Jeff Kleinpeter announced this week his retirement as president and CEO of Kleinpeter Farms Dairy after more than 25 years at the helm of the family-owned business. His sister, Sue Anne Kleinpeter Cox, who has served as the company’s chief financial officer, will replace him. The dairy announced the move in a written statement on Wednesday, nearly two months after Kleinpeter stepped down from his position, for what his family members said at the time was temporary medical leave.
In the prepared statement, Jeff Kleinpeter says that during his leave he had a chance to regroup and “felt like it was time to pass the baton to some other family members and team members to carry us forward and allow me to go in another direction.”
In 2014, the 101-year-old dairy was racked by a series of quality control problems that affected the taste and shelf life of its prized milk, costing the company major contracts and testing the loyalty of its longtime customers.
Since last summer, it has invested millions upgrading equipment, hiring consultants and trying to rebuild its brand. Last month, the company announced it would not resume production of its ice cream line, which initially was suspended in December.
Kenny Kleinpeter, Jeff and Sue Anne’s brother, will remain as general manager of the dairy, a position he assumed last fall when he returned to the company to help rebuild the business after several years in the music industry.
Also this week, Capital Area Transit System Board Chair Donna Collins-Lewis told Daily Report she’s confident the transit system can move beyond the recent distractions and steer the discussion on CATS back to best practices for improving the system.
The controversies—which have led several Metro Council to call on the resignation of CATS CEO Bob Mirabito over a dispute with union bus drivers and racially charged comments he made recently about the makeup of CATS staff—have cropped up as Collins-Lewis has been negotiating a long-term contract with Mirabito.
She says she doesn’t expect the recent incidents to hinder negotiations.
—Steve Sanoski
Here’s a rundown of some of the top local stories making headlines in Daily Report this week:
- Mayor Kip Holden issued a statement on Thursday flatly denying allegations made by a Kansas City woman, who accused “the mayor of Baton Rouge” of sexually harassing her in 2010 when the company she worked for attempted to land a contract with the city-parish. Holden has been mayor since 2005. Holden says he was not even aware of a lawsuit filed by the woman in 2011 against her then-employer, Tetra Tech, and that the suit was subsequently resolved outside of court without his knowledge or involvement.
- About 10 years after Mike Wampold began acquiring property along Nicholson Drive near downtown, the developer has closed on what he calls the final piece of his grand puzzle—a 30,000-square-foot parcel at 1564 Nicholson that adjoins two of the parcels he previously acquired. Wampold bought the latest property for $320,000 from Living Word Church, which is moving to North Sherwood Forest Boulevard.
- If it seems like a lot of apartment complexes are under construction in the Capital Region, it’s because there are. Currently, 14 multifamily developments are in various stages of the construction process. When completed later this year, they’re expected to add more than 2,150 new units to the market—about 300 more than were expected to come online last year at this time.
- Change is coming to the city-parish’s parking ordinance. The Zoning Advisory Committee, a group of developers, architects and professional planners that advises the planning director, met this week to begin tackling proposed revisions of the ordinance and weighing in on changes that have been recommended by the Planning Department staff. Most of the changes are technical but significant and are designed to reflect specific needs of different neighborhoods.
- As interior designer Beth Claybourn celebrates 30 years in business in Baton Rouge this year, she is also working toward a late April opening of a long-planned New Orleans location of her namesake design firm. Claybourn has purchased the roughly 5,000-square-foot space at 401 Tchoupitoulas St. in the city’s downtown area and renovation is underway.
- A 30,000-square-foot parcel at the corner of South Acadian Thruway and Broussard Street is back on the market for $28 per square foot, or about $840,000. Owner Jeff Cobb—whose import auto shop, Jeff Cobb Auto Works, is located on the property at 1316 S. Acadian Thruway—says he doesn’t plan to close his business when he sells the property. Rather, he hopes to move it to an adjoining parcel, where he intends to build a new office and garage.
- Developer Tommy Spinosa has withdrawn from consideration by the Planning Commission his final development plan for the Neighborhood Center at Rouzan. In a letter submitted Thursday to Planning Director Frank Duke, Spinosa says he will make adjustments and resubmit the plan next month, which means the Planning Commission will vote on the plans in May instead of in April.
- The Livingston Parish Council is offering a “one-time final offer” of $300,000 to former contractor and federal informant Corey delaHoussaye to settle his claims against the parish in disputes related to hurricane debris removal, council attorney Chris Moody says. The council rejected an offer earlier this week from delaHoussaye to settle for $579,000.
- While construction is proceeding at the Greens at Millerville, a 53-acre mixed-use development at Interstate 12 and Millerville Road, developer Windey Gladney’s long-running legal battle with the bank that financed the project, Bancorp South, is headed back to the 19th Judicial District Court.
- Baton Rouge-based specialty chemical maker Albemarle Corp. says it has entered into discussion with its Middle Eastern partner, Ali & Sons Oilfield Supplies & Services Co., about building a plant to manufacture fluid catalytic cracking catalysts and additives used in petroleum refining. The facility would be in Abu Dhabi, the seat of government of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.
- Sidewalks are coming to River Road downtown, at least to a four-block stretch of the thoroughfare between Florida Street and the IBM building that’s under development at Lafayette and North streets. The Metro Council on Wednesday evening approved a $126,000 grant to create a tree-lined pedestrian thoroughfare on the east side of the street, which will be across from a bike lane already planned for the west side.
- After more than 27 years in business on Lee Drive near the LSU campus, Rage Hair Salon owner Rick Richardson has downsized and moved his salon from 190 Lee Drive into the nearby Bleaux Blow Dry Bar at 162 Lee Drive.
- To keep up with rapid population growth in Ascension Parish and an expanding patient load, Baton Rouge Physical Therapy-Lake is moving its Gonzales operation to a larger facility on La. 30. The Baton Rouge-based firm, which has seven locations in the Capital Region, has been at its current facility on La. 30 behind St. Elizabeth Hospital since 2001.
- An LSU economics professor has completed a study he says statistically proves Boise State is the most hated college football team in the country, with LSU placing 32nd on the list. Professor Sudipta Sarangi’s study, “Everybody Hates a Winner, and You are Close to Your Rival: A Study of Rivalry in College Football,” will be published in an upcoming issue of Economic Inquiry, a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell.
- Administrators at the Old State Capitol are gearing up to protect the museum and tourist attraction from proposed budget cuts, which could force the historic building to shut down several days a week.
- Greater Baton Rouge Hope Academy has acquired the 2-acre property at 15333 Jefferson Highway that it has been leasing since opening there in 2007. In a deal that closed Tuesday, the school acquired the property for $1.1 million from its longtime owners, Fred and Susan Kramer, who previously operated Gables Academy on the site. https://www.businessreport.com/article/hope-academy-acquires-school-site-1-1-million
- After four years leading the West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, Kathy Stuart has resigned her position as executive director to take a job as southeast Louisiana field representative for U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy. The chamber began its search for a new leader this week.
