Regional partnership launches website

The East Central Indiana Regional Partnership — formerly known as Energize ECI — is launching ECIRP.org as a new website to serve companies looking at expanding to this part of Indiana.
The site was developed by Atlas Advertising of Denver, Colorado.
It features demographic information and a real estate search tool for business location decision-makers.

Warming cullet
Ardagh Group’s European glass division is developing new ways to increase its recycling and cutting energy consumption at the same time.
Usually, when recycled glass, known as cullet, is delivered to glass plants, it is stored outdoors and will require higher temperatures when the time comes to remelt it in a glass furnace.
At Ardagh’s Nienburg, Germany, plant, a specially developed heat exchanger was put in place that draws hot air across the furnace and uses that to preheat and dry the cullet before it is remelted.
The result, the company said, is a savings of 116,000 euros annually and a 334 ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
Ardagh operates glass container plants in Dunkirk and Winchester. The Dunkirk plant was most recently part of Verallia North America, while the Winchester plant was part of Anchor Hocking.

Carpenter promoted
First Bank of Berne has promoted Portland branch manager Kathy Carpenter to assistant vice president.
A graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University with a degree in business administration, she joined First Bank of Berne in 2007.
She has worked in banking for more than 17 years.
Carpenter serves on the board of trustees of Jay County Public Library and on the Jay County Hospital Foundation board. Active in the Jay County Chamber of Commerce, she is a member of the Portland Morning Optimists. She and her husband Rex have one son.

Rate spikes
Mercer County’s jobless rate jumped from 2.6 percent in December to 4.2 percent in January.
The county still had the lowest unemployment rate in Ohio, tying with Delaware County. Ohio’s overall jobless rate was 5.1 percent.

Not so fast
Comcast’s planned acquisition of Time Warner Cable is going to take longer than expected because of regulatory review, the cable TV, phone, and Internet provider said this week.
The deal was announced in February of 2014, but it is still being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department.
In an effort to avoid anti-trust objections, Comcast had planned to shed its operations in Indiana, but that move is apparently on hold.
The Associated Press reported this week that the FCC has delayed its review because of a pending court case. In that case, content providers such as the Walt Disney Co. don’t want the FCC to show documents filed with the government that contain private information, such as its contracts with pay-TV companies, to lawyers and other people outside the agency.
A federal court in Washington, D.C., heard arguments in the case in February but hasn’t issued a decision yet.
Comcast Corp., which is based in Philadelphia, has called the case a “procedural matter” related to its Time Warner Cable deal.