Davis to speak at networking luncheon

State Rep. Bill Davis (R-Portland) will be the featured speaker at Tuesday's noon networking luncheon for the Jay County Chamber of Commerce.

The luncheon will be in the conference room at Jay County Hospital. To make reservations, contact the chamber at (260) 726-4481.

Name change

Glass producer Saint-Gobain Containers of Dunkirk is undergoing a name change and will become Verallia as a way to brand its glass packaging division.

The Verallia name will replace several Saint-Gobain divisions including its Containers division, which operates a glass plant in Dunkirk.

CEO Jerome Fessard announced that the change was effective April 15.

Recognition reception

The Geneva Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual recognition reception May 3.

The chamber will present the business of the year, industry of the year, citizen of the year and lifetime achievement awards.

Hors d'oeuvres will be served at 6:30 p.m. and the program will begin at 7 p.m. at the Geneva Town Hall community room.

Reservations are required and can be made by calling (260) 368-7251 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Cost is $5 per person.

Sales down

Sales for glass producer Saint-Gobain decreased by a half-percent in the first quarter of this year.

Sales in the quarter were euro8.737 billion, down from euro8.782 billion the year prior, a decrease of .5 percent. Sales volume was down 1.7 percent while prices decreased by .7 percent and exchange rates created a positive sale increase of 1.5 percent.

Construction product sales fell 3.3 percent due to poor weather conditions in the northern hemisphere during the quarter.

Retiring

Carolyn Skiver, North Meridian Street branch manager of CrossRoads Financial Federal Credit Union, announced her retirement effective April 30.

Skiver has been with CrossRoads since 1997, where she started in bookkeeping before being named branch manager when the North Meridian location opened in 2001.

A reception will be held on Friday from 2:30 to 5 p.m. at the branch.

Cellulosic goal

Ethanol producer POET announced plans to produce 3.5 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year by 2022.

The company, after running a pilot plant, is ready to break ground on its first cellulosic production plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, which will produce 25 million years per year.

Cellulosic ethanol is produced using waste grain products such as corn cobs and stalks.

Fifth lowest

Mercer County held the fifth lowest unemployment rate in Ohio during March.

Workforce estimates from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services announced the county's rate of 9.2 percent. That rate is unchanged from a year ago.

Ohio's state unemployment rate was 11 percent.

Join Takats

Bill Davis and Steve Fennig have joined Porter-Takats Realty, Portland, as real estate sales representatives.

Railroad award

Five POET ethanol plants received the Union Pacific Railroad's 14th annual Pinnacle Award for chemical transportation.

Plants in Asthon, Emmetsburg and Jewell, Iowa, Lake Crystal, Minn., and Hudson S.D., received the award.

The award is given to companies that have no accident released during the year and have successful prevention and corrective plans in place.

Recycling day

Exide Technologies celebrated Earth Day with its third annual Recycle, Reach Out, and Restore Battery Drive.

Exide offered rebates for anyone bringing in motorcycle, lawnmower, automative, marine and RV batteries and matched that total with a donation to the Cancer Services of East Central Indiana - Little Red Door. Those recycling batteries were also entered into a raffle for a new Exide automotive or motorcycle battery.

Exide is one of the world's largest recyclers of secondary lead and the Muncie facility is one of the company's top 10 facilities.

Compensation drops

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. president and CEO Michael T. Duke saw a compensation decrease of 32 percent as stock and options decreased in value by about $11 million.

Duke's stock and options were valued at $12.7 million and he received $1.2 million salary, $4.8 million in incentive bonuses and about $85,000 for personal use of company aircraft.

During the previous fiscal year, Duke's total compensation was valued at about $28.4 million.

Energy seminar

Jay County REMC is hosting an energy efficiency seminar in May with speakers Scott DeHoff of DeHoff Insulation and Don Crawmer of SolarAg Systems.

The program will take place at 6 p.m. on May 20 at the REMC office. Reservations can be made by calling 726-7121 or be sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Joins staff

Kenn Lamm of Fort Recovery recently joined the staff of Homan Real Estate in Coldwater.

Lamm, who has been a licensed auctioneer since 2005 and a licensed real estate agent since 2006, joined the company as a sales associates and auctioneer.

He graduated from the Missouri Auction School in 2005 and is a member of several auction and real estate associations.

Saturating

Verizon Communications Inc. reported slowing wireless customer gains as the cell phone market becomes more saturated as most people already own phones.

Verizon added 423,000 customers, greatly missing an estimate of 724,000. The pool of available new customers continues to shrink as most Americans own cell phones.

Net income fell 75 percent to $409 million from $1.65 billion a year ago.

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