study-abroad programs as an associate vice president for academic affairs.

“Being uncomfortable at times is probably good for people,” she said.

“What’s really important is that students figure out how to be OK (abroad). In my experience, students come back more confident in their abilities in a real way.”

Recruiters at both schools will promote their study-abroad programs, both women said, but it’s usually the prospective students who bring it up. Some 25 to 30 of Hastings’ 1,100 undergraduate students study abroad each year, but about 20 percent of each class at Wesleyan, which has about 2,000 students, has had some type of international experience before graduation.

Barr said the chance to pursue international service work has long attracted young people to Wesleyan, which retains close ties with the United Methodist Church. Wesleyan students also have frequently won Fulbright Scholarships for foreign study, she added.

Study, research projects or internships in other nations can be incorporated in nearly every degree program at both Wesleyan and Hastings, the two college officials said. It’s normal for such trips to be taken during the student’s sophomore or junior year.

Both schools maintain full studentexchange partnerships with several universities in Europe, Latin America or eastern Asia, though neither operates a formal study outpost abroad as Creighton University does in the Dominican Republic. Barr said Wesleyan students See Abroad: Page 39

N ebraska W esleyan U niversity

AUSTRIA

Nebraska Wesleyan University faculty and students toured Melk Abbey in Austria during the summer of 2014.

H astings C ollege

VATICAN CITY

Hastings College 2008 graduate Beth Bunde visited Vatican City in December 2007.

“In my experience, students come back more confident in their abilities in a real way.”

Liz Frombgen

EDUCATION OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

Abroad: Students

have many options for overseas study

Continued from Page 38

N ebraska W esleyan U niversity

ESTONIA

also can link up with some 100 universities in 50 countries through five nonexchange networks to which the university belongs.

Those who take regular courses at their college’s sister institutions — usually for a semester or a year — pay their home college’s tuition rate and retain their financial-aid packages while abroad. Grants are sometimes available to help them cover living expenses.

Hastings and Wesleyan students who can’t be gone that long — whether for financial or academic reasons — often take short courses involving foreign travel during a three-week “January term” between semesters. “It’s the really extraordinary student who can go (abroad) for a year,” Frombgen said.

Ireland figures in two of Hastings’ high-profile opportunities for foreign study, including the Northern Ireland Business and Education Initiative, a 15-year-old partnership between the college and the government of the island’s six British counties. Each awards a scholarship to one student a year to cross the Atlantic and take business courses in the other’s nation, Frombgen said.

Students also can apply for and receive travel or “experiential learning” grants that fit into their degree program and win approval in advance of the trip, she added. A friend of the college from western Ireland helps facilitate Hastings’ five-year-old Irish Fellows Program, in which Hastings students spend a month on the island in the fall to complete brief research projects or internships.

Foreign and domestic service projects at Wesleyan, Barr said, are organized by the university’s Global Service Learning program, which is run by students themselves.

She said student members, who must apply for acceptance into the program, perform community service in the Lincoln area each month and elsewhere in the United States during winter break.

Foreign service trips, such as a 2015 trip to Nicaragua by eight students and two faculty sponsors, are conducted during the summer.

“They work very hard when they’re on their service,” Barr said.

Nebraska Wesleyan University students show their school spirit while spending the fall of 2013 at the University of Tartu, an Estonian “sister school.” From left are Sarah Kellogg, Skyler May, Molly Cox and Alexander White.

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C oncordia

ACTIVITIES

Concordia’s students engage in a wide range of activities. From left, Aaron Cooksey, Ian McDonald, Brooke Sorenson, Zoey Keller, Jake Lewis and Blake Hawkins. In front is Thomas Johnson.

Concordia continues to grow with small-school formula The northwest Omaha juniorsenior high lives up to its name by succeeding through harmony

By Susan Szalewski World-Herald Correspondent

Much has changed in the nearly 15 years since Omaha Concordia Junior/ Senior High School opened on the northwest corner of 156th and Fort Streets.

