Southwest Missouri News

Branson

BSR train travels to KC

Branson Scenic Railway's Ozark Ze-phyr train returned to Branson Jan. 22 after its first long-distance trip away from home, according to a press release from Branson Scenic Railway. BSR hosted the 20th Annual Conference of the Railroad Passenger Car Alliance on Jan. 11-14 in Kansas City.

The conference headquarters was the Westin Crown Center Hotel across from the renovated Union Station. RPCA is an organization dedicated to the preservation and operation of railroad passenger cars. It is made up of owners and operators, museum groups, tourist railways and trade members.

Activities began with a KC barbecue buffet Jan. 11 in the station with escorted tours of the facility and an open house onboard the Ozark Zephyr that evening. Various seminars were held pertinent to the private passenger car industry on Jan. 11 and 12. The group toured the Bur-lington Northern Santa Fe Technical Training Center in Overland Park, Kan. Jan. 13 the group boarded the Ozark Zephyr for a trip to Topeka, Kan., where the participants toured the former Santa Fe passenger car shops which now house the BNSF business car fleet.

Branson Scenic Railway will start operations March 9 this year and will offer some new trips on weekends.

Carthage

Leggett & Platt sales decline

Leggett & Platt Inc. has reported lower fourth-quarter and year-end sales and earnings, and company officials warned that they are uncertain about recovery this year.

"This was a very challenging year," Felix Wright, president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. "The economic downturn resulted in a 9 percent annual decline in same-location sales, impacting our margin and reducing our full-year earnings by approximately 40 cents per share."

Fourth-quarter earnings came to $35.4 million on sales of $969 million. That resulted in earnings of 18 cents per share.

During the fourth quarter last year, earnings came to $45.1 million on sales of just over $1 billion. Earnings per share were reported at 23 cents.

Leggett & Platt took $12 million in fourth-quarter expenses for plant closings and other restructuring costs, compared with $6 million for the same period one year ago.

Earnings for the full fiscal year came to $187.6 million, compared with last year's results of $264.1 million. Earnings per share came to 94 cents, compared with $1.32 one year earlier. That is a fall of 29 percent. Year-end sales came to $4.1 billion, compared with $4.28 billion in 2000. That is a drop of nearly 4 percent.

This is only the second time in the 34 years since Leggett & Platt went public that the company has reported a decline in total sales. Full-year costs for plant closings and other restructuring actions came to $18 million in 2001, compared with $9 million a year earlier.

Wright said the company has averaged earnings growth of 15 percent a year over the past 34 years, and that still remains the goal of the future.

But the company said in its statement, "There is significant uncertainty about near-term business conditions and the timing of the economic recovery in 2002."

The company projected that sales will remain negative early in the year but improve as 2002 progresses.

Joplin

Freeman receives Telly Award

Freeman Health System marketing department recently earned a Telly at the 23rd annual Telly Awards.

Freeman joined together with Ozark Film & Video of Springdale, Ark. to produce the award-winning commercial, featuring Jimmy Franklin, recipient of an innovative heart valve transplant at Free-man Heart Institute.

More than 11,000 entries were judged against a high standard of excellence.

The Telly Awards was founded in 1980 to showcase and give recognition to outstanding non-network and cable commercials. The competition was expanded several years ago to include film and video productions.

LaBarge addresses airport security

LaBarge Inc. has begun production of electronic equipment for an airport checked-baggage system.

PerkinElmer Detection Systems of Woburn, Mass., awarded LaBarge contracts valued at $3.5 million to produce electronic and box-level assemblies for the Vivid VIS108, an inspection system that uses X-rays to detect the presence of explosive materials, weapons and other contraband.

The majority of the work will be done at LaBarge's Huntsville, Ark., plant with support from operations in Berryville, Ark., and Tulsa, Okla. The LaBarge plant in Joplin also is part of the company's Manufacturing Services Group.

Neosho

Crowder growth continues

After a fall enrollment increase of 15 percent, Crowder Community College has announced a spring 2002 semester "count day" figure of 1,914, a growth of 13 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

"We have about 100 closed classes for spring and have added several sections in order to accommodate the additional students," said Dr. John Rucker, dean of in-struction at Crowder College.

Other areas of growth for Crowder, according to Rucker, are an increase in dual-credit technical courses as well as online classes.

"We have strong partnerships with area vocational technical schools in our service region," he said. "Most of our online classes are full," Rucker said. "We're making it a priority for the fall semester to train additional faculty in online instruction to meet the student demand."