Lanier Clothes to close Tupelo plant

Biz Buzz has learned that Lanier Clothes plans to close its Tupelo plant by the end of the year. The plant, which has been on South Green Street in Tupelo for more than 30 years, has 46 employees.

Steve DiBlasi, Lanier’s VP of manufacturing, said the company is moving its operations to Mexico.

The statement the company faxed to the DJ:

Sadly, we informed our associates in Tupelo this week that we would be closing our facility in a matter of months. This difficult decision is in no way a reflection on the wonderful team of people in Tupelo, whose performance has been outstanding. Instead, it reflects the increasingly challenging economic environment in the US for apparel companies like ours. We deeply appreciate the support of our employees and the community over the years.

Read tomorrow’s Daily Journal for more information.

This time, crime stinks

From the Associated Press, in a story from Dillon, South Carolina:

A suspected thief trying to steal $10 worth of copper got himself into a stinky situation when he was trapped under a trash bin at a county landfill for 12 hours, sheriff’s deputies said.

Deputies said Gibson Cook, 56, broke into the landfill, then got stuck as he tried to crawl under the large container. Landfill workers found him about 12 hours later with his legs sticking out from under the bin. Emergency workers had to inflate air bags so they could lift the bin to free him.

Cook was charged with trespassing and petit larceny, deputy Wayne Kirby said. He was waiting for a bond hearing and it was unclear if he had an attorney.

“He’s one of our local petty thieves,” Kirby said. “But he has never been in a jam like this.”

Break-ins at the landfill in Dillon, a town of about 6,400 people in the northeast corner of the state near the North Carolina line, have increased in recent months as thieves look for discarded scrap metal.

But employee Charlie Brown said that in 27 years at the dump, this is the first time he’s seen anyone get stuck. He said the copper under the trash bin could not have been worth more than $10.

“It was right disgusting,” he said. “I wouldn’t be under there.”

E-recycling day at Link Centre

From the Link Centre:

It is not going to be advertised to the general public, but Starkville Recycling will pick up any, ANY type of electronic equipment with the exception of television sets. This includes phone, fax, copiers, old toners, keyboards, and all types of comparable equipment. As far as the public goes we are only advertising computers. But please, please let all your business friends know about this and don’t forget, all we have to do is pay the diesel fuel costs.

The event will be Tuesday, Aug. 5. For more information, call Nancie Beard at the Link Centre (662-690-4011).

Deer Park residents balk at apartments

An excerpt (full text) from a story in today’s Daily Journal:

TUPELO – A developer’s plans to build a 288-unit apartment complex next to the upscale Deer Park subdivision has residents fearing for their property values.

Robert Bailey, a Northeast Mississippi businessman, wants the city of Tupelo to rezone a 26.5-acre site south of Deer Park from an agricultural to a multi-dwelling classification.

The land is in northeast Tupelo, near the new Wingate by Wyndham hotel off of U.S. Highway 78 near Veterans Boulevard.

If approved, the zone change would allow Bailey to proceed with plans to construct 36 buildings with eight apartments apiece – some with one bedroom, others with two or three. Most buildings will surround a small lake in the center of the property. And an office with a pool will be located at the development’s entrance.

This goes back to everyone’s comments about growing pains. What irks me is the quote from the resident about apartments near single-family homes being “incompatible.” I just don’t understand the apartment haters. What exactly are they scared of? Sure, there are some bad apartment complexes out there – which I hold a lot of the slumlords responsible for – but there is a need for rental properties. And rent is going to be $850/month – a number that definitely puts it in the upscale apartment category.

Anyway, the planning committee will vote on the rezoning Monday.

Travel center looking to open Aug. 11

The Horizon Travel Center  will be opening soon, albeit with a new name. Read our previous Horizon coverage here.

The owner of the center plans to have it ready by August 11, and it will have the Western Sizzlin Express.

If you’ve driven by the place on Eason, you’ve no doubt seen the cars in the parking lot. Those are folks getting the store ready.

The 24-hour store will have about 45 people working there once things settle down.

Oh, and the new name of the travel center? Travel Store USA – Tupelo.

Your boss have a sense of humor?