Enrollment has grown from about 50 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders in August 2001 to the current 450 students in grades seven through 12. A new athletic center was completed in 2013, the library was updated in 2014, and the school boasts strong theater and music programs, fast-growing athletic offerings and dual-enrollment courses for college credit.

But much has stayed the same at Concordia, which has kept true to its Lutheran roots by offering religion classes and opportunities for prayer, serving the surrounding community and keeping close ties with students and families.

And those lingering qualities set the school apart, supporters say.

Concordia is a common name among Lutheran schools across the United States and refers to a harmony, being of one heart and better off together, said Robert Cooksey, head of schools at the junior-senior high school. At a small See Concordia: Page 41

C oncordia

‘FAITH IN ACTION’

Sophomores Charlie Bellus, Amy Day and Jessie Bai do service work on one of the school’s “Faith In Action Days.�

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EDUCATION OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

SCIENCE LAB

Concordia Senior High students Casey Thompson and Emma Latimer team up on a chemistry experiment.

Concordia: Students and their families feel as if they belong Continued from Page 40 school, working together is important, he said.

Concordia is a place where not only students feel that they belong, but their families do, too, Cooksey said. Parents get to know one another not only through volunteering or supporting their children at games, performances and other activities, but also through classroom book clubs, Bunco nights and informational sessions on college preparation, study skills or parenting.

“When the family is well-served, students do better,” Cooksey said.

That closeness with families seemed natural when the school first opened and was smaller. Now Concordia, one of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s fastest-growing schools, works hard to continue to make families feel welcomed, often by serving food at family events, allowing them to skip fixing a meal at home, he said.

The school’s Christian identity comes alive when it serves the wider community, teacher Darla Rosendahl said, especially during twicea-year “Faith in Action Days,” when students help nonprofit groups and public entities, doing anything such as stocking a food pantry, painting a mural, paving a camp road or tearing down a house.

Throughout the year, students strive to serve in assorted ways: collecting food and clothing for the needy, writing to pen pals in Guatemala, or collecting cardboard for jewelry makers in Haiti to help bring them out of poverty.

Prayer isn’t just a part of school routine but something that becomes spontaneous, even in math class, Rosendahl said.

Teachers are trained at Concordia colleges, creating a foundation for the school’s religious focus, Cooksey said. The junior-senior high school, part of Concordia Lutheran Schools of Omaha, is Omaha’s only Lutheran secondary school. But it serves more than Lutherans, he

said, with students from 75 different congregations attending.

Weekly worship time in a makeshift chapel in the school’s “old gym” is one of the most treasured aspects of school life, junior Gabby Minneman said. A special stage, where a praise band can perform, helps transform the space. A pastor from one of Concordia’s supporting churches leads the students.

“It’s one time a week set apart to worship and spend time with God,” Minneman said.

The senior high chapel time, at 9:41 a.m. each Thursday, helps her “get back on track” amid a schedule filled with extracurricular activities, such as weightlifting, powerlifting, trapshooting, studying for Envirothon (an environmental studies competition), being a student ambassador and a member of the school’s band and handbell choir.

The junior and senior high schools have separate principals and staff. The junior high is contained mostly to one wing but shares spaces with the senior high for best use of resources, Rosendahl said.

The sharing is important as the school continues to grow. This school year, the junior high added sixth-graders for the first time.

With more students, Concordia is considering expanding its facilities again. A building committee is looking for ways to fund an auditorium for its popular music and theater programs, and the school still has 17 acres of undeveloped land to its north to build on, Cooksey said.

There is still room for more students, he said. Those interested in enrolling for the 15th anniversary year are encouraged to contact Dawn Cooksey, director of admission (and Robert’s wife), at 402-990-9444 or at cookseyd@concordiaomaha.org. Enrolling by Feb. 16 will help ensure a student’s spot.

