Denton Business News - News for Denton, Texas - The Denton Record-Chronicle

In search of savings

Rising gas prices have people looking for ways to save at the pump, whether it’s driving to the gas station down the road, buying gas with a discount card or using a smartphone app.

Personal profile: Demetria Sweatt-Phillips

If you know of someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or e-mail her at kramirez@dentonrc.com .

Laura Fanta and Dennis Knautz of Acme Brick hold up the tumbler glasses bearing historic images that were given to all employees in celebration of the company’s 121st anniversary.

Karina Ramirez: Glasses give employees glimpse into Acme’s past

Acme Brick toasted its employees for the company’s 121st anniversary last month, giving them each a set of tumbler glasses bearing historic images.

Scott Burns: Too-big-to-fail banking has got to go

The Protestant Reformation began in October 1517. That was when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. Among other things, Martin Luther was protesting the sale of “indulgences” by the Roman Catholic Church. Pay enough and one’s sins would be forgiven.

Maggie Jover: Course on diabetes scheduled for June

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of people with diabetes has increased by 3 million in three years to a new high of 24 million.

Catherine Johnston is shown recently in her home office.

Professional, unbound

In all her years in the travel business, Catherine Johnston had never seen a glitch like this one. She had booked six people for a vacation to Washington, D.C., but four of them were assigned to two seats.

Personal profile: Melissa Kay Cox

If you know someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or email her at kramirez@dentonrc.com.

Patience and Johnathon Knotts are shown recently at their new business, Painting with Patience.

Karina Ramírez: Artist shares love of painting through new business

Self-taught artist Patience Knotts first fell in love with painting by watching Bob Ross in the Joy of Painting on public television.

Janet Laminack: Spring Garden Tour offers look at drought survivors

If you weren’t aware of the brutal heat and drought last summer, you must be new to town. It was a record-breaking year that was challenging for horticulture.

Scott Burns: Appendix F shows condition of Social Security

Two weeks ago, the trustees for Medicare released their annual report. The report, and the warnings it contained about the uncertainty of future costs, got some attention. But not nearly enough.

Donna Gregory and Martha Coburn are shown Thursday at SCRAP, a nonprofit creative reuse center that opened in January at 215 W. Oak St.

Place for everything

SCRAP takes the items in your house you’re not sure what to do with — the random game pieces, leftover paint from your last art project, and the Cabbage Patch doll head that no longer has a body — and sells them for other people to use creatively.

Personal Profile: Ronald Barry Clark

If you know someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or email her at kramirez@dentonrc.com.

People participating in a “cash mob” are shown recently at Ken’s Produce in Denton.

Karina Ramírez: Beneficial ‘mob’ mentality takes hold during recent event

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the parking lot at Ken’s Produce was full. Customers walked in to get their East Texas sweet potatoes, West Texas tomatoes, vanilla extract or just any needed item.

Eddie Baggs: Pond management workshop planned

Algae is very common and will be present in all water that is exposed to sunlight. However, on occasion, this common aquatic inhabitant can become overwhelming in farm ponds.

Scott Burns:Good personal decisions can trump investing

Allow me to introduce Life Capital Decisions. These are the decisions we can make that change our lives and improve our standard of living. While some of these decisions can, and should, be done while we are as young as possible, others bring the greatest benefits as we approach retirement.

Bank seeks to fix error

Wells Fargo is working with about 8,500 University of North Texas employees to correct a payroll glitch that gave them an extra paycheck in 2011 and leaves them one short in 2012. UNT, UNT Dallas and UNT system employees who are paid by direct deposit each month received their December paychecks on Dec. 30, instead of Jan. 2 as scheduled.

Tetra Pak's Evero Aseptic Separable Top is shown in detail.

Greener and friendlier

Going “green” is no longer a fad. Consumers are asking for more environmentally friendly products, and companies appear to be responding to the demand.

