Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 39

Editor: Tiffany KJos Telephone 520-573-4224 Fax 573-4144 mail businessazstarnet.com Friday September 17,2004 SECTION. ARIZONA DAILY STAR SERVING TUCSON SINCE 1C77 MARKETS September 16, 2004 DOW30 rri Ha. storms raining jobs for laborers NASDAQ RUSSELL 2000 i News Notes Subcontractors filling state's cleanup needs tors to bigger outfits with municipal cleanup contracts. Many homeowners in Florida are pressuring local officials to clean up the mess faster. Dump sites, trucks and drivers are all in short supply.

Another big obstacle: the need to combat fraud that has historically plagued disaster cleanups. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees disaster cleanups, typically pays 75 percent or more of local debris-removal costs, leaving state and local governments to shoulder the rest. Past FEMA cleanup bills from $3.5 million after a 2001 ice storm in Haskell County, to roughly $800 million to clean up the World Trade Center after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks. Most Florida municipalities had bid out prearranged contracts before the hurricanes with one of the half-dozen companies that specialize in debris removal. They include Crowder-Gulf a joint venture with offices in Alabama and Florida, and AshBritt of Pompano Beach, Fla.

Several of the companies pack powerful connections. Crowder-Gulf operations manager Raymond "Buddy" Young is a former FEMA regional director. DRC which has debris contracts in Florida, counts former FEMA Director James Lee Witt as a special adviser. Local governments typically activate the standing contract after a storm hits, and the contractor swings into action within days. These companies, some of whom helped clean up Ground Zero SEE CLEANUP D5 By Chad Terhune and CarrlcK Mollenkamp THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ORLANDO, Fla.

After Hurricane Charley sliced through Florida last month, Tommy Wise quit his job as a concrete-mix driver in Tifton, and headed south in his Chevrolet pickup truck. Wise, 31, joined thousands eager to cash in on Florida's storm-ravaged landscape. Last weekend, he and two carnival-ride workers from North Carolina whom he hired off the street in downtown Orlando loaded tree limbs and brush by hand into a metal trailer for 12 hours a day. Wise drove his load to a temporary dump site, where 30-foot heaps of debris cover an area the size of several football fields. "You know you're going to make good money down here," said Wise, smiling through a three-day stubble.

"I'm going to come back with enough money for a new truck and to buy a house." After Hurricanes Charley and Frances, Florida became one of the federal government's most expensive cleanup jobs ever. It could cost $1 billion or more to haul away all the detritus snapped and scattered by those storms. In Hurricane Ivan's wake, that sum is poised to rise much higher. The work is a bonanza for a motley bunch of laborers like Wise who work as subcontrac TUCSON I The state's seasonally adjusted jobless rate went up a bit in August New figures announced Thursday show unemployment for August at 4.4 percent, up a tenth of a point from July. The rate stayed at 3.5 percent in Pima County.

Don Wehbey, senior economist for the state Department of Economic Security, said the figures reflect some soft parts of the state's economy. But he said he doubts that the rise signals an end to the recovery. I The University of Arizona's Eller College of Management MBA program will honor five recipients of the Eller MBA Alumni Achievement Award at a dinner tonight The awards recognize alumni who have achieved significant career success demonstrating leadership, innovation and business acumen. The recipients are: Cephas Bowles, general manager of WBGO-FM Jazz Radio in Newark, N.J., co-founder of Blacks in Public Broadcasting and a member of the National Public Radio board of directors. Tamsin Campbell, president of Decagon Devices, a soil measurement instruments company in and a member of the McGuire Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.

Leamon Crooms IV, president of Strategic Growth Advisors in Tucson, who serves on the Eller MBA Advisory Council and the National Association of Youth Services Consultants. Larry Lesley, senior vice president of consumer imaging and printing at Hewlett-Packard Co. in Vancouver, Wash. Vickl Panhulse, who has been with Honeywell Inc. in Phoenix for 24 years and is now vice president of program management.

The AARP Tax-Aide community service program is seeking computer and laser printer donations to help its volunteers prepare tax returns during the 2004 tax-filing season. To donate a computer or printer, call 1-602-996-9437. Computers should have a processor speed of at least 233 MHz with a minimum of 128 MB RAM and a 2 GB hard disk drive. A.E. Aralza Arizona Daily Star Dave Rice, Eegee's superhawker, is really in charge of routing supplies to the area stores from the commissary.