Junior high tuition ranges from $7,000 to $7,400 a year, while senior high tuition ranges from $8,700 to $9,200.

The school offers more than $300,000 a year in scholarships, and more than a third of the

“When the family is well-served, students do better.”

Robert Cooksey

PRIVATE METRO-AREA SECONDARY SCHOOLS

GRADES ENROLLMENT PHONE ARCHBISHOP BERGAN (coed Catholic) 545 E. Fourth St., Fremont .....................7-12 ................164 .............. 402-721-9683 BOYS TOWN DAY SCHOOL 14124 Norton Drive, Boys Town .............9-12 ................. 60 ............... 402-964-7188 BOYS TOWN HIGH SCHOOL 13727 Flanagan Blvd., Boys Town .........9-12 ................ 310 .............. 402-498-1800 BROWNELL-TALBOT MIDDLE 400 N. Happy Hollow Blvd. ....................... 5-8 .................139 .............. 402-556-3772 BROWNELL-TALBOT UPPER 400 N. Happy Hollow Blvd. ......................9-12 ................149 .............. 402-556-3772 CONCORDIA (coed Lutheran) 15656 Fort St. ..........................................6-12 ................366 .............. 402-445-4000 CORNERSTONE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL 16405 Clay St., Bellevue .........................6-12 ................110 .............. 402-291-2260 CREIGHTON PREP (boys Catholic) 7400 Western Ave. ...................................9-12 .............. 1,012 ............ 402-393-1190 DUCHESNE (girls Catholic) 3601 Burt St. ............................................9-12 ................309 .............. 402-558-3800 ELKHORN MOUNT MICHAEL (boys Catholic) 22520 Mount Michael Road ..................9-12 ................242 .............. 402-289-2541 GROSS (coed Catholic) 7700 S. 43rd St., Bellevue ......................9-12 ................408 .............. 402-734-2000 JESUIT ACADEMY (boys Catholic) 2311 N. 22nd St. ...................................... 4-8 .................. 66 ............... 402-346-4464 MARIAN (girls Catholic) 7400 Military Ave. ....................................9-12 ................670 .............. 402-571-2618 MERCY (girls Catholic) 1501 S. 48th St. .......................................9-12 ................395 .............. 402-553-9424 OMAHA CHRISTIAN ACADEMY 10244 Wiesman Drive .............................9-12 ................. 85 ............... 402-399-9565 OMAHA MONTESSORI HIGH SCHOOL 7001 Oak St. ............................................7-12 ................. 34 ............... 402-614-9074 OMAHA STREET SCHOOL 3223 N. 45th St. ......................................9-12 ................. 30 ............... 402-451-5234 RONCALLI (coed Catholic) 6401 Sorensen Parkway .........................9-12 ................361 .............. 402-571-7670 SKUTT (coed Catholic) 3131 S. 156th St. .....................................9-12 ................ 711 .............. 402-333-0818 WEGNER MIDDLE 14124 Norton Drive, Boys Town .............. 5-8 .................. 50 ............... 402-498-1820 Enrollment totals are from the 2014-2015 school year.

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Call 800.432.5852 to schedule a campus visit. Your future begins NOW at Iowa Western.

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41Y

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OUT- EDUCATION

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

Two OPS schools saluted for leading way on environmental efforts

By Susan Szalewski World-Herald Correspondent

T

wo Omaha public schools — Wilson Focus School, at 5141 F St., and Gomez Heritage Elementary School, 5101 S. 17th St. — have proved they’re keen on being green.

At Gomez Heritage, geothermal energy helps heat and cool the building; children learn and play in an outdoor classroom; mothers collect recyclables; fathers help clean and maintain the grounds; and staff members encourage children to try nutritious foods and avoid waste.

At Wilson, students learn to lead environmental endeavors, helping to keep the school grounds clean and manicured, trimming bushes, planting and picking up and sorting recyclable waste from blue bins around the school.

