Columbia Business Times - December 2015

decembeR 2015 transportation issue

KEEP ON

TRUCKIN'

WORLD TOUR Page 66

Mobile food trends Page 54

route

AUTO SHAKEUP

review Page 48

coMo dealerships change hands Page 42

REX SCOTT Jamaican Jerk Hut

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inside the LINES

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WHEN YOU PRINT AND SCAN THE NUMBER OF PAGES we do in just one day, it’s important for each department and some individuals to have their own printers. Some might view this as a luxury but we know it’s a necessity at Moresource!

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From the Editor

Editorial Erica Pefferman, Publisher Erica@BusinessTimesCompany.com Brenna McDermott, Editor Brenna@BusinessTimesCompany.com Matthew Patston, Assistant Editor Matt@BusinessTimesCompany.com

Getting There

DESIGN Jordan Watts, Editorial Designer Jordan@BusinessTimesCompany.com

›› Remember the feeling of pure joy when you drove solo for

Creative Services Keith Borgmeyer, Senior Editorial Designer Keith@BusinessTimesCompany.com Kate Morrow, Creative Marketing Kate@BusinessTimesCompany.com

the first time in your very own car?

My first vehicle was a teal two-door Ford Ranger named Chuck the Truck. Chuck made me feel invincible as I drove in my tiny sphere: home, school, practice, work and home again — and repeat. I may not

MARKETING REPRESENTATIVES Deb Valvo, Director of Sales Deb@BusinessTimesCompany.com Stacy Zorn, Marketing Consultant Stacy@BusinessTimesCompany.com Jamie Patterson, Digital Services Director Jamie@BusinessTimesCompany.com

have had permission to get on the highways, but I lived for those 30 mph winds whipping through my hair on suburban St. Louis roads.

Chuck the Truck wasn’t a looker, per se. He wasn’t fancy. But he was mine. And I scooted around town in that truck feeling on top of the world. But as much as I loved Chuck, that feeling of exhilaration wasn’t

Photo by Anthony Jinson

about him at all; it was all the possibilities he afforded me. The indepen-

dence to go to Blockbuster and rent a movie. The freedom to go to the mall without being dropped off.

Bliss. And nothing compares to taking Mom’s money to pick us up ice cream – and keeping the change.

I think that’s one of the reasons transportation is an ongoing topic of conversation in our community. Whether we’re talking about the bus routes, number of flights at the airport or the lack of downtown parking, it’s all pretty much the same issue: Feeling connected to where we want to go in the world.

And all those issues are signs of a good problem to have: We’re a growing community trying to figure out how to best serve the needs of our citizens. It’s nice to know we aren’t alone in these challenges, as a group of community leaders found out on the Chamber’s Leadership Visit to Gainesville, Florida. Read all about publisher Erica Pefferman’s experience on the trip on page 92.

You’ve seen the food trucks around town, but have you ever thought about the work that goes into running one? Hear about the growing mobile business trend on page 54. Have you wondered how exactly those I-70 bridge repairs are going to be completed on one of the busiest highways in the country? Find out on page 62. And just in case you have the itch to travel a little farther than mid-Missouri, read about three of our local businesspeople who have traveled a combined three million miles on international trips (page 66).

And check out the first of a four-part series from Dr. Peter Stiepleman, superintendent of Columbia Public Schools (page 85). His column also strikes a traveling note: What do we need, as a school district, to move forward?

Here's my monthly question for you, CBT readers: What professional goals do you want to achieve in 2016? Best response will get a shout out in next month’s letter. We want to hear from you!

Give us your feedback — tweet us @ColumbiaBiz or email me.

Thanks for reading,

Brenna McDermott, Editor brenna@businesstimescompany.com

Rex Scott and his partners run their food truck, Jamaican Jerk Hut, for fun. One of their biggest goals is to entertain their patrons.

We wanted to show that fun side with bright, look-at-me colors and Rex’s megawatt smile.

I’d say we definitely pulled it off. Photo by Anthony Jinson.

DECEMBER 2015 TRANSPORTATION ISSUE

KEEP ON

TRUCKIN'

WORLD TOUR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Beth Bramstedt, Jim Camoriano, Al Germond, Tron Jordheim, Zach Lloyd, Brenna McDermott, James Muench, Matthew Patston, Monica Pitts, Jason Smallheer, Peter Stiepleman, Brant Uptergrove CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR Tifani Carter Interns Caroline Harding, Jessica Kaiser, Peyton Kuligowski, Sean Nelson, Alisiana Peters, Brooke Skiles, Sierra Stewart, Amber Taylor, Rachel Trujillo MANAGEMENT Erica Pefferman, President Erica@BusinessTimesCompany.com Renea Sapp, Vice President of Finance ReneaS@BusinessTimesCompany.com Amy Ferrari, Operations Manager Amy@BusinessTimesCompany.com Crystal Richardson, Marketing Manager Crystal@BusinessTimesCompany.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription rate is $19.95 for 12 issues for 1 year or $34.95 for 24 issues for 2 years.

To place an order or to inform us of an address change, log on to ColumbiaBusinessTimes.com.

The Columbia Business Times is published every month

by The Business Times Co., 2001 Corporate Place, Suite 100, Columbia, MO 65202.

Copyright The Business Times Co., 2008.

All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of any editorial or graphic content without the express written permission of the publisher is prohibited.

PAGE 66

MOBILE FOOD TRENDS PAGE 54

ROUTE

AUTO SHAKEUP

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Keith Borgmeyer, Anthony Jinson, Ben Meldrum

REVIEW PAGE 48

COMO DEALERSHIPS CHANGE HANDS PAGE 42

REX SCOTT JAMAICAN JERK HUT

OUR MISSION STATEMENT The Columbia Business Times and ColumbiaBusinessTimes.com strives to be Columbia’s leading source for timely and comprehensive news coverage of the local business community. This publication is dedicated to being the most relevant and useful vehicle for the exchange of information and ideas among Columbia’s business professionals.

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 19

IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO DRESS FOR SUCCESS! COLUMBIA’S ONLY CHILDREN’S BOUTIQUE

2001 Corona Rd. #203 in the Village of Cherry Hill • boutiqueladida.com • 573-397-6991 • Tue-Fri: 10am-5pm Sat: 10am–6pm 20 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

about the last times What's happening online Don Elliott @DonElliott1 @anthonyjinson @FLYFROMCOU @ColumbiaBiz WOW! It’s fun watching a professional doing what they love doing.

Thanks for visiting COU!

Around the office CBT Happy Hour!

We had a team-building event at The Roof — and by team building, we mean tasty cocktails and scenic views with coworkers.

MU Convergence @MUConvergence Looking for an internship in Columbia? Stop by Fischer Auditorium to talk to the folks from @ColumbiaBiz. P.S. They have donuts.

Brandon Hoops @courtsidehoops Back from our European adventure. Time to dig into this beautiful @ColumbiaBiz issue.

Woodhaven @Woodhaventeam Thrilled to be featured in @ColumbiaBiz this week.

Office Gifts We surprised our editorial designer, Jordan Watts, with a few gifts to get her ready for her first winter away from California.

Pictured here: De-icer.

J Andrew @just1writer Just interviewed my third source on a fascinating topic for our year-end edition. Stay tuned to @ColumbiaBiz #writing Erica Pefferman @epeff The students have unlimited access to public transportation system in Gainesville. Average of 50k rides per day @ColumbiaBiz #como2gaines Lauren Whitney-Karr @LaurenWhitK @veteransunited moving all over town via a Bike Share program. Check it out at @ColumbiaBiz

Behind the scenes Lots and lots of notes go into the outline of a CBT feature — check out all we sorted through to bring you our story on COMO Connect for this issue!

Corrections There were three errors in last month’s Business Update on the Columbia Insurance Group: the team attended a conference in San Diego, not New York City; they have nearly 1400 partner agents, not 4000; and they exceeded their United Way capital campaign goal of $50,000, not $500,000.

Write to CBT editor Brenna McDermott at Brenna@BusinessTimesCompany.com columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 21

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CBT contributors DECEMBER 2015 Beth Bramstedt is a trained journalist who spent the last 25 years serving on the staff of a local non-profit. She is a world traveler, loyal friend, fan of country music and mother of boys who strives to see the world with the heart of a pastor and the eyes of a storyteller.

jim camoriano is a senior public relations specialist for a Fortune 500 company and is a graduate of the University of MissouriColumbia’s School of Journalism. He is married, has two daughters Beth Bramstedt

Jim Camoriano

and can be found on Twitter @just1writer.

Zach Lloyd is a graduate of the Master of Science in Journalism program at Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. He lives in Columbia with his girlfriend, Amanda, and their cat, Norma.

Ben meldrum is a multimedia contributor for The Business Times Company. He is currently a strategic communication student at the Missouri School of Journalism and enjoys listening to podcasts in his free time.

Zach Lloyd

Ben meldrum

James F. Muench is a twice-published author ("The Teutonic Cross" and "Five Stars: Missouri’s Most Famous Generals") and freelance writer in Columbia. His freelance work has been published in such publications as the Columbia Business Times, Columbia Home, Jefferson City Magazine, the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Life, Sports Illustrated for Kids and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Matt Patston is the assistant editor of CBT and a senior at the Missouri School of Journalism. He's from Denver, Colorado and spends his free time exploring Boone County with his fianceé and James F. Muench

Matt Patston

reading long articles he finds on Twitter.

Jason Smallheer has been in the marketing, media and sales fields for more than 20 years. Jason received his degree in Journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and his MBA from Webster University in St. Louis. He lives in Ashland with his wife, Courtney, children, Garrick, Gavin and Gemma, and dogs, Chewie and Dodger.

Sierra stewart is an editorial intern for the Business Times Company and a freshman at Stephens College. She is from Scottsdale, Arizona and considers herself a mix between an empathetic politician Jason Smallheer

Sierra Stewart

and a pragmatic dreamer. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 23

24 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

December 2015 Vol. 22, Issue 6 columbiabusinesstimes.com

Departments

›› transportation Issue

54

Serving Streetside

All over Columbia, food trucks serve delicious, eclectic food on streets and in parking lots. Meet the people behind this growing trend, and learn how they’re turning meals into a culinary experience.

42

48

19 From the Editor 21 Letters to the Editor 23 Contributors 27 Movers and Shakers 28 Briefly in the News 31 A Closer Look 32 Business Update 37 P.Y.S.K. 41 Opinion 80 Nonprofit Spotlight 82 Celebrations 85 Education 89 Marketing 91 Technology 92 Org Health 93 Marketing 94 Business Licenses 95 Deeds of Trust 96 Economic Index 97 By the Numbers 99 Did You Know 100 8 Questions 102 Flashback

66

Auto Shakeup

Route Review

Arriving: The World

2015 has been the year of auto dealership sales in Columbia.

How will that impact the community? Is it part of a larger, national trend?

Have the revised COMO Connect bus routes been successful, and what changes will a transit consultant bring to the city bus system?

The three world travelers featured share an affinity for cultivating – a horticulturalist, a plant scientist and an investor in startups – and exploring.

74 Chasing Spaces

Downtown parking challenges aren’t unique to this community.

With space occupancy peaking at 90 percent, what can the city, businesses and patrons do to find the space that’s needed?

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Movers and Shakers

›› Professionals grow, serve and achieve

Caleb Colbert

Tim Majerus

dr. peter monacell

Keith Glindemann

Brent Karasiuk

Kyle McCurry

Sandra Marin

›› Tim Majerus

›› Jason Vega

›› Gayle Lampe

Tim Majerus will be recommended to the Columbia Board of Education to fill the principal role at Beulah Ralph Elementary School.

Majerus is currently the principal of Alpha Hart Lewis Elementary School, and he was previously the principal of two other elementary schools. He also has eight years of classroom teaching experience in various school districts.

Cornerstone National Insurance named Jason Vega its Missouri and western Illinois sales manager. Vega will be responsible for marketing their auto rate recovery plan. He brings nearly 20 years of financial planning and insurance experience to the company.

Gayle Lampe, William Woods University professor emeritus of equestrian studies, was among 15 honorees to be enshrined in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 15. She worked in WWU’s nationally acclaimed equestrian studies division for 42 years and has judged horse shows nationally and internationally, in addition to training WWU’s horses to world and national championships.

›› Caleb Colbert Caleb Colbert, a shareholder with Brown Willbrand P.C., was one of 56 lawyers in the state selected by Missouri Lawyers Weekly as a 2015 “Up & Coming” attorney. Colbert practices in the areas of real estate, land use, construction and civil litigation and regularly appears before the City Council, the Planning & Zoning Commission, the Board of Adjustment and courts throughout Missouri.

›› Columbia College Dr. Peter Monacell, assistant professor of English at Columbia College, was recently named chair of the Department of Humanities. He will oversee all aspects of the department, including faculty administration, curriculum development and student engagement. There are a total of nine majors, minors and programs housed in the department. Also, Keith Glindemann has been promoted to director of veteran services for the college. In the new role, Glindemann is responsible for the daily operation of the college’s Ousley Family Veterans Services Center, overseeing certifications of benefits and acting as liaison with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

›› Eric Tzvi Kimichi Dr. Eric Tzvi Kimichi has been appointed chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the MU School of Medicine, as well as medical director of Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. He will also serve as associate professor in the Department of Surgery. His research has led to advancements in understanding the immune system’s response to liver cancer.

›› Paige Sports Entertainment Brent Karasiuk is the new president for the Walton-Laurie family office and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Paige Sports Entertainment business holdings, including real estate development projects; restaurant and hotel business; and other business ventures in various locations. Prior to joining Paige Sports, Brent was a partner at Holme, Roberts & Owen, in Denver, Colorado (now merged with Bryan Cave in St. Louis), where he specialized in sports law; mergers and acquisitions; and general corporate law. Also, Kyle McCurry has been promoted to chief operating officer and general counsel.

Kyle provides management oversight and legal counsel to Paige Sports Entertainment and a number of its affiliates.

›› Susan Tenney Susan Tenney, a respected veteran of the insurance industry in Missouri, has been named vice president of sales and marketing for MPM-PPIA, a physician-owned professional liability insurance company operating throughout Missouri. She directs MPM-PPIA’s statewide sales network and works directly with physicians and group managers to serve their needs for professional liability coverage.

›› Sandra Marin Marin, a business development and international trade specialist with MU Extension, won the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry Extension Business Award. The award recognizes excellence at the intersection of education and business, and it highlights faculty and staff who support the economic viability of Missouri businesses with their work. Marin qualified for the award through her mentorship of international students in the MU Extension program. CBT

➜ Are you or your employees making waves in the Columbia business community? Send us your news at Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 27

briefly in the news

›› A rundown of this month’s top headlines

2015 Roots N Blues Snapshot

Best Workplace for Women Fortune Magazine and Great Place to Work® ranked Veterans United Home Loans as one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Women. VU was ranked 48th. The companies included were selected based on evaluations by more than 135,000 women employees. Topics in the survey included fairness of company promotions, access to leadership, support of employees’ personal lives and levels of inclusiveness. More than 600 companies were studied for the ranking.

MU Nurses Recognition Photo Credit: Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival Facebook

The 2015 Roots N Blues N BBQ festival drew more than 24,000 attendees from 42 states, 2 Canadian provinces and Great Britain. The event hosted 28 artists on stage and 27 food vendors served festival-goers. Mid-America Harley Davidson raised $4,500 for the Blues in the Schools program, and the Roots N Blues Foundation raised $3,150. The Roots N Blues N BBQ half-marathon and 10K had 1,360 participants. Next year’s Roots N Blues will be held Sept. 30 through Oct. 2.

True Media Opens Office True Media has opened a new office in the warehouse district in downtown Minneapolis. This is the company’s fourth office. CEO Jack Miller says the company has worked with clients in the Minnesota and Wisconsin areas and already had employees living and working in the area.

True Media’s other offices are located in St. Louis and Alberta.

28 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

Two University of Missouri Health Care nurses were named March of Dimes 2015 Nurses of the Year. Heather Dennis, R.N., a triage nurse and certified breastfeeding educator at the pediatric clinic at South Providence Medical Park, won the 2015 Pediatric Nurse of the Year award. Helen Jankowski, R.N., a clinical informatics nurse with the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation, won the 2015 Clinical Informatics Nurse of the Year award.

Central Bank Art Show Central Bank of Boone County and the Columbia Art League held the 56th annual Boone County Art Show. The Bank Purchase Award was presented to Kate Gray for “Forever Grateful,” and the piece will be added to the bank’s permanent collection. The People’s Choice Award was presented to Joel Sager for “Rural Structure XXXII.” Nine other awards were presented as well.

Columbia Debt Savvy Smart Asset, a New York financial technology company, conducted a study to find cities where people were most debt savvy. Columbia was ranked first in the state of Missouri. The study evaluated credit score, average personal loan debt, credit utilization and mortgage foreclosure rate.

veterans training

Landmark Bank Landmark Bank recently celebrated the bank’s 150th anniversary.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency presented the bank with a commemorative certificate of the event. Landmark Bank was chartered in 1865, just three months after the end of the Civil War, and was called Exchange National Bank at the time.

Landmark is one of the oldest nationally chartered banks west of the Mississippi River. The bank has more than $2.2 billion in assets, with 42 locations in 28 communities across three states.

The Trulaske College of Business has partnered with a national entrepreneurial and small business education program to provide experiential training for post-9/11 veterans with disabilities, and Veterans United Home Loans is assisting financially. Veterans will develop their competencies in entrepreneurial ventures. VU’s foundation, Veterans United Foundation, donated $450,000 to help launch the program. The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EVB) was founded in 2007 at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

Visionworks receives awards

Midway receives Quality AwarD

Visionworks Marketing Group received two awards from the Academy of Interactive Visual Arts, an international competition. The two Davey Awards were for work on behalf of the Missouri Department of Transportation. The ad campaign focused on drunk driving prevention throughout the St. Louis area.

MidwayUSA received the 2015 Missouri Quality Award from the Excellence in Missouri Foundation. MidwayUSA was one of four recipients of the award. The Missouri Quality Award is presented annually to high-performing, Missouri-based businesses. MidwayUSA received the award in 2008 as well.

Columbia College launches eSports Columbia College will introduce competitive video games, or eSports,

Loop Buries Lines

The Loop Community Improvement District announced the undergrounding of utility lines at Parkade and Madison was completed when city crews removed the wooden poles that once held overhead phone, cable and power lines. The city will eventually bury distribution lines along the entire Business Loop.

next fall, offering scholarships to student gamers. Two teams of five players will play League of Legends, the most popular video game in the world. The teams will compete in the Collegiate Star League.

The school will also renovate a building on Rangeline Street into a space for gamers to play in by early 2016. CBT columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 29

30 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

a closer look

›› A quick look at emerging companies

1. Mac Daddy Lyfts

3. The Big Cheeze

Mac Daddy Lyfts is a golf cart shuttle service that takes people through downtown Columbia, MU’s campus and parts of East Campus for free. Mac Daddy Lyfts operates on Wednesday through Friday from 6:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. and on mornings before MU home football games. The shuttle can also be booked for special events. The owner of Mac Daddy Lyfts, David McDonald, came up with this idea when he saw a similar business in Scottsdale, Arizona and thought the idea would be a perfect fit for Columbia’s active downtown and student population.

Although the service is free, drivers accept and appreciate tips.

