The Basics of Writing a Business Plan

Do you have an idea for a business, but, don’t know what information the bank is going to need to recognize the greatness of the idea you have? Have you started your business, but, now need to expand, and you don’t know how to update that business plan you started with 7 or 8 years ago?

Well, the University of Missouri Extension has a simple solution. A class to show you how to put your business plan together. You will be shown the basic parts of a business plan and what a lending institution will be looking for in each of those sections. You will be shown how to make your business plan look professional, and how to avoid common mistakes when building your plan. Moreover, this seminar explains how your business plan can help you in the day-to-day operation of your business. As the name suggests, it is a PLAN for your business.

The cost for the three-hour session is $35, and will be held at the Buchanan County Extension Office, 4125 Mitchell Ave., St. Joseph, MO on May 12, 2011 from 9 AM to 12 noon.

To register for “The Basics of Writing a Business Plan,” call The Holt County Extension Office at: (660) 446-3724. Payment may be made at the door.

Worth County Lost 24 Businesses Since 2009 (Corrected Version)

Worth County is in an economic crisis as it has lost 24 businesses totaling 59 jobs since 2009. While applying for the Enhanced Enterprise Zone for the county, Economic Developer Charity Austin came up with the list. Among the businesses which closed down are the following:

Kellie's Klips, All Type Service, South of Border Fireworks, Mrs. Pick's, Fantasy Video, Diamond D Cafe, Funky Stitches, Supinger Garage (Corrected), S&E Communications, Healthy U, S&A Construction, AAA Engraving, Trails End Cafe, 4th Street Farms, Dogman's, Joy Notes Images, Hair Pick, Putvain's Bistro, CR Woodworking, H&S Monument, Sheridan Repair, and Hometown Glass.

The county lost 19% of their businesses in 2009 and another 15% in 2010. A few had shut down earlier, but quit paying their business license fee in 2009 or 2010.

Michelle Schulte Leads NEN Girls to 35 Point Finish

Michelle Schulte led the Northeast Nodaway girls to a season high 35 point finish at the Bulldog Relays last week as she won the 800 and placed in three other events. Taryn Farnan also scored for the Bluejays as she scored in the High Jump and the Triple Jump.

She tried her hand at the 1600, an event she hadn't run in for the last two years; she finished second in her first time out. She dueled with Shannon Luke of Stanberry for first place throughout the race well ahead of the rest of the pack before Luke pulled away to win in the fourth lap. Michelle finished with a time of 6:10.53, 6.60 seconds behind Luke.

The 800 was one of the best races of the afternoon as Michelle held off a host of runners to win the event. She was neck and neck with Madison Reagan for most race, but Reagan fell back in the second lap. Then, Kristen Andrews and Lauren Null made their moves on Michelle and Kristin attempted to pass Michelle at the final quarter turn unsuccessfully. Then, Reagan made a late charge and came within four hundredths of a second of beating Michelle, but the tiny but deadly Schulte girl held her off for the win. Michelle was first with a time of 2:42.15 while Reagan had a time of 2:42.19. Kristen Andrews was third with a personal best of 2:43.26. Michelle and Abbe Gibson of North Harrison dueled earlier in the year at the Early Bird, but Gibson finished fourth with a time of 2:44.12. Null was 6th with a personal best of 2:48.31.

Taryn Farnan was 3rd in the High Jump. She was 2" off her personal best, but that was still good enough to win on tiebreaks with a leap of 4'6".

Michelle was third in the Long Jump with one of her best jumps of the year at 14'11 1/2". That was 5 inches off the jump of Katie Mullock of Worth County. She was also fourth in the Triple Jump with a leap of 30' 5 1/2". That was 1'9" off the jump of Shanna Welch of Jefferson. Taryn Farnan was 6th in the event with one of her better jumps of the year at 28'3".

Gov. Nixon signs bill to provide more than $189 million in federal funding to schools

Gov. Jay Nixon today signed into law House Bill 15, which will provide $189.7 million in federal funding to Missouri school districts across the state for the current and next school years. The money will provide stable funding for Missouri classrooms from fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2012, the Governor said at a bill-signing ceremony held at Linn High School.

Last month, Gov. Nixon strongly urged the Missouri Senate to pass the bill, which had already been passed by the House.

“Rejecting these funds would have had an immediate – and harmful – impact on Missouri schools,” Gov. Nixon said. “School districts are relying upon those funds in the supplemental budget to meet payroll and other expenses this school year.

“The federal law that authorized these education funds was crystal-clear. If Missouri had turned these funds away, they would have gone to other schools in other states,” the Governor said. “Missouri schools would have been left frantically finding ways to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars from their budgets in the last few weeks of the school year, and that was simply unacceptable. I am very pleased that the Senate put politics aside and passed the supplemental budget to all local schools to begin investing these critical funds.”

Gov. Nixon also used the occasion to urge the state Senate to quickly send him House Bill 18, another critical bill to re-appropriate federal funding. The deadline to pass the bill is May 6; the House has already approved the bill.

“Schools, law enforcement, cities, counties and others are counting on these federal funds, particularly schools that are incurring costs for which they anticipate being reimbursed this summer,” Gov. Nixon said. “If House Bill 18 doesn’t pass, there will be no way to reimburse them for expenditures they’ve already made.”

The funding in House Bill 18 includes a total of $137 million for K-12 schools, including:

n $50 million for special education;

n $47 million to help disadvantaged students in the classroom; and

n $37 million to improve struggling schools.