Personal Profile: Techy Salas

If you know someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or email her at kramirez@dentonrc.com.

Karina Ramírez: Residents encouraged to share favorite places

We all have our favorite places in Denton. Which ones are yours?

Scott Burns: The real ‘Doomsday’: Less bang, more whimper

Is this a great country or what? Instead of just letting us wallow in our personal worry about the future, the National Geographic Channel has created Doomsday Preppers to show all of us how other ordinary Americans are preparing for an apocalyptic future. Good preparation generally involves learning how to use a gun, since it is assumed that we will all be less than civil when the big day comes.

Maggie Jover: Take care when canning foods

As family gardens are being planted this spring, we can expect an abundance of homegrown fruits and vegetables by late spring and into the summer. This abundance of produce often triggers the desire to can foods at home.

Jobless rates continues decline

Unemployment continued to decline in March, according to data received Friday from the Texas Workforce Commission.

The Ogle School, a cosmetology college that opened in Denton in October, is shown Thursday.

Art meets science at Ogle School

What students learn at the Ogle School is a mixture of art and science. Students have been learning about cosmetology and skin care at the school for more than 40 years. And in October, the school opened a site in Denton, its seventh location.

Personal Profile: Charla Hopkins Bradshaw

If you know someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or email her at kramirez@dentonrc.com.

Karina Ramírez: Baristas display skills in latte art throwdown

It might have been a small gathering, but a serious competition took place April 5 at Seven Mile Café.

Scott Burns: Reverse mortgages: Their time has come

Reverse mortgages are the Rodney Dangerfield of financial planning tools. Long thought of as something retirees used in last-ditch efforts to stay in their house, they were seen more as leaky lifeboats than as financial planning tools.

Janet Laminack: Tips offered to make garden grow

Have you ever thought about having a garden and growing your own vegetables? If you haven’t gardened before, it might seem like an impossible idea.

Sandwich shop commits to Fry

Potbelly Sandwich Shop was on Denton’s list of businesses to attract, and now it can be checked off.

Operating on faith

Popular national companies Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby are famous for their refusal to open on Sundays. And today, Easter, other businesses are following suit. While most local businesses closing today — including Target, Best Buy and Golden Triangle Mall — are doing so to recognize the national holiday, Chick-fil-A is honoring its Christian roots.

Karina Ramírez: Report: Denton No. 2 most wind-blown county

A new report ranks Denton as the second stormiest county in Texas last year. The report, conducted by Allstate Insurance Co., states that hail and wind whipped more Allstate-insured homes in Denton and Taylor County (Abilene) than any other part of the state last year.

Personal profile: Johanna Oosterwijk

If you know of someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or e-mail her at kramirez@dentonrc.com.

Scott Burns: Factor in age when planning estates

How would you like to double your retirement spending?

This rendering shows the renovations planned for Golden Triangle Mall.

From concept to reality

Shoppers will soon start to see signs of construction at Golden Triangle Mall. GTM Development Ltd., a limited partnership between Cencor Realty Services and MGHerring Group, purchased the mall in November from Arizona-based En Pertignus Holding Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Mooyah opened across the street from Golden Triangle Mall on Monday in Denton.

Karina Ramírez: Mooyah opens Denton location

Mooyah opened across the street from the Golden Triangle Mall on Monday in Denton. The restaurant features the Frisco-based chain’s new design and an expanded menu.

Personal profile: Lori Henderson

If you know of someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or e-mail her at kramirez@dentonrc.com.

Scott Burns: The lowdown on load funds

Q: I have been dealing with a credit union for my investment needs and have some concerns.

Chamber hands out top honors

A lifelong resident of Denton County and the general sales manager of Denton’s oldest family-owned auto dealership received this year’s Otis L. Fowler Award. Carl Anderson, general manager of Bill Utter Ford, received the Denton Chamber of Commerce’s highest recognition on Thursday at the University of North Texas Gateway Center.

