Economy Section :: Page 60

• Holidays OK for most businesses

  By Diane ChiddisterMarch 11, 2010

  The recent holiday season was better than the one before for many downtown merchants, and other stores had sales either comparable or slightly down from last year, according to recent interviews with a dozen owners. Most merchants felt satisfied with their sales, given the state of the national economy. However, they had to work hard and be smart to weather the holidays in a recession, and several linked their stability to their own adjusted business practices.

• Kings Yard building for sale

  By Lauren Heaton

  After nearly 30 years under the ownership of one Springfield family, the long building that houses most Kings Yard shops will be sold at auction at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 2, at the Bryan Community Center. The building houses 10 retail spaces, nine of which are currently occupied, and the sale includes an adjoining wooded property to the north behind the post office.

• Lawyers offer foreclosure support

  By Lauren HeatonJanuary 28, 2010

  For at least one Yellow Springs homeowner, the past year has been unforgettable. In the fall of 2008, his mortgage company granted him a three-month forbearance on the monthly payments for his home in the village. Having no steady income due to an ongoing health issue, the homeowner received a second forbearance in early 2009, and then was told in the spring that unless he could begin making his monthly $1,000 mortgage payments, the lender would begin foreclosure proceedings on his house.

• Job growth at YSI Incorporated

  By Diane Chiddister

  For most businesses, 2009 was a year to cut jobs, not to add them. However, the story was more upbeat for YSI Incorporated in Yellow Springs.

  “The company did well last year,” CEO Rick Omlor said in an interview last week. “We had a number of things go the right way. We are pleased.”

• Former Antioch Company employees sue leaders

  By Diane ChiddisterJanuary 7, 2010

  A large group of former Antioch Company employees has filed a lawsuit against company leaders, charging that in recent years those leaders placed their own financial interests before the welfare of the company as a whole, leading to actions that forced the company into bankruptcy and the loss of more than $20 million in employees’ retirement funds.

• With assistance, business can thrive in Yellow Springs

  By Lauren HeatonNovember 26, 2009

  According to the most recent business survey update sponsored by Yellow Springs Community Resources, the village is a pretty good place to do business. Business owners like the village’s location, personality and walkability, and even in a slumped economy, a number of local outfits plan to expand here. But business owners also perceive barriers to growth, including the cost of doing business in the village, the lackluster appearance of the central business district and the age-old concern with lack of parking space downtown.

• New economic position filled

  By Diane ChiddisterNovember 19, 2009

  

  At the Nov. 16 Village Council meeting, Village Manager Mark Cundiff announced that the Village has hired Sarah Wildman as its new economic sustainability coordinator.

  “She has a great deal of experience in economic development in a small community as well as a background in the arts,” Cundiff said in an interview on Tuesday. “She’ll bring a lot of energy to the job.”

• Home, Inc. has option on Rabbit Run

  By Lauren HeatonNovember 12, 2009

  The historically green space at Rabbit Run farm that is alternately high-touch vegetable garden and brambly wildbrush, home to fox, deer and, of course, lots of rabbits, may be in for a change. Last month, Home, Inc. bought an option to purchase the 7.5-acre farm on Dayton Street to accommodate what the housing group hopes will be its first mixed-income, energy-efficient development project.

• Take a tour of the village greens

  By Brooke BryanOctober 10, 2009

  

  Can a home be built to absorb enough of the sun’s heat so that it requires no heat source — other than the presence of people and the heat they produce by inhabiting space and cooking? Can an old home be retrofitted or remodeled with the hopes of realizing the cost of investment through monthly energy savings? Does making more sustainable decisions about energy use have to mean being less comfortable?

• Anthrotech to measure Army

  By Lauren HeatonOctober 8, 2009

  For getting precise measurements of the human body, no anthropologists in the country are more highly specialized than those at Anthrotech. That is likely the reason the U.S. Army chose the Yellow Springs outfit last month to complete the task of obtaining a statistical sample of the physical proportions of its soldiers.