Business

Fort Smith airport increases parking fees

story by Marla Cantrell [email protected] It will cost you an extra $1 a day to park at the Fort Smith Regional Airport beginning Jan. 1. The increase was approved at…

Insurance, law firm deal to bring 30 jobs to downtown Fort Smith

Members of the Central Business Improvement District all but stumbled over themselves to approve a downtown Fort Smith commercial building redesign that will indirectly bring 30 jobs to the area….

It’s important to seek to avoid problems before they arise

Stockman forwards 11 ideas on how to best nix common problems in small business startups.

Fort Smith/Van Buren area sees big gain in home inventory

The number of homes for sale in Fort Smith and Van Buren is up 21% between January and Nov. 23, with the average list price of new and existing homes…

Internet access part of U.S. Senate hearing in Little Rock

Broadband access in rural areas was one of the items discussed during the first Arkansas field hearing of the U.S Senate Agriculture committee. U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., was named…

‘Modest’ gains expected in U.S. trucking sector

The trucking sector is improving but not by much. The American Trucking Associations’ seasonally adjusted Tonnage Index dipped 0.2% in October, following a 0.3% dip in September. The not seasonally…

Tyson Foods posts hefty fiscal 2009 accounting loss

Tyson Foods Inc. closed its fiscal year with a decent fourth quarter earnings of 28 cents per share, beating analysts estimate and the fourth quarter 2008 earnings of 14 cents…

Money woes darken Arkansas’ 211 system; Vendors left on hold

story by Marla Cantrell All that’s left of the Arkansas 211 call center is an automated message announcing the number is no longer in service. The United Way program that…

Seven-state robotics competition heads to UAFS

story submitted by the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Fort Smith will host 40 teams from seven states Dec. 3-5 for the 2009 Frontier Trails BEST Regional Robotics Competition,…

Arkansas’ October jobless rate jumps to 7.6%

Arkansas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 7.1% in September to 7.6% in October, an increase that could end three consecutive months of rate declines in the Fort Smith metro…

Beer follows BBQ to Cedarville

story and photo by Marla Cantrell Sit down for this one. You can now buy beer in Cedarville. That’s right, BEER. In the small, conservative northern Crawford County town of…

Natural gas proponents not giving up on CNG push

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Fort Smith-based Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp. refuse to give up on the effort to convince governments, businesses and individuals of the benefits of compressed…

Regional bankruptcies and incorporations

Following are recent bankruptcy and incorporation filings from Crawford, Franklin, Logan and Sebastian counties. The information is provided by The Daily Record. a Little Rock-based news and legal information publisher….

Tyson Foods names new CEO, COO

The board of Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc. has named Donnie Smith the new CEO and Jim Lochner the new chief operating officer, according to a statement the company issued Thursday…

The City Wire Business of the Month: Sweet Boutique

Cedarville sisters defy the odds by surviving in a specialty business often hardest hit by a deep recession. Let them eat cake, indeed!

September not a good month for area hotels

Hospitality tax collections in Fort Smith declined more than 25% in September 2009 compared to September 2008, with the continued slowdown in corporate travel blamed for most of the decline….

First Bank Corp. donates $500,000 to U.S. Marshals Museum

Fort Smith-based First Bank Corp. announced Tuesday a gift of $500,000 to the U.S. Marshals Museum, which pushes the museum over the $5 million mark in its $50 million fundraising…

A unique option for small business funding

Stockman outlines one way a community can raise funds to support entrepreneurial efforts.

Arkansas Lottery sales could exceed estimates

Projections for lottery sales in Arkansas were set liberally during the legislative debate at $400 million, and that number was scoffed at by skeptics. But could lottery sales in Arkansas…

New company offers Ozark Forest, Buffalo River tours

story submitted by Jill Rohrbach, a travel writer with the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism If you like hiking, but don’t know where to go, don’t like deciphering guidebooks,…