Newsmakers

Community

The Springfield-Greene County Library District received two Missouri State Library grants totaling more than $16,000. The district received $13,000 to purchase laptop computers and $3,380 to sponsor a seminar about children's book recommendations and storytelling techniques.

The Stone County Sheriff's Office Special Response Team was awarded a $28,858 federal grant to purchase portable radios with headsets, night-vision scopes, an infrared thermal imaging camera, body armor carriers with ceramic plates, a ballistic blanket, a weapon suppressor, radio pouches and structure entry tools.

The Newton County Sheriff's Department was awarded a $10,560 federal grant to purchase a radio base station, wireless mobile devices and handheld devices for accessing the National Crime Information Center and checking vehicle registrations.

Education

Evangel University education professor Matt Stringer's paper, "Department Head Leadership and the use of Faculty Credit Hours as a Measure of Faculty Workload" was published in the October edition of the international journal New Horizons in Education.

Financial

Brian Praschan, a Waddell & Reed financial adviser, earned the designation of registered financial consultant through the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants. The designation is based on seven criteria: education, examination, experience, ethics, financial licensure, conduct and continuing professional education.

Chad Perkins was promoted to assistant vice president and branch manager of Commerce Bank's Ozark Banking Center. Perkins is a graduate of the University of Phoenix and has eight years of banking experience.

UMB Financial Corp. was named one of the top 30 performers among 500 publicly traded U.S. banks and thrifts with a market capitalization of less than $2 billion, in Sandler, O'Neill and Partners' 2009 Bank and Thrift Sm-All Stars report. Criteria included growth, profitability and capital levels.

Insurance

Cary D. Prater, an insurance agent with Jenkins & Associates Insurance Consultants, earned the certified insurance counselor designation. Prater has been with Jenkins & Associates since February 2007.

BancorpSouth Insurance Services Inc., of which Springfield's SMI Group is a division, was recognized as the 23rd largest U.S. insurance broker in 2008, based on revenues from clients, by Crain Communications publication Business Insurance. The company was ranked 34th in 2007, before acquiring SMI Group and another company in 2008.

Real Estate

Katie McCroskey of Bob McCroskey Real Estate received the graduate Realtor institute designation from the Missouri Association of Realtors. McCroskey successfully completed 90 hours of education outlined by the National Association of Realtors.

Greene County Assessor Rick Kessinger was re-elected as vice-president of the Southwest Missouri Assessors Association at the 2009 Missouri State Assessors Association Conference in Branson.

Tourism

Silver Dollar City was named the friendliest park during the 12th annual Golden Ticket Awards held at Legoland in Carlsbad, Calif., and hosted by Amusement Today newspaper. SDC also ranked No. 2 in Best Christmas Event and Best Food, No. 3 in Best Shows and No. 5 in Best Landscaping.