Hillar Moore Jr. and A. Hays Town named to Hall of Fame; Business Award winners announced

The winners of Business Report and Junior Achievement’s 2009 Business Awards & Hall of Fame have been selected. Hillar Moore Jr. and A. Hays Town (posthumously) are the Hall of Fame inductees; Bobby Yarborough of Manda Fine Meats is the Businessperson of the Year; Darian Chustz of Baton Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Company is the Young Businessperson of the Year; Kleinpeter Farms Dairy was named Company of the Year (more than 100 employees) and D. Honore Construction is the Company of the Year (less than 100 employees). The recipients will be honored at the 26th annual awards banquet April 23 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Tickets are available by clicking here or calling Junior Achievement at 928-7008.

Business leaders express optimism in 2009 survey

Baton Rouge area business leaders are largely optimistic about the future in terms of economic conditions, according to the results of the 2009 Baton Rouge Area Economic Outlook Survey, a project of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and Business Report. Of the 372 survey respondents, the vast majority East Baton Rouge-based small businesses, 67% said they expected the local economy to remain fairly stable during 2009, perhaps with moderate growth. Eighty percent of respondents expected their owns revenues to remain stable or grow, with 88% anticipating their employment numbers to expand or remain steady. Only a small percentage expected revenue or staffing levels to decline 5% or more. For 2009 through 2011, 76% of those surveyed predicted rapid to moderate growth for the region. Eighty-three percent anticipated more revenues, with 93% planning to increase or maintain their number of employees. As in the past two years, a shortage of qualified employees remains the biggest obstacle to growth, with 45% of respondents identifying it as the issue having the largest negative impact on their business. See complete survey results at brac.org/research.

New investment bank established

A new investment bank, which plans to assist growing companies in Louisiana and across the Gulf South, has been formed. Roemer, Robinson, Melville and Company controls about $30 million, says Chas Roemer, president and CEO. Roemer says the bank is separate from Business First Bank. "This is a lot more focused on venture capital than traditional lending," he says. "Plus, the ownership is separate."

Roemer says the company hopes to lend out the money over the next 18 months. The entrepreneurial funds are set up for companies that are operational, but experiencing "growing pains" and need additional capital to expand or grow. Roemer says the fund isn't targeted toward any specific industries. "There are fields we like, however, like health care, energy and real estate." Roemer says the tight credit market and the national recession made it both a good and a bad time to set up the fund. "A lot of people who would go to us might have gone to a traditional bank a year ago," he says. "The people who invested for this see an opportunity to help companies." —Timothy Boone

LSU to induct 5 into business hall

Five business leaders will be inducted into LSU's E.J. Ourso College of Business Hall of Distinction on Feb. 27. The new inductees are:

—William F. Borne, CEO and chairman of Amedisys;

—Maurice J. Coleman, managing director of Cherokee Investment Partners;

—Jonathan E. Martin, chairman and CEO of the Martin Companies;

—Roy O. Martin III, president and CFO of Roy O. Martin Lumber Company; and

—Richard E. Matheny, a partner with Phelps Dunbar.

This is the 14th class to be inducted into the Hall of Distinction, which recognizes alumni or people with strong ties to the business college who have made significant contributions.

State energy leases remain sluggish

This month’s oil and gas lease sale showed a slight improvement over the record losses suffered in December and January, but there are still signs that the industry is waiting for the national economy to rebound. The state Mineral Board collected more than $604,000 from the leases sold at its February meeting last week, which represents a roughly $200,000 increase from the February 2008 sale. That boost, however, doesn’t amount to much when you consider the average February sale from 2003-07 was $4.6 million.

Offshore leases are likewise still struggling, and last week’s meeting yielded no offshore sales at all. Even during the beginning of the calendar year, which is traditionally slow, the state has always managed to squeak out a few offshore lease sales—17 were moved during the February sales of 2007 and 2008.

Yet there was a silver lining for coastal parishes. The lion’s share of onshore leases awarded during this month’s sale was in South Louisiana, with 14 of the 16 tracts located below Interstate 10. That includes five tracts in Terrebonne Parish and four in Plaquemines Parish. Lafourche, Cameron and Iberville were also on the board, but the activity in Plaquemines Parish—more than 1,000 acres leased—accounted for about two-thirds of the entire sale, including one tract of about 900 acres. For the full story, click here.—Jeremy Alford

Builders PAC backing all Senate candidates

The political action committee of the local chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors says it is backing all three candidates in the special south Baton Rouge senate race. The ABC Pelican PAC says Dan Claitor, Laurinda Calongne or Lee Domingue would be an asset for the district and a voice for the group in the Senate. The Baton Rouge Area Chamber's PAC announced two weeks ago it was backing all three Republicans in the race. The primary election will be March 7.

Evolution law repels scientific annual meeting

The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology has canceled its annual meeting scheduled for New Orleans in 2011 as a protest against Louisiana's Passage of the Science Education Act, which, according to proponents, was necessary to provide alternatives to evolutionary theory in the classroom. In a letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal, SICB President Richard Satterlie wrote that even though New Orleans had been a popular venue for past SICB meetings, the group's executive committee had voted to move the 2011 meeting to Salt Lake City because of SB 561, which in Satterlie's words "undermines the integrity of science and science education in Louisiana." The recent 2009 SCIB meeting in Boston brought 1,850 scientists and graduate students to that city for five days, according to Satterlie's letter. Read the full letter here.—Steve Clark

Cox introducing store in Gonzales

Cox Communications will open its first "digital store" in Gonzales this spring, where shoppers will be able to check out the cable system's latest digital and wireless technologies. The Cox Digital Store will be on Airline Highway as part of the newly renamed Cox Plaza. The 2,400-square-foot store, set to open in the second quarter, will replace an existing customer service center. Block Construction of Baton Rouge will handle the renovations. "This is going to be a place where people can go if they're interested in seeing what our new services are like," says Will Hinson, a Cox spokesman. Hinson says Ascension was selected for the store because it's on the forefront of growth. Hinson says while additional Cox Digital Stores in the Capital Region or Lafayette will surely be considered, there are no plans to open locations yet. "We're very interested to see how it will do, but we think it will be a great success," he says.—Timothy Boone

Poll: Majority favor sidewalk tax

Fifty-seven percent of the people who responded to a Daily Report poll say they would be willing to pay a property tax dedicated for parish sidewalk construction. Twenty-six percent say they would be willing to pay less than $25 year in taxes for sidewalks, while 12% say sidewalks are needed, no matter what the cost is. Twelve percent say they would be willing to pay between $26 and $50 a year for a sidewalk tax, while 7% would be willing to pay between $51 and $100 a year in sidewalk taxes. Forty-three percent say the parish can't afford a new property tax for sidewalks. Nearly 1,400 people participated in the survey.

Today's question: Do you expect your business to see revenue growth in 2009?