These and other efforts earned the two schools Green Ribbon awards from the U.S. Department of Education in 2015, an honor reserved for just 58 schools and 14 districts across the country.

Sustaining a healthy environment is important to Omaha Public Schools, said Susan Colvin, who helps administer the school district’s Green Schools Initiative, a program that has saved the school district almost $6 million over six years, she said.

Schools throughout the district have bought into the initiative, coordinated by an Omaha consulting firm, Verdis Group. Four other schools and the entire district have earned Green Ribbon awards over the past four years. And OPS has become nationally recognized for its environmentalism, Colvin said.

The awards are based on three pillars: reducing environmental impact and costs, improving health and wellness and educating students in environmentalism and sustainability.

Some efforts are common to both Wilson and Gomez Heritage: Nutrition and exercise are emphasized; students learn to garden; native grasses are used in landscaping because they require less moisture; See Green: Page 43

GREEN GARDEN

A raised garden bed at Edward Babe Gomez Heritage Elementary School. Students and Wells Fargo Bank volunteers care for the garden beds.

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EDUCATION OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

pitching in

Top, Students at Wilson Focus School use the media studio to promote healthy initiatives.

Above, Students at Edward Babe Gomez Heritage Elementary School examine compost.

Left, students at Gomez recycle their lunch waste.

Green: Recycling programs are just the beginning for local schools Continued from Page 42 rain barrels help conserve water; and the relatively new buildings allow plenty of natural light and are designed for efficiency.

Other measures set the schools apart.

Wilson, home to 240 students in third through sixth grade, uses its focus on leadership, technology and communication to help create a healthy environment, Principal Bret Anderson said. Students take pride in their green efforts and help lead the school, he said. “They think about being advocates for the outside community and the environment.”

Students learn to pick up after themselves, help out others and clean up trash when they see it, Anderson said.

“A school can make an impact,” he said, by saving money and bettering students, school property and the surrounding neighborhood.

OPS schools monitor their energy efficiency, and Wilson students learn about progress in morning news announcements.

“The kids are aware,” the principal said, and they prompt others to conserve energy.

Enrichment classes boost physical activity for the children and include dance, yoga, outdoor sports, taekwondo, archery, and walking and biking clubs.

Each classroom has a 5-foot-by-8-foot raised garden bed, which students help build and maintain. From the gardening, they learn about erosion, water conservation, engineering and construction, and math, school officials said.

At Gomez Heritage, all 860 students in preschool through fourth grade use the school’s nationally accredited Jan Gilbert Memorial Outdoor Classroom and Timberwolf Park. The outdoor area includes a stage, building areas, bird feeders, gardens and a tricycle track.

School fathers collect cans each year, with the proceeds helping to improve the outdoor classroom, and work on gardens and clean-up projects. Mothers collect recyclables from classrooms every Friday morning.

Earth Day is a weeklong celebration at Gomez Heritage. The school also participates in a Woodhouse Auto Family backpack program, which each Friday provides 120 backpacks filled with healthy food for children in need, said Amy Hansen, a teacher and leader of the school’s Green Team.

A fresh fruits and vegetables program, offered two days a week, encourages children to sample nutritious produce they may have never tried before, Principal John Campin said. And the school cooperates with the Salvation Army Kroc Center to involve children in sports and athletic activities.

School staff members try to use natural light and refrain from turning on artificial lights during work days when students are out of school, said teacher JoAnne Kawecki, who also is a Green Team member. And school computers are timed to shut off automatically after school.

All the steps the school takes are worth it, Kawecki said. “We’re teaching stewardship for future generations.”

outdoor classroom

Above, third-grade students play the xylophone in the Outdoor Classroom at Gomez Heritage Elementary.

Left, students also have a chance to develop engineering skills in the Outdoor Classroom.