Contact: David McDonald, 573-289-4666

The Big Cheeze is a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich food truck, spelled with a “z” in recognition of Mizzou. This food truck carries six different kinds of cheese; freshly baked bread from The Upper Crust; and hot tomato soup. The prices range from $6 to $8. Owners Tim and Beth Mallory came up with the idea after visiting a food truck in Nashville that was selling grilled cheese sandwiches. The Big Cheeze is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and its location varies daily. Location updates are available on Twitter @the_bigcheeze.

Contact: Tim and Beth Mallory, 573-356-3089

2. AllianZ Consulting Solutions

4. Kia of Columbia

AllianZ Consulting Solutions is a consulting firm that represents its clients in negotiations with credit card processors.

The company works with clients and credit card companies to remove rates and fees for small business owners. AllianZ can help a client renegotiate fees with a current provider or find a new service provider. Past clients of AllianZ include Pizza Tree, The Shot Bar, Room 38 and Bangkok Gardens. “Our service is a winwin situation for businesses,” co-owner Brendan Coughlin says. “We get paid based on total savings for the client, so it is 100 percent in our best interest to get our clients the best deal possible.”

Contact: Brendan Coughlin, 314-650-3173, and Michael McHenry, 816-582-7475

Kia of Columbia, located at 710 Business Loop 70 W, opened in Sept. 2015, having previously been Head Kia. The dealership offers a lifetime warranty and one year of free maintenance on new Kias. Kia of Columbia also offers a locating system that allows them to find special vehicles for customers from all over the United States. Recently, Kia of Columbia started a program with Rock Bridge and Hickman high schools to help them raise $10,000 for their music programs, with each school receiving 1,000 certificates to sell for $10 each. The schools keep the money raised and Kia of Columbia donates oil changes.

Contact: Dan Kellar, 573-442-9200

5. The Wolf’s Head Tavern The Wolf ’s Head Tavern, located at 201 N. Tenth St., is a new Irish pub downtown, a venture from former Trey Bistro owner Trey Quinlan and partners Boen Quinlan and Aaron Warren. Warren says, “We wanted to have a bar with really good food, as opposed to a restaurant with a nice bar.” The Wolf ’s Head features menu items such as corned beef cabbage rolls, as well as traditional pub food such as pizza, chicken wings and sandwiches. The restaurant also serves brunch and dessert.

Contact: Aaron Warren, 573-808-7202

6. Brain Balance Center of Columbia The Brain Balance Center’s franchisees, Carolyn and Todd Pridemore, know firsthand what it’s like to raise a child struggling with learning and behavioral issues.

The Brain Balance Center of Columbia, located at 2703 E Broadway, Suite 224, helps children overcome ADHD, learning disabilities, Asperger’s syndrome and other developmental issues. The center offers a brain balance program, which uses sensory motor training, stimulation and cognitive activities, matched with nutritional and dietary guidelines, to help students.

Contact: Carolyn and Todd Pridemore, 573-808-4826 CBT

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➜ Are you an entrepreneur? Are you sprouting a new business? Tell us about it at Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 31

xx Columbia Regional Airport manager Don Elliott, left, and Airport Operations Supervisor, Mike Parks Photo by Anthony Jinson DECEMBER 2015 32 \\\ december

business update

›› Transformed, trending and up-to-the-minute

➜ 11300 S Airport Dr. 573-874-7508 flycou.com

Up, Up and Away

Columbia Regional Airport serves record passengers in October.

By Brenna McDermott It’s the simple improvements that can make the difference for a passenger at Columbia Regional Airport. Just ask anyone who’s ever gone through security and then needed to relieve themselves.

Airport Manager Don Elliott says the new ADA-compliant restroom in the passenger holding area will not only help relieve passengers, but will also speed up the check-in process.

“In the past, passengers, once they got in the holding area, if they had to use the restroom before they board the flight, they’d have to go through and go out the screening point, then go through the screening process again,” Elliott says. “Now, it’s much more convenient, and it makes the TSA line more efficient.”

Customer-centric improvements have been the focus this year for airport staff, and that focus reflects a growth period with major improvements ahead.

The Skyline Café, located on the second floor and accessible only by a flight of stairs, closed earlier this year, leaving a vacancy for food and beverages available at the airport.

In October, the airport opened a snack bar on the first floor, with convenient food and beverages. The snack bar takes up previously unused space in the terminal, and Elliott says they’re working to incorporate mid-Missouri products there. Harold’s Doughnuts is the first local vendor, and Elliott says that the doughnuts have sold “like hotcakes."

For now, the Parks and Recreation concessions team is managing the snack bar, though Elliott hopes an outside company will take over operations soon.

There’s also an Internet bar, workstations, USB ports and more seating — which is good, since October saw 12,017 passengers, the highest monthly commercial passenger traffic in the history of the airport, according to COU statistics.

Though passenger counts have not been released for November and are not yet known for December, 2015 passenger numbers should mark a high since 1978. Elliott credits the convenience of the airport and an increase in reliability of flights for the continued growth.

In 2008, Elliott says, COU was ranked “around 398” when compared to commercial airports across the country. Today, COU ranks around 260.

“In 2008, we were on life support,” says Elliot, who has worked at the airport for more than 33 years. “We were an EAS: essential air service airport. Now, I think we’ve made an amazing recovery, and we’re a growing, healthy airport.”

“In 2008, we were on life support. We were an EAS, essential air service, airport. Now, I think we’ve made an amazing recovery and we’re a growing, healthy airport.” -Don Elliott, airport manager

Elliott credits mid-Missouri communities – Boone County, Cole County, Jefferson City and Columbia – working together to realize the importance of the airport to economic development.

“We live in a different time,” Elliott says. “We want connectivity throughout the world. And flying into major international hubs is the key.

And it took everyone from the mayor, city manager, public works director and council to make a difference, and the business community. It took everyone working together.”

In order to experience the kind of growth that’s possible, COU is looking to the future, and to host a larger variety of aircrafts, improvements must be made to the runway. The crosswind runway intersection has been under construction since July, and it should be completed in late November.

The goal is to expand the crosswind runway first, followed by the main runway. When work on the crosswind runway is complete, it will increase by 1,100 feet in length, 25 feet in width and will be resurfaced from asphalt to concrete. When completed, it will allow 70-passenger jets to land.

Work on the rest of the crosswind runway will begin in 2016, with construction following in 2017.

After that, work to extend the main runway north will begin, and designs for that project would probably happen in 2018. Whether that means rehabbing or reconstructing, engineering reports will say. But before that, Route H will need to be rerouted to extend the runway safety area.

Elliott says lengthening the main runway will allow larger varieties of aircrafts to use the airport.

The project would add another 900 feet to the main runway, making the total length 7,400 feet.

Currently the airport serves 64-passenger jets to Chicago and 50-passenger jets to Dallas.

Flights depart to each destination in the morning and afternoon, with an arrival from each in the afternoon and at night. Acquiring a third destination is a top goal for Elliott, who serves as a sort of lobbyist, on behalf of COU, to the airlines.

“I make contact in-person with the airlines quite often, so far it’s been about three times this year,” Elliott says. “And just to keep Columbia on their radar, let them know the success that we’re having and let them know about not just Columbia, but mid-Missouri, and just keep getting the word out.”

Elliott says he thinks the airport could sustain flights to and from a leisure market. There are several low-cost carriers traveling to vacation destinations, like Florida or Las Vegas. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 33

The increase in passengers and the potential increase in number of flights has led to discussion of long-term solutions for the airport. That means the discussion and exploration of a larger terminal. The current terminal was completed in 1968.

The current terminal has grown since the ’70s, Elliott says, when the passenger holding area was outdoors, before being moved into a doublewide trailer. Later, a second doublewide was added for baggage claim, then baggage claim was moved to a third doublewide to make room for a second gate.

“I don’t want to see another doublewide,” Elliott says.

Through a MoDOT grant, the city is in the process of putting together a terminal area master plan, with an engineering firm and cooperation from the FAA, to determine whether to rehab the current terminal or build on greenspace.

“Once we started getting larger aircraft and had more passengers flowing through the terminal, we had to once again look at what’s going to serve the airport for the short term and long term,” Elliott says. “Do we want to do a shortterm fix and invest the money into that? Or do we want to do a long-term fix that will serve midMissouri the next 75 to 100 years? So we’re conducting a study of all the factors that can affect the terminal building.”

Tentative plans would be for four gates in the new terminal, with the ability to expand in the future. The current terminal’s location, 34 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

sandwiched by Central Missouri Aviation, would make that difficult.

The new terminal would allow the airport to meet ADA requirements, to make the passenger experience more comfortable and to include modern amenities, Elliott says. But, he doesn’t want to lose the comfortable feeling of a smaller airport.

Barriers to the project include meeting stringent FAA requirements and financing the project.

Today, the city employs 16 at the airport, but including the staff of Central Missouri Aviation, Ozark Management Hanger, American Airlines, the post office, car rental and other employees, more than 250 people work at the airport. In 2012, MoDOT conducted an economic impact report examining the impact of the airport on mid-Missouri. They looked at direct impacts, meaning the

employment, wages and sales generated by airport business; indirect impacts, like the money visitors spent on food, hotels, transportation and entertainment; and induced impacts, meaning the spin-off effects of employees or passengers purchasing goods and services.

According to the report, the airport has created 745 total jobs, directly and indirectly, with a total payroll of $26,925,000 and a total output, or the total expenditures of goods, services and capital, of $87,179,000.

COU will continue to outperform other airports, Elliott says, when it comes to customer service. “Whether it’s making sure people aren’t snowed in at the airport, or if they’ve got a flat tire, ‘Hey, we have an air tank.’ We’re going to help them. You don’t get that at other airports.” CBT

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P.Y.S.K. Person You Should Know

Job description: I oversee daily operations

Stephen Nagel

of the Joe Machens Ford Lincoln dealerships in Columbia and Jefferson City.

Executive Manager, McLarty Automotive Group; Joe Machens Ford Lincoln, Columbia and Jefferson City Age:

48

Years lived in Columbia/mid-Missouri: 18. I left mid-Missouri in 1985 and returned in February of this year.

Original hometown: Middletown, Missouri.

Education: Graduated from WellsvilleMiddletown R-1 High School.

Community involvement: I am currently involved in the United Way, Columbia Chamber of Commerce and the Columbia Honda Scholarship Program – so far.

Professional background: I spent eight years in the United States Navy; 18 years with AutoNation. The last 10 years, I ran AutoNation’s two large Ford stores in Memphis, Tennessee. I most recently served as the managing partner at Columbia Honda.

A favorite recent project: A favorite recent project was the acquisition and transformation of Columbia Honda.

What I do for fun: Spend time with my family and spend time at our farm (both, preferably). Hobbies would be woodworking and collecting old stuff.

A Columbia businessperson I admire and why: Gary Drewing, because of the organization he has built and maintained, and because of his indomitable competitive spirit and charitable community involvement.

What people should know about this profession: This profession, in its simplest form, is about helping people. It’s a people business.

Accomplishment I’m most proud of: I

›› Why I’m passionate about my job: I like to win, and here I can win by helping people.

don’t have one, but what gives me a sense of accomplishment is my marriage and family and the organizations I’ve been privileged enough to lead and their successes. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 37

This profession, in its simplest form, is about helping people.

It’s a people business.

Favorite place in Columbia: I’ve been here six months, and my family has been here for two months, so we are still exploring, but we like all of downtown.

Family: My parents live in Montgomery County. My Dad, Roger, owns County Line Quarry.

My Mom, Loretta, is a retired RN from Montgomery County Health Department. My wife of 23 years, Carolyn, is a St. Louis native. We have four daughters. The oldest is married and lives in Memphis, two are in college and one lives here with us and is in high school.

If I weren’t doing this for a living, I would: I haven’t thought about it.

Most people don’t know that I: Try to play the banjo. CBT 38 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 39

40 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

Roundtable › Al Germond

Advise and Consent Enshrined under Article XI of the Columbia City Charter, the makeup of the city's planning and zoning commission has seen service from hundreds of volunteers on what has arguably been and will continue to be the most important of the city's advisory boards. The recent departure of retired television executive Andy Lee, who was piqued by the commission's apparent impotence in the CVS zoning controversy, Al Germond is the will be seen as an aberration to the norhost of the Columbia mally routine advise-and-consent relaBusiness Times Sunday tionship that has marked P&Z's 66-year Morning Roundtable relationship with the city council. Irony at 8:15 a.m. Sundays abounds in recalling utterances of fruson KFRU. He can be tration by the present representative reached at from Ward Three when he was a memal@columbiabusiness ber of this august advisory board. When times.com. the present city charter came into being in 1949, it provided for seven advisory boards and commissions, including P&Z, the Water and Light Advisory Board, the Board of Adjustment, boards overseeing the public library, health and personnel and another commission to help supervise the city's parks and recreation activities.

The number of boards and commissions began to increase after Dr. Terry Novak (1940-2009) became city manager in 1974, succeeding Don Allard (1929 ), who had been fired the previous year. Novak — who earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Colorado — already had another academic soulmate on the council when he arrived here from Hopkins, Minnesota. H. Clyde Wilson (1926-2010) — who received his Ph.D., in anthropology in 1961 from UCLA — was elected to the city council on April 6, 1971. Described as nonpartisan under the charter, the council nevertheless at that time moved to the left after Dr. Wilson was elected. Both Novak and Wilson knew their upwardbound, tenure-track academic colleagues were expected to demonstrate participation in some aspect of civic affairs apart from their work at the university. What better way to show this than to serve on a city-sponsored board or commission? In spite of the plethora of advisory commissions that have been

"In spite of the plethora of advisory commissions that have been formed over the past forty years, it’s the Planning and Zoning Commission that remains the single most important advisory body to the city council.”

formed over the past forty years, it’s P&Z, the Planning and Zoning Commission, that remains the single most important advisory body to the city council.

Change is constant among these advisory bodies. Selected to serve by consent of the council, most of these volunteers quietly arrive and depart. From being a casual obligation for some to an obsession for others that borders on zealotry, the sometimes testy relationship between the council and P&Z has led to frustration, contradiction and impotence in the past, and it is with predictable certainty that spats like this will occur in the future.

There's considerable irony in reviewing city history when it comes to planning. Columbia has corralled a boatload of planning documents since their first one was commissioned and received in 1935. It seems like city councils — both past and present — have ordered dozens and dozens of planning documents and reports over the years. We love to look at the pretty drawings, carefully drawn maps with fanciful sketches of monuments, tree-lined, broadshouldered boulevards and occasional gee-gaws of commemorative art, tributes in stone to a departed personage or a significant historical occurrence.

It is ironic that it took a baker's dozen of years for Columbia to hire its first planning director after the 1949 charter authorized the P&Z commission. On September 10, 1962, Hiram C. Martin Jr., of St. Louis, was hired as the city's first director of planning; his salary was $10,000 a year. Something went wrong with Mr. Martin, so City Manager Allard fired him on August 14, 1964. The city fiddled and quibbled for more than two years until the council finally hired Einar Finnson to fill the long-vacant planning director's position on April 20, 1967.

As planning and zoning matters have come to occupy a larger portion of the council's business, there have been suggestions to modify the city charter so as to empower the P&Z Commission with sole jurisdiction over planning and zoning issues. Be mindful of the unintended but predictable consequences of this. Although displeasing and perhaps contentious at times, the existing advise-and-consent relationship between the council and its P&Z Commission has been a generally healthy relationship. And it should continue to be so. In the meanwhile, perhaps the number of the city's boards and commissions should be reduced, given the abundance of vacant positions and the seemingly constant need to restock them. CBT columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 41

thinkstock.com 42 \\\ December DECEMBER 2015

Wheels

MOTION in

In 2015, many Columbia dealerships have changed hands. What does that mean for the local auto industry?

By Jason Smallheer

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 43

It’s been a year of worst-kept secrets.

In 2015, the Columbia auto market has seen ownership shake-ups affecting 17 auto brands. In March, The McLarty Automotive Group, out of Little Rock, Arkansas, purchased Fletcher Honda; Morgan Auto Group, from Tampa Bay, Florida, purchased Head Kia in September; and the McLarty Group made another investment in Columbia in October, acquiring the majority of Joe Machens Dealerships from Gary Drewing.

Each group brings generations of experience in the industry and capital to invest in their properties. Automotive News listed McLarty, with more than $1 billion in revenue, and Morgan, with more than $600 million, in their annual ranking of the top 125 dealer groups in the United States.

Both companies have ties to mid-Missouri. Morgan Auto Group CEO Larry Morgan is from LaBelle, Missouri, and he graduated from MU with a BA degree in economics. Stephen Nagel, also a Missouri native, was tapped to serve as general manager of McLarty’s Joe Machens Ford Lincoln dealerships in Columbia and Jefferson City.

McLarty Automotive Group has been in the auto industry since 1921, and CEO Charles Oglesby has been in the auto industry for 45 years, starting in sales and working his way up within the automotive business. Before joining McLarty, he was CEO of Asbury Automotive Group.

“When you have gasoline running through your veins, there are few things you want to do,” Oglesby says. Oglesby attempted retirement, to support his golf habit.

“My scores weren’t improving,” he says, “so I decided to come back to work.”

Rumors of the McLarty acquisition had been swirling in Columbia for months.

Within the organization, Oglesby says the reaction, upon the sale being made official, was positive. After the acquisition, McClarty will own the Joe Machens Ford and Lincoln locations in Jefferson City and Columbia, as well as the Joe Machens Columbia dealerships for Nissan, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Toyota, Scion, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Fiat and Columbia Honda.

“The strength of the organization drew us back [to the market],” Oglesby says.

“There’s a strong base market and strong culture. From a bird’s eye view, there is nothing better.”

44 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

Growth and Consolidation In May, Automotive News listed Joe Machens Dealerships as 82nd in the top 150 U.S.–based dealership groups, with 11,412 total new retail units, 16,203 used units and group revenue totaling $881,340,814.

To ensure a smooth transition, Oglesby has attempted to meet with each of the 1,100–plus full-time and part-time Machens employees.

“It is up to us to listen to our customers and our employees,” Oglesby says. “We want to do the right thing.”

Oglesby says McLarty’s plan is not to change what is in place, but to grow, and growth comes from the leadership that is already there.

“Gary and Rusty Drewing have developed an outstanding team and one of the leading dealership groups in the Midwest,” says Mark McLarty, chairman of McLarty Automotive Group. “We are honored to continue that tradition of excellence, which depends on so many talented employees, and we are committed to ensuring a smooth transition that enables the dealerships to continue to serve the community and customer base.”

Oglesby said the Machens group plans to continue being a large part of the Columbia’s community fabric, expanding on the existing community service of the Drewing family. Oglesby says he will not be “the face” of the Machens dealerships; rather, the staff will be the face of what they do. He sees an excited staff as the best recruiting tool for the organization.

“Some of these people have given us more than 30 years of their life,” he says.

“When a person is excited to go to work, is excited about our acquisition, then we know we did it right.”

The auto industry has seen a recent growth explosion, the largest in more than a decade, and some smaller dealerships have exited the industry. The National Automobile Dealers Association said 2014 was the fifth year of industry sales growth, up more than nine percent from 2010. In 2014, Missouri auto dealerships had more than $15 billion in sales.

Oglesby says the amount of capital required to manage a dealership could be difficult on the small dealer. That has opened the door for larger groups, with more human and financial resources, to make acquisi-

tions. He said the resulting economic shift has caused more consolidation within the automotive market as a whole.

That growth has also resulted in rapid advances in automotive technology.

“We can’t keep up with technology fast enough,” Oglesby said. “The customer will have more choices, and those choices are defined by the customer’s needs.”