Fuego Fitness co-owner Tracy Mohair leads a class from the stage on March 6 at the studio inside Golden Triangle Mall.

En fuego

Walking past the darkened space in Golden Triangle Mall, with its pulsing music and eerie light show, visitors might think a nightclub has set up shop. But they’d be wrong. Looking closer, they won’t see dancers in high heels and their Saturday-night best, but customers in workout clothes, sweating to the beat in one of Denton’s newest Zumba studios.

Karina Ramírez: Styl-O-Rama closes after 51 years in business

Coming to the end of a trip always makes a traveler reflect on what will become lasting memories. That same feeling of nostalgia also happens to business owners when they decide to close up shop.

Personal profile: Manuel Perez

If you know of someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or e-mail her at kramirez@dentonrc.com.

Eddie Baggs: Apply fertilizer for pasture health

The drought of 2011 yielded less than 50 percent of an average hay crop in Denton County and depleted most of what was in reserve. This year, with good spring rains, agricultural producers are looking to replenish those hay reserves and then some. Proper fertilization is a key factor.

Scott Burns: Measuring the yield famine in food

How bad is the current yield famine if we measure it in actual food? Last week I provided a casual measure when I pointed out that a $10,000 bank CD would provide interest income of $34 in a year. The quarterly interest payment of $8.50 isn’t enough to buy lunch for two at McDonald’s — once every three months.

Jason Nalley is pictured at his company, CamoLiner, on Wednesday.

Best liner of defense

Most people might think spray-on truck liners are only fit for Jeeps or other rugged off-road vehicles — but Jason Nalley knows better. At his custom spray liner company, Nalley has lined a variety of vehicles — from a Scion to a Hummer H2 to golf carts used on hunting trips. He can apply the liner to almost anything — even a bathroom.

A crane lowers a decorative water tower on to the fourth floor of Victoria Station Apartments on Bell Avenue on Nov. 30.

Karina Ramírez: Complex reveals hidden courtyard

The apartment complex with the decorative red-and-silver water tower has a little secret: a courtyard nestled in its core. Jason Bell, manager of newly opened and family operated Victoria Station Apartments on Bell Avenue, said Wednesday that many visitors are surprised to find the little slice of landscaping.

Personal profile: Blake Williams

If you know of someone in the business field who would make an interesting profile, call Karina Ramírez at 940-566-6879 or e-mail her at kramirez@dentonrc.com.

Eddie Baggs: Bermuda grass of all kinds well suited to area

With an estimated 50,000-plus acres of Bermuda grass in Denton County, it would be considered the forage of choice. Bermuda grass is the most important warm-season perennial grass in the southeastern United States. There are 25 million acres of hybrid Bermuda grass grown worldwide, with six different subspecies.

Scott Burns: There’s a jumbo CD waiting in your garage

These are lean times for savers. Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve (not a music group) have declared war on us. They have declared that interest rates on savings will be held close to zero. Meanwhile, inflation is running near 3 percent, so savers are losing purchasing power.

Jack and Mary Lynn Beaty give a tour of their Aubrey farm on March 1. Jack Beaty is the third generation to work on his family's farm, where he raises Brangus cattle, a hybrid of Brahman and Angus.

Blame it on the rain

Farmers play a high-stakes game. With all their chips on the table, they’re forced to play the hand their dealt. Each year a different set of odds is stacked against them: drought, heat, high prices.

Rick Kurz, left, and Jeff Kurz, brothers and principals at Kurz Group, are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their national property tax firm in Denton County.

Appraising the system

When it comes to getting the right appraised value for any business property, it serves to know the property well and to provide appraisers with as much information as possible before a review. As owners of a commercial tax consulting firm, the Kurz brothers know this better than anyone.

Karina Ramírez: Texas Health reshuffles system, creates positions

Officials with Texas Health Resources announced this week changes in its leadership and governance structure with the addition of two positions and a new model for the hospital system.