The Gregory Kistler Treatment Center has hired two speech-language pathologists in its Speech Department.

Megan Weaver, speech-language pathologist, joined the Kistler Center after earning a master’s degree from Northeastern State University in May.

Sara Gibson interned at the Kistler Center in the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014.She earned a master’s degree from the University of Central Arkansas in May and then joined the Kistler Center staff as a speech-language pathologist. 

The Kistler center provides rehabilitative services for children in the Fort Smith area regardless of the family's financial means. Parents and family members also receive support from a community environment built around the camaraderie of caregivers, therapists and other families in the same situation. The center offers physical, occupational and speech therapy to children with special needs.

The best selling brands in the competitive consumer packaged goods (CPG) space are those deemed to be dependable and trustworthy, according to a recent study by market research firm BrandSpark.

BrandSpark recently honored several brands with a “Most Trusted” award based on recommendations from nearly 90,000 Americans surveyed.

“The BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards are for CPG brands that are dependable, well-known and part of the daily lives of many Americans,” said Robert Levy, President and CEO of BrandSpark International. “Brand trust is important when deciding what to buy. Our study shows 8 in 10 Americans place a high importance on established trust in a brand when purchasing a new product.”

The research indicates quality perceptions and taste drive which food brands are most trusted, while taste preferences are most often cited as the reason for favoring one beverage brand over others.

Most Trusted Food & Beverage Brands (by category)
• Baking - Betty Crocker
• Butter - Land O’ Lakes
• Cheese - Kraft
• Chips - Lay’s
• Chocolate - Hershey’s
• Coffee - Folgers
• Condiment - Heinz
• Frozen Dessert - Sara Lee
• Frozen Pizza - DiGiorno
• Ice Cream - Breyers
• Juice - Tropicana
• Pasta - Barilla
• Soft Drink - Coca-Cola

The Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority announced at its Wednesday (June 11) that it may soon host a meeting between legislators and private sector businesses in its attempt to secure funding for a new inland port along the Arkansas River.

According to Mat Pitsch, intermodal project manager for the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District, consultants hired by WAPDD for a three month, $20,100 contract have tentatively secured the attendance of U.S. Rep. William Shuster, a Pennsylvania Congressman who serves as chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

"They (the Normandy Group) got the head of the House transportation (committee) to give them a couple of dates where he'd entertain coming to the area," Pitsch said.

The final date for the meeting, Pitsch said, would not be revealed publicly until members of the Arkansas and Oklahoma congressional delegations could confirm their ability to attend.

If a date would work out for Shuster and the local delegations, Pitsch said the committee chair would be the keynote for the conference, which will see attendance from municipal, county, regional, state and federal officials, in addition to private sector business leaders.

Tyson Foods was recently cited for a wastewater violation from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in connection with a fish kill caused by improper disposal of a feed additive.

DNR also cited the city of Monett, Mo., for failing "to operate and maintain facilities to comply with the Missouri Clean Water Law and applicable permit conditions", according to a separate violation notice from state authorities.

Tyson received a shipment of wastewater containing Alimet, which is a liquid animal feed supplement, from another company facility in Aurora, Mo. Tyson sent the wastewater to its pre-treatment facility and later discharged the water to the city of Monett's sewer system.

The state agency said the discharge caused operational problems at the city's wastewater treatment facility. A fish kill occurred along a six-mile stretch of Clear Creek when the Monett Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facility discharged the water into a tributary of Clear Creek.

DNR said its investigation and sample results from Tyson’s plant in Monett and the city’s wastewater treatment facility leads to a reasonable certainty that the discharge came from Tyson to the city. The DNR added that the agency is conducting a hazardous waste investigation to determine whether additional violations occurred.

"We’re working cooperatively with city and state officials as they investigate this matter," Tyson Foods noted in a statement. "Like most people, we’re very concerned about water quality and its impact on the surrounding environment. Water is a critical natural resource and we work to protect it at all of our locations. We’re awaiting additional discussions with the state and city so we can understand how our operations potentially played a role in what happened.