Oglesby says Machens plans to not just be a place to make a purchase, but also to visit complete transportation specialists. Survival in the automotive space, Oglesby says, comes back to an auto group having the capital to match the needs of the customer.

Besides auto retail, the Machens group also has a car rental facility and body shop to diversify their place in the Columbia market.

McLarty is no stranger to expansion.

They have dealerships on a global scale — in Brazil, Mexico and China, in addition to their domestic dealerships.

The Drewing family is not leaving the Columbia auto industry. They will maintain ownership of the BMW and MercedesBenz dealerships, which will be rebranded as BMW of Columbia and Mercedes-Benz of Columbia (the sale of the other dealerships included the Joe Machens brand name). New branding for the two dealerships will come soon. Likewise, Oglesby says, Columbia Honda will eventually be branded Joe Machens Honda.

An Experienced Hand The acquisition of the Kia dealership is Morgan Automotive Group’s first move outside of Florida. Initially, the group had a five-year plan, described by COO Brett Morgan: “if we couldn’t drive to it, we wouldn’t be interested. But now that we’ve broken that rule, I think we’d do it again.”

The Morgans began their business by working in the tire industry out of northern Virginia. Growing their business from three to 160 stores caught the attention of a larger company, named Dan Olson Tire. The two merged and grew their business into what became known as Tires Plus, which they later sold. During his brief retirement, the elder Morgan found a common tie with Oglesby that sent him back to the business.

“My father tried to retire and play golf three times a week,” Morgan says. “His scores never improved, so he came back to work.”

" The strength of the organization drew us back [to the market]. There’s a strong base market and strong culture.

From a bird’s eye view, there is nothing better."

Cha r l e s Ogl e sb y CEO of M c La r ty A u tom o t i ve G ro u p, o n p u rc h a s i n g t h e J o e M a c h e n s b ran d

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 45

THE DEAL WITH TH E

DEALERSHIPS To clarify these sales, check out this list of the dealerships in question – here’s who owns them and where they are located.

McLarty Automotive Group Joe Machens Ford Lincoln 1911 W Worley St.

Joe Machens Volkswagen of Columbia 1200 Vandiver Drive

Joe Machens Capital City Ford Lincoln 807 Southwest Blvd., Jefferson City

Joe Machens Nissan 201 Nebraska Ave.

Joe Machens Toyota Scion 1180 Vandiver Drive

Joe Machens Automotive Group (Mazda, Mitsubishi, Fiat) 500 Vandiver Drive

Joe Machens Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram 1310 Vandiver Drive

Columbia Honda 1605 Heriford Road

Joe Machens Hyundai 1300 Vandiver Drive

Drewing Automotive Group BMW of Columbia 1510 Interstate 70 Drive SW

Mercedes-Benz of Columbia 1710 Interstate 70 Drive SW

Morgan Automotive Group Kia of Columbia 710 Business Loop 70 W

46 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

Morgan attended the University of Richmond and was working for Clear Channel Media before joining his father in the auto industry. By working as a salesman, Morgan learned the business, and he now has plans to grow Kia of Columbia.

“Our plan is to eventually double it in size,” Morgan says. “We want people to feel at home in the dealership. We want to adapt to consumer needs and give our customers something they cannot get anyplace else.”

Dan Keller, who served as general manager of the Joe Machens Toyota dealership earlier in his career, is a local partner who manages the daily operations of the business.

“We are all strangers to Kia,” Morgan says, “but we learned it is a great product, offers a great value proposition and it has a great warranty. But we are not going to rest on the Kia brand. Our goal is to give more to the consumer.”

Back to the Future One of the plans the Morgans have for Kia of Columbia is to take the final paperwork of a purchase into the future, through the use of a gadget called a Docupad.

“It’s similar to a giant iPad built into the desk,” Morgan says. “We will be installing them soon.”

The Docupad is already in use at some Florida dealerships. It allows the consumer to finalize their purchase and show videos, if necessary, for explanations. It’s another example of dealerships adapting to the customer’s technology habits.

Another advancement within the industry is the onsite insurance agency at Kia of Columbia.

Customers are often not aware of the potential insurance savings available, something the Morgan Auto Group is bringing to its customers in Columbia and plans to bring to their other dealerships as well.

Morgan says there are also plans to expand the service facility and invest in renovations to the building.

“We are not going into this with a cookie-cutter mentality,” Morgan says. “We pay attention to detail. We will have a clean facility, transparent pricing and a down-home staff. Our people will be willing to tell our story.”

Part of the Morgan strategy is implementing the Kia of Columbia Promise, giving customers price guarantees, three days to bring the car back if not satisfied, complimentary maintenance and lengthy warranties on virtually all used vehicle purchases as well.

“We want to go above and beyond in the Columbia market,” Morgan says. “We want to stick out and acquire and retain our customers." CBT

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48 \\\ December DECEMBER 2015

Route

REVIEW More than a year into a strategic rerouting of the bus system, is Columbia better served by COMO Connect?

By Matt Patston | photos by ben meldrum

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 49

Like so many other fall mornings, this one was bright and mildly chilly. It was just after eight, and I stood in the shadow of the three-story office and retail building at Kelly Plaza, on the corner of Providence and Vandiver, as I waited for the bus.

The shuffle of traffic and a dull wind occupied mostly empty parking lots around me.

Many businesses hadn’t opened yet, and many employees were on their way to work. My bus, a 40-footer, rumbled over a hill and through the intersection. The wind shifted through the sweet, noxious smell of diesel.

Today, this bus was servicing route 1B, a Black Connector route, which roughly bisects Columbia north-to-south. When the city reorganized its bus routes in August 2014, this became one of two key connector routes, designed to transfer riders from exterior neighborhoods through the city’s interior corridor. To get anywhere far on COMO Connect, you have to take either the Black or the Gold Connector.

Nobody else was on my bus. My quarters jammed in the change receiver. The driver explained the machine was broken; he flipped a switch behind the change box and said I could sit down.

His name was Charles Lipham, but he goes

by Beau. He’s been driving for five years, and as such, he was part of the transition from Columbia Transit, the system’s former name, to COMO Connect — a rebranding and redesign of the bus routes, but also a strategy shift, indicative of greater changes in the city.

Beau never stood during my time with him, but his sitting figure seemed tall. He wears wire-frame glasses and has elaborate tattoos inked all over his arms and legs, and a small blue star tattooed below his right ear (I never saw his left ear).

“I bounced around between town routes and campus routes, so I saw both sides, which a lot of people don’t see,” Beau said. He also rides the bus, with his wife and kids; like many bus riders, they don’t have a car. They use the Gold Connector to get about anywhere they need to go.

I asked Beau how the work had changed since new routes began. We were heading south now, toward downtown.

“The changes aren’t just in the routes,” he said. “The city, the council is finally letting us do things the way we want to do them.

“And that’s helped?” I asked.

“It’s just a much better place to work.”

50 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

B

efore COMO Connect, the bus system used a web-like central hub method.

All the buses congregated at one place, Wabash Station, picked up passengers and then shuttled them out all over the city. Then the buses came back.

Wabash Station was originally built as a train depot for the Wabash Railroad. The building — a small, tan Victorian-inspired place, with plenty of open space around it — went up in 1910. The Wabash line fizzled in the 1960s, and when the city bought the station in 1979, it had been unused for nearly a decade.

Today, Wabash Station occupies a central space in the North Village Arts District, Columbia’s eclectic paradise on the edge of downtown. The station shares a parking lot with, among others, an organic grocer, art studios and a coffee shop that used to be a garage. A comic store, breakfast nooks, a community theater, art galleries and loft apartments are all within a block.

The building’s location, right in the middle of the city, used to be its biggest strength, but Columbia has grown out and up since Wabash Station was built. The middle of the city became harder to get to, and buses were getting caught in traffic. COMO Connect’s routes ensure that riders can now avoid ever going near Wabash Station at all.

But COMO Connect still headquarters there, and thanks to an FTA-funded $2.37 million renovation in 2007, the building is in good shape. It’s where I met Drew Brooks, the city’s transit manager.

His official title is multi-modal manager, and Brooks now oversees Columbia Regional Airport as well as COMO Connect, but he started with the buses; from 2008 to 2013, he was the city’s transit superintendent. On workdays, he bounces between Wabash and his office at city hall, a few blocks away. After we met in the station’s lobby, we sat down at a circular table in the office of Dale Lynn, Brooks’ successor as superintendent.

Like Beau Lipham, Brooks is a man of impressive facial hair — thick goatee with a just-slightlytwirled mustache. He speaks with compulsive confidence, and I was surprised by how he characterized COMO Connect’s first year.

“It’s inconclusive at this time,” Brooks said.

“Our overall ridership has been up, but that’s including the university routes we run. And we actually knew our ridership would dip a little bit.”

Ridership grew until 2012, but Brooks said it’s been mostly declining since then. During August 2014, the city reported drastic yearto-year growth —65,925 to 77,236 — but that was propped up with the free fares temporarily installed to draw riders to the new system. In the following months, ridership fell back down.

The initial dip was somewhat by design. The city wanted to make routes more efficient, with fewer transfers, which meant fewer rides. It was a response to the turbulence the department came through in previous years: in the mid-2000s, around the same time Brooks came on as superintendent, student housing developments began popping up on the south side of town. For a while, it wasn’t a problem. The

>>> A peek inside the COMO C onnect dispatch office.

"

city made some accommodating changes, and ridership spiked as Columbia Transit began contracting with some of the complexes.

But resources began to wane; the buses were traveling further and required more care and attention. Transit, like many other departments, began dipping into reserves. Brooks and company made route adjustments, started selling more advertising on the buses and increased fares (which, incidentally, lowered ridership further), but the need for a substantial change became more apparent. The city began a reconstruction of the bus system, and internally named it COMO Connect.

A

nother passenger joined me on Route 1B at Business Loop and Rangeline. She spoke politely to Beau as she got on, took a seat near the front and put her headphones in. Her name was Waana Kaluwasha; she had excellent posture. Kaluwasha is a first-year grad student at MU. In August, she

moved from her native Zambia to an apartment off Business Loop. She rides the bus to class everyday.

“Do you see many people on the bus?” I asked her.

“Very few,” she said. “Less than 10. Sometimes less than five.”

Another woman had gotten on at the stop after Waana’s, and two more joined on the subsequent three stops. Waana got off at the MU Student Center, and a waiting student came aboard to take her place. After Beau maneuvered the bus through a crowded campus, we headed south.

S

tudent housing was the real budget buster for us,” Brooks said. MU’s enrollment growth brought in population and development, and for a time, it brought in demand for the bus system too. But traffic worsened; and an already strained bus system continued to struggle.

Still, students kept coming in, so development kept going up, and apartment complexes kept contracting with Columbia Transit — but with seasonal ridership. “Everything changes with students,” Brooks said. Students change the success of different routes, students change the revenue brought in.

Ultimately, Columbia Transit was unable to find a successful strategy to service the new developments, and many began to contract with independent shuttle companies. It was yet another blow to the system — routes around the complexes still existed, but now they had fewer paying passengers. When Brooks was promoted to multi-modal manager in 2013, Columbia Transit as it had been known since the early ’80s was taking its last breaths.

“It was a very good system for a small city,” Brooks said. “Columbia just isn’t a small city anymore.”

While redesigning the bus system, the COMO Connect team made public participation a priority. Officials realized that, for most riders, the bus was a last resort, not a convenience: very few people with other means of transportation were riding the bus. COMO Connect wanted to hear from those not riding.

They held multiple public meetings in each ward, and they worked with suggestions from city council and from the Public Transit Advisory Board, a group specifically designed to represent diverse interests in the community. Brooks characterized the process as “the most extensive public participation project the city has ever done.”

But the public dialogue failed to reach some riders, who hadn’t been to the meetings or read the articles or seen the signs announcing COMO Connect’s new routes. On the first day with the new routes, Brooks was among his employees in Wabash Station, scrambling to answer phone calls from people asking where their buses were.

I asked Brooks what public opinion was like after a year. He let out a short sigh and said: “It’s been mixed. There have been some growing pains, without a doubt, but we’ve had a really enthusiastic response from a lot of people. I think if you look on the street, you’re going to see more people out there riding the bus.”

To mature through the growing pains, Public Works asked the city to hire a transportation consultant: Olsson and Associates, a Kansas City firm with a good track record in college towns. The consultation, as stipulated in a council meeting, would cost between $100,000 and $250,000 dollars from the department’s transportation sales tax. The consultations, as columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 51

college town case study:

GAINeSVILLE COMO Connect has a loose affiliation with MU: two “Tiger Line” parking shuttles run passengers through short campus routes, and other routes serve many students living off-campus. But other college towns, such as Gainesville, Florida, have a tighter relationship with students.

In Gainesville, University of Florida and Santa Fe College students have transportation fees built into attendance costs, and each student receives a free bus pass as a result.

The bus system, called the Regional Transit System, uses that student revenue to bolster operations as a whole. In 2015, student fees accounted for 51.5 percent of RTS revenue, or $12.6 million. UF students pay $9.55 per credit hour; Santa Fe students pay $3.00.

“It gives UF a voice,” says Chip Skinner, RTS director. “Students and faculty sit on advisory boards. We present performance to them on every single route they’re funding partners with. This relationship has worked fantastic.”

Such a partnership would take some work with MU. “We really would like to get more students to ride,” says Drew Brooks, Columbia’s multi-modal transit manager. “But we have a system that, unless we’re better funded, we do not provide a service that really has the hours that students use … That’s something that the university and the students would have to make a grassroots effort for.”

52 \\\ December DECEMBER 2015

stipulated in a council meeting, would cost between $100,000 and $250,000 dollars for Olsson to troubleshoot COMO Connect's operation and design.

It would be a return to roots: when Columbia began operating the bus system in 1965, after the unexpected closure of the privately owned Columbia Municipal Bus Line, the city brought in help from the Bi-State Development Agency, then in charge of the bus system in St. Louis. BiState helped design the routes, train the employees and threw in some temporary buses to bolster the fleet.

In preparation for Olsson and Associates, who will likely begin after the first of the year, COMO Connect has been gathering data. Using GPS-enabled sensors installed at each bus entrance, the city is creating a map of “hot zones,” as Brooks describes them — a map to indicate which routes are successful and which aren’t.

Between September 2014 and September 2015, ridership has stayed consistent: most 2015 neighborhood routes stayed within 1,000 riders of 2014 numbers, except for the Brown route, which has fallen off. The Black and Gold Connectors have the least consistent ridership numbers, but also, naturally, are the most ridden; the Dark Green and Light Green routes, which serve the south and southwest edges of Columbia, have been the least ridden.

Brooks mentioned that, when COMO Connect began, council requested that a Gold route be moved closer to the MU Student Center, which was a good idea in theory, but didn’t work — the route couldn’t stay on time. COMO Connect tweaked six problematic routes in November 2014, and two more the following February. They’re hoping the consultant can provide a comprehensive, final analysis of the entire route design, eliminating the need for continuing changes.

“I think we’re really good at running a transit system,” Brooks said, “But none of us are transit planners. That’s not our bread and butter.”

D

wayne Grubbs lives near downtown, but he works down south, at Hoss’s Market. Every workday, he rides his bike to a stop along College Avenue and puts his bike on

the front of the Black Connector bus, which he rides to Providence Road and Green Meadows Parkway. There, he gets out and bikes the rest of the way to work, about a mile and a half.

When I met Grubbs, he was wearing glasses and a black baseball cap with The Beatles logo on the front. He sat across from me on the bus.

Grubbs lives within a five-minute bike ride from Wabash Station, so the route changes were a minor annoyance for him.

“There are a lot of people who have been riding for a long time who think it’s catering more toward students,” Grubbs said. “And they don’t really need it, but there are a lot of them.” I asked him if the city was doing a good job handling the system. He nodded and said, “I think they’re doing their best.”

Our bus picked up more people on the south side of town, including a handful from Gateway at Columbia, a student apartment complex near Nifong and Providence. Most of the other passengers we picked up were students as well, though they didn’t come en masse — just a couple from each stop, dotted all over the neighborhoods around Nifong and Grindstone Parkway.

As we were driving through these neighborhoods, I asked Beau if he ever had safety trouble with passengers. He laughed.

“It happens,” he said. “But the vast, vast majority of people who get on the bus are great and polite.” But still, he told me, he’d been threatened and cussed out, and he's called police to his bus twice.

“When you’re dealing with the general public, and they’re agitated because they don’t have a car, and you stick them in a metal tube, it happens,” he said. “Especially in the summer.”

Beau encounters more incidents on the Gold Connector than the Black; indeed, most of our passengers seemed docile. Around half were listening to music, and some others were talking quietly with a friend. The young man sitting next to me was just placidly looking out a window. His name was Jared Melton, a sharp-chinned junior majoring in computer science.

His apartment complex doesn’t have a shuttle, so he rides the bus, which is

>>> Lead Driver Don Acock checks out the system.

mostly fine with him. He said it occasionally runs a little late, but it’s usually no big deal.

Our ridership peaked at 14, including me.

11 got off when the bus returned to the MU Student Center.

A

s chair of the Public Transit Advisory Board, Cheryl Price has tried to bring Columbia’s student population into the bus system’s fold. Price rounded out the 13-member commission with representatives from MU, Columbia College and Stephens College, and she meets with the Missouri Students Association, which she says has led a refreshing renewal of student interest in public transit.

I met Price in her driveway. She was tired from speaking at a council meeting the night before and didn’t want to leave the house, but her husband, who works nights, was sleeping inside, and she didn’t want to wake him with our conversation. Price told me all of this twice — once over email and again in person. She’s sometimes forgetful, one of the lingering effects of a traumatic brain injury. In 1980, while working as a nurse at the VA, Price slipped on a discarded set of scrubs in the locker room and hit her head. It took her about three years to relearn talking and walking, and since her accident, Price has devoted her time to public service. In recent years, she’s focused her energy on the PTAC. Price was excited about a lot of things.

Council had just approved funding for a

series of new bus shelters, and they had preliminarily approved funding for the consultant ($161,000, she told me, “very, very low”). The city’s first electric bus was due to arrive in a few weeks, a significant step toward the half-electric fleet that Brooks envisions. Price was among those to testride the electric bus last spring. “We’ve received only positive, complimentary responses so far,” she said.

Her breezy enthusiasm speaks to the organizational relationship COMO Connect has cultivated between the city and its community advisors. Price meets consistently with Brooks, whom she calls “a fantastic director and an excellent staff person.” She feels the commission’s suggestions hold weight with council — the bus shelter approval came after her remarks on the importance of “safe and comfortable shelters” for everyone.

Price thinks the COMO Connect project was an appropriate move, but a difficult one.

“Once the consultant arrives, we’re going to have to try a very vibrant outreach program,” she said. “One thing that is very important to me is different ways of public response to transportation.” She paused to laugh.

“Because the community meetings didn’t work, obviously.”

Columbia, she said, is a difficult city to cover with public transportation — wide and spread out in some places, dense and narrow in others. She hopes the consultant can provide clarity to the logistics of a citywide bus line. Price said, “We have to decide whether

we’re going to continue to serve the entire city or if we’ll have to go with a lean and mean system where, unfortunately, some routes get cut.”

I asked Brooks what he envisioned in a COMO Connect utopia: if he could have everything he wanted in his bus system, what would it look like?

