Morris making exit from ArcBest board
John H. Morris retired Monday from ArcBest Corp.'s board of directors, the company said in a news release.
Morris has been a director at the corporation since July 1988, including a stint as a director of Treadco Inc., a past subsidiary of ArcBest, from 1991 to 1999.
His role as chairman of the compensation committee will be taken over by Stephen Gorman. Gorman, an ArcBest director since July 2015, has been a member of the committee and was formerly the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Delta Air Lines.
Judy McReynolds, ArcBest chairman, president and CEO, said ArcBest is "very grateful to John Morris for his incredible service to our company for so many years, providing us with his expertise, financial acumen and strong encouragement of our strategy."
-- Emma N. Hurt
Poultry operation's critics meet tonight
An activist group concerned about the expansion of the poultry industry in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains will sponsor a public meeting about the plans at 7 p.m. today in the school gymnasium at Evening Shade in Sharp County.
The Arkansas Rights Koalition contends that three agencies -- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration -- have failed to adequately investigate the effect that hundreds of new poultry houses will have on the environment, particularly along the Strawberry and Spring rivers, and on endangered species in the area.
Blue River Law, a firm in Eugene, Ore., is working with the activist group. A lawsuit hasn't been filed and few, if any, of the loans sought by current and prospective poultry farmers in the area have been approved.
Officials with Ozark Mountain Poultry and Peco Foods Inc. have said the expansion of poultry processing plants in Pocahontas and Batesville will require several hundred new broiler houses in the area.
-- Stephen Steed
State index up 0.48 as U.S. markets off
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 0.48 to 324.04 Monday.
"The major averages closed marginally lower as investors digested the latest corporate earnings reports and increased mergers and acquisitions activity," said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Simmons First Investment Group Inc. in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 11/01/2016