"Many of our team members and their families live in the community, so when it’s affected, we’re all affected. We hope to have a conversation with Missouri Department of Natural Resources about what we can do to assist with improvements of the creek. We have a long history of mutually productive cooperation with the City of Monett and we hope that will continue as we work through this process."

Shannon Newton was named as the new president of the Arkansas Trucking Association (ATA) replacing long-time leader Lane Kidd, who resigned earlier this year.

Newton has been with the ATA since 2003 and has served as vice-president of the organization since 2008. She will assume her duties immediately.

“When we began our search for a new president, we knew that an experienced leader with deep industry knowledge and a broad skill set was exactly what we needed,” said Craig Harper, ATA Chairman of the Board and EVP/COO of J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. “Shannon is a dynamic leader and extremely knowledgeable on the complex issues faced by our members. The board was unanimous in this appointment. She became the clear choice to lead the Arkansas Trucking Association forward.”

Today, the Arkansas Trucking Association represents about 300 trucking companies, private carrier fleets and industry suppliers.  The transportation industry is responsible for around 86,000 direct jobs.

“I am honored and humbled to have been chosen to lead the ATA,” said Newton. “The Arkansas trucking industry is a recognized national leader. My years with the association, working on behalf of this great industry, the member companies and the thousands of dedicated, professional men and women, in the cab and out, have been so rewarding. I welcome the opportunity as president to continue to work with the ATA’s extraordinary and dedicated staff and with these extraordinary members to help drive our industry’s growth.”

Since joining ATA, Newton has filled a range of leadership roles with expanded responsibilities in the development and implementation of strategic initiatives across core areas including Planning, Finance, Member Services, Governance, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs and Advocacy.

She has had held a number of association and national industry leadership positions and serves as chair of the Trucking Association’s Insurance Council.

Consumer spending remained largely unchanged in May, according to the retail sales report released Thursday (June 12) by the National Retail Federation. Retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants, were unchanged month-to-month, yet sales increased 3% year-over-year, on an unadjusted basis.

Jack Kleinhenz, economist for the NRF, notes that on the surface May retail sales were disappointing and weaker than expected. But, he adds that April's upward revisions still indicate positive growth for the remainder of the year.

“Even though American consumers continue to be selective and price-sensitive, May sales were strong in many retail categories and sectors including building supply stores, furniture stores and nonstore retailers,” Kleinhenz said.

The economic fundamentals – consumer confidence, employment and income – remain strong which he said are all positive for improving retail sales.

Retail sales gains reported by sector compared to year ago.

• Building material & garden equipment & supplies sales rose 3.5%
• Clothing & clothing accessory sales rose 3.2%
• Electronics & appliance sales rose 1.3%
• Furniture & home furnishing sales rose 6.7%%
• General merchandise sales were up 1.7%
• Health & personal care sales rose 4.2%
• Online retail sales were up 5.1%
• Sporting goods, hobby, book & music sales fell 1%

May retail sales, released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, which include categories such as automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants, increased 0.3% seasonally adjusted month-to-month ($437.6 billion) and 4.3% adjusted year-over-year.

A local Cargill facility is celebrating a major safety milestone this week in its turkey feed mill in Springdale. The feed mill opened in 1984 and 30 years later the facility is celebrating three decades of operation without any employee lost time injuries, the meat company said Monday (June 16).

This achievement will be recognized with an awards luncheon at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, June 20, in Springdale at the feed mill location — 2201 Long Street.
    
“Cargill was built on a firm foundation of respect, integrity and commitment to health and safety,” said Shane Acosta, general manager for Cargill’s turkey operations in Northwest Arkansas, headquartered in Springdale. “Employee and workplace safety is one of our top priorities and the employees of the Springdale mill should take great pride in this tremendous achievement they have worked so hard to earn. We are also honoring a similar 22-year accomplishment by our hatchery team at Gentry.”