I have a hunch Dennis wouldn’t respond so calmly if I did this to his keyboard. But, we did have one of the guys on the copydesk put the copydesk chief’s stapler in Jell-O. Ah, the hijinks in the Daily Journal newsroom. An excerpt from Michelle Singletary of The Washington Post (full text):

“I bought an old computer keyboard from Value Village, sprinkled it with alfalfa seeds, and sprouted them. That took a good week. By April 1, there were nice thick green sprouts coming up between the keys. I pushed my boss’s regular keyboard to the back of the keyboard drawer and put this keyboard in its place. He sort of laughed but started picking the spouts out and dumping them in the trash. I couldn’t believe he’d think I’d do that to his actual keyboard! Though that made it funnier.”

I highly recommend you check out the rest of Michelle’s column. She goes on to write about a family who won ABC’s Extreme Makeover for their home, managed to blow the money and now they are facing foreclosure.

It’s tough to be Exxon Mobil….

Exxon Mobil posted the biggest quarterly profit EVER for a U.S. corporation today, reporting a second-quarter profit of $11.68 billion. That beat the previous record of $11.66 billion, set in the fourth quarter of last year by … Exxon Mobil. But today’s results “fell well short of Wall Street expectations,” the Associated Press reported.

From the AP:

The record-setting results were largely expected, given that crude prices in the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago. Natural gas prices were significantly higher too.

But investors expected even bigger profits Thursday, especially after Europe’s Royal Dutch Shell reported a 33 percent jump in second-quarter earnings of $11.6 billion, which fell just shy of Exxon’s own record earnings from 2007.

Shares fell 2 percent, or $1.68, to $82.70 in premarket trading.

Setting U.S. profit records has become commonplace for Irving-based Exxon Mobil. The $11.68 billion topped its own U.S. record of $11.66 billion, posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Right behind that was the $10.9 billion it reported to start 2008.

Exxon Mobil owns the record for at least the top six most-profitable quarters for a U.S. company, as well as the largest annual profit.

Sneak peek at 2010 Prius

From car blog TopSpeed.com, which grabbed it from the Dutch Autoweek (more pictures):

Read about the 2010 Prius on TopSpeed.com. And, it appears TopSpeed isn’t the only one with pictures. Click here to see all the pictures from Google Images.

Toyota will start building the Prius in its plant near Blue Springs in late 2010.

Funny pic from TRA’s meeting

I couldn’t stop chuckling when I saw today’s paper with this picture from Chris Rogers’ last TRA meeting. Click on it to make it bigger.

Here’s the cutline for the picture from C. Todd Sherman:

Members of the Tupelo Redevelopment Agency, except newly-retired chairman Chris Rogers, second from right, look over city development plans Tuesday shortly after adjourning Rogers’ last meeting as head of the group. Rogers was a citizen volunteer who chaired the group since it was tasked nearly a decade ago to rejuvenate 50 acres in downtown Tupelo, which later became the Fairpark District. John Oxford, bottom left, is stepping up as his replacement and will lead the group’s new effort on marketing the Fairpark District.

I was at the meeting (story), and Todd was snapping a lot of photos. And Chris was involved in most of them. Guess this was the odd man out pic.

Oby’s: We are committed to downtown

The owner of the New Orleans-style restaurant Oby’s (previous coverage) today sent a letter to the Tupelo Redevelopment Agency said he has every intention of building in Fairpark.

About a year and half ago, Oby’s bought one of the prime lots on Main Street, across from the Hilton Garden Inn. Construction has been delayed due to architectural problems and management turnover. And, it’s put Oby’s in a bit of a bind. In the majority of Fairpark contracts, TRA included a two-year time period, meaning that construction had to be in progress – at the latest – by the end of the two years.

But, David Calhoun, who also owns the Oby’s location in Oxford, wrote a letter to TRA today, which was read at the organization’s meeting at 4 p.m. The letter said he planned to move forward with the restaurant.

“We want to assure you and the committee that we are fully committed on putting an Oby’s restaurant in the Fairpark District,” the letter said.

However, no timeline was given. TRA Chairman Chris Rogers, who retired at the meeting, said he expects work to start this fall or winter. For more about the meeting, read tomorrow’s Daily Journal.

The full letter: