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[MAY 21, 2002]  ^"I’ll miss (being a State Farm agent)," says Woody Jones, who is retiring May 31 after 37 years of serving the Lincoln community. "There are hundreds of people I consider friends."

Jones is a life member of the President’s Club in three of six possible categories — auto, fire and multiple line. This means that he was among the top 50 agents in the country in State Farm auto and fire policies and in the sum of all forms of insurance. And he did it for at least five years to be a life member. All told, he currently has about 14,000 policies of all types in force.

Owning a business in a small town as opposed to a metropolitan area means increased person-to-person contact, and that is Jones’ favorite part of his work. Having grown up with many of his clients also means added "pressure and responsibility, to give the best service that you can," he said. His goal is to treat people the way he’d want to be treated.

Jones’ retirement will be celebrated at an open house May 23 from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at his agency, 628 N. Chicago. He and Mike Lumpp own Keokuk Village, where the agency is located. Though he has moved twice, Jones has remained within a block and a half of his first location, next to the current Chad’s restaurant.

Luck is an important element in Jones’ formula for success. The other key ingredients are offering a good product, knowing a lot of people, securing a good location, hiring a professional staff and taking advantage of opportunities. Jones considers himself fortunate to have stumbled into the insurance business, a good fit for him, when Don Stevenson retired 37 years ago. He said State Farm is "tremendously financially strong" and he knows a client’s loss will be taken care of.

Jones describes himself as a hands-on manager. "I enjoy getting right in there with the staff and doing normal daily routines," he explains. His staff consists of four employees — Robyn Yarcho, Monica Ritchhart, Teresa Robbins and Misty Virgil.

Proximity to company headquarters means that people are familiar with State Farm. In fact, "dozens and dozens" of Logan County residents work at the Bloomington headquarters, he said.

Jones said his biggest fire claim was a home and contents over $450,000, and he covered several bad auto accidents that reached policy limits of $300,000. One winter midnight, about 20 years ago, he was awakened by a call from an out-of-towner who had wrecked his car north of town. Jones got the car towed, secured a motel room and then asked to see the man’s policy. It was from Allstate.

Though several tornadoes have damaged more than one home he has covered, Jones’ toughest situation was the widespread damage caused by the 1995 hailstorm. There were 20 people lined up outside his door when he got to work. Since 1995, he observed, Logan County seems to have received more than its share of tornadoes, flooding and other damage.

[to top of second column in this article]

Jones intends to retire fully after May 31, although he said he "might look at something locally down the line." He enjoys the outdoors and expects to spend more time with family. He and his wife Sue have a daughter, Jackie Toal of San Diego; a son, Jason, a stockbroker with Edward Jones; and three grandchildren.

On Aug. 29, 2001, Jones gave one-year retirement notice to State Farm, but he says he didn’t mind when the company offered to speed it up a bit. On June 1 Woody Jones / State Farm Insurance becomes the Rick Hamm agency. Hamm has been working at the Lincoln office since April 1 in a two-month transition period.

Hamm said he has been with State Farm since he was 4 years old. His father was an agent, and the two worked together for 11 years. Since October 1993 Hamm has been a State Farm agency field executive supervising 28 agents, including Woody Jones. "Woody was never a problem," he said, and meetings between the two were "always just an easy flow. It was like working with my dad."

Hamm has known Jones for most of his career — since well before he became his supervisor. He said Jones will be a hard act to follow since he is so well known in the community, but he added, "So was my dad."

"I’m more a people person than an administrator," he said, noting that being a field executive entailed more paperwork and meetings and less personal contact than he would have wished. Hamm sees Jones’ agency as a great opportunity. Jones prepared the staff well, he said, and they have similar styles. Like Jones, Hamm is a President’s Club agent, qualifying in life insurance and multiple line.

Hamm has added one employee, Bridgitte Danner, to the agency. A major change coming soon is 24-hour service through a call response center. After-hours calls will automatically be switched to the center, which can report claims, make appointments for a damage estimate or with an adjuster, or take billing questions and requests for changes in coverage. Customer messages will appear on agency computers the next day.

Otherwise, Hamm said, clients will not notice any changes, and he intends to offer the same service.

Hamm and his wife, Betty, currently live on Lake Bloomington, with a Hudson address, but have bought a house in Lincoln and plan to move here. Their daughter, Stacey Hamm, works in fire claims in the State Farm Bloomington headquarters, making her a third-generation employee. Their son, Adam, is just finishing an Army stint in military intelligence, working on satellite imagery.

[Lynn Shearer Spellman]

Where do you go for the
goods and services you want?

[MAY 14, 2002]  In the know…

You finally discover where the best chai in town is and you’re ecstatic! Then you discover it’s been there a year or so and no one told you about it. You’re exasperated! Local businesses change hands, move, increase their stock or services, do all sorts of things you’d really like to know about, and somehow you don’t get in on it.

Beginning today, Tuesday, May 14, you can be "in the know" too! LogOn Production’s Channel 15 premieres the show you have been waiting for, "Chamber Chat." It airs from 5:30 to 6 p.m.

The Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce will host the weekly half-hour LIVE talk show. "Chamber Chat" will feature an update on local business activity, interviews with volunteers and committee chairpersons of special programs taking place in the community, issues, and community events. There are plans to occasionally film segments on location in local businesses to add to the perspective and content of the show. There will also be opportunity for viewers to call in with live questions. The show will air several additional times each week, but Tuesday night will be the LIVE show. [Click here to hear it!]

[to top of second column in this article]

Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bobbi Abbott thinks, "A focus on our GOOD NEWS will hopefully provide a domino effect in positive attitudes and opinions about our community."

Abbott invites, "If you have business activity, please e-mail to me any news about your place of business — expansions, new employees, new products or services, changes in location or management, etc."

Bobbi Abbott, Executive Director

303 S. Kickapoo Street

Lincoln, IL 62656

(217) 735-2385

chamber@lincolnillinois.com

www.lincolnillinois.com

[LDN]

Sporting a new name and
a new warehouse, box plant’s
ready for more business

[MAY 13, 2002]  As a result of Weyerhaeuser Company’s takeover of Willamette Industries and a nearly complete addition to the Lincoln facility, Joe Nemith, general manager of the corrugated container plant, expects an increase in business.

Nemith said the Lincoln plant has already picked up some business from the Weyerhaeuser factory in Belleville. In line with a companywide push for plants in close proximity to work together to avoid duplication, the two facilities have been cooperating to identify overlaps. Nemith reported few conflicts and only four mutual contracts, which have been allocated in such a way that neither plant loses business. For example, both had contracts with Holton Meats near St. Louis but supplied different products. At a meeting on April 30 it was agreed that though just one Weyerhaeuser sales representative will call on Holton, each plant will continue supplying the products it did before.

Nemith reported the takeover has caused virtually no change to the local operation so far. The phone is now answered in the name of Weyerhaeuser and a temporary sign by the entrance identifies that company, but the awning and permanent sign still say Willamette Industries. Boxes are still marked Willamette as well, and Nemith said the practice will continue until the printing plates wear out.

Beyond the local scene a number of senior managers from Willamette have retired, two plants have been closed and more plant closings are expected. Plants must meet two criteria, Nemith said: Make money and provide a safe operating environment. The closed plants in Virginia and Tennessee were unsafe and unprofitable. "We don’t fit either one of those categories," Nemith was happy to report, so he expects operations to remain similar but busier.

Meanwhile, he expects to occupy the 70,000-square-foot warehouse, currently under construction, during the third week of May. H & H Construction Services of Carlinville is general contractor for the roughly triangular addition located on the south side of the building. Nemith said there would be one more concrete pour, on May 4. Some equipment will not be moved until Memorial Day weekend.

The addition was approved under the Willamette watch. All told, Nemith said, that company invested $6 million in the Lincoln facility during the last five years and $50 million in the three Illinois plants in the same period. Asked if he would have built the addition if he had known about the coming takeover, Nemith answered: "I would have. I don’t know if Weyerhaeuser would have approved it."

However, Weyerhaeuser has already approved three equipment purchases for the Lincoln plant: a pre-feeder for automatically feeding existing machinery, a unitizer for banding large units and a die-cut section for the largest of three flexo-folder-gluers, which print, fold and glue the boxes. Purchase of a fourth flexo-folder-gluer has been deferred until business has increased.

Although no employees will be added as a direct result of the new warehouse, Nemith said the added space will make growth in business possible, and increased business is the reason for hiring employees.

In response to the anticipated increase in business, he does expect to add three new permanent employees to the work force of approximately 100 by fall. He noted that employment at the Lincoln facility is stable. Of two workers expected to retire in July, one has worked here about 20 years and the other for 44.

Nemith praised local employees’ positive attitude and said it results in a work environment such that new hires learn the same attitude and also become long-term employees. "All our people are responsive to customers," he said.

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The Weyerhaeuser-Willamette takeover is unique in two respects, Nemith claimed. First, the predator company is adopting some of the ways of its prey. Because Willamette led the industry in profit on boxes, Weyerhaeuser, though three times larger, is seeking to learn from its former competitor.

Second, the Weyerhaeuser chairman was formerly the CEO of Willamette. Steven R. Rogel took over at Weyerhaeuser in 1995 after heading Willamette for the previous two years. Lured by the bigger company, he set about buying the smaller one. Part of the reason, Nemith said, was that if Weyerhaeuser had not bought Willamette, they themselves might have been subject to a buyout. For several years Willamette resisted the takeover, preferring to remain independent. It took 14 months of negotiations to reach the $6.1 billion merger agreement.