An average week for the almost 40 employees of the feed mill consists of 100 hours of operation, with employees working in 10 hour shifts, two shifts daily, five days a week. In these 100 hours, Cargill employees produce, load and ship approximately 5.6 million pounds (2,800 tons) of feed, which is delivered to Cargill’s contract turkey farmers located throughout the region, according to the release.

Cargill said each week the mill receives the equivalent of approximately 110 truckloads of ingredients and ships an average of 112 truckloads of finished feed. The process of loading and unloading these feed ingredients and the finished product is labor intensive and involves handling rail cars, trucks and filling and drawing from large grain silos. This type of work requires a great deal of care and concentration to be accomplished safely each day. It is a direct reflection of the feed mill employees’ commitment to safety that more than 11,000 days have elapsed since the last lost time injury occurred.  

“The Arkansas Department of Labor has been recognizing employers for safe work time for over 30 years,” said Ricky Belk director for state labor department. “For a company to have a record of safety that spans nearly that entire time is an incredible achievement.  It is an honor to be invited to celebrate this important milestone with the employees of Cargill and I am looking forward to congratulating them for their dedication to safety in our state.”

Fort Smith native, Dr. Brian Cross is returning to Arkansas to join Drs. Tony de Mondesert, Jacob Joseph, Derrick Richardson, and Chris Van Asche in the Cooper Clinic Department of Gastroenterology.

Cross earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock and completed his internal medicine residency and a gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington, Ky.

He is Board Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Cross’ office will be located on the 2nd floor of the main Cooper Clinic location at 6801 Rogers Ave. in Fort Smith. He will begin accepting new patients July 7.

Cooper Clinic is a physician-owned multi-specialty group with doctors in 25 specialties/subspecialties at 16 locations.

Wal-Mart has acquired Stylr, the 13th tech move in three years as the retailer works to build infrastructure to support the next generation of retail. The deal was announced via a blog post by @WalmartLab executive Gibu Thomas late Monday (June 16).

“As we continue to integrate digital and physical retail to create new and unique experiences for customers, we’re thrilled to add Stylr to our mobile team. Over half of Walmart smartphone users have used their device in-store to assist with their shopping, and with 80% of our customers under the age of 35 owning a smartphone, we expect this to grow dramatically. We are excited about the opportunity to serve these customers with indispensable digital tools that bring the convenience of online shopping into our physical stores and integrate our online and offline experiences to enable our customers to shop anytime, anywhere,” Thomas, senior vice president of mobile and digital at Walmart.com, noted in the blog announcement.

Stylr is a fashion finding app that helps consumers find clothes in nearby stores. The Stylr app allows consumers to flip through a rack of clothes on their smartphone. It pulls in inventory from local stores, letting shoppers find what they want, then reserve it at the store directly from the mobile device. The app will be pulled from the iTunes store later this month as the company moves inside @WalmartLabs.

Wal-Mart does not disclose the terms of its tech acquisitions. The retailer did say the two company founders, Eytan Daniyalzade and Berk Atikoglu, will join Walmart’s San Bruno office. Stylr is a small shop with just the two founders at the time of the acquisition.

Both founders are Stanford-educated engineers and have a history of working in the technology industry. Atikoglu previously worked at Cisco and Facebook, and Daniyalzade has experience at Adapt.tv, Chartbeat, Microsoft and McKinsey.

Thomas said @WalmartLabs routinely visits with many companies to discover new innovations and learn best practices. He said @WalmartLabs recently connected with Stylr, which was funded by Dreamit Ventures, a New York incubator.

“We were really impressed with Eytan and Berk’s ability to quickly develop and grow Stylr. ... They built a great experience for their users and we loved their passion for bridging digital and physical shopping experiences – and together we realized the opportunity to create a greater impact on more consumers, brands and the overall ecommerce industry with Stylr as part of the Walmart family,” Thomas said.