43Y

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OUT- EDUCATION

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDO

Colleges work to help students find jobs Even incoming freshmen can benefit from career fairs, adviser meetings and mock interviews

By Todd von Kampen World-Herald Correspondent

If colleges and universities start helping students find jobs when they’re seniors, they’ve waited too long, say career advisers at two Midlands four-year schools.

The effort begins at Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Kearney — to name only a couple of examples — as soon as incoming freshmen set their feet on campus. Advisers urge students to think about how they present themselves. They help them seek and find internships and their first postgraduate jobs. And alumni can seek their assistance, too, no matter how long they’ve been gone.

Especially given the high costs of higher education, staff members at Creighton’s John P. Fahey Career Center feel a drive “to prove the value of coming to Creighton for students to be successful,” said Interim Director Jeremy Fisher.

Advising services are set up somewhat differently at the two institutions. While Creighton’s career center focuses on life beyond the classroom, academic and career advisers at UNK have worked under the same roof since the end of 2009.

UNK initially merged its advising departments as a cost-saving move, said Amy Rundstrom, director of the Academic and Career Services Office. But by doing so, “it helped us focus on how the academic side relates to the career side,” she said. “What you get out of classes (professionally) relates to what you learn from books.”

Despite their differing structures, advisers at UNK and Creighton offer a similar progression of seminars, workshops and services to get students ready to make a living in their chosen field.

They begin with orientation meetings as first-year students are settling into their routines. UNK’s office puts “holds” on the second-semester class registrations of every one of the university’s approximately 950 freshmen until he or she has met with a member of Rundstrom’s staff.

The goal, she said, is “to help them realize that their academic development starts now, and the outcome will be beneficial to them later.”

Career advisers keep up their contacts during students’ sophomore and junior years, encouraging them to attend campus career fairs, start developing their résumés and pay attention to the image they’re presenting of themselves on social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. UNK’s and Creighton’s career centers held their fall career fairs in October and will hold their spring fairs late next month. About 1,000 students at each university attend the fairs each year, Fisher and Rundstom said.

Creighton’s Career Fair Week, which happened in early October, included a general fair for employers and the military; a second focusing on graduate schools and undergraduate research opportunities; and a third featuring science, technology, energy and math-related professions.

Both career centers will take free digital professional photos that students can post on their social-media profiles, especially LinkedIn. They also urge their students to keep their professional image in mind even on more recreational sites such as Facebook and Instagram.

Rundstrom tells a story of a UNK student whose Facebook page showed her drunk and sitting “in a shopping cart with a bottle of beer in one hand.” Even as students start college, she said, “you’ve got to shift your profile from party mode to professional mode.”

Once students are ready to seek their first internships, career advisers are ready to help them tailor their résumés, refine their professional images and tell their stories to

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Arelica Guerrero of Omaha, a psychology major at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, reviews tips on preparing for her postgraduate career with Amy Rundstrom, UNK director of academic and career services. job interviewers in the most effective way possible.

UNK and Creighton career counselors will conduct mock interviews with students so they not only can respond well to questions but also understand how their dress and nonverbal behavior affect the interviewer’s impression of them.

“We sometimes say, ‘You look nice if you’re trying to get a date, but not if you’re trying to get a job, ’” Rundstrom said.

It’s also a good strategy, she and Fisher said, not to send a standard résumé to each potential employer but to refine it to emphasize the skills, past jobs and personal experiences that best fit each employer’s needs.

Both Creighton and UNK offer extensive job-search websites to help students and potential employers, military recruiters or graduate-school officials find each other.

Creighton students and alumni can find the university’s Jobs4Jays site at http://www. creighton.edu/careercenter/jobs4jays, while UNK’s loperCAREERS site is located at http:// www.unk.edu/offices/acs/loperCAREERS.php.

Students also can benefit from their career counselors’ own networks of contacts, said Fisher, who noted that he’s linked with about 4,000 potential employers and Creighton alumni. “We’re giving out contacts almost like candy to students on a daily basis, ” he said.

