Business personnel 01/07/02

WIB office hires data entry assistant

Cindy Biggs has joined the Workforce Investment Board office, 760 S. Kingshighway at Cape Girar-deau, as a data entry assistant.

Biggs, a graduate of Jackson High School, started as a part-time employee with WIB in August and was recently elevated to full-time status, working with David Davis and Wanda Dillon. Davis is manager of fiscal operations for the WIB, and Dillon is the manager of customer file data and monitoring.

The WIB helps people get and keep jobs, and helps employers find good employees.

Accountant completes two tax classes

Holly A. Thomas, CPA with Schott & Van de Ven, Certified Public Accountants, recently completed two classes on specialized taxation issues.

The first class, "Tax Deferred Exchanges Under Section 1031," dealt with information for clients or companies who are contemplating a business or real estate disposition in a tax-deferred exchange. The second class dealt with the complex aspects of estate and gift taxation and income taxation of trusts and estates. Thomas is a certified specialist in estate planning and has experience in estate, gift, generation-skipping transfers and fiduciary income taxation.

Schott & Van de Ven is a full-service public accounting firm at 1020 N. Kingshighway, Suite D, Cape Girardeau. Founded in 1959, the firm has satellite offices in Marble Hill, Mo., and Marion, Ill.

Farmington doctor joins Jackson animal clinic

Dr. Marla Gray has joined Cox Small Animal Clinic, 2612 U.S. 61 in Jackson.

Gray, of Farmington, Mo., previously worked as a veterinarian at the Farmington Animal Hospital for three years.

Columnist Will to speak in satellite broadcast

George F. Will will discuss "What's Next for America," during a satellite broadcast at Edward Jones financial-services firms in Cape Girardeau and Jackson Tuesday.

Will, a Newsweek columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, will join Edward Jones chief market strategist Alan Skrainka and Bob Morris, director of equities for Lord Abbett. Each will give his perspective on the state of the nation, economy and financial markets in 2002.

"We expect this sign-of-the-times roundtable to discuss such issues as the lasting effects of terrorism will be on the U.S. and the Edward Jones perspective on stocks, bonds and other investment vehicles," said Cheryl Mothes, of the Edward Jones office at 2260 Jackson Blvd. in Jackson, Mo.

The special broadcasts will also be held at the Jones office at 1749 Independence in Cape Girardeau.

Workshop on hobby businesses scheduled

Bill Vickery, from the Small Business Development Center at Southeast Missouri State University, will be guest speaker at a one-day workshop entitled "Turn Hobbies Into Entrepreneurship" to be held Jan. 14 at the Workforce Investment Board's One-Stop Career Center, 760 S. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau.

This is a special training project of the WIB of Southeast Missouri and the Private Industry Council.

Reservations are being accepted for the 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. workshop, being presented by June O'Dell, training manager with PIC, and Ken Boyer, manager of Business and Industry Services with the WIB. For reservations, call O'Dell at 1 (800) 451-0990, extension 23.

Farm Bureau names two new members

Gary Branum, a New Madrid County, Mo., farmer, has been elected to a two-year term on the Missouri Farm Bureau Board of Directors.

Branum is a former aerial applicator and air traffic controller and farms 2,500 acres of rice, corn, wheat and soybeans. He has served on the New Madrid County Farm Bureau board, and as county president and vice president. At the state level, Branum has served as rice committee chairman. He also is a board member of the St. John's Bay and Basin Drainage District and the SEMO Water District.

Edwina Woolard of Puxico, Mo., has been appointed to the Missouri Farm Bureau's Promotion and Education Committee. Woolard and her husband, Gilbert, farm 1,000 acres of row crops, care for 200 head of cattle and have a custom hay-baling enterprise in Stoddard County. She has served on the county Farm Bureau board as secretary since 1986.

-- From staff reports