For now Stylr won’t be integrated into Walmart’s own mobile apps but Thomas said the retailer will “leverage best practices and insights” from the Stylr app. Together the teams will work more broadly on enhancing digital capabilities in sync with physical retail.

“Needless to say, we are excited to welcome these incredibly talented guys to join the @WalmartLabs team and help us accelerate our digital transformation of the in-store experience. We can’t wait to see what they come up with,” Thomas said.

Hong Kong has relaxed its import protocol for U.S. beef products for the first time since 2005, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

On Tuesday (June 17) Vilsack announced Hong Kong has agreed to accept all U.S. beef products from animals of any age since restrictions were put in place in December 2003, following the detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) positive animal in the U.S. (one of only four cases found in the U.S.)

Since 2005, only deboned beef from all cattle and certain bone-in beef from cattle less than 30 months of age could be shipped from the U.S. to Hong Kong. Earlier this year, Mexico, Uruguay, Ecuador and Sri Lanka also lifted their longstanding restrictions to provide full access for U.S. beef and beef products.

"This is great news for American ranchers and beef companies," said Vilsack. "Hong Kong is already the fourth largest market for U.S. beef and beef product exports, with sales there reaching a historic high of $823 million in 2013," Vilsack said.

In the first four months of 2014, U.S. beef and beef product exports to Hong Kong topped $307 million.

He added that the World Organization for Animal Health granted the United States negligible risk status for BSE last year.

“We welcome this move by Hong Kong and will continue our efforts to break down barriers and expand access for high-quality, safe and wholesome U.S. food and agricultural products in Hong Kong and around the world," Vilsack said.

While Hong Kong is officially part of China, it serves as its own customs and quarantine administration zone and so maintains its own rules and regulations.

This news comes at a good time for Tyson Foods, one of the largest beef processors in the U.S. Shares of Tyson Foods rose 32 cents to close Tuesday at $35.47 on the news.

This upward tick comes after a two-week downward spiral as Tyson shares have lost 18% of their value and suffered two downgrades from Wall Street brokers who believe Tyson’s $8.6 billion bid for Hillshire Brands was overpriced at a 70% premium for Hillshire stakeholders.

J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. was chosen as a “2014 Company of the Year on Workplace Substance-Abuse Prevention” by the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace.

Since implementing hair testing in 2006, J.B. Hunt’s random positive drug rate has declined by 84%. The program has proven so successful other transportation companies have begun using hair testing during pre-employment screening, according to the release.

“J.B. Hunt drivers are among the most professional and safety conscious on the highways,” said Greer Woodruff, senior vice president of safety and security. “We protect their great reputation by preventing those with a life style of drug use from joining their ranks.”

Springdale-based Tyson Foods is trying to make amends for unlawful dumping of untreated industrial wastewater into a southwest Missouri stream that killed at an estimated 100,000 fish.

But this week the Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said he has filed a lawsuit against the meat giant who operates a chicken processing facility in Monett that last month illegally discharged wastewater containing a high acidic animal feed supplement into that city’s sewer system.

Koster said the discharge caused the city's biological wastewater treatment system to fail, and contaminated water containing a high level of ammonia flowed into Clear Creek, leading to the fish kill.

"Missouri's waterways are among our state's most important natural resources," Koster said. "Tyson's conduct threatened the vitality of Clear Creek as a resource for Southwest Missouri. Tyson Foods must be held accountable for dumping pollution into the waterways of Southwest Missouri, and this conduct must not happen again."

Koster's lawsuit includes six counts against Tyson for pollution of state waters and violations of Missouri's hazardous waste laws. He is seeking penalties against Tyson, compensation for the damage to the stream, and reimbursement for the state's costs in investigating the incident.

Tyson Foods prides itself for strong and responsible corporate citizenship and publicly apologized for the mishap in a local newspaper ad.

"We’re sorry about what happened and have started trying to make things right," Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman told The City Wire.

