LOCAL BUSINESS
New Diebold product
Diebold Inc. is making what it calls the world’s first intelligent-powered automated teller machine that can be powered from solar, battery and the electrical grid.
The new Diebold 429 is specifically designed for urban and rural areas of India, Green-based Diebold said. The ATM’s “intelligent power management system” automatically switches as needed between solar panel, alternating current grid and an internal battery that provides four hours of power, the company said.
The Diebold 429 consumes about 40 percent less energy than the previous generation of cash dispensers available in the Indian market, Diebold said.
Lampoon sues Durham
Imprisoned Fair Finance scam artist Tim Durham probably doesn’t think it’s funny that comedy movie maker National Lampoon Inc. is accusing him of embezzling $1 million and wants its money back.
National Lampoon is suing Durham, who had been its chief executive officer until January 2012, saying Durham embezzled $1 million in 2011 and gave it to his defense attorney, John Tompkins. The suit also names Tompkins’ Indianapolis law firm. National Lampoon says it never authorized any transfer of money.
Durham, the Indianapolis-based co-owner of Akron-based Fair Finance, was convicted last June along with two other men of scamming about 5,300 Ohio residents out of more than $200 million they had invested in the company. Durham was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Durham has since declared he is broke.
The National Lampoon lawsuit was filed Thursday in California Superior Court. National Lampoon is known for the comedy Animal House and the Vacation movie series starring Chevy Chase.
Slight price increase
The monthly natural gas price for customers who have chosen Dominion’s Standard Choice Offer (SCO) or those who don’t choose their own supplier will go up slightly.
Effective March 14, the identical Standard Choice Offer (SCO) and Standard Service Offer (SSO) rates will be $4.03 per thousand cubic feet (mcf). The new rates are 20 cents, or 5.2 percent, higher than the February SCO/SSO rates of $3.83/ mcf. The new rates are 58 cents, or 16.8 percent, higher than the March 2012 SCO/SSO rates of $3.45/mcf.
Under the new filing, the average SCO/SSO residential customer’s bill for the month of March 2013 would be $99.63 up $9.51, or 10.6 percent, from $90.12 in March 2012.
Residential customers pay the same usage-based charges (to deliver gas to a residence) and monthly service fee, regardless of whether customers choose their own supplier or stay with Dominion. The monthly service fee is $20.80 and the usage-based charges are $1.35/mcf.
Stark fracking supplier
A Connecticut-based company has opened a new frack sand terminal in southern Stark County.
Unimin Corp. announced it opened a new facility in Navarre for proppants or fracking sand.
The facility will provide sand for drillers in the Utica shale in eastern Ohio.
“This new footprint in the Utica formation is an important addition to our proppant delivery network,” said Executive Vice President Louis Mastandrea in a company statement.
The Navarre plant is served by three railroads and is easily accessible to Interstate 77, U.S. 30 and state Route 21.
The new terminal is the company’s seventh in the Marcellus and Utica shales. The other terminals are in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Myers increases dividend
Akron-based polymer product manufacturer Myers Industries Inc. will pay an increased quarterly dividend of 9 cents per share on April 1 to shareholders of record on March 11.
The dividend is 12.5 percent higher than the previous dividend of 8 cents per share paid last quarter.
HEALTH CARE
Online Rite Aid clinics
Rite Aid Corp. has expanded a new drugstore clinic that allows customers to visit online with doctors who can diagnose conditions and prescribe medications based on a 10-minute consultation. The Camp Hill, Pa., company with Akron stores says its NowClinic Online Care services are available in 58 pharmacies in four cities: Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The drugstore chain had been testing the concept in nine Detroit pharmacies.
Customers can have private video or phone conversations with physicians. The consultations cost $45. Rite Aid Corp. is the nation’s third-largest drugstore operator behind Walgreen Co. and CVS Caremark Corp., which both run in-store clinic programs.
Compiled from staff and wire reports.