Southwest Missouri News

Branson

Chamber/CVB receives results

The Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau announced today the results of its annual audit. For the 2001 fiscal year, Oct. 1-Sept. 30, the organization re-ceived an unqualified audit opinion by independent auditors, Whitlock, Selim & Keehn LLP.

An unqualified audit opinion signifies that the organization's financial statements are in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles and that internal controls are in place to prevent unauthorized transactions or misappropriation of funds.

The Branson/Lakes Chamber of Com-merce and Convention and Visitors Bur-eau, under the direction of its board of directors and financial oversight committee, manages a $6.5 million annual budget. Each year, the organization undergoes an audit to ensure the standards used in allocating the dollars are cohesive with general accounting practices.

The organization's fiduciary accountability was also recently reviewed by independent consulting firm, Harrison Price in its 2001 survey, commissioned by and submitted to the Entertainment Product Advisory Council.

In the survey, the general revenue and spending efficiency of the Branson/ Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce/CVB was compared to 17 similar destination marketing organizations and/or convention and visitors bureaus. Funding for the 17 CVBs studied ranged from $1.3 million to $23.1 million with an average of $10.25 million.

The Branson chamber/CVB revenues and expenditures for 1996, 1998 and 2000 indicate that personnel costs were considerably lower than industry-wide data, but they have risen from 12 percent to 19 percent of total costs. Other ex-penses (16 percent in 2000) are within the industry-wide range.

Direct promotion is a high 65 percent relative to the 17-city data, Branson chamber/CVB personnel costs are lower than average, promotion costs higher and other expenses consumed about the same share of total costs.

Carthage

Chamber honors businesspeople

The Carthage Area Chamber of Com-merce recently honored a Carthage businessman as the town's citizen of the year.

Terry McDonald, owner of Sirloin Stockade, was named the Richard M. Webster Citizen of the Year.

The Small Business of the Year honor went to Main Street Merchant, owned by Mike Tichenor. Larry Glaze was honored as Artist of the Year, and Sue Joslen received the Athena Award, which honors women who work as volunteers in community activities.

Duenweg

Water, sewer construction begins

A construction project is currently un-der way as a result of Duenweg's annexation plan. Effective Jan. 1, the annexation increased Duenweg's geographic size by about 250 percent.

The city is now legally required to provide water and sewer service to the newly annexed area, and construction is under way along Highway 249 east of Joplin.

Duenweg must have the work completed by Jan. 1, 2005. The total cost of the project is estimated at around $500,000.

Joplin

Modine wins BMW contract

Modine Manufacturing Co. was re-cently chosen by BMW to provide en-gine-cooling components for future vehicles, resulting in $135 million in annual revenue.

"BMW's decision to choose Modine as a development partner for new engine cooling systems is a sign of trust that they have in our quality and logistical competence, as well as the performance capabilities of all our plants involved in the program," said Klaus Feldman, vice president and managing director of Mo-dine Europe, in a prepared statement.

Modine owns a plant in Joplin with 170 employees. The company's Joplin plant manufactures air and oil coolers for a variety of engines.

Monett

JHA raises quarterly dividend

Jack Henry & Associates announced Jan. 28 that it would raise its quarterly dividend by 17 percent.

Jack Henry said it increased the quarterly cash dividend to 3.5 cents per share. The most recent dividend of 3 cents per share was paid in December.

The dividend is payable Feb. 28 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 13, ac-cording to the company.