The bill also includes:

n $14 million for law enforcement justice grants;

n $63 million for clean water projects for local communities;

n $120 million for highway maintenance and construction, and public transportation; and

n More than $15 million to help low-income families with child care assistance.

“This is vital federal funding that we will lose if we don’t get this bill signed in the next few days, and I strongly urge the Senate to pass House Bill 18 right away,” the Governor said.

Worth County Forming Group of Patriotic Singers for Sesquicentennial

A group of patriotic singers is forming a choir to sing patriotic music to help observe the 150th anniversary of Worth County. The first practice will be on Sunday, May 22nd at 4:00 p.m. at the Grant City Baptist Church. We welcome youth and adult singers from all over Worth County.

Worth County R-III Approves Sale of $520,000 General Obligation Bonds

The Worth County School Board approved the sale of $520,000 worth of General Obligation Bonds Issue to its municipal bond underwriter, L.J. Hart & Company of St. Louis. "We appreciate the strong vote of confidence we received from local patrons at the election and want to lock in interest rates that are highly favorable," said Board President Jubal Summers. These new money General Obligation Bonds were approved by about 61.50% of the voters for the purpose of providing funds to prepay the existing Series 2005 Energy Management Equipment lease financing between the District and Bank of America Leasing & Capital, LLC. By prepaying the Series 2005 Lease, the district frees up approximately $62,000 per year of operating funds that can be used for other purposes.

According to Dr. Roger Adamson, Vice President with L.J. Hart & Company, the bonds were offered to local financial institutions and were subsequently acquired by banks around the state of Missouri. Superintendent Matt Robinson mentioned he was pleased efforts were made to accommodate local investors. "It is nice that our marketing procedures encouraged this involvement while still receiving attractive interest rates," Mr. Robinson commented.

The Board of Education selected the negotiated sale of bonds in order to capture current market conditions, to be certain that local individual investors and banks received an opportunity to purchase the bonds, and because the proposed interest rates were fair based on current conditions in the municipal bond market. Mr. Robinson stated that the District did compare proposed interest rates with national bond indexes and other comparable issues with a similar rating quality to be certain that the District's rates were favorable. "Based on pricing of these other financings on April 21, 2011, the date firm rates were proposed to the district, and the national indexes for AA rated General Obligation Bonds, our rates were as good as or better than some other sales for a similar quality level of bond issue," Mr. Robinson remarked.

According to L.J. Hart & Company, the bonds are scheduled to mature on March 1, 2013 through March 1, 2021 with reoffered yields ranging from 1.30% to 3.25% and total interest expense is slightly below the original projections. The interest income to the investors from the bonds is exempt from federal and state of Missouri income taxes and the bonds were available in $5,000 denominations.

These bonds carry an AA+ rating from Standard & Poors Corporation due to the District's participation in the State of Missouri Direct Deposit Program coordinated through the Missouri Health and Educational Facilities Authority.

The bonds do contain an optional redemption (call) provision on and after March 1, 2014 at no penalty that will facilitate the reduction of future interest expense in the event of prepayment or a future refunding to lower rates if market conditions make it economically feasible. The legal documents to complete the issuance of bonds were prepared by John W. Brickler, Esq., of Spencer, Fane, Britt, & Browne LLP in its role as bond counsel for the District.

Tiger Boys Win Bulldog Relays

The Worth County boys took first out of 14 teams at the Bulldog Relays last Tuesday. The event was held despite the cold weather, but it was well worth the trip for the Tigers, who beat out both DeKalb and long-time nemesis Stanberry, who had been edging them out all year. They were trailing DeKalb by double digits at one point, but then the results from the discus throw came in which put Worth County over the top.

Eli Mullock had been having several close duels with Dominick Fleeks of Stewartsville in the 100, but this time it was no contest. Despite the conditions, Eli easily beat Fleeks in the 100, nearly matching his school record with a time of 10.98. That was .48 of a second ahead of Fleeks. The 200 was closer, but Eli still won that event with a time of 23.00. That was .33 of a second ahead of Fleeks. That was .93 of a second better than what he did at the Warrior Relays the week before.

Levi Kalal was third in the 3200 with a time of 11:31.68. That was 19.57 of a second off the pace set by Colton Blay of West Nodaway. It was similar to his time at the Warrior Relays.

Jordan Harding got one of his best times of the year in the 800. He was 4th with a time of 2:15.47. That was 8.49 seconds off the pace set by Kolby Reagan of DeKalb.

Eli Mullock improved on his distance in the Long Jump. He was third in the event with a jump of 18'8 1/2". That was 2'1 3/4" off the jump of Brent Bush of DeKalb. It was 1'2" better than his jump at the Warrior Relays in Albany.

Mitch Andrews significantly improved on his time in the 400. He was third with a time of 54.38, 2.07 seconds off the pace set by Lafayette Fleeks of Stewartsville. That was 2.62 seconds ahead of his pace set at the Warrior Relays.

Worth County was once again 1-2 in the Discus. Brian Hall threw close to his goal of 140 feet, winning with a throw of 137'11". Dallas Greenland was off of his throws of 125+ feet earlier in the year but was still second with a throw of 113'7 1/2". Brian Hall also won the Shot Put with one of his best throws of the year at 40'4". Dylan Kinsella was 6th with a throw of 35'11".