“Well,” he said, “I think we would have a service where a bus is passing a stop every 10 minutes, so you don’t have to think about the schedule. I think that if you get to that point, where you have a really efficient, convenient service for people, I think that’s the tipping point. If we could figure that out — whether that’s a funding model or a restructuring or whatever that is — I think that’s the utopia.”

T

oward the end of our route, when it was once again just the two of us, I learned that Beau was perhaps overqualified to drive a bus. He had been stationed in South Korea while in the Army, 2nd infantry, where he captained Blackhawk teams and tank crews before his knees deteriorated too much to board and jump off the vehicles multiple times per day.

Beau, like Price, admires Brooks as a leader.

He feels that he and other drivers hold some sway in the department’s operations, and he thinks they’re on the right track.

We arrived back at Kelly Plaza, and I got off.

The parking lots were fuller now, and it was warmer. I checked the time, and we had come back ahead of schedule. CBT columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 53

54 \\\ December DECEMBER 2015

V I N G R E S

StreETside Food trucks offer a creative experience for owners and customers alike.

BY Beth Bramstedt | photos by anthony jinson

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 55

I

I’m a fan of a good sandwich — kind of partial to a Monte Cristo, sprinkled with powdered sugar and dunked in raspberry preserves. Or chicken salad, toasted to perfection on French bread, layered with melted provolone cheese and garnished with a hint of red onion. Even a peanut-butter-and-jelly on plain white bread tastes amazing after a long hike in the mountains.

But this was not just a sandwich.

This was a call-your-friends, open-your-tailgate, sit-down-andprepare-to-get-sticky kind of sandwich. It was an open-wide, meltin-your-mouth, close-your-eyes-and-savor kind of sandwich.

The beast of a concoction featured dry rubbed, smoked pork spare ribs, run through a meat grinder, hand-pattied and seared on a grill. The meat was blanketed between two slices of thick homemade bread and topped with broccoli slaw, capped with a sweet barbeque sauce that couldn’t help but drip down your chin.

And I have the stains on my jacket to prove it.

It was more than lunch; it was an experience for those not wanting to be tamed by the constraints of silverware, a table or even a napkin.

I’m talking about the Baby Back Burger from Grill-A-Brothers, one of the area’s newest food trucks, and one of many mobile restaurants in town that serves up an enterprising eating experience.

Stats and Trends According to mobile-cuisine.com, a comprehensive online resource for the mobile food industry, 2015 marks the seventh year of consistent growth for food trucks. Over 4,130 operate in the United States, and they bring in a combined $1.2 billion annually. Food truck revenue has increased 12.4 percent over the last five years and continues to climb upward.

Street operations bring in 55 percent of food truck revenue, and special events account for 18 percent, the second highest revenue source. The average customer spends $12.40 per order, and the average cost of a food truck is $85,000 plus startup expenses.

With more than a dozen mobile restaurants operating around town, Columbia is no exception to the food truck trend.

Playing with Fire Tim Eisenhauer opened Playing with Fire, a wood-fired pizza truck, in 2013. “I couldn't find a job that offered the creative outlet I needed,” Eisenhauer says, “so I had to make a spot for myself.” He grew up watching his mom run her own business and wanted the flexibility of being his own boss.

Playing with Fire focuses on Neapolitan-style pizza, which has rules that dictate what ingredients can be used and how they should be cooked. Sauce is made only from tomatoes and salt, so Eisenhauer uses San Marzano’s sauce, from Naples.

Dough can only contain flour, water, salt and yeast — no sugar or fat. So to develop flavor, Eisenhauer uses a natural starter (a mixture of water, flour and yeast used to make dough), which he feeds every day, and lets the dough cold-ferment for 48 hours before it is used.

“Toppings are minimal,” he says, “so all the ingredients need to be the best quality to shine through.” The Margherita is their signature item, and it anchors the menu. In addition 56 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

Daniel Thorne, co-owner of Grill-A-Brothers, smiles for the camera. He and co-owner Patrick Dierkes spent the afternoon serving lunch at MU's human resources office.

to tomato sauce, this pizza is accentuated with mozzarella, basil and olive oil. Another customer favorite is the Fennel Sausage. It highlights house-made fresh fennel sausage, red onions and heavy cream, infused with wild fennel pollen.

There are limitations to running a business literally on the move. “Since my office, kitchen and place of business are all spread out, I don't feel like I can perform all aspects of my job at any given time,” Eisenhauer says. “And we lose time setting up and tearing down when we could be moving on to another location.”

Eisenhauer’s favorite spot to serve is Logboat Brewing, on Fay Street. “I like that it’s a place where people are hanging out and can take the time to sit down and enjoy their pizza,” he shares. Eisenhauer has gotten to know the Logboat guys well and appreciates their accommodating spirit. “I like that we can tell people we’re there every Friday. It helps build personal relationships with our customers.”

Best of Both Worlds Chick and Lissa Orscheln are grateful to have a full-service restaurant in addition to their mobile trailer. “We have a lot of working space

here,” Lissa says as she looks around their fullsize commercial kitchen. The couple has a hard time imagining being contained to a food truck.

Smokin’ Chicks has been in business since 1996, with their current restaurant located off West Broadway. Chick says they purchased their trailer about the same time the restaurant opened.

“It’s another venue to get our food out to the market and meet customers,” Chick says. The Smokin’ Chicks trailer can be found at special events and festivals, such as First Night, Heritage Festival, Art in the Park, Roots & Blues, Mizzou Homecoming and more.

Since the trailer offers less space, the team keeps it simple and streamlines the menu to popular and portable items, keeping fried or smoked items for the restaurant.

Top items include the Memphis sandwich, featuring layers of southern-style pulled pork and horseradish coleslaw on a giant Kaiser roll; and the Texas, made with layers of brisket and coleslaw.

Having done it for so long, the Orschelns know their calendar a year in advance and know what works. “We try to plan out, be organized and not have anything happen that’s unexpected,” Lissa says.

Food Truck Chaser The OrscheIns’ years of experience are a far cry from the story of Carl Casper, who is brought to life by Jon Favreau in the 2014 movie “Chef.”

In an effort to unleash his creative freedom, Casper goes searching for a job that brings him joy, and he ends up on an unexpected adventure.

“You’re gonna laugh,” he tells his buddies back home over the phone, “I got a food truck!”

With the help of his friends, Casper revamps the broken-down vehicle into a state-of-the-art kitchen. He decides to drive his food truck across the country, starting in Florida and stopping in cities and towns along the way to open up shop.

Thanks to his son’s skills on Twitter, the truck draws crowds at each location, and the men buy food at local markets and make sandwiches until the lines have diminished. At the end of the night, they toast to the life they’ve created. The story, while slightly exaggerated for the big screen, captures the heart and passion behind the food truck industry in Columbia and across the nation.

In real life, Joe Knight, a mid-Missouri native and self-proclaimed food truck fanatic, finds himself waiting in food truck lines often.

“My obsession stems from the thrill of great columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 57

food either being brought close to you or having to search it out,” Knight says. He has tried at least 15 different food trucks in and around the places he’s lived, and he contends that the access and environment of eating from a truck creates a powerful experience that just makes the food taste better.

Just how far will Knight go to find a mobile meal? While living in Minneapolis, he and his wife, Miriam, once drove 30 miles through traffic to find a tater tot truck serving a local hospital. “We sat with all the hospital employees and stood out from the crowd as we enjoyed our tots from a truck,” he says.

Some may think of food trucks as their source for a meal, but Knight considers the experience a quest. “It makes for entertaining and engaging eating,” Joe explains. “And that makes memories.”

Learning on the Road The passion and simplicity of a food truck resonates with Patrick Dierkes and Daniel Thorne, who opened Grill-A-Brothers in June.

“We have always enjoyed sharing our love of food with family and friends,” Dierkes shares. “We want people to have a good time and a good sandwich.”

Their menu features a few of their favorites, but with an added twist. Stroll up to their portable eatery and you can experience dishes like a Miami Cuban known as the Tony Montana; a “Torta Ahogada,” or Drunken Pork; and a Grilla’s original General Tso and Tso’s sandwich.

Or you can experiment with customer Mike Watson’s new favorite, the Bun-Mee. It features Vietnamese Banh Mi, filled with pulled pork in a spicy chili sauce; pickled carrots and turnips; and fresh jalapenos. “It’s a lot of sandwich,” Watson says, struggling to find words between bites. “And it’s got a kick to it!”

The duo has wanted to open a restaurant for a long time. Dierkes worked at Sub Shop and Panera to get a feel for both the local and corporate industries. Thorne spent time serving up Mexican food with Pepe’s of Columbia to learn the trade. After meeting, the two realized they

shared the same vision for both the menu and the atmosphere of the truck.

“The concept was always grilled sandwiches,” Dierkes says, “and we consider ourselves brothers.” And so, Grill-A-Brothers began taking shape. “The trailer shows our personalities too,” Dierkes continues. “We used our construction experience to build the exact food truck we wanted.”

The Grill-A-Brother’s truck is more like a work of art, a combination of functionality and style. On the outside, the trailer sports 11-gauge steel siding, as well as Grill-A-Brother’s custom-designed Gorilla logo raised off the side of the truck. Behind the logo, programmable LED rope lights change colors and patterns at the touch of a button.

The duo went with a mobile business because of the flexibility and range of options it provides. “It's great being able to travel to anywhere with a full commercial kitchen,” Dierkes says. The team set out to be self-sufficient and self-contained, including installing a built-in

The Jamaican Jerk Hut team, led by Rex Scott, Colin Russell and Winston Osbourne, cook up lunch at Lincoln University's homecoming. Scott says in the 10 years they've been in business, there have been opportunities to open a storefront, but that might take the fun out of their venture. Plus, he says, mobile is the new business model, meeting customers where they are.

58 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

oven and smoker on the side of their rig. Yet they admit that having access to the commercial kitchen at the Elks Lodge has been a lifesaver. It allows them to serve in one location while preparing a catering order in the other.

Dierkes and Thorne also admit that being a business on wheels has its downsides. “In a brick-and-mortar restaurant, food items and equipment remain stationary,” Dierkes shares with an infectious laugh and the memory of an avalanche of cartons falling out of cabinets and off the shelves as they rolled down the road. “In a food truck, they do not.”

“We hit the ground running,” shares Nick Meyer, a chef by day and DJ by night. “They needed someone who could run a flat top stove, so I said ‘let’s do it!’” Meyer remembers his first night, serving 150 people without ever seeing the menu. Their original wait times exceeded 30 minutes.

Just five months later, the team’s learning curve has leveled off. “I really get excited about service,” Thorne says. “All three of us can do any job efficiently. What was stressful is now relaxed.”

And wait times shrank to 12 minutes or less, which the team deems good for a made-to-order sandwich.

“ „

We’ve had lots of opportunities to go brick-and-mortar, but the reality is we’d have to be open more. We’re out here for fun and the chance to hang out with friends. We don’t want to lose that experience. – Rex Scott, Jamaican Jerk Hut Work and Play

While Grill-A-Brothers may be the new kid on the block, Rex Scott and the Jamaican Jerk Hut team are the consummate veterans. The group of friends has been in business for 10 years and serves the mid-Missouri area on weekends during the warmer months while maintaining full-time jobs.

The idea started as a hobby at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, when Scott and co-owner Colin Russell would get together for fun to cook traditional island barbeque. Eventually it turned into a block party, then catering for the college’s homecoming activities, and the venture just kept growing.

Along the way, Winston Osbourne joined the team in a nonownership role.

Scott describes the food truck business as customer-centric. “I think it’s the new business model,” he says. “It meets people where they are.” He also believes the mobile route allows them greater flexibility and gives more people a chance to experience what the team can offer. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 59

“We like the interaction, and we like to think we are fun,” Scott says with a grin, as Jamaican music blares from the speakers, Osbourne dances around in the kitchen and the distinctive colors of the Jamaican flag flap in the wind.

Scott says it’s usually their jerk chicken that gets people to the truck, and the beverage of choice is Rasta lemonade, an extra fruity concoction that the team makes in-house. All of their meat is either dry-rubbed or marinated with a Jamaican Jerk spice that’s a combination of spicy, sweet and flavorful.

On event weekends, like Lincoln’s homecoming, the business will feed up to 2,000 people. For the last two years, on non-event weekends, Jamaican Jerk can be found at Macadoodles in Columbia, where they serve 500 to 700 customers per weekend.

“It’s working out great,” says Bobby Guill, general manager of Macadoodles. “They have a great reputation around town, and so do we.

It’s a great match for both of us and another service to bring to our customers.”

While “Chef ” was a fun flick to watch, it was definitely light on some elements of reality. Between prep time, health regulations and city ordinances, operating a food truck takes a home base, time to plan and a lot of grit.

60 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

Scott is quick to mention the limitations as well. To serve on the weekends, the process begins early the week before. They start seasoning and marinating on Tuesdays, drop off equipment and supplies on Thursday and arrive early Friday morning to set up and start cooking.

“The biggest hurdle was finding a commissary,” Scott says. To comply with city health codes, the group must do all its prep work in an approved commissary that meets local rules and regulations. The city also requires unlimited access. Jamaican Jerk rents kitchen space from Déjà Vu Comedy Club, which is closed most weekdays.

“We’ve had lots of opportunities to go brick-and-mortar,” Scott says, “but the reality is we’d have to be open more.” He realizes the extra time and work would compromise one of his core values. “We’re out here for fun and the chance to hang out with friends,” he says.

“We don’t want to lose that experience.”

Waiting for Spring Despite the hurdles, Columbia food truck owners seem content with their chosen business model and the lifestyle it provides, including the opportunity to take the next

few months off. Unfortunately for customers, that means the trucks are packing up for the winter, storing their supplies and making plans for next season.

Now that your appetite is whetted to try an authentic Italian creation, baked in a woodfired oven; a new twist on your favorite sandwich; or the zesty, fruity taste of lemonade that you can’t find anywhere else, all I can suggest is to dream about spring.

Make plans now to enjoy a leisurely evening at Logboat, stretched out on the lawn sipping beer and savoring the taste of Brussel sprouts combined with cream, mozzarella, lemon zest and lardo, all baked on a crust. Stop by Art in the Park, say hello to the Orscheln’s, and share some pulled pork nachos and sweet tea with a friend. Cruise over to Macadoodles and experience your favorite meat rubbed or marinated in an infamous jerk sauce, a creation that’s been slightly adapted to suit our mid-Missouri taste buds, but doesn’t skimp on the traditional jerk kick. Or search out the Gorilla for your next outdoor lunch spot or catering gig, roll up your sleeves and dig into the Baby Back Burger for yourself. I guarantee it will not disappoint. CBT

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 61

I-70 bridge work take s a no ntradi ti o nal approac h. lifeofpix.com 62 \\\ December DECEMBER 2015

By Zach Lloyd

Eighty thousand vehicles travel through Columbia on I-70 each day, and many of those travelers use the highway as a city street, hopping on and off to skirt local roads and travel around town faster.

Most of this local traffic will probably pass over one of three bridges that cross Rangeline Street, Garth Avenue and Business Loop 70.

These bridges have been designated as “critical condition” by MoDOT — all three were built in 1957, and the 58-year-old concrete slabs have all outlived their original expiration dates.

Mike Schupp, a Central District engineer at MoDOT and the head of projects in Columbia, describes the bridge rating system the state adheres to: “The way it works is that a nine is a brand new bridge; rating of two, we close the road. We inspect these bridges every two years until they get down to a rating of four, and once they’re down there, we start inspecting them every year.”

If any part of a bridge receives a three rating, the bridge is put on the critical condition list. Even though this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s unsafe, this rating does act as a signal for MoDOT to begin looking for funding to rebuild or replace it.

“Each year, more bridges are added to the critical condition bridge list than we have funds to replace,” Schupp says. “So that keeps growing, but if and when any elements of that bridge go down to a condition two, we close it.”

The three I-70 bridges were all rated condition three, though due to their high amounts of daily traffic, they were given a higher priority than lower-traffic critical bridges in the state (see sidebar, page 65).

MoDOT recognized the necessity for replacements, and the department sent contractors a request for qualifications in November 2014. Among the companies that responded to make their case for the project, local business Emery Sapp & Sons was awarded the $18 million job. One of the reasons ESS’s construction plans were chosen over other others, Schupp says, was their consideration of how the traveling public would be impacted. Other than working on state-funded bridge projects, the employee-owned company’s past contracts include construction for Boone Hospital, runway extensions at the North Central Missouri Regional Airport and residential housing developments across the state.

Most large-scale MoDOT projects are designed in-house; those designs are then sent out to contractors, and MoDOT awards columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 63

the project to the lowest bidder. The I-70 project is exceptional in that it’s being completed using a “design-build” strategy, which means the contractor designs the project as it goes along, building and submitting plans for approval at the same time they’re constructing previously approved designs. The whole process typically takes about half the time of a traditional build and allows the contractor more creativity in the project, but the added responsibility means that the contractor must be held strictly accountable. Schupp says this bridge project is a guinea pig of sorts. MoDOT wants to see how a nontraditional plan would work within a small budget and project scope.

“Basically, we came to the table saying, ‘We have $18 million to spend on this project.

These bridges have to be replaced, here are the project goals — what can you give us for this amount of money?’” Schupp says.

While design-build plans are typically saved for projects that cost upwards of $100 million, the heavy traffic flow that would be coming through the heart of this project required an efficient and flexible plan to be created quickly.

After MoDOT sent out a request for the project in November 2014, contractors only had until Dec. 19 to enter their proposals. The contract was awarded to ESS in April 2015, and crews broke ground on the work in June. The proposed finish date for all three bridges is late next summer, which would make the entire process — from design requests to completed construction — less than two years long.

Business Loop 70

The contractors worked with design and consulting teams to come up with a plan that met MoDOT’s requirements. They then submitted their proposals, which are graded by MoDOT on a variety of factors that include budget adherence, safety concerns and local impact. Under a designbuild style of construction, the contractor is in control of all of the plan’s designs — including the new style of bridge that will be built.

Schupp says the old structures were voided slab bridges, built in the late ’50s, when the interstate system was first established. This type of design was made with hollow tubes in the bridge deck that make maintenance difficult; modern styles use steel and are easier to maintain. ESS decided on a traditional girder style for the new bridges, which will have a lifespan of at least 75 years.

Of all the contractors on the shortlist, ESS’s construction plans affected local traffic the least. By diverting traffic around and onto the newly built structures at each phase of the project, the company will be able to keep traffic flowing — like playing musical chairs.

“We’re building two of the bridges to the north, as you can see, and we’re going to divert traffic from I-70 westbound onto those bridges at Rangeline and Garth,” says Chip Jones, heavy highway operations branch manager at ESS. “Then the eastbound traffic will move to the westbound lanes and we’ll tear down the eastbound bridges, rebuild those, shift the traffic back over to the eastbound side, tear down the westbound bridges and rebuild the substructure underneath.

Then we’ll shift traffic completely back to the eastbound side for the weekend.”

After all of that has been completed, traffic will finally be diverted onto the newly built bridge.

Simply put, east and westbound traffic gets diverted onto the new bridge lanes as they are built to the side of the old bridge. At the same time, the old bridge structure is destroyed laneby-lane as traffic is moved off of it. Being able to shift traffic to new or old lanes as the road is built or torn apart — without ever actually stopping traffic fully — is safer for travelers as well as the construction workers.

