REVITALIZING DOWNTOWN: The failed market district plan. SUNDAY
127th year No.226 www.hpe.com High Point, N.C.
SECONDARY GOAL: Wake Forest targets defensive improvement. 1C
50 Cents Daily $1.25 Sundays
BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
DON DAVIS | HPE
August 14, 2010
SEWER SPILL: Thomasville reports another incident. 2A
Thomas Bus layoffs cut
This Thomas Built bus is fresh off the assembly line.
SATURDAY
HIGH POINT – The reduction of the work force at Thomas Built Buses won’t turn out as severe as anticipated earlier this month. The parent company of the bus manufacturer, Daimler Trucks North America, indicated Friday that a turnaround in demand will allow the company to lay off fewer workers than initially expected. The layoff and cutback in production was supposed to eliminate 216 jobs by the end of this month. Instead, Thomas Built Buses will dismiss 90 workers, the company indicates. Thomas Built Buses leadership notified employees and United Auto Workers Local 5287 on Friday that the company won’t reduce the production rate at its C2 bus facility as announced earlier this month. The decision was made “due to strong demand
for their EPA 2010-compliant school buses,” said Maria McCullough, spokeswoman for Daimler Trucks North America. Thomas Built Buses will only lay off workers who were hired to meet the peak summer demand, McCullough said. “We want to keep as many workers working as possible. You hate to lay off anybody, but the least you can lay off, the better,” said John Crawford, president of UAW Local 5287. Crawford said the UAW and company worked together to minimize the impact of the layoff. Thomas Built Buses has 1,136 employees in the UAW bargaining unit as of today, Crawford said. Thomas Built Buses has experienced an up-and-down year with its business and work force. Earlier this year, Thomas Built Buses recalled 99 employees, who had been laid off in 2009, because of an upturn in orders. pjohnson@hpe.com | 888-3528
WHO’S NEWS
----
Jeremy Hiatt, a 2010 graduate of High Point University, is interning at Smith Leonard in High Point. Hiatt served as an audit intern at the company, actively helping on several corporate audits and employee benefit plan audits across different industries.
INSIDE
----
Airport officials ponder public comments on master plan update BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
TRIAD – Piedmont Triad International Airport officials may make a decision as early as next month on a plan that would guide the direction of the airport into the middle of the century. The airport is updating its master plan for the first time in 16 years in the wake of an expansion for the FedEx Corp. cargo hub Johnson and a new runway and taxiways to accommodate the mammoth overnight sorting operation. A draft of the master plan was unveiled in May, and airport officials have been making presentations and taking public comments since then. The airport’s governing board, the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, could consider approving the master plan update at its meeting next month or in October, said PTIA Executive Director Ted Johnson. The master plan update would provide guidance on airport growth – including land purchases and a possible additional runway
PTIA, 2A
OUTDOOR CLASSROOM: Central students get new facility. 1B OBITUARIES
----
Jennie Davis, 78 Margaret Kessinger, 82 Raymond Peurifoy, 54 Leon McNeill, 70 C. DeFoy Miller, 99 Elmore Prince, 83 Viola Sanders, 89 Ray Shipley, 91 Gilbert Underwood Jr., 69 Helen Yates, 87 Obituaries, 2B
WEATHER
---SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE
Travelers at Piedmont Triad International Airport look over model of the airport.
MASTER PLAN
–
Patchy storms High 84, Low 70
The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority is updating its master plan for long-range development of Piedmont Triad International Airport for the first time in 16 years.
6C
INDEX
The update anticipates needs for 30 years or longer and is divided into 10-year phases. Among the highlights of the proposed plan are adding 2,300 acres to the nearly 4,000-acre PTIA property and raising the possibility of a fourth runway on the northwestern side of the airport. The proposed land acquisition doesn’t include any property in northern High Point. A copy of the draft master plan update is available on the PITA website – www.flyfrompti.com.
SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE
Elizabeth McCullen of Benzie County, Mich., uses her laptop to pass the time at PTIA on Friday.
Rise in corporate earnings fails to add jobs BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
TRIAD – It’s the painful economic paradox of the past several months. U.S. businesses, despite the lingering effects of the recession, have reported generally positive secondquarter earnings in recent weeks. The financial reports are for the quarter ending June 30. Eight out of 10 publicly traded companies exceeded earnings expectations, Thomason Reuters reported late last month. But while balance sheets may be better, job growth remains tepid. The nation’s unemployment rate
stayed at 9.5 percent in July as private employers netted 71,000 additional jobs, far fewer than the 200,000 or more needed each month to lower the jobless rate. The city of High Point jobless rate, which was at 10.5 percent when the second quarter began in April, rose to 11.1 percent in June, according to figures from the N.C. Employment Security Commission. The disconnect between corporate earnings and job creation mainly relates to uncertainty on the part of employers about the future of the economy, said Ken Smith, managing partner with the financial services firm Smith Leonard in High Point.
The first step that employers have taken emerging from the recession involves increasing the hours of current workers, Smith said. “Companies had been working people on short time. When business gets a little better, they can add hours or pay overtime. If you are not sure that business is going to continue to improve, you don’t take the risk of hiring more people,” he said. Many companies have generated second-quarter profits through cost-cutting, not robust sales and revenue increases, said Mark Kurt, assistant professor of economics at Elon University. “These profits are being generated from cuts in positions and
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR NEWSPAPER.
wages. The profits are coming from cost minimizing,” Kurt said. Companies need to record solid profit gains during several quarters and note positive revenue increases to begin hiring in earnest, Kurt said. One encouraging sign is that the level of layoffs and job cutbacks now is significantly lower than during the heart of the recession a year ago, Kurt said. While the private sector hasn’t been adding jobs in skyrocketing numbers, net gains have occurred through the first half of this year. “But it’s slow,” Kurt said. pjohnson@hpe.com | 888-3528
ABBY 3B BUSINESS 5-6C CLASSIFIED 3-6D COMICS 5B CROSSWORD 4B DONOHUE 5B FAITH 5-6A FUN & GAMES 4B HOME 3D LOCAL 2A, 1B, 2D LOTTERY 2A MOVIES 3A NATION 1D OBITUARIES 2B OPINION 4A SPORTS 1-4C STATE 2A, 2B STOCKS 5C TV 6B WEATHER 6C WORLD 3A
INFO Circulation Classified Newsroom Newsroom fax
888-3511 888-3555 888-3527 888-3644