As students turn into alumni, he and Rundstrom added, they should remember that their alma maters remain ready to help them negotiate the murky waters ahead.

Alumni of Creighton and UNK can continue to consult the schools’ career advisers for free — a service that became important for many displaced workers and frustrated graduates during the recession of the last decade.

If graduates haven’t found a job after a year, Rundstrom said, they typically need to broaden their focus or their scope to seek possible jobs matching their skill set. “If they’ve been out for 15 years and are needing a career change, the services are very different.”

Whether their clients are students or alumni, she added, “our job is to put the tools in their hands to get the jobs.”

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EDUCATION OUT-

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2016

bh media news service

announcement

Forty-five students from Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Riverside high schools received full-ride scholarships to Iowa Western Community College as part of the Pottawattamie Promise program. Here, Samantha Kennedy and other students after a press conference last spring.

I owa W estern C ommunity C ollege

recipient

Abigail Fisher, a Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln graduate, attends Iowa Western on a Pottawattamie Promise scholarship.

New scholarships making an impact in their first year

By Sue Story Truax

B

World-Herald Correspondent

y just about any measure, two new Omaha metro area scholarship programs are successful in their inaugural year.

Students in the Aksarben/Horatio Alger Career Scholarship Program and in the Pottawattamie Promise Scholarship Program have completed their first term of college classes, and the retention rate for their next term outpaces that of the general population.

Jon Burt, president of the Aksarben Foundation, said 157 scholarships were accepted for the 2015 fall quarter classes at Metropolitan Community College. He said 153 students actually enrolled in the fall and 145 — 95 percent — have enrolled for the 2016 winter quarter.

Eighty-two percent of those students are in good academic standing.

“It was an extremely successful year,” Burt said. “It went way beyond our expectations” in the number of applicants and first-quarter results.

Ken Bird called the first quarter “a remarkable success.” He is president and CEO of Avenue Scholars, which supports high school students on their way to a career and one of the partners in the Aksarben program. “All the kids came through my program.”

The first-quarter persistence rate was way above the 50 percent rate of the general population and the 15 percent rate of those living in poverty, he said.

Pete Tulipana, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation — which provides majority funding for Pottawattamie Promise — said the Iowa program is “somewhere at 50 to 60 percent of kids doing well or very well” during their first semester.

That scholarship program sends students to Iowa Western Community College.

Of the 45 students selected for scholarships, 44 enrolled for the first semester and the “vast majority have enrolled for the spring term,” said Tori Christie, vice president of student services at Iowa Western Community College.

Bird, who retired as superintendent of Westside Community Schools before joining Avenue Scholars, said a high school education alone doesn’t allow kids to make good choices about career options.

“Access to college through scholarship has little to do with success (in college),” he said.

“Without advisers, navigators or coaches, the likelihood of success diminishes dramatically.”

The students are coming from low-income families, are the first generation to attend college and often have no role model for college.

“The personal attention and support they’ve gotten from Avenue Scholars help and college navigators’ support to chase kids down” solves problems, Bird said. Problems include making sure students get registered, attend classes, get academic help, receive social help and emotional support, and build a relationship with an adult who cares about their success.

Metro provides support for the students through college navigators who help students each step of the way. Avenue Scholars also helps students with other roadblocks such as transportation, child care and medical care.

Kathleen Rapp, vice president of grants and initiatives at the Iowa West Foundation, attributed part of Pottawattamie Promise student success to that same kind of “intrusive counseling model” put in place at Iowa Western.

Students get the academic or social support they might need, she said.

Christie said the first year of Pottawattamie Promise scholars has been successful, “but I understand success is defined in many ways.

When you have so much to overcome to pursue a college education, even success on a test can be a big win.”

Pat Crisler, senior aide to the president of Metro, said, “We’ve been very impressed by students’ academic standing. The vast majority are moving forward on their education plan.

Overall, they’re making the progress they’ve set out to make.”

