Overheard

Springfield’s Murney Associates, Realtors was the only Missouri firm to break the Top 100 in the 2008 Power Broker Report. Murney ranked No. 70 on 5,511 transactions in 2007, according to the report, released by RISMedia on April 29.

Murney also landed high on the report’s listing of top-performing firms based on sales at No. 133, with a sales volume of $897.5 million last year. Murney ranked No. 1 on both Springfield Business Journal’s 2007 Largest Residential Real Estate Firms and Largest Commercial Real Estate Firms, available at www.sbj.net/ecommerce.asp. The full Power Broker Report can be viewed at www.rismedia.com.

Hang ’em Up Here

Springfield has many of the qualities retirees are searching for, according to the latest issue of Where to Retire magazine. In its May/June issue, the magazine profiles Springfield as a top retirement town in a six-page article written by Missouri native Diana Lambdin Meyer.

Here’s why: The city has 800 restaurants, Springfield Cardinals games, Springfield Symphony concerts, Springfield Ballet performances and Dickerson Park Zoo.

Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce officials who spread the news say Springfield’s cultural amenities and small-town charm are attracting people to the area.

“We’re seeing an influx of people at all stages of life, especially retirees, who are fleeing traffic congestion, high cost of living and crime on both coasts,” said Greg Williams, the chamber’s senior vice president of economic development. “It’s about quality of life.” Where to Retire has a national circulation of 220,000 and covers retirement towns and regions and master-planned communities.

Stinkie U.

Two classes of students from Inman Elementary School in Nixa spent a day last week at Aire-Master of America’s manufacturing facility. Under the Nixa Chamber of Commerce’s Adopt-A-Class Program, Aire-Master has been working with fifth- and sixth-grade classes this school year. Dubbed Stinkie University, each student has been learning about how the sense of smell has the most direct path to the emotional centers of the brain, the differences between deodorants and air fresheners, and how fragrances are developed.

On May 7, each student watched Aire-Master’s packaging equipment in use, and each class formulated its own hand sanitizer gel to be used in the classroom.

Slice of Nice

In honor of administrative professionals and dental assistants week, the doctors of OMS Group on April 23 filled the gas tanks of all employees’ cars and gave each staff member a $20 gift card. Also, a barbecue lunch was served to the staff of 75.

“Because of the price of gas and everything, we thought that might be something different,” said Administrator Susan Rust.