However, this plan only works for the Rangeline and Garth bridges, and not for the construction planned at Business Loop 70. Jones said the traffic currently running under the bridges at Business Loop will have to be closed down while the new bridge is being built. Instead of repeating the Garth and Rangeline phases, the Business Loop 70 phase will force vehicles to use the entrance and exit ramps as east and westbound lanes, blocking any traffic that would normally flow underneath I-70. For a period of 45 days in June and July 2016, Business Loop 70 traffic will be closed around the construction site and the new bridge will be built and slid into place.

Even though ESS decided to wait until after Memorial Day to close the road, the 45-day period will probably impact Fourth of July traffic. Jones says there was not a way around it, and that closing a road for 45 days at any time is probably going to affect some sort of holiday.

“We’ve met with the hotels and met with convenience stores,” Schupp says. “We’ve

Garth Ave.

Route 763 (Rangeline)

I-70 Bridges to be replaced in Columbia 64 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

held public meetings. Really, we’re going to maintain traffic … the detour’s pretty small, and obviously there will be some impacts. I wouldn’t be truthful if I said there wouldn’t be any. But [business owners] seem excited about the time constraints the contractor has to get this done in.”

Justin Brown, culinary manager at Cheddar’s Casual Café, located near the bridge site, wasn’t even aware that there would be a road closure. Brown says even though he hadn’t noticed any effects from the current construction project, the future 45-day detour might impact the flow of patrons.

“It’s definitely something that could affect the local traffic that comes here to eat.” Brown says. “I had no idea that this was even happening.”

Benjamin Gakinya, managing director for Parkade Center, at 601 Business Loop 70, says the new aesthetics of the bridge will be a great improvement for the road, though he imagines that problems could arise for motorists who don’t know how to navigate the area.

“Parkade Center is comprised of local businesses,” Gakinya says. “I’d say local businesses make up about 45 to 50 percent of our tenancy, and it’s good, it’s nice to see Emery Sapp & Sons — a local company — get the bid so the dollars can stay here locally.”

Mary Jo Henry, former director of marketing at Joe Machens Dealerships, says the Toyota dealership has not yet noticed any change in local traffic since the project began. As for the future, Henry was hesitant to speculate, though even if traffic was affected negatively, she was sure that customers would find their way to the dealership somehow.

It’s difficult to speculate what effects the detours and slowed traffic will have on local businesses around the construction zones, though Jones says ESS is committed to getting the construction finished as quickly as possible.

Both he and Schupp urge the thousands of drivers who frequently use I-70 as a local road to find other avenues for travel until the project is completed.

Not only might it be faster to steer clear of I-70 for the next few months, it will also be safer. CBT

Source: MoDOT’s Missouri Bridges in Critical Condition handout, September 2015

One-tenth of Missouri’s 10,376 state-owned bridges are judged to be in poor condition. Missouri has 641 bridges throughout the state labeled as critical condition, with a rating of three or below. Missouri has the nation’s 7th largest road system, but is ranked 47th in funding. Because of this funding disparity, many of the state’s bridges are in danger of being closed with no foreseeable solution for their dilapidated conditions in the near future.

Critical Condition Bridges, by County Adair Andrew Atchison Audrain Barry Barton Bates Benton Bollinger Boone Buchanan Butler Caldwell Callaway Camden Cape Girardeau Carroll Carter Cass Cedar Chariton Christian Clark Clay Clinton Cole Cooper Crawford Dade

9 5 10 4 2 2 8 3 4 7 12 5 1 6 10 9 7 0 4 5 10 1 2 6 7 2 7 3 5

Dallas Daviess DeKalb Dent Douglas Dunklin Franklin Gasconade Gentry Greene Grundy Harrison Henry Hickory Holt Howard Howell Iron Jackson Jasper Jefferson Johnson Knox Laclede Lafayette Lawrence Lewis Lincoln Linn

2 8 5 3 4 5 4 6 10 5 3 10 3 1 12 5 0 2 26 11 4 4 3 3 7 9 9 8 5

Livingston McDonald Macon Madison Maries Marion Mercer Miller Mississippi Moniteau Monroe Montgomery Morgan New Madrid Newton Nodaway Oregon Osage Ozark Pemiscot Perry Pettis Phelps Pike Platte Polk Pulaski Putnam Ralls

2 5 9 3 5 4 8 3 4 5 4 11 3 15 4 16 2 3 2 8 2 10 3 8 7 3 1 7 4

Randolph Ray Reynolds Ripley St. Charles St. Clair Ste. Genevieve St. Francois St. Louis St. Louis City Saline Schuyler Scotland Scott Shannon Shelby Stoddard Stone Sullivan Taney Texas Vernon Warren Washington Wayne Webster Worth Wright

2 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 13 14 10 8 9 8 1 5 21 5 17 4 0 5 5 4 7 2 3 1

Four Other Critical Bridges in Boone County: • Bridge on Route F that crosses Coon Creek (built in 1953, age 62) • Bridge on Route F that crosses Perche Creek (built in 1953, age 62) • Bridge on Outer Road 70 E. that crosses Little Cedar Creek (built in 1961, age 54) • Bridge on Route HH that crosses Hinkson Creek (built in 1961, age 54) columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 65

66 \\\ December DECEMBER 2015

Many Columbia residents fly overseas in the course of doing business. Three Columbians and international travelers recall the miles and flight times to give a peek at what it's like to take an international journey. The three travelers we feature share an affinity for cultivating — a horticulturalist, a plant scientist and an investor in startups — and for exploring.

BY Jim Camoriano | interior photos by anthony jinson

stock.tookapic.com columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 67

IN TER NAT I O NA L T R AV E LE RS NAME:

JERRY NELSON

CO MPANY:

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

NUMBER O F INTERNATIO NAL TRIPS LO NGEST SINGLE FLIGHT

90 17 HOURS AUSTRALIA

Dr. Jerry Nelson knows how to get things in the ground.

He spent 35 years as a faculty member at the MU’s Division of Plant Sciences, and he’s spent the first 13 years of retirement lending his expertise to help Asia and Africa with their agricultural challenges. Currently, he’s trying to solve disputes about water with several countries in Indochina.

Nelson also knows about getting off the ground — flying over oceans 90 times in the past four decades.

The travel bug first bit Nelson in the early ’70s, when MU granted him a sabbatical leave to Wales. He and his wife Barbara hopped on a plane with their two small children and lived a year in the country. The initial experience overseas had a long-term impact on him. “I gained insight into the power of language and of the subculture in Great Britain,” he says.

Some political elements in Wales have long wanted to secede from the U.K. and become a sovereign state. Nelson says the country holds a strong affinity toward the Welsh language and its uniqueness.

Time spent in Wales also opened Nelson’s eyes to the way Europeans approach academic disciplines. “Their scientists tend to be more visionary than scientists in the U.S., but we’re more effective in the application of that vision,” he says.

The bulk of Nelson’s overseas trips have been in conjunction with MU’s working relationship with Asian countries, namely South Korea, China and Vietnam. He has flown to South Korea 39 times, working to increase student engagement at half a dozen universities, and he helped start the first joint Ph.D. 68 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

EST IMAT E D TOTA L M I LES T R AV EL E D LON G EST L AYOV ER

BOARDING PASS

1.3 MILLION

7 HOURS CHICAGO

program in Plant Sciences with Gyeongsang National University.

North Korea is a different experience altogether. Nelson has assisted with science exchange in agriculture there to help spur food production and diplomatic relations. His visits to the nation’s countryside have had a personal impact as well. “The children are so happy, with so much potential, but they won’t achieve much,” Nelson says. “How many Nobel Peace Prize winners, how many world-class violinists are we missing out on simply because they don’t have the opportunities that kids in the United States have? While our culture says ‘Give us,’ they say ‘allow us.’”

Flying has put Nelson in some tight spots.

Literally. He stands almost 6 feet 7 inches tall.

“It’s not easy fitting in seats,” he says. “That’s why I almost always get an exit row.”

With that many flights, one would think there’d be some scary moments: turbulence, mechanical failures, medical emergencies, etc.

Not for Nelson. “I don’t think I’ve even had one missed bag — I’ve been very fortunate.”

One flight, though, did test Nelson’s endurance – the kind of patience the veteran agronomist may have found by watching a lot of grass grow. On a return trip from Europe, a mother from France had a 2-year-old child who screamed the entire flight. “I tried to hold him and help him, and so did the flight attendants, but nothing worked.”

Two weeks later, Nelson received a $200 check in the mail from the airline. “They were embarrassed and thanked me for putting up with the frustration.”

Nelson passes his time on his flights, often 12 hours long, by reading research, at least on

the way over. On the way back, he likes to read newspapers. “I’ve got to catch up on the news,” he says, “because when I’m overseas, I don’t know what’s going on in the United States.”

He’s also learned to sleep away half the trip to get a jumpstart on jet lag when he lands. He’s never taken sleeping pills. “For some reason, when the plane is about to take off, I start to yawn,” Nelson says.

Nelson is considering flying out again to southeast Asia, where he will use his knowledge about agriculture to solve a multi-country spat.

The Mekong River runs through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. The water flow near the basin, in Vietnam, has slowed due to heavy usage upriver. In addition, the tide from the South China Sea backs up into the river, causing area soils to be salty, therefore hurting the growth of rice, the region’s major food crop.

Nelson will assist in the creation of a museum in Vietnam about the river. “We want to raise awareness and help them partition the water supply to help everyone,” he says. It will be his second museum in Asia, the first, called Seeds for Life, is in South Korea.

Shortly after Nelson retired, Barbara passed away. They had been active with the Korean Student Association, which subsequently created an endowed assistantship that annually covers a year of graduate school. Students coming from Korea to MU may now be eligible for the Dr. Jerry and Barbara Nelson MU-Korea Ag Alumni Scholarship.

With more than a million miles of international travel, Nelson has established a visible and important footprint in the world, and he’s helped internationally brand MU in the process.

“

How many Nobel Peace Prize winners, how many world class violinists, are we missing out on simply because they don’t have the opportunities that kids in the United States have? While our culture says, ‘Give us,’ they say, ‘allow us.’

” columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 69

70 \\\ DECEMBER 2015 70 \\\ December 2015

I NT E R NAT I O N AL T R AVE L E RS NAME:

MARY KROENING

CO M PA N Y:

HIDDEN TREASURES TOURS

NUMBER OF I N TE R N ATI ON A L TR I PS LON G EST S I N G LE FLIGHT

65 17 HOURS SOUTH AFRICA

Mary Kroening goes out of her way to show friends new things, even if that means crossing the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean several times a year.

The former master gardener at MU Extension runs Hidden Treasures Tours, specializing in garden expeditions in nontouristy corners of the world. She typically takes eight to 12 people on one to two week trips in places like England, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Italy and Chile.

“I try to take my groups off the tourist paths and get into the heartbeat and culture of the country we’re visiting,” Kroening says.

She makes arrangements with boutique travel companies and secures a private guide and private vehicles. “Not having to be hauled around in a large bus is a great attraction.”

She adds an extra touch of customer service by sharing her knowledge of the region’s flora. Kroening can rattle off areas in the world that have soil, climate and conditions ideal for the best vineyards, coffee and varieties of plants.

Kroening started her business about 15 years ago, when she began offering horticulture study tours to Costa Rica and coordinating custom itineraries for master gardener groups. The clientele has since expanded to bird watchers, wine enthusiasts, natural history buffs and even golfers.

Kroening is a seasoned traveler, having made about 65 international trips accounting for roughly 1.5 million miles in the air.

The overwhelming majority of trips have been trouble-free.

EST I MATE D TOTAL MIL ES T RAVELED

1.5 MILLION

LO NGEST LAYOVER

28 HOURS

BOARDING PASS

NEW ZEALAND

anyone to take a nap when they get to their “Out of hundreds of clients, no one in our destination,” she says. “If you do, you’ll be groups has ever been sick or injured,” Kroening screwed because you won’t be able to go to says. “We had one exception, where we had to sleep that night.” find a dentist for a client with a broken tooth.”

February 2011 stands out for Kroening and Kroening finds it relatively easy to doze away members of her tour en route to Christchurch, the hours on a plane. When she’s awake, she New Zealand. “A massive earthquake hit the enjoys in-flight movies or watches downloaded country while we were in the air,” she says. movies on her iPad. Her longest flight, about “People were fleeing the city. It was a very odd 17 hours, was from Atlanta to Johannesburg, time to be in a country in crisis.”

South Africa, which ranks among the top 10 lonFar-off cultures have gest flights in the world. impacted Kroening the same Kroening’s 2016 tours way they impact other interinclude Costa Rica in Feb"I’m calmer and ruary; Cotswolds, Engnational travelers. Their more relaxed land and Wales in May; experiences fly parallel; now about taking and Romania in June. She broad travels lead to broadis most excited about the mindedness, it seems. things in stride.

“I’m calmer and more Romania trip. It’s someIn the U.S., we can relaxed now about taking thing she’s never done things in stride,” Kroening tend to be narrow- before —an all-castle tour. says. “In the U.S., we can Her group will explore minded. We don’t tend to be narrow-minded.

Bucharest and Transylvaunderstand that nian castles for 10 days.

We don’t understand that While ushering people other cultures have existed other cultures have all over the globe has been hundreds of years before existed hundreds a satisfying hobby, Kroewe were here.” ning does have a personal Kroening has some of years before we wish. If you ask where else advice for country-hopwere here." ping newbies. “Be patient, she would like to go in the relaxed and comfortable,” world, she’ll answer before she says. “You’ll wait in you have a chance to finlong security lines, so just know that ahead of ish the question: “Alaska!” As she describes the time.” She also tells her groups how to avoid beauty and rich landscapes of the Last Frontier, jet lag. She advises they burn as much energy one can imagine a domestic tour in the making. as they can before boarding the plane so And given her track record, if she makes a path they’ll sleep better in the air. “I don’t advise for it, many will likely follow. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 71

“

I usually am back with the cattle in economy. I have a high tolerance for pain and am a pretty frugal guy, so it doesn't bother me that much.

72 \\\ DECEMBER 2015 72 \\\ December 2015

�

I NT E R NAT I O N AL T R AVE L E RS NAME:

GREG WOLFF

CO M PA N Y:

MARATHON BUILDING ENVIRONMENTS

NUMBER OF I N TE R N ATI ON A L TR I PS LON G EST S I N G LE FLIGHT

32 14 HOURS CHINA

Greg Wolff isn't afraid of diving into things.

As a scuba enthusiast, he's explored ocean depths off the coast of Honduras, Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

As an entrepreneur, he's waded into the waters of business ownership and startup investing. He is founder and co-owner of Marathon Building Environments, a local company specializing in office interior design, furniture, flooring and window treatments.

"I've been blessed with a lot of energy," he says, watching his 2-year-old son scamper across their living room. That kind of energy has enabled him to pursue business opportunities in China about half a dozen times in the past four years.

His travels began in earnest after meeting Ryan Tang, founder and chief international officer of adFreeq, an online advertising platform for businesses. Conversations about Tang's work piqued Wolff's interest in taking a few American brands to China.

Flying long distance can become routine, but it's also an adventure that suits Wolff's personality. New cultures and new opportunities abound. When he stepped off the plane in Shanghai for the first time, he got an initial taste of what it's like to be part of a smaller group in the population. “You don't see many Caucasians, or even U.S. minorities, there," he says.

One lasting memory occurred after landing in China and getting deeper into the country, where not everyone has access to

EST I MATE D TOTAL MI L ES T RAVELED LO NGEST LAYOVER

BOARDING PASS

112,000 8 HOURS SHANGHAI

a pickup truck or trailer. "I saw a guy lower a small refrigerator onto the back of his moped," Wolff says. "He was taking it home and just did what was needed to move it."

Flying internationally has since become routine for Wolff, but there were a lot of lessons along the way. For one, in addition to securing the right visas and shots, he recommends first-time flyers bring a change of comfortable clothes and stock up on essential toiletries. The 7,000-mile journey from Chicago to Shanghai takes about 14 hours, even with a direct flight.

"At first, the time change was a big shock," Wolff says. "Getting prescriptions to help sleep was a big help."

International flights include several amenities to make trips more endurable; of course, they come with a corresponding price tag. After first class and economy, many long flights include business class seating, which is similar to domestic first class. Some provide seats in which you can lie completely flat. Entertainment systems, food choices and other comforts can run the gamut.

Wolff can't share those experiences — not because he won't, but because he hasn't had them. "I usually am back with the cattle in economy," he jokes. "I have a high tolerance for pain and am a pretty frugal guy, so it doesn't bother me that much."

Wolff knows a good deal when he sees one. He says he can typically book a roundtrip flight to China for under $1,500. Typically, his airline of choice for international

trips is American, because of their array of options in Chicago and Shanghai.

Wolff gives another piece of advice to those considering international flights: Alert your cell phone carrier to arrange for an international data plan, and make sure you can get Internet. “If you go to a Starbucks there, you're probably okay, but if you go to a general space, you won't know what the heck the Chinese characters are on your phone."

While the early startups in China didn't go as planned — a nasal wash, to help offset the country's pollution woes, and a yogurt franchise — nothing has deterred Wolff from continuing his travels back and forth between Asia. If a trip doesn't strike gold, he keeps digging, and he sometimes finds it outside of business. His most successful international trip occurred on one of his early flights to China. He met a broadcast journalist, Wei, whom he has since married.

Wolff has also traveled with Dr. Rob Weagley, chairman of MU's Department of Personal Financial Planning. Weagley scheduled Wolff to lecture to students at Renmin University, in Beijing, on the topic of business and life in America. Wolff enjoyed the experience — he could impart some of his learnings to young people with a passion for business. “Being bold and aggressive and using resources can get you a long way,” he told the class.

Indeed it can. It’s gotten Wolff around the world and into a class of highly successful businesses in mid-Missouri. CBT columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 73

CHAS 74 \\\ December DECEMBER 2015

SING SPACES How should Columbia address the downtown parking problem?

By James f. Muench | photos by ben meldrum

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 75

Parking in downtown Columbia can often feel like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

“No matter what you do, people will complain about parking,” says Jim Charlier, president of Charlier Associates Inc., who led an EPA-sponsored parking audit and workshop for the city in August.

The need for good parking has been a topic of discussion as part of the Downtown Community Improvement District’s recent work on a hospitality zone assessment, says Katie Essing, director of the CID. “It’s always a challenge for folks to find parking close to the place that they’d like to be,” Essing says. “One interesting finding from the city audit is that usually there is ample parking somewhere downtown.

It just might not be in the location where someone is looking.”

The city’s audit and workshop centered on downtown and nearby neighborhoods.

Charlier says he has held similar workshops in other cities, about half of which were college towns, such as Lawrence, Kansas, and he is acquainted with parking issues in Iowa City, Iowa and Boulder, Colorado. “The challenges that Columbia is talking about are very common in university communities,” Charlier says. “The names are different, but the issues are very similar.”

Among other things, the audit looked at turnover in parking spaces and utilization of spaces in parking garages, finding that weekly occupancy of on-street parking spaces peaked at 90 percent and that hourly parking in garages peaked at 75 percent. The audit also found that many cars parked in twohour spots stayed in those spaces longer than three hours and that 10-hour parking spaces, meant for employees, were not being used.

Don Helmreich, part owner of Downtown Appliance Home Center on Broadway, says that adding an hour to meters probably wouldn’t hurt. “But the way I look at it,” he adds, “if they’re taking four hours when they’re only supposed to be taking two, then if you give them three, they’re probably going to take six.”

Meanwhile, a new program launched by the city and the District allows employees to purchase an inexpensive meter pass, which may help encourage employees to use those 10-hour meters located on the fringes of the downtown district, Essing says. The pilot program began in August and costs $35.