Both programs are on track to expand next year — and for several years after that.

By fall, both programs will have second-year and first-year college students.

“Our target for 2016-17 is to have 350 students on scholarship,” said Aksarben’s Burt.

The five-year goal of Pottawattamie Promise is to reach 400 students annually attending Iowa Western.

The partnerships behind each program have strengthened during their first year.

foundation

Aksarben Foundation leaders and scholarship recipients gather at the April press conference unveiling the Career Connectors scholarship program. From left are Jon Burt, Aksarben Foundation president; scholarship recipients Su Reh, Quinton Cross and Genesis Martinez; Mike Yanney, King Aksarben XCVIII; and Steve Martin, Aksarben Foundation chairman.

Pete Tulipana

Kathleen Rapp

Tori Christie

Ken Bird

Jon Burt

How to BE PART OF THE PROGRAMs Aksarben/Horatio Alger Career Scholarship Program » The scholarships are only for Metropolitan Community College in high skill/high demand trades that the State of Nebraska identifies as needing workers. » Eligible high school seniors in Nebraska’s Douglas or Sarpy counties must qualify for the Free or Reduced Lunch program or a federal Pell Grant or both. » Applicants must be a U.S. citizen, a permanent resident or eligible for a work permit. » To apply, see your high school counselor or Talent Adviser through the Avenue Scholars program.

The Aksarben Foundation, Metropolitan Community College and the Avenue Scholars Foundation — the partnership behind the Aksarben/Horatio Alger Career Scholarships — are exploring expansion to other counties tied to other community colleges, Burt said.

This first year, Burt said, the partnership has focused on best practices, partnering with K-12 schools and the employment fields that the State of Nebraska has determined need skilled workers.

Crisler said the partnership has been “tremendously successful by bringing together the best of what three established, solid community groups can bring to students — something completely new that is working requires a lot of collaboration.

“Creating the framework for a lasting partnership was one of the lasting achievements,” Crisler said.

Partners with the Iowa West Foundation in the Pottawattamie Promise program are the Iowa Western Community College Foundation, the Aksarben Foundation and the Peter Kiewit Foundation, all of which provide funding for the scholarships plus room and board; and the Council Bluffs and Riverside school districts along with Iowa Western Community College.

The districts provide funding for such things

“I got extra help with the registration process and my adviser stays up to date with my group and any help we might need.”

Abigail Fisher

Pottawattamie Promise Scholarships » The scholarship applies only to Iowa Western Community College. There are no restrictions on college programs pursued. » Eligible students must attend high school in the Council Bluffs or Riverside school districts, both in Pottawattamie County. » Teams of administrators and counselors in the school buildings select students, who must have a grade-point average of 2.0 or better, be on track to graduate and demonstrate financial need. » To apply, see your high school counselor. as additional high school math instruction and guidance, and Iowa Western pays for college guidance.

Abigail Fisher, 18, is a Pottawattamie Promise scholar who successfully completed her first semester and has enrolled for her second. Her goal is a two-year degree from Iowa Western before transferring to a four-year college to complete a bachelor’s in social work.

“I got extra help with the registration process and my adviser stays up to date with my group and any help we might need,” said Fisher, a graduate of the Bluffs’ Abraham Lincoln High School.

She said she appreciates the help covering college costs, including being able to live on campus.

Iowa West’s Tulipana said, “The most successes happen when students are living on campus,” which all Pottawattamie Promise scholars do.

“Living on campus has helped me a lot,” Fisher said. She said it’s a better way to make friends, she’s closer to the library and it’s a good way to keep on top of classes and grades.

“The workload is definitely a lot more than in high school,” Fisher said. “The teachers’ expectations are higher. There’s not a lot of slack.”

“We’ve been very impressed by students’ academic standing. The vast majority are moving forward on their education plan. Overall, they’re making the progress they’ve set out to make.”

Pat Crisler

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