On the Street

Archer lawsuit
A legal dispute between Kimberling City and E.T. Archer Corp. is proceeding slowly. Archer filed an answer Jan. 18 to Kimberling City’s Nov. 8 petition. In the petition, the city alleges that Archer Corp. is guilty of negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract and professional negligence. The city says the company designed a waste-collection system that put the city’s existing waste-water treatment plant above capacity, costing the city more than $2.6 million in cost overruns and modifications. Those familiar with the case expect a hearing in October.

Worker production
American workers were 4.1 percent more productive in 2004, the Labor Department reported. The positive gains cap a three-year run in which productivity rose by 4.3 percent on average – the highest three-year increase since 1948 to 1951. Productivity measures output per hour of all workers, and some companies base salary increases on these rates. Hourly compensation rose 4.2 percent in 2004, the department said. Considering higher consumer prices, real hourly compensation grew 1.5 percent in 2004 and 1.7 percent in 2003.

Working Web site
A recent survey rated Drury University’s Web site, www.drury.edu, in the top 10 percent of all U.S. college and university Web sites. The school’s site ranked No. 246 out of 2,994 sites in the survey commissioned by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions and conducted by high school students. “We’ve worked hard to make as much information as easy to find as possible,” said Asikaa Cosgrove, Drury’s director of Web services, in a news release, “and we’re glad that the survey shows we have been quite successful.”

Slice of Nice
Shop Harter House much? There is an extra incentive Feb. 26 when Harter House hosts its eighth annual Kitchen Benefit. That day, 25 percent of all meat and grocery sales will be donated to The Kitchen. The fund-raiser began as a memorial to Jerry Bettlach and Jim Trimble, Harter House co-founders. “We are so grateful to have annual fund-raisers that serve as financial stabilizers for The Kitchen,” said The Kitchen CEO Bill Stalnaker, in a news release. “Harter House has also donated food from its store since this ministry began with the soup kitchen in 1983 – 22 years.”

Twice of Nice
Did you know ... that Bob Gibson was a star basketball player at Creighton University and that he played with the Harlem Globetrotters from 1957 to 1958?
Learn more about Gibson, best known as a St. Louis Cardinals pitching great, at the ninth annual Steak & Steak Dinner April 5 to benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield. Gibson is keynote speaker at the Metropolitan National Bank-sponsored evening. Dinner begins at 7 p.m. at the University Plaza Convention Center. For more information, call (417) 862-9249 ext. 113.
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