[APRIL 5, 2002]  Laura Schoon, president of Junior Achievement of Central Illinois, Inc., presented Eaton Corporation with a framed certificate in recognition of their support of Junior Achievement programs in Lincoln. Wes Brittan, plant manager for Eaton Corporation, accepted the certificate on behalf of the company.

Brittan stated, "I’m pleased to accept this on behalf of Eaton Corporation. Junior Achievement is an important program in our community, and we are glad to be a part of it."

He then introduced the Eaton employees who are volunteering in the classroom: Gilbert Gadenberger, Scott Goodman, Scot May, Marc Schoonover, Bob Thomas and Jessica Van Remmen. Scott Goodman and Gaynor Goodman represent Eaton Corporation on the Junior Achievement Logan County Advisory Committee.

Mayor Beth Davis issued a proclamation recognizing that through Junior Achievement’s partnerships with business and education, young people have the opportunity to develop the attitudes and skills vital for their future. She then called upon the citizens of Lincoln to "recognize the contributions of this organization and the business community to our young citizens."

Lincoln/Logan County JA
program background

Junior Achievement (JA) re-introduced its programs to Lincoln and Logan County in March 1996 with a presentation to school superintendents and principals. In the spring of 1997, JA implemented its first- through eighth-grade programs at West Lincoln-Broadwell.

An advisory committee was established in 1998 to oversee the JA program in Lincoln and Logan County. The original members of the committee were Bobbi Abbott, Mary Conrady, Vicki Hasprey, Cherie Lock, Roger Matson, Augustus Scott and Kay Verstraete.

In April 1998, the JA Logan County Advisory Committee had a JA Rally Day for fifth-grade students. Chester- East Lincoln and New Holland-Middletown offered their first JA programs in the spring of 1999.

Today, the program has proven to be successful in impacting the lives of young people in Lincoln and Logan County. Strong support from the community has allowed the program to grow. In April, the advisory committee will conduct a strategic planning session to determine the direction of the JA program in Lincoln and Logan County over the next two years.

Local JA program personnel for 2001-2002

Bobbi Abbott, of Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce

Debbie Ackerman, co-chairman, Lincoln College

Mary Conrady, CEFCU

Gaynor Goodman, Eaton Corporation

Scott Goodman, Eaton Corporation

Tom Kissel, A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.

Roger Matson, co-chairman, Action Rental

Debbie Ackerman, of Lincoln College

Gilbert Gadenberger, Eaton Corporation

Scott Goodman, Eaton Corporation

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Vicky Hasprey, Family Cleaners

Tom Kissel, A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.

Roger Matson, Action Rental

Scot May, Eaton Corporation

Scott McCloskey, New Holland Bank

Marc Schoonover, Eaton Corporation

Bob Thomas, Eaton Corporation

Jessica Van Remmen, Eaton Corporation

Jim Salamis, Xamis Ford-Lincoln-Mercury

Chester-East Lincoln — Cindy Erlandson, Linda Splain, Jill Urish

New Holland-Middletown — Donna Koehler, Jean Boyer

West Lincoln-Broadwell — Vicky Bruce, Pam Schreiner, Kris Skold, Linda Trommer

Financial contributors and classroom sponsors (1998-present)

Action Rental

Apple Dental Clinic

Audra’s Studio of Dance

Bruns Service Center

CEFCU

Coy’s Car Corner

East Lincoln Farmers’ Grain Co.

Eaton Corporation

Family Medical Center

Fifth Street Food Mart

Green Oil Company

Guzzardo’s Italian Villa

Jim Xamis Ford-Lincoln-Mercury

Lincoln Furniture & Floor Covering

Lincoln IGA

Lincoln Kiwanis

Lincoln Rotary

McQuellon’s Appliance

ME Realty, Ltd.

Medicap Pharmacy

Meier Accounting & Tax Service

Mitchell-Newhouse Lumber Co.

MKS Jewelers, Ltd.