"Through newspaper ads, we’re publicly apologizing to the people of Monett and Pierce City. We’ve met with some community leaders and we’ve asked to meet with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to see how we can help improve Clear Creek," he said. "We’ve also taken a hard look at how we manage environmental matters at Monett and are improving our processes because we don’t want this to ever happen again."

The ad notes that Tyson can not reverse what has happened, but the meat company said it plans to make it right.

“Water is a critical natural resource and we work to protect it at all of our locations ... We’ll be looking at opportunities to partner with non-government organizations that work on ecology projects in Missouri to address issues in the creek. As we learn more and have these discussions, we’ll then be able to better determine how we can help resolve these issues. We’re committed to making amends,” Tyson management noted the public apology which ran in the local newspapers following the accident.

Ron White was originally scheduled to perform at Walton Arts Center on Friday, June 20 and Saturday, June 21 and now has been rescheduled to one performance on Saturday, June 21 at 8 p.m., at the new Walmart AMP. Singer-songwriter Margo Rey will perform immediately following Ron White.

Walton Arts Center has rescheduled the show as it was determined that construction work, which was scheduled to begin in summer 2015 in Baum Walker Hall as part of the planned $23 million expansion, needs to be accelerated. In order to ensure work is completed in time for the fall start of the 2014-2015 season, several events have been relocated and/or rescheduled to allow construction to begin immediately.

Tickets will be honored and must be exchanged for a new seat on the day of performance. Present ticketholders may exchange their Walton Arts Center tickets at the Walmart AMP box office starting at noon on Saturday up to performance time. Comparable tickets will be issued at that time. Gates open at 6:30pm and show starts at 8 p.m. Free parking is available in six dedicated Walmart AMP parking lots. Patrons are encouraged to come early for ticket exchange. 
 
General admission lawn tickets will also be available for purchase day of the show only at the Walmart AMP box office for $28. The Walmart AMP is located at 5079 West Northgate Road, in Rogers.
 
Refunds will be available up to 9 p.m., Saturday, June 21 in person at the Walmart AMP or at the Walton Arts Center box office (please note that the Walton Arts Center Box office will be closed Saturday, June 21). Refunds can also be received by faxing or scanning ripped tickets to Walton Arts Center Box office by Friday at 6 p.m. at (479) 443.9024.
 
Walton Arts Center apologizes for any inconvenience.  For more information, please call 443-5600. 

America's Car-Mart announced the opening of its 135th dealership in Hixson, Tenn. It’s the company’ sixth dealership in Tennessee and the first store opening for fiscal year 2015. 

“We intend to add new dealerships selectively in what we consider to be good, solid communities with a targeted number of eight dealership openings for fiscal 2015, subject to favorable operating performance,” CEO Hank Henderson noted in the release.

Car-Mart recently said it was slowing its expansion after reporting fewer than expected sales in fiscal 2014 because of heightened competition in the subprime auto sector.

Wal-Mart Stores recently announced plans to add a third e-commerce fulfillment center in Plainfield, Ind., which will ensure the retailer can easily provide millions of American’s with two-day delivery service on their online orders.

The online fulfillment center will be similar to facilities near Fort Worth, Texas and Bethlahem, Penn., which opened in recent months.

“By combining large-scale online fulfillment centers with Walmart’s distribution centers, world-class transportation network and 4,200 stores, we have the ability to get incredibly close to our customers to deliver orders faster and at a lower cost,” said Brent Beabout, senior vice president of supply chain and logistics for Walmart Global eCommerce. “This center alone will allow cost-effective delivery to more than 160 million people in just one to two days.”  

Finding ways to compete with Amazon Prime’s two-day offer has retailers large and small investing and leverage their own infrastructure.

Walmart.com now boasts more than 7 million items for sale online, and being able to get that product to consumers quickly is an important part of the e-commerce equation.