Despite numerous closings there are still over 2,000 box factories in the United States, and consolidation is common in the container industry, Nemith noted. In fact, "this is the fourth name on this building," he said. Built by U.S. Corrugated in 1946, it was bought by Boise Cascade in 1984 and Willamette in 1992. Despite the changes in parent company, much remains the same. "Every facility has a personality" that doesn’t change, he said.

Nemith himself worked for Weyerhaeuser from 1979 to 1981, after they bought the company he was with. "I really thought the world of them then," he said. "They are the only large company in the industry I would want to buy us," because they treat their people well. One dramatic event that occurred during Nemith’s earlier tenure was the eruption of Mount St. Helens. Weyerhaeuser owned much of the mountain.

The combined Weyerhaeuser Company, based in Federal Way, Wash., is among the top three companies in the world in lumber, pulp, boxes and fine paper. Before the merger Weyerhaeuser was No. 4 in corrugated containers in the United States and Willamette was No. 11; together they are No. 2 internationally.

A committee made up of representatives of the two companies will recommend ways to merge them. Although none of the recommendations has yet been announced, Nemith expects one of them to reconfigure the regions of the combined company. Currently, the Lincoln plant is in a region stretching from New Jersey to Minnesota, and he expects that to be split into at least two.

One change that won’t occur until Jan. 1, 2003, is for local employees to go on the Weyerhaeuser benefit plan. Nemith said the plan is comparable to or better than the Willamette one, so he does not foresee problems despite the fact that people are understandably wary of changes.

Recent research showed Nemith that of the Lincoln plant’s 181 customers, 80 percent are in towns the size of Lincoln or smaller.

He is an advocate of the Logan County Economic Development Council’s proposed industrial park north of town. "It will be good for Lincoln," he said, noting the town’s excellent location.

Nemith is optimistic about the future of the Weyerhaeuser plant in Lincoln. "I really expect to be a lot busier," he says. "We’ll have a good, strong future."

[Lynn Shearer Spellman]

Announcements

[MAY 1, 2002]  The Clinton Area Farmers and Artisans Market is coming to Mr. Lincoln’s Square in Clinton. The first market will be open Saturday, May 4, from 8 a.m. to noon.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony with Mayor Tom Edmonds is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., as well as a rhubarb cook-off contest. Entries must be in by that time, and winners will be announced at 10 a.m.

This year’s markets will be the first and third Saturdays in May through October, from 8 a.m. to noon. During June, July and August the market will also be open Wednesdays from 4 to 7 p.m.

For information on setting up at the farmers market, contact the Clinton Area Chamber of Commerce at 935-3364.

The Chamber Report

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

Cindy McLaughlin, program manager

303 S. Kickapoo

Lincoln, IL 62656

Phone: (217) 732-2929

Fax: (217) 735-9205

E-mail: manager@mainstreetlincoln.com

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Help wanted. Permanent employment. Lincoln Public Library. Part time clerk, morning shift. $5.95 hour/starting. Work schedule: 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Monday-Friday; two Saturdays, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. within a five-week period. Basic knowledge of and ability to use computers required. Previous applicants are already on file and need not apply. Contact: Richard Sumrall or Deb DeJarnette at 732-8878 or applications available at 725 Pekin St., Lincoln, IL. Applications are due at the library no later than June 5, 2002. EOE

Help wanted. Permanent employment. Lincoln Public Library. Part time clerk, afternoon shift. $5.95 hour/starting. Work schedule: 1-5 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 1-6 p.m., Friday; two Saturdays, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. within a five-week period. Basic knowledge of and ability to use computers required. Previous applicants are already on file and need not apply. Contact: Richard Sumrall or Deb DeJarnette at 732-8878 or applications available at 725 Pekin St., Lincoln, IL. Applications are due at the library no later than June 5, 2002. EOE

MINING - UNDERGROUND

Black Beauty Coal Company is seeking qualified candidates for the following positions for its mine located near Danville, Illinois. UNDERGROUND EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED.

• Unit Manager - Underground

• Mining Engineer - Underground

• Manager Shift Maintenance - Underground

• Electrician - Underground

• Mechanic - Underground

• Operator - Underground

Benefits include health, dental, prescription drug card, life insurance, short-term and long-term disability, 401 (k), vacation and bonus.

Qualified individuals wishing to be considered for these positions must make a written request for an application and state the position(s) on the request:

Write to: Director of Human Resources

P.O. Box 233

Evansville, IN 47702-0233

Resumes and applications are not accepted in person.

For additional information on these positions, call Black Beauty Job Line: 821/423-6000, EXT. 136

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer

Employers, you can list available jobs by e-mailing ldn@lincolndailynews.com. Each job listing costs $10 the first week, $20 for eight days to one month. There is a limit of 75 words per announcement.

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