Moriearty Insurance Agency

Neal Tire

Puritan Springs

State Bank of Lincoln

State Farm Insurance

That Place, Inc.

Union Planters Bank

Water Street Catering

Junior Achievement educates and inspires young people to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives.

Let their success be your inspiration!

For more information, see http://centralillinois.ja.org/.

[Junior Achievement press release]

[APRIL 4, 2002]  As of Wednesday, April 3, fresh pork and beef slaughtered each Monday can be purchased two days later at Benner’s Too, a new meat store in Lincoln.

Doug Schmidgall, who bought Benner’s Slaughtering and Processing Plant in Broadwell from Jim Benner last August, said the freshness of his meat and the fact that it comes from local farmers are his main selling points. "Something that’s never been frozen has got a little different taste to it," he explained. He features fresh T-bones, sirloin, hamburger and pork sausage, selling black Angus T-bone steaks for about $6.50 per pound.

[Photo by Lynn Shearer Spellman]

[Owner Doug Schmidgall removes a package of meat for a customer.]

Schmidgall expects to have fresh meat Wednesday through Friday or Saturday, whenever that week’s slaughter runs out. Frozen meat is available every day the store is open. Benner’s Too at 511 Woodlawn Road is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The phone number is 735-9815.

Fresh meats for sale include chicken, elk, venison and occasionally buffalo as well as beef and pork. Frozen hog fries and chicken fries are also stocked. Schmidgall expects to process four to five hogs, 1½ to two beef, one elk, one deer and some chicken for sale in Lincoln each week. He will grind 100 to 150 pounds of pork sausage per week.

Benner’s Too, located in the strip mall across from Kroger, at the opposite end from Chop Stick restaurant, also includes a deli offering sandwiches, soft drinks, Lay’s snacks, Schwan’s ice cream and nachos with homemade salsa. The salsa can also be purchased separately. The sandwiches include ham, turkey and roast beef in various combinations with Swiss, American and pepper cheese. Schmidgall said that, from those three meats and three cheeses, he had figured out 27 different sandwich combinations.

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Having received Health Department approval on Monday, Schmidgall began bringing in meat on Tuesday and opened on Wednesday morning. Two refrigerated meat cases, an ice cream freezer, a snack display and a counter furnish the salesroom. "It’s just a farmer-owned meat shop, not very fancy," he said. "It will be basic to keep costs down."

Schmidgall, who lives in Springfield, farms 1,100 acres north of Capital Airport plus other ground near Athens. He said he has been planning the Lincoln shop for about four weeks.

He decided to open in Lincoln because many potential customers prefer not to drive to his Broadwell plant and store. "I can’t get them to come to Broadwell unless I just about give (meat) away," he said, citing a recent promotion in which he offered fresh whole hog sausage for $1 per pound. People lined up for that, Schmidgall said, and he sold 500 pounds in 2½ hours. He plans occasional similar promotions at the Lincoln store.

Benner’s Too currently employs two people, manager Shannon Sansoucie and Nick McGree, and is taking applications for additional help. Schmidgall said he plans to offer home delivery service on Saturday, if he gets enough calls and can find a driver.

He plans to stock a few items besides meat, such as charcoal for the convenience of the customer who is picking up steaks to barbecue. Eventually frozen fruit and a few quick snacks will also be available, but Schmidgall quickly adds that his business is not a grocery store.

He also said that area hunters must still go to his plant in Broadwell for processing their kill. He said he gets about 350 deer during hunting season, and the Lincoln site does not have facilities to accept them or to deliver the meat.

Monday is butchering day at Benner’s Broadwell plant, the meat is cut up and ground on Tuesday and available for sale on Wednesday. "You can’t get any fresher than that," Schmidgall said enthusiastically.

[Lynn Shearer Spellman]

[APRIL 1, 2002]  More than 100 Willamette employees at the Lincoln corrugated division participated in welcome and orientation activities recently, marking the official name change to Weyerhaeuser Company.