The new facility in Plainfield will be the largest of three at 1.2 million square feet and employ about 300 workers when the project is finished in early 2016.

A federal transportation safety report has found Wal-Mart driver Kevin Roper was traveling 20 miles over the speed limit at 65 miles per hour when his semi-tractor trailer collided with a luxury van on the New Jersey Turnpike on June 7.

The fatality accident took the life of comedian James McNair and injured actor and comedian Tracy Morgan and three other people.

The preliminary accident report filed by the National Transportation Safety Board today (June 19)  found Roper traveling at 65 miles an hour for about a minute prior to crashing with the van which was flipped over upon impact.

The report also said Roper was within the allowable driving time of 14 hours on the road at 13.5 hours. Investigators claim that Roper swerved to avoid a crash on the turnpike and in so doing his rig slammed into the back of Morgan’s limo van.

The report states that speed limit signs reducing the speed from 55 mph to 45 mph were posted about a half-mile before the crash. The speed limit had been reduced because of construction.

In addition, the NTSB report said investigators are compiling and analyzing information to determine the activities of Roper and the amount of rest he received in the hours and days preceding the crash.

Roper pleaded not guilty to death by auto and assault by auto charges. He is on administrative leave from Wal-Mart. 

Wal-Mart said its trucks are equipped with devices that limit the vehicles' speed to 65 mph. Drivers are required to follow the posted speed limit under Wal-Mart policy, according to corporate spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan

"Of course we expect our drivers to comply with the laws, whether it's a speed limit, or (something else)," Buchanan told the media.

Wal-Mart declined further comment on the report, citing the pending investigation.

Saudi Arabian Prince Saud bin Khalid Al-Faisal recently visited NanoMech and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Northwest Arkansas as part of a Eisenhower Fellowship trip to investigate new approaches to sustainable economic growth, diversification, and exploring innovations to increase his country’s business potential, according to press release from Springdale-based NanoMech.

Prince Saud is the Deputy Governor for Investment Affairs, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) and President, National Competitiveness Center (NCC). He is responsible for enhancing the competitiveness of Saudi Arabia.

NanoMech was founded in 2002 and creates advanced engineering materials through patent and patent-pending nano-engineered and nano-manufactured product development. NanoMech has discovered several innovations in machining and manufacturing, lubrication and energy, and strategic military applications. NanoMech is a member of President Obama’s Materials Genome Initiative, the U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative (USMCI) and the U.S. Technology Leadership and Strategy Initiative, both based in Washington, D.C.

“This has certainly been an excellent year for NanoMech,” Chairman and CEO Jim Phillips said in the statement. “The company continues to gain momentum and it is the innovators who will help drive results, efficiencies and progress.” Phillips also noted, “Our groundbreaking products dramatically improve performance, durability and sustainability, while significantly decreasing costs to manufacture.”

The Prince toured NanoMech’s factory, laboratories and world headquarters in Springdale and met with Phillips and Dr. Ajay Malshe, NanoMech’s CTO and founder, to discuss opportunities involving NanoMech's revolutionary enhanced fossil fuel technology. A trip has been planned for Phillips and Malshe to visit R&D facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Prince Saud also visited the Institute of Nanoscience and Engineering at the University of Arkansas. NanoMech rents the Institute’s scanning electron microscope for surface morphology, cross-sectional analysis and elemental analysis. It uses the Institute’s transmission electron microscope for grain/crystal size analysis and elemental analysis, and its X-ray diffraction allows the firm to determine crystal structures/orientation for estimating crystalline.

As part of the visit to NanoMech, Prince Saud was provided a special tour of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art by Chairman and Founder Alice Walton. While on the museum tour, Prince Saud also met Walmart Stores CEO Doug McMillon and members of the Crystal Bridges Board of Directors.

Prince Saud then visited with Gov. Mike Beebe in Little Rock to talk about the economic impact companies like NanoMech have on the economy.

