After battling—and successfully overcoming—quality issues at its Airline Highway plant for much of the past year, Kleinpeter Farms Dairy confirmed to Daily Report on Monday that it has halted production of its ice cream lines and is considering outsourcing production to another dairy.
President and CEO Jeff Kleinpeter, who has spent some $3 million in recent months on improvements and upgrades at the family-owned dairy, does not attribute the decision to lagging ice cream sales or the need to cut costs. Rather, he says, Kleinpeter Farms is trying to find the best possible manager to oversee ice cream production and has yet to identify someone who measures up to the dairy’s standards.
“One of our challenges has been to find good, consistent management for our ice cream plant,” Kleinpeter says. “Our original manager, Don Gerald, was basically a rock star in this department and he has been a hard act to follow since his retirement.”
Kleinpeter says he hopes he does not need to outsource, but that it is a possibility. In the meantime, some stores still are carrying the ice cream, as the dairy has enough packaged product on hand to continue stocking local freezers for the time being.
Also this week, the Metro Council approved Mayor Kip Holden’s $830 million budget for 2015 without changes at a special meeting Tuesday evening, but not before some members voiced concern about forgoing pay raises for Department of Public Works employees and raised the idea of stripping money from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber.
And at its final regular meeting of this year, the council on Wednesday deferred for the sixth time an item that has spawned an ongoing standoff between the city-parish and bus bench vendors over a $45 fee the vendors could be required to pay each time they place a bench alongside a state roadway.
The council also OK’d introducing a resolution to approve a tax increment financing district, or TIF, for developer Mike Wampold’s planned downtown hotel at 150 N. Third St.
Here’s a rundown of some of the other top stories making headlines in Daily Report this week:
— Andres Duany with Duany Plater-Zyberk—the Miami-based design firm commissioned by the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority to create a master plan for the roughly 140 acres surrounding the former Entergy site at 1509 Government St.—outlined development options on Thursday during the last in a series of meetings held this week to gather community input for the plan.
— The owners of LeBlanc’s Food Stores say they plan to fight a proposed Walmart Neighborhood Market that would be developed directly across the street from its location at the intersection of Airline Highway and Duplessis Street in Gonzales. Though plans for the Walmart have yet to be officially announced by the company, the Ascension Parish Board of Adjustments approved a zoning variance for the project last month.
— Papi’s Fajita Factory in Denham Springs is the target of a federal copyright infringement lawsuit by BMI, one of the country’s largest performing rights organizations, and 10 music producers. In a suit filed Monday in U.S. Middle District Court, BMI and its fellow plaintiffs allege 10 counts of copyright infringement against Papi’s, based on the restaurant’s “unauthorized public performance of music compositions licensed by BMI.”
— A new grassroots organization of parents, educators, religious leaders and business executives is gearing up to hold a series of public meetings in early 2015 in order to engage the community in a dialog on public education in East Baton Rouge Parish. The organization, Beyond Bricks, describes itself as a “public forum to receive the voice of the community” on educational goals and expectations of the public school system. To that end, the group in January and February will facilitate 13 “listening events,” at which participants will be encouraged in a roundtable format to share their ideas on what’s wrong with the public school system and how to fix it.
— Roughly a year since it was sold for $2.2 million, a Zachary shopping center at 5460 Main St. that’s home to the Stage and Dirt Cheap stores was sold again this week, this time for $2,925,000. The new owner is J.B. Levert Land Co., a subsidiary of Metairie-based The Levert Companies.
— In her keynote address Thursday at the 52nd annual meeting of the Council for a Better Louisiana in Baton Rouge, Fox Business Network anchor Cheryl Casone touted increased dialogue among higher education institutions, corporations and state government as one way for Louisiana to continue the momentum it has gained in economic development.
— The Comfort Suites University at 3045 Valley Creek Drive has been purchased for $3.7 million by SRG Investment LLC, represented by Rajendra Desai. Indianapolis-based Baton Rouge Lodging Associates LLP, managed by Bharat Patel, sold the hotel, according to land records filed with the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court today.
— Cox Communications is entering a new line of business in Baton Rouge: home security and automation. The Atlanta-based TV, phone and Internet provider announced this week the local launch of Cox Homelife, which it first piloted in Arizona three years ago and has been rolling out in markets across the country ever since.
— With an aim of using collaboration to create advanced biologics for biopharmaceutical companies in a quicker, less expensive way than is done at present, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at LSU and four other Southern research organizations announced a new private-public partnership called the Southern Biologics Network. One of the four other partnering agencies also calls Baton Rouge home. ProteoVec Inc., a privately held biotechnology company, is based here and also has offices in Raleigh, North Carolina.
— Miles and Melissa Holley, owners of four Baton Rouge-area Skid Marks Tire Pros stores, are going into the storage business. Miles Holley says the couple has purchased All Parish Storage from Sam Richardson for $1.15 million, and the Prairieville business will be rebranded as Skid Marks Storage Pros. Located at 38068 Post Office Road, just off Airline Highway, the storage center is located on 2.2 acres and includes a total of 121 storage units of varying size.
— One Heart Yoga Studio, which operated in the Perkins Road overpass area under different names for more than 20 years, has moved to a larger space at 340 St. Joseph St. in Beauregard Town, as its lease under the overpass became too expensive to afford, says co-owner Janene Grodesky.