The merger of Weyerhaeuser, based in Federal Way, Wash., and Portland-based Willamette was announced in January. It creates a global forest products leader with nearly $19 billion in sales.

"We’re excited to officially become a part of Weyerhaeuser," said Joe Nemith, general manager of the Lincoln facility. "As the second-largest player in the forest products industry, we’re ready to move forward together as a stronger and more competitive company. Our folks are eager to make the change."

[Photo by Jan Youngquist]
[Joe Nemith]

The recent event, part of a series of welcome activities across more than 100 of Willamette’s U.S. locations, included remarks by Weyerhaeuser leaders, a welcome video, safety orientations, information about benefits and raising temporary signage with the new company identity. It also marked the time for Willamette operations to begin answering the phone, "Hello, this is Weyerhaeuser Company."

"Today is a milestone on the road to growing the global leader in our industry, and we welcome what we know are world-class employees," said Steven R. Rogel, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Our combined strengths in our core businesses of forest management, building materials, composite panels, containerboard packaging, and pulp and fine paper will allow us to serve our customers better than ever. Becoming more competitive means we’ll be able to continue to provide good-paying jobs and to otherwise support the communities where we do business."

Integration teams made up of Weyerhaeuser and Willamette employees will recommend how best to combine the two companies. The recommendations are expected by early June.

The $6.1 billion agreement to merge century-old timber rivals Weyerhaeuser Co. and Willamette Industries Inc. came after 14 months of negotiations.

The deal was resisted for years by the Willamette board of directors, led by William Swindells Jr., chairman and grandson of a company co-founder.

The Weyerhaeuser chairman, Steven Rogel, was a former Willamette employee whom Swindells had groomed to take over as chief executive officer in 1995. But Rogel left in 1997 to become Weyerhaeuser’s chairman and immediately offered to buy his old company. Swindells and the Willamette board kept rejecting his overtures.

After Rogel announced a hostile takeover, Willamette began talks with Georgia-Pacific Corp. to buy the Atlanta-based company’s building products division as a way to block the takeover.

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While Willamette and Georgia-Pacific talked, Willamette shareholders and investment fund managers began pushing for a deal with Weyerhaeuser.

According to the deal announced Jan. 21, Weyerhaeuser agreed to pay $55.50 per share in cash and about $1.7 billion in debt and other expenses. Willamette also announced it had ended talks with Georgia-Pacific, a deal that had troubled analysts.

When the merger agreement was made public, Weyerhaeuser spokesman Bruce Amundson indicated that Willamette would be "a strong strategic fit."

"As we have said from the very beginning, Willamette Industries is a great company. They have great assets and great employees," he said.

Before the merger, Weyerhaeuser was the nation’s third-largest timber products company, and Willamette was the seventh-biggest.

Weyerhaeuser was already the largest private owner of softwood timber in the world, managing 38 million acres of forest in the United States and Canada. Willamette owned 1.7 million acres of timberland and had 105 mills in the United States, France, Ireland and Mexico. 

The combination creates a company that manages approximately 40 million acres of forests in North America and has leadership positions in all of its major product lines:

•  World’s largest producer of softwood market pulp.

•  World’s largest producer of softwood lumber.

•  World’s largest producer of engineered lumber products.

•  World’s second-largest in global containerboard packaging.

•  World’s second-largest in printing and writing paper.

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE:WY) was incorporated in 1900. It has offices or operations in 17 countries, with customers worldwide. Weyerhaeuser is primarily engaged in the growing and harvesting of timber; the manufacture, distribution and sale of forest products; and real estate construction, development and related activities.

Additional information about Weyerhaeuser’s businesses, products and practices is available at www.weyerhaeuser.com and at the former Willamette site, www.wii.com.

[News releases]

[MARCH 19, 2002]  A new title company has set up shop in Lincoln. Tri-County Land Title opened on March 4 at 606 Keokuk, next door to Graue Pharmacy. An open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony are planned for Thursday, March 21, at 3 p.m.

