Southwest Missouri News

Carl Junction

City wins community awards

Carl Junction won a pair of awards at the 38th annual Missouri Community Betterment Conference in Columbia.

Carl Junction took first place for its community-wide youth involvement projects and second place for state community betterment efforts.

The youth involvement projects included the Home Mission project, an effort by both youth groups and area churches.

Community betterment projects in-cluded the passage of a sewer bond and the hiring of City Manager Joel Smiley. Carl Junction competed with seven other communities with populations between 4,854 and 7,861 people.

Joplin

Lower earnings for Empire

Mild weather and higher natural-gas costs contributed to lower earnings in the third quarter for Empire District Electric Co. Construction costs to complete the State Line Cycle Plant near Galena, Kan., also contributed to the drop.

Operating revenue totaled $83.3 million for the three-month period ending Sept. 30.

That compares with revenue of $86.2 million for the same quarter one year earlier.

Net income fell to $7.4 million for the quarter, or about half of the $14.3 million recorded during the third quarter in 2000. Earnings per share fell to 42 cents, compared with 82 cents a year ago.

The company took a charge of $2.5 million in the quarter, or 14 cents per share, for plant expenditures.

Mount Vernon

Veterans Home gets grant

The state has received a $14.3 million federal grant toward construction of the new Missouri Veterans Home in Mount Vernon.

The grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs represents approximately 65 percent of the cost for the $22 million home.

Crews are preparing the site north of Interstate 44 at McCanse and Hickory Streets. Officials expect the home to be completed in about a year.

The home is expected to have 200 beds, twice as many as the current veterans home has in a three-story wing at the Missouri Rehabilitation Center.

The state will pay the other 35 percent of the construction costs, and the city of Mt. Vernon has provided infrastructure support.

Neosho

Company has mixed fiscal news

La-Z-Boy has announced that its fiscal second quarter would be stronger than expected due to cost-cutting efforts and better sales of higher-end furniture.

The company projected a sales decline for the quarter ended Oct. 27 in the "mid-single digit range" and said it expected earnings per share in the low 30-cent range before restructuring charges.

La-Z-Boy operates a plant in Neosho which employees more than 1,000 people, making it one of the area's largest employers.