“Governor Beebe had an engaging discussion with Prince Saud on the history of Saudi Arabia, its government, culture and business models,” noted the NanoMech statement.

Walmart Canada hired Dirk Van den Berghe as president and CEO, replacing Shelley Broader who was recently promoted by the retail giant to a CEO role that oversees retail operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Canada.


Van den Berghe will assume his new position effective Aug. 1 and will report to Broader. He holds 30 years of international experience across Europe , Asia and the United States and joins Wal-Mart from the Delhaize Group, a global food retailer where most recently he was CEO for the company's Belgium and Luxembourg operations.


"We're very pleased Dirk will be leading Walmart Canada as we celebrate 20 amazing years of saving Canadians money so they can live better," said Broader. "Under Dirk's leadership, Delhaize has been successful in several countries, and his vast experience will allow us to strengthen our growing food business in Canada and complements our highly-successful general merchandise operation. One of Walmart's greatest strengths is having exceptional leaders to drive our continued growth, and Dirk is a prime example of this talent."


Van den Berghe has two decades of experience teaching international business at universities across Europe , Asia and the United States, and more than a decade of experience as an international trade commissioner for the Government of Belgium.


"Walmart Canada is a remarkable and intensely customer-focused business with a track record of growth and performance," Van den Berghe said. "I'm honored to have the privilege to lead this dynamic business and team and serve our customers through Walmart's nearly 400 stores in Canada and its online business.”


He holds a doctorate in economics from Sofia University in Bulgaria and speaks seven languages including English, French and Dutch. Van den Berghe and his family will relocate from Belgium to the Toronto area.

Springdale-based United Bank announced Friday (June 20) that it has converted the bank’s charter from a federal savings bank to an Arkansas State-Chartered institution. The charter conversion was approved on June 11 by the state banking board and the bank’s primary regulator will be the Arkansas State Bank Department.

Concurrent with this conversion the bank was also approved to become a member of the Federal Reserve System who will now serve as the bank’s federal regulator. Until the recent conversion, United Bank was regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

“Bank ownership and our board of directors believe that the conversion to a state charter and being a Federal Reserve member bank will be a good fit for our bank due to their understanding of Arkansas community banks. The State Bank Department has staff located in Northwest Arkansas and has a closer pulse on local economic conditions and community banks” said Nathan Gairhan, bank president and CEO. “The charter conversion will have no impact at all on our customer base.”

The Northwest Arkansas based institution has $140 million in assets, operating in two locations in Springdale and one each in Fayetteville and Rogers. The bank also has loan production offices located in Conway and Tulsa. The bank was started 35 years ago by Don Pitts and has had the same ownership since it was founded.

The Arkansas Colleges of Health Education has selected Risley & Associates as the lead architectural firm for its proposed Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine to be built at Chaffee Crossing in east Fort Smith.

The Fort Smith-based firm will be paired with Cromwell Architects Engineers of Little Rock to complete the school's master plan, including programming, schematic design and lab and lecture space design, a press release said.

The press release stated that the first building to be designed and built on the campus would house the proposed Osteopathic School and a proposed physician's assistant school.

"The design for that building is expected to be near 100,000 square feet and (either) two (or) three stories tall," the release said, adding that the building will be part of what will eventually be "a four-building quad sitting on the wooded acreage west of Chad Colley Boulevard."

The master plan calls for the buildings to blend in with the surrounding environment.

"We could not be more pleased that Tim (Risley) and his team were selected for the job," said President and CEO Kyle Parker of the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education. "After interviewing multiple firms from across the United States, we are confident we have the most experienced talent working on this project."

Risley also expressed his excitement and said his firm would work to keep as much of the work local as possible.

"90% of the architectural and consulting work will remain local; I'm very proud of that. We've traveled with the College team to view two other similar-type campuses and we'll be incorporating some of those best practices into the overall design."

Risley said once a construction manager has been hired, dirt work could begin as soon as September, with construction beginning during the first quarter of 2015.