Owner Anna Rains of Canton said the business specializes in customer service. "We’ll go above and beyond to get the closing," including an after-hours or weekend closing when the customer’s schedule requires it, she said.

 [Owner Anna Rains, office manager Michelle Fahey;  photo by Bob Frank]

Rains said she has been in the title business for eight or nine years. Tri-County Land Title is headquartered in Canton with branches in Springfield, Bloomington, Havana, Hanna City, Champaign and now Lincoln. The original three counties served, referred to in the company name, were Sangamon, Cass and Schyler. Now Tri-County does business in about 50 counties through the middle of the state, according to Rains.

Of the branches, Springfield and Lincoln are staffed full time and the others part time. Local hours are 8-5 Monday through Friday and by appointment. The phone number is 735-9880.

The Lincoln office will be operated by Michelle Fahey, the firm’s accountant. In addition, she will continue to spend a couple of days a month in Canton doing accounting. Rains herself expects to be in Lincoln several days a week for the next few months. After that she plans to be here at least weekly.

Rains said a strength of the business is that she has "worn both the realtor’s and the lender’s shoes." She has been a real estate broker for 19 years with experience in Jacksonville and Beardstown. She also worked as a loan originator in a mortgage brokerage firm for one year. Ten years ago she obtained her paralegal certification.

Rains plans to visit office meetings of local real estate agencies and to join the Logan County Board of Realtors. She said she has previously been involved with boards of Realtors on both the state and local levels. In Lincoln she has already dealt with several Realtors, and a bank with which she has done business has a branch here. These were factors in her decision to locate in Lincoln.

Services offered by Tri-County Land Title include title searches, escrow closings, construction escrows and help policies. Rains explained that a help policy is a cheaper title policy used for second mortgages.

In Illinois, Rains said, mortgage brokers are required to close with a title company; some banks also choose to do so. Besides clearing the title to the property, the title company collects money for the loan from the bank and the down payment and closing fee from the customer and disburses all funds.

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In construction escrows the title company handles disbursements to the builder, first verifying the bill with the customer. Tri-County Land Title also conducts a second update search on the property. Rains said the construction escrow service benefits both the bank and the customer. The bank is spared the extensive paperwork with each draw and also avoids liability because the signing of a lien waiver means a mechanic’s lien cannot be filed. The customer is protected from difficulties involving the contractor.

Tri-County Land Title’s motto is "Customer service is our specialty." Rains said she offers after hours and weekend closings with notice because many customers’ work schedules do not allow them to be present during normal business hours. "We try to be real flexible," she said, "working with realtors and lenders as a team. Then the customer is happy, and we all look good."

Canton is the firm’s production site, and all typing is done there. Rains said an increasing amount of work is done online. Whereas lenders used to send document packages by overnight delivery, now they often use e-mail.

As with any business, there are some typical problems. In title searches, Rains said, "forgery is the biggest thing we run into." She therefore asks for a driver’s license or other identification from both borrower and seller. She also occasionally encounters encroachments, when construction on one person’s property crosses the line onto a neighbor’s.

At times Rains sees old titles in which the legal description includes landmarks no longer present, such as a chicken coop or apple tree. In such cases the lender typically has the land resurveyed.

Another problem occurs when parents put their children’s names on a title and later want to borrow money against it. If the children are under 18, they cannot sign for a loan. In such a case a legal guardian must be assigned, a complication the parents may not have foreseen.

Fahey, office manager in Lincoln, has been with the firm for six months. She is currently taking the basic course offered by the American Land Title Association. Rains and other members of the staff have also studied through the association.

Fahey, who resides in Havana, lived in Lincoln from 1990 to 1994 while her husband attended Lincoln Christian Seminary. The Faheys intend to stay in Havana until their eldest son, now a sophomore, finishes high school. After that the family may move to Lincoln.

At present the Tri-County Land Title office is sparsely furnished because some furniture arrived damaged and had to be returned. Rains hopes the replacements will be in place by March 21 for the open house.

[MARCH 18, 2002]  Christmas bills have just subsided. Tax time is here. Wouldn’t it be nice to just relax?

