Ex-PSC exec Bethel lands job at Entergy
Entergy Arkansas has hired John Bethel as director of public affairs, the utility said Monday. Bethel retired last month from the Arkansas Public Service Commission.
Bethel, 53, worked for the commission for almost 30 years, serving most recently as executive director of its general staff.
Bethel replaces Paul Means, who retired after 37 years at Entergy Arkansas. Bethel's primary area of responsibility will be at the state Capitol.
The electric utility industry is entering a time of "enormous change," said Tom Kennedy, Entergy's vice president of regulatory and public affairs. "We believe [Bethel] will lend a unique perspective now and going forward into that new landscape."
Entergy recently hired Matthew Klucher, the commission's former manager of cost allocations and rate design. Klucher is director of utility rates and pricing for Entergy in New Orleans.
-- David Smith
Cobb-Vantress buys Siloam Springs site
Siloam Springs-based poultry genetics company Cobb-Vantress has purchased a 35,000-square-foot building in the city's downtown that once was the headquarters for Allens Canning.
"The new building offers a great centralized location with room to grow," Joel Sappenfield, president of Cobb-Vantress, said in a statement.
Cobb-Vantress staff will move into the building at 305 E. Main St. in the coming months. The company's Siloam Springs location on U.S. 412 will continue to serve as its headquarters. The terms of the sale were not released.
The building had most recently been the headquarters of Sager Creek Vegetable Co., which purchased Allens Inc. in February 2014 shortly after Allens, founded in 1926, filed for bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy case is ongoing.
Allens was renamed Sager Creek Vegetable Co. in July 2014. In early 2015, California-based Del Monte Foods Inc. bought all the assets of Sager Creek.
In September, Del Monte sold the Sager Creek brands to South Carolina-based McCall Farms.
-- John Magsam
State index finishes day with gain of 1.48
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.48 to 417.29 Monday.
"Stocks closed higher on Monday amid hopes of a potential breakthrough in trade tensions between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates 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 05/15/2018