76 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

“Usually you can just park four or five blocks away at a 10-hour meter and easily walk to where you work,” Essing says.

“They’re not very far away — between a five and nine-minute walk.”

The Parking Games People Play But not everyone would agree to a nine-minute walk. “We’re a typical Midwestern city,” says Steven Sapp, public information specialist for the city’s public works department.

“We like our cars, and we want to park right in front. We don’t want to walk a block or two.”

Rachel Bacon, a planner for the city, thinks parking patterns are set by past habit. “People will choose on-street parking even if a garage is cheaper and closer,” she says.

From one perspective, parking challenges are good to have, as they tend to stem from a strong local economy. “Your downtown is really thriving, and in part, it’s thriving because so much of the university residential has gone into the downtown,” Charlier says. “Show me a place where parking is a problem, and I’ll show you a place that’s economically vibrant. Parking demand grows with economic activity.”

Charlier acknowledges that the new student residential buildings downtown may have brought Columbia parking challenges that will need to be managed. “But you’re better off with that strategy than you would have been if you had gone with a strategy that was providing one parking space per bed, or something like that,” he says. “We are entering an era when parking demand is going to begin to drop.”

Charlier says there is a general demographic shift away from owning automobiles, except for baby boomers, who own more cars per capita than previous generations.

“It’s good that you’re not overinvested,” he says. “That’s a much better situation to have than to have acres and acres of underutilized parking or to have a bunch of white elephant parking garages that you don’t need.”

Counting Cars The city administers about 4,500 parking spaces in six parking garages and 10 surface lots. According to Sapp, the city does not separate out revenue from each garage, but it rather looks at the health of the overall parking utility and whether it brings in enough revenue to cover costs. The city

would only look at an individual garage if its occupancy were dropping.

While the recent city audit counted actual cars in spaces — a number that varies widely by day or even time of day — the city counts the number of parking permits issued, Sapp says. The city often issues more permits than there are spaces available because not everyone who has purchased a permit is always parked in that garage. The average ratio of spaces issued on Oct. 26 was 102 percent, and the ratio was about 10 percent lower during the summer, when most students are away. While the ratio at Short Street Garage, for example, is 98 percent, some garage ratios are consistently above 100 percent.

The three main types of permits sold are reserved spaces, which cost $115 per month and are assigned particular spots; permit spaces, which cost $65 to $75 and allow a car to park within a particular garage or lot; and hourly spaces, which are usually metered and are 50 to 75 cents per hour.

The Parking Conundrum: Are Students to Blame?

Where and why people park the way they do is a function of multiple factors, Bacon says, including availability, price and enforcement. “There’s no one reason there’s a parking problem,” Bacon says. “It will require a combination of solutions.”

One potential cause for parking consternation downtown comes from recent student housing construction. Parking in a university garage averages $18 to $21 per month for daytime hours, but only two university commuter lots, near the Hearnes Center and veterinary school, allow overnight parking for students living off campus, according to the university’s parking and transportation office. Either option means a long walk for students who live downtown, where parking is more expensive.

In the city’s Short Street parking garage, near a Brookside student housing development, parking costs $75 per month, or $900 per year. There are only enough spots in that garage for about 60 percent of renters in the nearby Brookside complex at Walnut Street and College Avenue, according to Brookside’s inquiries department. Brookside also owns some surface lots downtown, which cost $50 to $65 a month, but they may not be convenient to residents.

Tanner Morrell, the city’s parking supervisor, wrote in an email that students are no more of a

“It’s always a challenge for folks to find parking close to the place that they’d like to be. One interesting finding from the city audit is that usually there is ample parking somewhere downtown. It just might not be in the location where someone is looking.”

–Katie Essing, The District

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 77

problem in terms of parking than other residents. “When such high-rise student housings don’t provide parking sufficient for their tenants … those tenants seek out parking in city garages, lots and streets,” he wrote.

“Sometimes it creates problems we have to work through, other times we find that there is enough parking to satisfy the needs of all.”

Some students have resorted to illegally parking their cars because nearby parking is too expensive, inconvenient or unavailable.

One student, who requested that his name not be used, says he has relied on parking passes dropped by guests of the nearby Broadway Hotel since the beginning of the fall semester. He says he usually only needs a hotel pass on the weekends because the garage is not monitored on weekdays, when a lot of students park there.

“On the weekends, it’s miserable. Of course, it’s worst on Mizzou home game days,” he says.

The overwhelming majority of citations issued by the city are for expired meters — more than 45,000 out of 60,000, Morrell wrote.

Essing suggested that a system of higher fines for subsequent parking tickets could 78 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

help. This idea has other supporters as well, including Second Ward Councilman Michael Trapp, who attended the parking workshop. The graduated fine system was also suggested in the audit report delivered to council.

Squeezing Customers?

Businesses see the parking problem through a different lens. Each nearby space taken by an employee, held by someone longer than two hours or taken by a delivery driver for another business may mean a lost customer to a store like Downtown Appliance, Helmreich says.

Helmreich says the loss of spaces from construction of the Short Street garage has hurt his business. “All you’ve got to do is open your eyes to see we have a parking problem,” he says. “They didn’t need a survey to tell them that.”

Several years ago, the city wanted to change the parking on Broadway from Hitt Street to College, in front of Downtown Appliance, from angled spaces to parallel spaces. “I went to a meeting and said, ‘You’re going to kill my business,’” Helmreich says. “And they

said, ‘What do you mean? We built a parking garage on Hitt Street.’ And I said, ‘You really think that someone who wants to buy a washer is going to park in that garage and walk two blocks or whatever to my store?’”

Helmreich says the parallel parking proposal would have subtracted 17 nearby parking spaces, but the lane configuration for the new parking garage at Short Street took out many more spaces.

Festivals, Helmreich says, may be another culprit of parking woes. “I’m all in favor of Roots and Blues and the film festival, but those two things kill my business,” Helmreich says. “They take up all the parking, and customers can’t get to my store if they want to park anywhere close. They are great for Columbia and great for the restaurants and bars and maybe gift shops, but none of those people are going to come in and buy appliances.”

Although downtown housing contributes to downtown’s parking shortage, Helmreich says people who live downtown support his business. He also owns apartments above his store, so he sympathizes with downtown residents who need a place to park their cars.

NEW INTERSECTION TO HAVE STUDENTS “SCRAMBLING"

Back to the Future: Potential Answers So what can the city do about downtown parking woes? For starters, it might help businesses if the city would let them have two dedicated spaces reserved outside their business, Helmreich says. Sapp says such a practice might be possible if the parking ordinance were changed. Presently, only financial institutions are allowed to purchase parking spaces outside their business.

“I really don’t know what they can do without building more parking garages, as long as they make sure the garages are lit, have cameras and are safe,” Helmreich says.

Technology also may provide part of the answer. The city recently began using Parkmobile, a cell phone app to track parking downtown. “It’s interesting to see the different technologies that are available that could help track available locations and help people easily find spaces,” Essing says.

The Parkmobile app also allows users to pay for parking with their phones. The city made the Parkmobile app available on some

meters along Ninth Street and Broadway in August, and there were 310 Parkmobile transactions in September, Sapp says.

Similar to the task force, another potential answer to parking problems might be the formation of a new citizens’ parking commission, which was favored by stakeholders at the workshop. While a city task force usually has a set of specific goals, a permanent parking commission might have the ability to look at the city holistically, and thereby bring some consistency to neighborhoods with varying needs, Sapp says.

Charlier says a parking commission would be a good answer for Columbia, but he told workshop attendees that the commission should focus on downtown and nearby areas first. Once the commission gets experience, it could then widen its focus to the rest of the city.

Helmreich says the long-term solution involves increased capacity. “We just need more parking,” Helmreich says. “Of course, to get more parking garages, you’re going to have to tear down some buildings somewhere. But they can’t have mine!” CBT

The city plans to experiment with a new “scramble” intersection at Ninth and Elm. Instead of allowing pedestrian traffic to walk with cars between alternating red and green lights, the cycle will allow traffic to move one direction, then in the other, then allow pedestrians to scramble in all directions on the third cycle, with no competition from cars. In theory, the pilot project, slated to begin sometime in mid-to-late 2016, after stormwater and sewer construction first occurs, will make the intersection safer for pedestrians, says Steven Sapp, public communications specialist for the city.

“Everyone is interested in seeing how effective it will be,” says Katie Essing, director of the Downtown Community Improvement District, who serves on the Mayor’s Task Force on Pedestrian Safety. “It’s very typical to be trying to cross an intersection downtown, and even when you have the walk and you’re a pedestrian, it’s pretty common for a car to be trying to make a left and be looking at traffic and not pedestrians.”

Whether students will actually follow the new procedure is an open question. “It is a challenge because of the pedestrian campus,” she says. “It is tough to know that you are not on campus anymore when you come into the downtown and that you need to follow these other rules.”

When asked about it, one student, who wished to remain anonymous, had not heard about the experiment, but he says he doubted that students would follow the rules. “That street is so small that students will cross whenever they want anyway,” he says.

Ninth and Elm was chosen for the experiment in Columbia because it will be torn up anyway, on account of the already planned infrastructure repairs at the site. The city plans to educate the public about the concept through signage, YouTube and social media, Sapp says.

“Will the pedestrians wait for those two traffic signals? That’s the $64,000 question,” Sapp says.

Essing remains optimistic about the scramble intersection. “Definitely at the top of our minds is the safety of all of our guests downtown,” she says. “There have been many close calls, so I think it’s important to try the safety measure and see if it can help." columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 79

nonprofit spotlight

›› OATS Transportation

Reliable Transportation in a Rural World

OATS provides specialized transit in 87 Missouri counties.

BY Sierra Stewart | photos by ben meldrum In 1971, the White House held its first Conference on Aging in Washington, where inspiration struck volunteers from Boone, Audrain and Callaway counties. The group obtained a $35,000 grant from MU to study the lack of transportation for seniors in rural areas. Instead, the volunteers bought a bus, hired a driver and founded Cooperative Transportation Service, later to become Older Adults Transportation Service, and now known simply as OATS Inc. By 1973, the company had expanded beyond the original five counties to 87, serving 27,000 riders throughout the state of Missouri annually.

RURAL CONNECTIONS The non-profit provides all Missouri residents something easily taken for granted: their independence in the community.

Betty Smith "I have known for a long time what a great service OATS is for people who love independence and don’t want to worry about friends or family."

80 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

OATS, with a fleet of 700 vehicles, transports not only senior citizens, but also the general public in rural areas. More than 587,391 trips were made in the last year, transporting people to their jobs free of charge. Specialized trips, made for medical reasons, essential shopping, business, education and recreation, make up another 899,150 one-way trips.

Many riders pay for the services with their time, volunteering however they can. In Boone County, Anne Quade and Betty Smith take phone calls in their homes to schedule OATS rides in their county. “[Our volunteers] make us very unique.

We're a Missouri institution, and it's very unique in the country,” executive director Dorothy Yeager says. “Some of the national associations look at us with interest.”

John Fields "OATS is family, a great place to work. Our drivers are very caring for their clients and passengers."

OATS volunteers meet routinely in county committees, and the statewide board of directors comes to the Columbia headquarters monthly. President Nolan McNeill, an employee of the company for three decades, leads the state board.

The Wheel, a quarterly newspaper printed

by OATS, is a volunteer project that provides news stories, bus schedules and contact information. It’s also available online for free.

“What's really funny is that you'll go back and look at the articles from The Wheel in the 1970s, when the company was founded, and some of them could just reprint today,” says Yeager. “Some of the challenges with funding, the gas prices, are still affecting us. It's one of those moments when everything's changed in the world, but nothing's changed.”

Jill Stedem "OATS isn’t just for seniors - we serve everyone from Head Start students to seniors."

David E. Jeffries "My proudest moment has been coming on board with OATS as a driver."

➜ 2501 Maguire Blvd.

573-449-3789 oatstransit.org

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES Most OATS drivers are retired, and 20 percent of employees are veterans. Most employees come as a way to give back to their community post-retirement.

"Because we're a non-profit, our salaries aren't as high as other places.” Yeager says. “So all we can offer is family-like attitude and a good work environment to make up for the wages. If we can offer some flexibility, that's a nice trade-off."

Veteran David Jeffries retired from a print shop in Fulton and has driven for OATS in Columbia since April 2012.

“I’ve never worked with a nicer bunch of people,” Jeffries says. “I love what I do and I think everyone here knows it. It’s not only a job to me, but a blessing. Sometimes I think I’m crazy for saying that. Even in the winter, when it is 11 degrees at four in the morning and I’m all alone preparing for a dialysis run, I know why I love my job.”

The 600 OATS drivers receive training to learn skills like securing wheelchairs and other situations that may arise with elderly passengers or riders with disabilities.

“There’s more responsibility to sitting behind the wheel,” Jeffries says. “Most peo-

Mel Sundermeyer "Knowing that it allows some individuals to remain in their homes, not in a care facility, is something I’m proud of."

"Because we’re a nonprofit, our salaries aren’t as high as other places.

All we can offer is familylike attitude and a good work environment to make up for the wages."

- Dorothy Yeager, executive director ple we transport are thankful for our services and appreciate the job we do. So many of them, without OATS transportation, probably couldn’t keep medical appointments. I’ve had so many compliments for the job I do, the professionalism I show and the care for who I transport. I take pride in my ride.”

MANY MORE MILES TO COME While funding from the Federal Transit Administration comes through MoDOT to support

Jack Heusted "I had a rider early on in my time with OATS come up to me and take my hand and tell me if it weren’t for OATS taking her where she needed to go, she didn’t know how she would be able to live in her house. I knew then this was the company I wanted to work for."

OATS, it only accounts for about 30 to 35 percent of the non-profit’s funding.

Partner businesses throughout Missouri make up much of the difference. Agencies on aging, foster grandparents, shelter workshops, hospitals and nursing homes all contract with OATS. Donations and tax credits are also a major source of income for the organization. Some donations come from Amazon.com through the AmazonSmile program. Boone Electric Community Trust donated $10,000, and the state’s Neighborhood Assistance Program awarded OATS $15,000 in tax credits earlier in 2015. Some donors are more specific, like First Call O’Reilly Auto Parts, which donated flashlights for the buses, and Central Bank of Lebanon, which recently awarded the organization $4,000 toward a new bus.

In September 2016, OATS will celebrate its 45th anniversary at the Holiday Inn Executive Center. More than 800 riders, volunteers and drivers are expected to attend.

"Missouri is still one of the only states with transportation in every single county, regardless of how rural it is.” Yeager says.

“It's something that we as Missourians need to preserve and protect.” CBT

Dorothy Yeager "Transportation is a solution to so many problems. Healthcare, education, jobs all need transportation to better serve everyone."

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 81

Back Row: (L-R) Alec Stevens, Brian Burks, Tyler Grotewiel, Josh Doerhoff, Doug Whitworth, James Robertson, Carly Henke, Wyatt Horton Middle Row: Rusty Crane, Curtis Shuman, Aaron Grothoff, James Price, Ed Calvert, Dustin Cain, Stacey Wise, Leslie Leroux, Steve Hinz, Sara Snodderley, Angie Regan xx Front Row: Jenna Stewart, Dan Hoover, Justin Gay, Keith Bennett, Chip Jones, Donald Stevenson, Katie Fleming, Angie Richardson Photo by Anthony Jinson 82 \\\ DECEMBER December 2015

celebrations

➜ 2301 Interstate 70 Dr NW 573-445-8331 emerysapp.com

›› Emery Sapp & Sons, Inc.

Owning Success

Emery Sapp & Sons wins employee-owned regional award.

When a business is employee-owned, there might not be a higher compliment than to be recognized as the top employeeowned company in the region.

This year, Emery Sapp & Sons Inc. received the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) Heart of America Chapter Company of the Year award, a testament to their success as an employee-owned company. The Heart of America chapter encompasses Missouri and Kansas.

Constructing a Culture When Billy Sapp began this company in 1972, he started with one employee and one piece of equipment, working in one town.

His main focus was residential, with some underground utility work, according to Dan Hoover, CPA and Controller, but Sapp began to expand into concrete paving in 1973.

Today, ESS is a heavy highway civil contractor that does bridge construction, concrete paving, excavation and underground utilities for residential and commercial developers, general contractors and local and state governments. The company, headquartered in Columbia, now also works out of state in Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. The company has grown to nearly 600 employees, with three locations in Springfield, Kansas City and Joplin.

More company expansion isn’t out of the question. “We will go where the work is,” says Hoover. “If there’s a job somewhere that fits us and we can get there and be competitive, we will do it.”

The company has been employee-owned since 1999. “It was an opportunity to really give the company back to the people who helped [Sapp] build it, being the employees,” Hoover says.

ESS employees gain value in the company through a qualified retirement plan,

and the company fosters a culture of employee ownership.

“Me being an employee owner, I value what the company does,” says Sara Snodderley, marketing and communications manager. “That drives our profitability as a company. Me being invested in Emery Sapp as an employee–owner helps make us profitable as a company.”

To ESS, being an ESOP company is about a team effort; it is about all the employees driving the success as an ESOP. “Our guys know that, ‘Hey, if I put in the extra effort and this job does extra well, the company does better, I do better in my ESOP account,” Hoover says.

Everyone, from top to bottom, gets to participate in the ESOP, which aids in the success of the company. Snodderley says that success happens because employees are owners.

“This happens because of the guy out there who is putting pipe in,” Snodderley says.

Hoover says that ownership gives employees a financial drive as well. “Everybody has a qualified retirement account within the plan that they financially benefit from as the company does well.”

Company of the Year After winning the regional ESOP Company of the Year, ESS will now be considered for the national award, presented at the National Association ESOP conference, in Washington in May 2016.

“We were up against some great competition in our chapter, so we were very thankful, very surprised that we were [the] successful winner this year,” Hoover says. “It meant a lot to us.”

Current projects include their first design-build job with MoDOT, working

By Rachel trujillo

on the bridges along I-70 in Columbia. They are also working on Scott Boulevard, along with many other projects across the city.

“Beyond that, we will still do what we are doing,” Hoover says. “Always look for what we can do better as a company, and more particularly, as an ESOP company.” CBT

Timeline 1972 › Emery Sapp & Sons is founded with the philosophy of “being in business tomorrow means satisfying our customer today.”

1990s › ESS begins to see new opportunities for work; the company takes on new projects and begins to grow. ESS takes on MODOT projects.

1999 › ESS becomes an ESOP company in the Heart of America chapter. At this time, the company has about 200 employees committed to ensuring quality work for their customers.

2000s › ESS expands to statewide work in Kansas City, Springfield and eventually most of southwest Missouri.

2015 › As a competitive, successful ESOP construction company, ESS decides to apply for ESOP Company of the Year and receives the regional award.

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 83

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tickets: columbiabusinesstimes.com /20under40ticketsales

84 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

Education

›› Dr. Peter Stiepleman talks the business of education­­— Part 1 /4

Constructing Successful Students Every morning, long before the sun rises, I wearily make my way downstairs. And before I can prepare lunch for the boys and before I make my wife her coffee, I must first weave my way through a labyrinth of Legos and game pieces. We all have morning rituals, and this one is mine.

Just last week, while still in a somnolent state, I put my foot down. And then I opened my mouth. I let out a bloodcurdling scream that had our dog barking. My wife called out, “What’s wrong?” to which I yelled out, “Life!”

And then there were accusations of being dramatic and words not fit for print about children leaving detritus all over the place.