Well, you are in luck. For about six months now, residents of Logan County have been visiting Beth Gohl and Sandy Slack over at All About You for everything from shoulder rubs to full oil massages. Services also include reflexology, which utilizes pressure points on the feet to stimulate or relax different parts of the body, and raindrop therapy, in which nine essential oils are dripped onto the back and massaged in.

All About You had their ribbon-cutting ceremony on Nov. 27, but they have been open since Aug. 6. According to Gohl, business has been good. "We’re able to pay our bills, so we’re happy with that."

Gohl and Slack use and sell products from the Young Living Essential Oils line. Young Living uses all natural ingredients; no chemicals are used even when growing the plants. Products include soaps, shampoos, lotions and vitamins.

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Their prices are rather reasonable. A simple massage (such as a shoulder or back rub) is $1 per minute for up to 20 minutes. A 30-minute massage is $25; a full hour massage is $40. Reflexology is $35 for 30 minutes or $50 for an hour. Raindrop therapy is $60.

All About You is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. Appointments are preferred for most therapy, but walk-ins can be accepted if the masseuses are free. Appointments are necessary for after-hours massages.

So, as taxes and bills weigh you down, there is a place you can go to relax, or maybe you want to order some relaxation as a gift for someone you know could use it.

All About You is a new business in the area. They are located downtown at 408 Pulaski St., Lincoln; (217) 735-4700.

[Gina Sennett]

Announcements

The Chamber Report

Chamber calendar for April 17-21

7:30 a.m. — 3rd Wednesday Morning Mixer at the Tropics. Valerie Ross from the Small Business Administration will discuss programs to help owners of small and large businesses. Programs provide management and technical assistance, financial assistance through guaranteed loans, free consulting services and minority enterprise development. If you know people who could benefit from this, please invite them to come with you. Dutch-treat breakfast.

5:15 p.m. — Sesquicentennial meeting, chamber conference room

5:30 p.m. — Economic Development Council, J.M. Abbott & Associates conference room

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 8 a.m.-3 p.m. — Job Fair for work force-bound high school students, Eaton/Cutler-Hammer

 4 p.m. — Membership/Mixers Committee meeting, The Restaurant at the Depot

 7:55 a.m. — Ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Eagle Country Market remodeling

[Chamber news release] 

The chamber of commerce is a catalyst for community progress, bringing business and professional people together to work for the common good of Lincoln and Logan County.

Bobbi Abbott, Executive Director

Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce

303 S. Kickapoo St.

Lincoln, IL 62656

(217) 735-2385

chamber@lincolnillinois.com
www.lincolnillinois.com

Honors & Awards

Main Street Corner News

Main Street Lincoln hires new program director

[MARCH 29, 2002]  Cindy McLaughlin has been named the new program manager for Main Street Lincoln. She will begin her position April 8.

McLaughlin, a program service coordinator for Easter Seals Society in Bloomington, has done public relations work for the Art Institute in Chicago and is a former admissions counselor at Lincoln College.

Originally from Benton in southern Illinois, McLaughlin is a graduate of Lincoln College and Eastern Illinois University. She operates Logan County Starlites, a baton group for young girls, and has appeared in theatrical productions at the Lincoln Community Theatre and the Maple Club.

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"I’m very excited to work with Lincoln’s business owners and the community to ensure our future success," McLaughlin said. She and her husband, Tom, make their home in Lincoln.

"We are looking forward to having someone with Cindy’s enthusiasm and love for small towns carry out the programs for Main Street," noted Main Street President Jan Schumacher. "She is a hard worker who can oversee our many projects to continue to improve downtown Lincoln.

McLaughlin replaces Wendy Bell, who recently accepted a position with Illinois Main Street.

[Main Street Lincoln news release]

Main Street Lincoln

303 S. Kickapoo

Lincoln, IL 62656

Phone: (217) 732-2929

Fax: (217) 735-9205

E-mail: manager@mainstreetlincoln.com