But selling slushes direct to the public is what turns him on. Just a slushy kind of a guy For Super Dave, slinging Eegees is a passion Aug. prices barely rose; good sign for economy Richard Ducote Consumer prices Here is a look at percent changes from the preceding month in the Consumer Price Index. Seasonally adjusted a. On StarNet: Find busi-ness columnist Richard Ducote 's most recent articles at azstamet.comducote 0.6 By Jeannlne Aversa THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Consumer prices barely budged in August, suggesting that inflation isn't currently a problem for the economy and Federal Reserve policy-makers can stick with a gradual approach to raising interest rates.

The government's closely watched inflation barometer, the Consumer Price Index, rose by just 0.1 percent in August from the previous month, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Falling prices for clothes, cars and airfares helped to temper rising prices for medical care, education and some food items. The tiny rise came after The hotter it is at Arizona Stadium tomorrow afternoon, the better Super Dave will like it Players may sweat like the dickens on the field, and fans could fry in the stands. Perfect conditions for Super Dave, Eegee's peddler extraordinaire, who could sling 200 cups or more of the frozen, slushy drinks in the direction of fevered football lovers. He is the undisputed, all-time champ among Eegee's hawkers.

Ask smiling, bespectacled Dave how many cups he has sold at various events over his career, and he consults a detailed ledger. As of last Saturday's football game, he says, it's 114,955 cups for a total of just over $301,000. And this is just his part-time side job at Eegee's. Dave Rice, full name, hired on at Eegee's 16 years ago as a meat cutter in the Tucson company's central commis- 0.1 sary. He still holds a full-time job at the East Ajo Way plant from which supplies stream out to the 20 area outlets.

Rice is in charge of routing supplies to the area stores from the commissary. But selling slushes direct to the public is what turns him on. "Hawking is his passion," says Robert Jensen, director of operations for Eegees' in-house wholesale supplier, Ajax Distributing. For football games, nothing governs Eegee sales so much as the temperature. SEE DUCOTE D5 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 S0N0J FMAMJJA 2003 2004 SEE PRICES D2 SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics AP NATIONAL I Rates on 30-year and 15-year mortgages fell this week, good news for people thinking about buying a home.

Freddie Mac, in its weekly survey released, reported that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 5.75 percent for the week that ended Thursday. That was down from 5.83 percent last week and marked the lowest rate on 30-year mortgages since the beginning of April I Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds fell by $3.14 billion in the latest week to $842.55 billion, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday. Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category fell by $2.40 billion to $651.43 billion for the week that ended Wednesday, the mutual fund trade group said. I Capitol Media Services contributed to this report I National briefs compiled from wire reports. I Send notices for Tucson Industry News Notes to Business, Arizona Daily Star, P.

O. Box 26807, Tucson, AZ 85726: by fax to 573-4144; or by e-mail to businessazstarnet.com. Oil THE JOD YOU'RE HIRED New Olive Garden rests in her trusted hands By Karen Mracek ARIZONA DAILY STAR Running a restaurant is hard enough, but try doing it with a rookie staff. Kim Lillis has taken on this task as general manager of Tucson's newest Olive Garden Italian Restaurant at 1213 W. Irv-ington Road, which opens Monday.

"Just a few of the people have come from other Olive Gardens," she said. "Everybody else is a brand-new employee." Lillis, who has been a manager at Olive Gardens for 10 years, is now in charge of a state-of-the-art facility. Unlike Tucson's other two Olive Gardens, the new location is modeled after the chain's Tuscan farmhouse con cept, which is being used for new locations around the nation. The Olive Garden's Riser-va di Fizzano restaurant in Tuscany serves as the inspiration for many of dishes on the menu as well as the architectural model. It is also supposed to inspire Olive Garden staffers to do their best Lillis said.

"We have people that want to excel and have our passion for providing a genuine Italian dining experience," she said. Lillis and three other managers had to find the 153 employees that will open the restaurant next week. They waded through more than 500 applications to find hosts, SEE GARDEN D5 Profile Name Kim Lillis Age 44 Job: General manager, Olive Garden, 1213 W. Irvington Road Friday On the Job focuses on the people who make Tucson businesses run-thosewho are in charge, keep a business running, are just starting out or hire workers. INSIDE An outcry in Norway made Ford think twice about trashing 300 of its electric-powered Think Nordic models.

Aaron J. Latham Arizona Daily Star Kim Lillis and her managers had to hire and train about 150 people for the new Olive Garden, which opens Monday on the Southwest Side. FageDS IT ii" 1i ii 'ii i i laii ii i ii I'MWMI.