The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 51

INDEX Personal Finance 02 Kenneth Hooker D2 HumbertoCruz D2 Speedy dial-up Bethlehem retiree weighs rollover Internet hookups PAGE D3 PAGE D2 Middle East sales beckon to Mack Comment I DAN ,4 SHOPE SECTION THE MORNING CALL SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2003 "We're losing a tremendous amount of customers JAMES V. O'ROURKE, Verizon Pennsylvania president to the competition." rew state clii tic Ooro Ham mum Seventeen years after it was founded in Brooklyn in 1900, Mack Trucks was delivering 4,000 Mack AC trucks to Europe for World War where they gained the "Bulldog" nickname. In 1944, Mack general cargo trucks followed Gea George Patton through Europe during World War II and carried prisoners and wounded soldiers back to the French coast. But during Korea and Vietnam, Mack's role moved toward the sidelines rather than the battlefield. Mack afterwards became a subsidiary of Renault and then Volvo.

As the Gulf War began in 1991, Mack workers in Allen-town learned that the Army had made a $40 million order for 500 tank-hauling trucks, a support vehicle. In Iraq this year, Mack was again mostly on the sidelines. But after the sand settled, the Allentown company brought its construction and hauling trucks into play. The vehicles, made in Lower Macungie Township, are being used in the reconstruction of Iraq. Many of the sales go through a distributor in nearby Kuwait, as the embargo has been lifted from Iraq.

hi Mi 1 I i- -u A A 2 iv r- 1- jju uiu TMiwiiii wmif mmsmmtm mvmum it mm mr 1 n--i James V. O'Rourke battles rivals over regulations that affect the bottom line. By Christian Berg Of The Morning Call After 24 years with Verizon, James V. O'Rourke finally reached the top. Unfortunately, there is little time to enjoy the view.

As the new president of Verizon Pennsylvania, O'Rourke leads the state's biggest telephone company and its 19,000 employees. Though he's thrilled with the promotion, he's also aware that Verizon faces threats to its telecommunications dominance. Its biggest challenge is dealing with local phone competitioa The number of local access lines Verizon serves in Pennsylvania is 5.9 million, down from about 7 million two years ago. The company loses 30,000 to 35,000 access lines a month to competitors, including long-distance phone companies such as and MCI and cable providers such as Service Electric and RCN. About 20 percent of the state's local telephone market is served by companies other than Verizon, according to Federal Communications Commission data.

O'Rourke's mission is to stop the bleeding. "My job is to ensure that my company competes effectively and has a strong place in the market for years to come," O'Rourke said during a visit to Allentown earlier this month. Although O'Rourke is ultimately responsible for all of Verizon's Pennsylvania operations, his main task is lobbying regulators and lawmakers who make decisions that affect the company. He tries to do that, he said, by using a no-nonsense style. "In Harris-burg, you face a lot of rhetoric.

I always try to be very factual, to speak in plain, understandable terms and to bring facts and data to back up my point. "Plus, I understand that people are going to have different opinions, and I'm receptive to that. I like to hear VERIZON PAGE DJ Invest in a miit of stocks, bonds Web sites help figure how much of each to put in your portfolio. By Eileen Alt Powell Of The Associated Press NEW YORK I With the stock market up sharply since March, many Americans may want to take a fresh look at how their money is invested. Financial experts say that the most important ingredient for successful investing is asset allocation deciding how much of your money you want in stocks, bonds and cash and periodically rebalancing your holdings to meet those targets.