I had stepped on one of those little cars from the Game of Life.

What started as a genuine nuisance (at least in my mind it was genuine!) became more providential. Later, in a meeting with our Cradle to Career Alliance, I was introduced to a road map for student success. Published by Home Works! The Teacher Home Visit Program and modeled after the Game of Life, this road map charts out a child’s path from birth to graduation. This road map is very much aligned to our school district’s eight organizational goals: 1. We will be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money.

2. We will partner with the community to help children enter school ready to succeed.

3. Students will read on level by the end of third grade.

4. We will actively support student transitions.

5. Students will graduate with the necessary skills to enroll in college and/or a career program of their choice.

6. Ninety percent of students will attend school at least ninety percent of the time.

7. Out-of-school suspension numbers will decrease for all student groups.

8. Students will demonstrate academic progress as measured by state accountability systems.

Our goals, like the road map, are a progression. Each one is measurable. Our goals serve as a way to acknowledge our current reality so that we may establish short-term and long-term objectives. Our future depends on meeting those goals. When we’re successful, our community thrives. We understand that we are responsible, in part, for preparing tomorrow’s citizens and contributing to our community’s economic success.

Life is good in Columbia. People want to live, work, learn and play in Columbia because we’re an educated community, a cultured community and a generous community. Our unemployment rate is 3.6 percent, even though our overall population has grown to 120,000. That growth is one of our school district’s great challenges. This past May, I told the graduating senior class that when they entered kindergarten, there were 16,400 students in the Columbia Public Schools, and at the time of their graduation, there were about 18,000 students.

P eter St i eplema n

Illustration by Tifani Carter

That enrollment growth requires instructional space. It requires additions to existing buildings and it requires entirely new school buildings. Meeting our needs for growth means keeping up with ongoing improvements and maintenance while also eliminating things like trailers. This requires deliberate longrange facility planning.

The average age of our buildings is 47 years old, and 30 percent of our schools are older than 60. Replacing roofs, monitoring tuckpointing needs and maintaining heating and cooling systems are important to keeping facilities in proper working order. In terms of classroom trailers, we’ve made considerable progress on reducing the number of trailers. In 2006, there were 174 trailers; by 2017, there will be 67.

Keeping up with facility needs is good for our community and good for our kids. Construction means improved learning environments. Construction means jobs for our community and money spent in the community. mid-Missouri businesses have been a part of many of the projects we’ve completed over the last 10 years, and that investment has had a favorable impact on the local economy.

Life really is good in such a growing, vibrant community. Yes, that growth does pose challenges to our schools, but those challenges aren’t insurmountable as long as we commit to look forward and make plans that will improve life for our students and the community. CBT

➜ Superintendent of Columbia Public Schools columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 85

New website. Same outstanding content.

ColumbiaBusinessTimes.com 86 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 87

MARKETING

›› Monica Pitts talks marketing trends and tips

Maximizing Marketing Time “I don’t have the time.” Seems like that phrase is a small business owner’s mantra. Despite the time crunch, some owners find time for the marketing tasks needed to sustain and grow their business while others don’t. What’s the secret?

Recycle Content: Start with one piece of content and use it across many channels. Imagine a blog post that can be shared on social media, be republished in an email newsletter, be included in a radio spot, inspire your print advertisement, be repurposed as a mailer and later become part of a free talk or seminar. Mind blown, right? By recycling content, you reach a broader audience. You can keep your message consistent and targeted. This keeps design, content development and image costs to a minimum.

Evergreen: Start with the end in mind and create materials that have a long shelf life and can be used for multiple purposes. “We make sure that content we put out holds relevance for a long time,” says Dan Shifley, owner of Dogwood Solar. Shifley learned this lesson the hard way. “Early on, I produced a bunch of flyers that I planned to use for several neighborhoods over time, but I printed a specific date and year on them that made it only good for a one-time use. Lesson learned.”

Document Processes: Sometimes the hard part is knowing where to start. Having a documented process can provide you with a good starting point to reach a polished result. Process adds consistency to your in-house marketing efforts. Best of all, it allows you to take the first step towards delegating the work.

Delegate: “Delegate :-),” advises Susan Myers, realtor at Weichert, Realtors–First Tier, who did it “all or not at all” until she experienced the power of delegation. If you’re unable to find the time to do your marketing activities on your own, make a list of what you want to accomplish and determine what those activities are worth in projected income. Use that number to set a budget for finding help. You could get by using an intern, a design freelancer or content developer to lighten the load, or an agency could take care of it all.

Template: Pre-created templates ensure consistency across content and make it easier to produce quality items through delegation. “I make sure the files and content I use the most are set up with formatting and styles, so all I have to do is tweak content,” Shifley explains.

Service Subscriptions: If you spend too much time stuffing envelopes or driving to the post office, you may need to find a service to help you skip a step or two. For social media consolidation, consider using HootSuite to schedule and post to multiple social media sites at one time.

Services like SendOutCards will deliver treats and cards to your database — no envelope stuffing necessary. “Our goal is a 12-month soft touch system, all prescheduled, with limited maintenance after it’s in place,” says

mo n i ca p i tts

Illustration by Tifani Carter

Myers. She uses a combination of SendOutCards, Pro Power and Sharper Agent to accomplish the goal.

Automate: Like service subscriptions, automating allows you to skip a step. For example, many bloggers compile their email newsletters by hand to highlight their monthly blog posts. Some email services can pull blog posts directly from your website and send them out, cutting the task in half. Myers says, “Auto schedulers are a time saver. We use HootSuite to schedule automatic posts daily, weekly, etc., like our party reminders.”

Automated appointment reminders can be sent from your online calendar software. Or, like my eye doctor, Shelly Williams, owner of Williams and Associates Eye Care, you can add appointment reminders to the check-in process. Williams’ front desk staff have me address my own reminder cards for my next visit when I check in so they’re ready to send when scheduled.

Scheduling: I feel like I preach about scheduling social media, email and blog posts to my clients. “I had known scheduling was an option on Facebook and in my blog for a while but just recently started using these features. Man, what a time saver,” Shifley says. “It really takes the mental pressure off that ‘I should really post something this day, week, hour, minute,’ and I know that I have a content stream flowing that I just keep adding to the back end. So if I can't get to it for a couple weeks, it doesn't mean the world hasn't heard from us during that time.”

Small business owners are creative to the core, even when carving out the time to make their marketing easier. It all comes down to finding a system that works for you and sticking with it. Then you can review your outcomes and enjoy the business you bring in! CBT

➜ C h i e f c r e at i v e d i r ecto r at M ay ec r e at e d es i g n columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 89

TOP B2B PRODUCT DELIVERY SERVICE

First Place: Culligan Water 1801 Commerce Court, Columbia, 573-874-6147, culliganmidmissouri.com Second Place: Major Brands

TOP HAPPY HOUR

First Place: 44 Stone Public House Second Place: The Roof

TOP ARCHITECT

First Place: Jennifer Hedrick Second Place: Nick Peckham

TOP COMMERCIAL BUILDER/CONTRACTOR First Place: Coil Construction Second Place: Little Dixie Construction

TOP REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER

First Place: Starr Properties Second Place: John Ott, Alley A Realty

TOP PLACE TO WORK

First Place: Veterans United Home Loans Second Place: Hawthorn Bank

TOP ENGINEER

First Place: Timberlake Engineering Second Place: Trabue, Hansen & Hinshaw Inc.

TOP ACCOUNTING SERVICE

First Place: Williams-Keepers Second Place: Accounting Plus Inc.

TOP CATERER

First Place: Hoss’s Market & Rotisserie Second Place: Bleu Restaurant & Catering

TOP STAFFING COMPANY

Second Place: The Insurance Group

TOP COMMERCIAL LENDER

First Place: Matt Williams, Landmark Bank Second Place: Drew Smith, Commerce Bank

First Place: Influence and Co. Second Place: Global First Responders

TOP WEB DEVELOPER

First Place: MayeCreate Design 700 Cherry St., Suite C, Columbia, 573-447-1836, mayecreate.com

First Place: JobFinders Second Place: Caroline and Co. Inc.

TOP CULTURE

First Place: Veterans United Home Loans Second Place: Murry’s Restaurant

TOP OFFICE DIGS

First Place: True Media Second Place: Woodruff Sweitzer

TOP BUSINESS WITH A COMMITMENT TO PHILANTHROPY First Place: Veterans United Home Loans Second Place: Joe Machens Dealerships

TOP JANITORIAL SERVICES

First Place: Atkins Building Services Inc. Second Place: Tiger Maids

TOP COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER Second Place: Delta Systems

TOP ADVERTISING AGENCY

First Place: Woodruff Sweitzer Second Place: MayeCreate Design 700 Cherry St., Suite C, Columbia, 573-447-1836, mayecreate.com

First Place: LG Patterson Second Place: Casey Buckman Photography

TOP EVENT LOCATION

First Place: The Tiger Hotel 23 S. Eighth St., Columbia, 573-875-8888, thetigerhotel.com

TOP PLACE TO HAVE A BUSINESS LUNCH

First Place: Murry’s Restaurant Second Place: D. Rowe’s Restaurant & Bar

TOP OFFSITE TEAM MEETING LOCATION

First Place: Logboat Brewing Co. 504 Fay St., Columbia, 573-397-6786, logboatbrewing.com

TOP COFFEE MEETING LOCATION

First Place: Kaldi’s Coffee Second Place: Dunn Brothers Coffee

TOP AMBASSADOR OF BUSINESS IN COLUMBIA First Place: Dave Griggs Second Place: Mary Ropp

TOP NEWBIE TO BUSINESS

TOP BUSINESS INSURANCE

First Place: Mike Messer Agency – Shelter Insurance 908 Rain Forest Parkway, Columbia, 573-442-5291, shelterinsurance.com/ CA/agent/mikemesser

TOP BUSINESS WITH INTERNATIONAL IMPACT

Second Place: Les Bourgeois Vineyards, 14020 W. Highway BB, Rocheport, 800-690-1830, missouriwine.com

TOP PLACE TO CLOSE A DEAL

First Place: Nick Hardy Second Place: Max Prokell

TOP CHAMBER VOLUNTEER

First Place: Wally Pfeffer Second Place: Michele Spry

TOP LOCAL TEAM-BUILDING EXPERIENCE First Place: Logboat Brewing Co. 504 Fay St., Columbia, 573-397-6786, logboatbrewing.com

TOP OLD-TIMER IN BUSINESS

First Place: Kat Cunningham Second Place: David Keller

TOP COMMERCIAL VIDEOGRAPHER

First Place: 44 Stone Public House Second Place: Boone County Title Co.

First Place: Spectrum Studios Second Place: Baker HD

TOP BANK

TOP HR FIRM

First Place: Boone County National Bank Second Place: Landmark Bank

Second Place: Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center

First Place: MoreSource Inc. Second Place: Accounting Plus Inc.

Second Place: The Canvas on Broadway

TOP IT COMPANY

First Place: Midwest Computech 311 Bernadette Drive , Columbia, 800346-8934, midwestcomputech.com

Second Place: Easy PC

technology

›› Brant Uptergrove reviews the latest trends in tech

Build a Smart Conference Room Almost every business has a conference room. Whether you are using your conference room to show products to your customers, video conference with a satellite office, hold a company meeting or receive visits from sales people, your conference room must serve many purposes. With each purpose, there are changing demands on these rooms. No one wants to spend large amounts of money on a conference room, because let’s face it: the average conference room is probably used about four hours a week.

But during those four hours, it’s important that the design of the room does not hinder your agenda.

Here are some key things to consider when setting up a conference room or making changes to your existing setup: 1. Screen: Do you need a screen to project things? If so, what size? Screen size is largely dependent upon the room size and what you are going to be displaying on the screen. If the room is large, or if you’ll be working with lots of spreadsheets and documents with small print, then consider a projector and screen instead of a large TV. If you are primarily using it for video and presentations, then a large TV will suffice.

2. Screen placement: You will want to make sure the screen is high enough so that everyone in the room can see the full screen. You also want to make sure it’s not too high, as this can cause neck fatigue, leading to people losing interest in the content of your message.

3. Connectivity: How are you going to connect devices to your TV or projector? TVs and projectors now have multiple wireless connectivity options, some of which are built-in. There are also add-on devices to TVs, such as AppleTV and Microsoft’s Wireless Display Adaptor. These two options allow almost any tablet or laptop purchased in the last two years to wirelessly connect with ease.

4. Confidentiality: Are you going to be using the room to discuss confidential information? You might want to consider a white noise system.

This system puts out a soft static sound in the room, keeping people outside from overhearing your conversation.

5. Sound quality: What kind of sound quality will you need? You can do anything from a couple of computer speakers to a full-blown 7.1 Dolby Surround Sound system. It depends on your use.

6. Drawing board: Do you need a dry erase board? Use it to draw out upcoming plans, troubleshoot processes or do some plain old brainstorming.

7. Simple-to-use remote: A smart remote can make all the difference in simplifying your setup. You can program a smart remote to auto-change inputs based on the options you select. For instance, if you have an iPad,

bra n t uptergrove

Illustration by Tifani Carter

you can have a Mac button on the remote to automatically switch to the AppleTV input and turn on the AppleTV. You can set up multiple buttons based on your needs. This takes the guesswork out of which input the TV needs to be on (for any technologically challenged people).

8. Lighting: If you are going to be using a projector, you will want to make sure your projector is bright enough so people can see without having to dim the lights. Dimming the lights can make some people uncomfortable.

Also, you will want to make sure that light sources will not interfere with line of sight in any parts of the room.

9. Other accessories to consider: Conference room phone, webcam, dedicated computer and many more.

The main thing to keep in mind is that you need to make sure any technology you use in your conference room is simple, yet effective. Make sure your employees are familiar and comfortable with the setup; this will put them at ease when presenting. Making the customer feel comfortable in your conference room environment will allow them to give you their full attention, and it will help you to be more successful. A well-planned and well-executed conference room setup can go a long way in helping you be more productive and profitable. CBT

➜ ac c o u n t m a n ag e r at m i dw est c o m p u t ec h columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 91

ORGanizational HEALTH

›› Erica Pefferman builds strong teams

#Como2Gaines No person should have to start a business trip at 3 a.m. Nevertheless, that’s what I did. I grabbed my cup of coffee, checked to make sure I had all of my things and left my house in the dark while my family slept. Fifteen minutes later, I joined several other people as we prepared to depart for our trip to Gainesville, Florida. The rest of the group, like me, was sleep deprived, but we were also passionate enough about Columbia to not only spend the next three days learning ways to improve Columbia, but to start at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m.

The trip I speak of is the second Columbia Chamber of Commerce Leadership Visit. A group of civic and business leaders joined together to seek answers to the challenges we face as a community.

We hoped to find some of these answers not only in the successes of similar cities, but also in our own collaboration. Even a simple bus ride across a city can raise questions that you hadn’t considered and bring answers from someone you hadn’t met before.

As we would sit at a meal or recap after a presentation, we realized that nearly all of us agreed that a few items were our biggest issues to deal with. We didn’t all agree on how they should be handled, but the list of needs had been created: • An airport terminal that serves our community and provides a proper “front porch” for our city, as well as a more robust service schedule.

• A public transportation system that not only serves the needs of our community (what are those, anyway?), but is also profitable.

• A team of consistently collaborative leaders between the university, the city, public education, police and economic development; a team that ditches their cell phones, as well as their egos, at the door.

• A police department that treats their community and youth with empathy and connects them with resources to be helpful, not hurtful — and vice versa.

• Media leaders willing to give a voice to the silent majority and minimize the influence of the often ill-informed and loud-spoken minority.

I know that there are many worthy issues in our city to be addressed. And I know that we have all the resources we need to handle them. I saw firsthand the passion and purpose needed to solve

E r i ca P efferma n 92 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

any problem that Columbia faces. I experienced people from different backgrounds, different political views and different economic circumstances all coming together with a spirit of collaboration and commitment. I know that if there are 40 of us, then there are 400, 4,000 or even 40,000 of us — people who have opinions, care about our community and would like to do something to help. We just don’t know where to start. It seems so big, and it seems like we are so little. Who are we anyway? Why would anyone listen to what we have to say? Besides, we’re all busy.

People would listen because you have the answer. Maybe not you alone, but your collaboration with a banker, a small business owner, a student and a stay-at-home mom will lead to the answers we need.

The answer lies in the act of collaboration itself.

It’s in this light that I challenge you to do one thing: Go to one city council meeting. Tired of the Trib Talkers and the “anonymous” getting all the mic time? Then show up. Just once. Let them see and hear someone else. Show our city council that we care about how issues in our city are handled. This is one small thing that all of us can do that would have a big impact. This was the number one request of the council members I spoke with. Show up and be heard.

I arrived home from Gainesville at about 11 p.m. on the third day.

I was exhausted, in dire need of a shower and had my mind melted from the influx of inspiration. Nevertheless, I was excited to go to work the next day, planning on incorporating some of our findings into the next issue. I texted idea after idea to Brenna McDermott, CBT editor, as I was learning so many things that I never would have learned had I not left the safety of my known circle. For me to be in a room of 40 people who passionately believe in Columbia, and love it and invest in it as I do, was an absolute treat. I tweeted the entire trip (follow me @epeff). I imagined myself coming back from Gainesville, mounting a horse and giving a very Braveheart-esque performance in front of City Hall yelling “Who’s with me??!!”

I don’t have a horse. So, this column will suffice. What issue will you follow up on at a council meeting? Where will you “mount up”?

Continue to read the pages of CBT this year to see what topics we tackle in order to get to the root of our city’s issues. If there’s something you’d like CBT to look at in the coming year, email me at erica@ businesstimescompany.com. I want to hear from you. CBT

➜ P r e s i d e n t o f Th e B u s i n e s s T i m e s C o m pa n y

sales strategy

›› Tron Jordheim talks business trends and the art of selling

Making Use of Logistics You might not think about how important transportation and logistics are to a sale, but you should: you cannot make a sale unless you can get the buyer and the product together. Companies like FedEx, Amazon, Zappos and others have concentrated on logistics for a long time. Those companies are involved with getting the product to the buyer; many times, local businesses instead need to get the buyer to the product. Don’t underestimate how important this can be.

When a potential customer is on the phone, there are two important probing questions we ask in the self-storage business. First, we ask, “Do you know where we are located?” This allows us to highlight the convenience of our location, keep the customer from getting lost and take some stress out of the initial process. Many sales can be lost because the potential buyer takes a wrong turn, miscalculates how long it will take to drive to a location or feels overwhelmed by figuring out directions.

We also ask, “How are you getting your things here?” We do this to make sure the potential customer has thought through the logistics of bringing belongings to the storage facility. If the customer does not have a plan for transportation, the whole deal could fall apart.

We want to know up front if the customer does not have a good plan so we can help solve that issue with advice, a referral to a mover or a truck rental.

Think about what transportation issues can trip up your business.

Unless you’re doing deliveries in your normal course of business, maybe you’ve never thought of that. Even in a city as manageable as Columbia, there are times a person does not want to go from one end of the city to another to do business. Ask your potential customers pertinent questions about travel, directions and logistics. Have a good solution to the common problems you hear about. Many times,

Many times, local businesses need to get the buyer to the product. Don’t underestimate how important this can be.

tro n j ordhe i m

Illustration by Tifani Carter

all you have to do is to suggest how simple it is to get to your location, and you’ll put a client’s mind at ease.