"Asset allocation is important because it's going to determine how volatile your portfolio is, and it's the key determinant in the return on your investments," said Catherine Gordon, a principal with The Vanguard Group's investment counseling and research department in Valley Forge, Chester County. Vanguard recently completed an analysis of 40 years of earnings data, through bull and bear markets, and determined that the way assets were allocated was the most significant factor in a portfolio's performance. To determine the best allocation for your accounts, you need to answer a few important questions: Are you more interested in seeing your money grow or in preserving your capital? Do you need the money in three years to buy a home or in 20 years to pay for retirement? How much risk are you willing to take? "There are a lot of great tools on the Web to do this," Gordon said, adding that the Vanguard site at www.vanguard.com has an online questionnaire that can help. Vanguard's model portfolios range from "aggressive growth," made up 100 percent of stocks, to "stability," which has just 10 percent in stocks, 80 percent in bonds and 10 percent in money market INVESTING PAGE D3 MANAGING YOUR EGGS AND BASKETS While the best asset allocation depends on an individual's financial goals, financial experts advise short-term investors to lower risk by putting more money in bonds. Allocation scenarios by planned time of withdrawal 5-10 years An individual preparing to retire or buy a home Money market 20 1 I Stocks 30 Bonds 50 1...

10-20 years A new parent investing for child's education Money market stocks 10 60 Bonds 30 20-30 years A recent college graduate saving for the future Money market Stocks 5 "I 75 Bonds 20 Source: Calvert Group Ltd. AP Cesar Laurt The Morning Call JAMES V. O'ROURKE stands near a bank of dial-tone circuits at Verizon's central Allentown office. He has been named president of Verizon Pennsylvania. "We feel there is an opportunity to grow our business there." FRANK MEEHAN Mack Trucks' senior V.P.

of international operations Frank Meehan, senior vice president of international operations, said Mack has been in the Middle East for years and once had a distributor in Iraq. "We feel there is an opportunity to grow our business there," he said. "There's a need for quality, rugged, tough construction trucks, and they have found that our products performed well." Mack has primary distributors in Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, said Meehan, 47, who has 26 years in the business. But Mack has not sold trucks in Iraq since the early 1990s, when the Gulf War was brewing. Now that Saddam Hussein's rein is over, Mack is back.

"It's the nature of international operations," Meehan said. "We do encounter a level of volatility. Sometimes the markets are strong and then they are dormant, being impacted by socioeconomic factors. "We abide by and follow United States trade actions. Until the first Gulf War, we had been doing business with Iraq.

Then there were restrictions. Now we're seeing the market making a rebound." In other parts of the world such as Australia, Mack assembles trucks for sale in that continent. But trucks sold to the Middle East are from Lower Macungie. With restrictions being dropped in June by the United Nations and the United States, the Lehigh County plant has yet another Middle East market in which to sell. Mack holds more than 50 percent of the Middle East heavy-duty truck market, which ranges from 3,000 to 4,000 vehicles annually.

"We are still experiencing a lot of volatility," he said. "We are in the infancy in that market." Iraq will need to rebuild its infrastructure, including airports, highways, bridges and industrial sites. "We have already sent trucks to Kuwait," he said. "They are being used by Kuwait to transport and haul supplies to the military from the Port of Kuwait into Iraq." Asked what makes Mack attractive overseas, Meehan said "We sell the quality and ruggedness of the product And we have commitment, through distributors, to support what we sell" dan.shopeamcall.com 610-820-6530 Banking on the community: First Union kept 1998 pledge i I 1 Jim a a Newcomer lived up to most of its promises, except rental housing By Kurt Blumenau Of The Morning Call First Union Corp. made a $235 million promise to the Lehigh Valley five years ago, as part of its takeover of Core-States Bancorp.

Prodded by local development leaders, the region's big-. gest bank agreed to invest in low-income housing, mortgages, small businesses and community revitalization. The bank also agreed to keep decisionmaking officials in the Lehigh Valley. At the time, First Union was the only bank in the Lehigh Valley to commit to that kind of broad reinvestment plan. FleetBoston Financial Group signed a similar four-year agreement after taking over Summit Bank in 200L First Union officials say they FIRST UNION PAGE D4 Dents Sanchez The Morning Call DENISE AND BRIAN McCALL of Bethlehem are co-owners of Britech, which received a loan for expansion through a program backed by First Union.

The bank far exceeded its small-business lending goal.