If your business involves shipping things to people, then you already know how important logistics can be. Are you setting reasonable expectations for people so they are pleased at how quickly their deliveries arrive? If you are not managing expectations for deliveries, then you leave yourself open to disappointing and annoying your buyers.

If you visit people’s homes for service calls, it is even more important to manage expectations. Let customers know if you are still running on schedule, and give them notice when you are backed up — we all know it can be frustrating to wait on a service call. Anything you can do to minimize that frustration helps your business in the long run.

Pay attention to how transportation and logistics affect your business. You’ll be happy with the resulting customer satisfaction and the repeat business you experience. CBT

➜ CEO o f T r o n J o r d h e i m E n t e r p r i s e s a n d P r o d u c e r o f C a u s e W e e k columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 93

New Business Licenses

›› Columbia residents and their upstarts

INTRODUCING

O COM COMO DECEMB ER/JANU

CULTURE HOMES FASHION

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ISSUE THE HOLIDAY

E AND CULTURE IA LIFESTYL E ABOUT COLUMB VOL.1 / A MAGAZIN

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YS FOR THE HOLIDA PG. 34

Booze-Infused Desserts Dressed to the Nines Dre ssed to the Nines

+

FOR THE HOLIDA YS PG. 34

DRESS UP

IT’S FUN TO PLAY DRESS UP SOMETI PG. 42 MES

D E C /J A N

A Splash of Boldness

AT HOME WITH

2016

$5.95 US

01

JESSE BODINE PG. 71

D E C /J A N

2016

$5.95 US

DEC/JAN 2015/16

OFFICIAL V2.indd

COMO Living

1

DEC/JAN 2015/16

AT HOME WITH

OFFICIAL V2.indd

Playful Tails Pet Care LLC 4620 W Salem Drive Pet care services

Sassy Dawgs 124 E Nifong Blvd.

Hot dog cart

573 Race Depo LLC 5302 Sapphire Court Automotive parts online sales

Taylor Tool Works LLC 610 Big Bear Blvd.

Online reseller of handtools

David Baker Consulting 3800 Blue Cedar Lane Consulting on strategic planning

Columbia Storage Depot 1500 Creekwood Pkwy.

Storage unit facility

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O O

M

Threadbare 901 Rollins St. High-end thrift store for Mizzou students Story Up VR 1601 S Providence Road 3D video transport service

A Splash of Boldness AM 11/16/15 10:09

COMO Living

Range Free 110 Orr St. Allergen-free bakery and café

ARY

THE HOLIDAY ISSUE

Booze-Infused Desserts

01

Prime53 2401 W Broadway Software development

LI V ING

VOL.1 / A MAGAZIN E ABOUT COLUMB IA LIFESTYL E AND CULTURE

IT’S FUN TO PLAY SOMETI MES PG. 42

Provision Living At Columbia 2333 Chapel Hill Road Assisted living

JESSE BODINE PG. 71

1

11/16/15 10:33 AM

C U LT U R E FA S H I O N HOMES EVENTS

94 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

Downes Insurance 1000 W Nifong Blvd.

Sales and services of health and life Ulytic: Urban Analytics 500 E Walnut St. Data survey collection service Titan Security & Sound 4372 W Millbrook Drive Residential sercurity systems, home theater

Dry Fork Coffee 913 West Walnut Ct. Sell wholesale coffee Health Tiger Vending LLC 1601 Birmingham Court Vending of healthy snacks and drinks Missouri Detailing 3307 Belle Meade Drive Mobile automotive detailing services Head Brothers Agency 710 W Business Loop 70 Allstate insurance representatives Leslie Song LLC 111 N Stadium Blvd.

Illustrations, prints, textiles

Dependable Services & Construction 2614 Calvert Drive General Contractor

Cunningham Esthetics LLC 2600 Forum Blvd.

Esthetic services

Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance 2415 Carter Lane Insurance

Flexicash 2901 W Broadway Financial services – payday loans

Downes Productions Advertising Agency 1000 W Nifong Blvd.

Advertising consultant

Collin McCarty Insurance & Investments 106 Corporate Lake Drive Insurance and investments

Jersey Mike’s Subs 1101 Grindstone Pkwy., Ste. 105 Sandwich sub Columbia Acro and Tumbling Team 3609 Mojave Court Acrobatic gymnastics and tumbling Jenne Hill Townhomes 3101 Jenne Hill Drive Property management Teresa Cleaning 1620 Skylane Drive Cleaning Clean Cut Barbershop LLC 510 E Green Meadows Rd. Barber shop 123 Revamp 4501 W Bristol Court Interior redesign consultant TwoDays Consulting LLC 3406 Ridgewater Drive Strategic consulting and project management Schaefer Autobody Centers Inc. 1306 Creasy Springs Road Auto body collision repair MO’ Fitness 901 Safari Drive Gym promoting health and fitness CBT

Deeds of Trust

›› Worth more than $760,000

$200,000,000 Columbia Automotive Management LLC Bank of America LT 35 Mikel Sub

$3,612,500 McLarty R E, LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 2 Estes Horst

$84,190,500 McLarty R E, LLC Suntrust Bank LT 1 Machens Sub

$2,847,500 McLarty R E, LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 1 Estes Horst

$84,190,500 McLarty R E, LLC Suntrust Bank LT 2 Shelter North Subdivision Plat 2 $84,190,500 McLarty R E, LLC Suntrust Bank LT 2 Industrial Park Of Columbai PL 2 $7,520,000 Discovery Hotels LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 303 Discovery Park Subdivision Plat 3 $5,474,000 McLarty R E, LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 502 Perry Automotive Plat 5 FF W/ ESMTS $5,000,000 Burrell Inc S M F Registered Services Inc. LT 1 Keene Estates LT5 PL 4 $3,689,000 McLarty R E, L.L.C. Central Bank of Boone County LT 2 Begley Subdivision Plat 3

596 Deeds of trust

were issued between 9/28 and 10/23 $1,210,000 Hartley Townhomes LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 26 FF Bowlings Subdivision $1,020,000 Ryan, Terry & Julie Commerce Bank LT 219 Gates At Old Hawthorne Plat NO 2, The

$2,800,000 Wind River Circle Properties LLC Landmark Bank LT 1418 Broadway Farms Plat 14-A

$1,015,000 Williams Crossing LLC Landmark Bank LT 1 PT Garths Add

$2,560,000 Newger Investments LLC UMB Bank LT 1 Tower Industrial Park

$1,000,000 Starr Property Investments LLC Landmark Bank LT 6 Georgetown Village

$1,771,200 Shoppes at Red Oak LLC, The First State Community Bank LT 4-A Red Oak South Plat NO 1-A

$920,000 MO Midwest Properties LLC Landmark Bank LT 101A Woodland Springs Plat 5

$1,634,823 American Realty LLC Mid America Bank LT 2 Red Oak South Plat NO 1 $1,615,000 McLarty R E, LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 4A Industrial Park Of Columbia Plat 2 Lot 4 $1,245,000 3WT Properties LLC Commerce Bank STR 9-47-13 //NE SUR BK/ PG: 448/805

Nationally recognized award-winning IT solutions right here in Columbia

$900,000 Williams Crossing LLC Landmark Bank LT 39 PT Garths Add $870,000 Rhodes Development Company LLC Montgomery Bank LT 4A Vanderveen Plaza Plat 2 $760,000 Larkin Real Estate LLC Mid America Mortgage Services Inc LT 1605B Chapel Hill Center Condo CBT

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Blue Ribbon Small Business of the Year Award winner for 5 Consecutive Years

First Place Top IT Company

There IS a better way to manage your IT. Call today. 573.499.6928 MidwestComputech.com

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 95

Economic Index

›› It’s all about the numbers

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Construction:

Housing:

Residential building permits, September 2015: 85

Single family home sales,

Value of residential building permits, September 2015: $10,934,359

Single-family active listings

Detached single-family homes, September 2015: 25 Value of detached singlefamily homes, September 2015: $7,972,729 Commercial building permits, September 2015: 15

573-815-9711 | hosssmarket.com 96 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

699 Single-family homes average sold price, September 2015: $193,841 Single-family homes average days on market, September 2015: 59

Commercial additions and alterations, September 2015: 12

listings on market, September

Value of commercial additions and alterations: $1,709,796

September 2015 – Boone County Labor Force: 100,290 Employment: 97,138 Unemployment: 3,152 Rate: 3.1 percent

Corner of Nifong and Forum Blvd.

Monday - Saturday 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.

on market, September 2015:

Value of commercial building permits, September 2015: $3,012,916

Labor:

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September 2015: 171

September 2015 – Columbia, Missouri Labor Force: 100,290 Employment: 97,138 Unemployment: 3,152 Rate: 3.1 percent September 2015 – Missouri Labor Force: 3,073,712 Employment: 2,934,256 Unemployment: 139,456 Rate: 4.5 percent

Single-family homes pending 2015: 138

Utilities: Water October 2015: 47,934 October 2014: 47,514 Change #: -420 Change %: .9 percent Number of customers receiving service on Nov. 1, 2015: 47,919 Electric October 2015: 48,479 October 2014: 47,989 Change #: 490 Change %: 1.0 percent Number of customers receiving service on Nov. 1, 2015: 48,473 CBT

By the Numbers

›› Boone County statistics

condition of boone county asphalt roads Source: Boone County Road and Bridge 2014 Annual Report

Traffic Counts Source: MoDOT

127.21 miles excellent condition

67.39 miles acceptable condition

66,297

3.33 miles failed condition

columbia regional airport statistics

Highest Annual Average Daily Traffic count at a site in Columbia (along I-70, near Providence)

Source: United States Department of Transportation

1500

3,180

120,000

125,000

(estimate)

1,353

104,000 100,000 86,000

1,039 1000

75,000

824

77,000

2011

2012

lowest Annual Average Daily Traffic count at a site in Columbia (Route VV, northern edge of town)

50,000

533

500

76,000

25,000 0

2010

n/A 2011

2012

2013

2014

0

total number of flights per year

2013

2014

2015

total number of passengers per year

on-time statistics for cou 2015 (envoy air only)

80%

of departures are on time

68%

of arrivals are on time

69.53

average delay for departure (in minutes)

57.09

average delay for arrival (in minutes)

4,008 number of named roads in Boone County Source: Boone County

Boone County pavement types (in miles) Source: Boone County Road and Bridge 2014 Annual Report

Concrete Limestone 32.26 Chip Seal

Asphalt 197.93

Gravel

468.2

75.01

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 97

GIVE SOMETHING THAT MEANS SOMETHING

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98 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

did you know?

›› Fun facts CBT staff discovered while reporting this issue

We featured three Columbia business people who travel internationally in “Departing: CoMo” on page 66. They’ve been on some long flights! Mary Kroening’s longest flight was 17 hours to Johannesburg, South Africa; Jerry Nelson’s longest flight was 17 hours to Australia; and Greg Wolff’s longest flight was 14 hours to China. That is a lot of time to catch up on old CBTs!

Downtown parking is always a hot topic. Did you know that the City of Columbia manages about 4,500 parking spaces in six parking garages and 10 surface lots? Read more about downtown parking in James F. Muench’s feature on page 74.

You can’t go anywhere in Columbia without seeing a food truck. They’re everywhere! Did you know that more than 4,000 food trucks nationwide bring in $1.2 b illion each year? Read about some of our local food trucks on page 55.

We’re all bracing for the I-70 construction happening throughout the next year. Did you know that I-70 was built in 1957, and the Columbia bridges carry an average of 80,000 vehicles per day? Read about the project, scheduled to be completed in fall 2016, on page 62.

We’re pleased to unveil the first of a fourpart column series from Dr. Peter Stiepleman, superintendent of Columbia Public Schools. In his first column, Dr. Stiepleman discusses the positive changes happening to expand Columbia schools. He also outlines the school district’s eight organizational goals. Check those out on page 85.

Older Adults Transportation Service, also known as OATS, is something Missourians take for granted.

Not only did OATS start in Boone, Audrain and Callaway counties, but it is also a unique service across the country. Read more in our Nonprofit Spotlight on page 80.

Wabash Train Station is on the National Register of Historic Places and was built in 1910. The building was once a stop for passenger train service and is now a hub of the Columbia public bus system COMO Connect.

Read all about this structure in Flashback on page 102. columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 99

8 questions

➜ 1100 Business Loop 70 W 573-489-9070, celebrationlimousines.biz

›› Get to know your professionals

Creating Human Connections

Tim Chancellor, CEO of Enviteme Events and Celebration Limousines and Buses

2. Do you believe more companies in the future will follow your business model, providing people with not only events, but also luxury transportation?

We had done some research on luxury and found that most people are very happy with clean cloth seats instead of more expensive leather. We provide safe, clean transportation for the everyday person. We are pleased to offer lower rates so the bride and groom can have extra money for their honeymoon, or so people can afford transportation on a bachelorette party or winery tour. We would rather the group have fun and get home safely, instead of getting a DWI or an accident.

I also continue to work a full-time position, so my livelihood doesn’t depend on our transportation business. I carry very low overhead and purchase, and I maintain used buses and limousines. This is why I can offer low rates and discounts. We have always met and beat any competitor’s rate on a similar vehicle.

F U N FACT: 100 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

3. What separates your business from other transportation services in the area? Customer service. We always try to exceed our group’s expectations. Most of the time, we surprise groups by having their cover waived at our partner bars, and we allow groups to decorate the buses.

6. What are some challenges you face in the transportation industry? Like any profession, the market changes. We maintain relationships and have socials to keep up with the changes, so we can adjust to those new opportunities. We would have never believed we would be doing shuttling for apartment complexes, sequestered juries and home tours.

4. Why do you start your company's name with an 'E'? The “E” stands for electronic invites. During our events, people would say while leaving: “That was awesome! Invite me to the next event.”

Seems everything has gone electronic — relationships, classes, cameras, calendars, everything.

5. What motivated you to start Enviteme with the initiative to “get people off-line and in-life”?

We saw the trend of people going to school online, dating online, and we noticed that professional people were getting more and more disconnected personally, with career changes, divorces and few ways to reconnect. We began doing small events for singles: speed dating, happy hours, winery tours, even skydiving. If someone shared an interest, we would create an event and invite others.

We branched out and began doing couples events, working with balloonists, bed-and-breakfasts and float trip groups. We worked with non-profit and charity organizations as well.

7. Your current events include speed dating, fundraisers and skydiving. What's next?

Recently we are finishing up with Oktoberfest in Hermann. We will prepare for company holiday parties and Christmas light tours, which have been very popular. We have bridal shows, and New Year’s Eve is right around the corner. After the first of the year, we do Lake of the Ozarks pub crawls and jump into all the bachelorette parties from the holiday engagements.

Photo by Keith Borgmeyer

1. How does Enviteme Events maintain high standards of quality and customer service? We send out surveys and ask for feedback. If we hear of a concern, we work to resolve the issue immediately. For example: during the hottest summer months, we had a wedding party comment that the air conditioning wasn’t cold. During the wedding, we had the bus’s air conditioning serviced and recharged. We stand behind our mission of exceeding the client’s expectations.

8. What do you believe is the key to success in the transportation industry? I've learned from some of my business mentors to always exceed your customer’s expectations. CBT

➜ Celebration Limousines and Buses serves all over mid-Missouri, from Lake of the Ozarks to Macon.

ADVERTISER INDEX 43Tc....................................................................................................................................... 13

Hoss's Market & Rotisserie..................................................................................96

Accent Press.................................................................................................................98

Inside The Lines.............................................................................................................. 12

Accounting Plus...................................................................................................... 103

KFRU.......................................................................................................................................88

American Red Cross of Central and Northern Missouri..............98

La Di Da................................................................................................................................20

Anthony Jinson Photography.......................................................................... 15

Landmark Bank................................................................................................................2

Bleu Restaurant & Wine Bar................................................................................20

MayeCreate Web Design..........................................................................................14

Budget Blinds............................................................................................................... 35

Midwest Computech.................................................................................................95

Busenbark Flooring and Granite....................................................................18 Caledon Virtual...........................................................................................................11

Missouri Employers Mutual...................................................................................6 Modern Litho/Brown Printing......................................................................... 24

City of Columbia Water & Light..........................................................................8

Moresource Inc..............................................................................................................9

Clearvision.................................................................................................................... 40

Naught Naught Insurance Agency...............................................................98

Columbia Regional Airport..................................................................................61

Pickleman's Gourmet Cafe................................................................................... 17

Commerce Bank...................................................................................................30 & 61

Property Protectors................................................................................................5

COMO Connect.............................................................................................................26

Services for Independent Living.....................................................................10

D & M Sound......................................................................................................................26

Socket...............................................................................................................................101

Dave Griggs Flooring America......................................................................... 35 Edward Jones................................................................................................................ 47

Sophia's.............................................................................................................................. 47 State Farm Insurance - Stephanie Wilmsmeyer.....................................84

Equipment Share............................................................................................................7

Tech Electronics......................................................................................................86

Fibrenew...........................................................................................................................84

The Bank of Missouri................................................................................................36

Foundation Recovery Systems....................................................................... 40

The Village of Bedford Walk............................................................................38

GFI DIGITAL..........................................................................................................................16

Tiger Maids.........................................................................................................................3

Gravity................................................................................................................................. 4

University Club............................................................................................................ 22

Great Circle................................................................................................................... 87

Wilkerson & Reynolds Wealth Management......................................... 22

Hawthorn Bank.........................................................................................................104

Wilson's Fitness..........................................................................................................39

columbiabusinesstimes.com /// 101

flashback

➜ 126 N. Tenth St. 573-874-7282 comoconnect.org

›› Columbia, then and now

By Alisiana Peters Photo by ben meldrum

Today, Wabash Station operates as the main office for COMO Connect, formerly known as Columbia Transit, the cityowned public bus system.

Wabash Station is a one-story, H-plan Jacobean building, according to the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 126 N. Tenth Street, it sits on a stone and concrete foundation, with a partial basement under the north end. The station can be entered on both the east and west sides through large double-doors.

The interior construction and design gives off a home-like atmosphere and was finished in mahogany woodwork with concrete floors.

The station originally opened as the Wabash Railroad Station in 1910, and it provided passenger train service until 1964. The station was built at a time when Columbia was experiencing rapid growth, with new businesses and

a growing population arriving daily by train.

Many of the passengers who arrived on the Wabash were connected with the University of Missouri, either as students or staff.

In 1979, the station had been unused for almost a decade. The city purchased the Wabash Train Station, and the adjacent seven acres, for $250,000. During that same year, the station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as it played an integral part in the growth of Columbia. In 1982, the city began using the station as a bus depot.

In 2007, the station was completely renovated and expanded with the intention to make it a multi-modal transportation center.

The expansion included the addition of a new administrative annex and an expanded waiting area in the historic depot. Artwork created by local artist David Spear, as part of the

city’s Percent for Art Project, was added to the walls. The historic renovations included restoring the clay roof and refurbishing of the limestone exterior and historic windows and doors, according to an EPA historic preservation case study.

In 2010, the city held a Wabash Centennial Jubilee to help celebrate the station’s 100th anniversary. This celebration included station tours, children's activities, music and food.

Drew Brooks, multi-modal manager for COMO Connect and Columbia Regional Airport, says Wabash Station is a huge part of Columbia’s history. “[Wabash] is a great historical marker for the city and university students. It has been a transportation center for over 100 years,” Brooks says. CBT

➜ We love Columbia business history. If you have any interesting photos and stories, please send them to Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com 102 \\\ DECEMBER 2015

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