LOCAL BUSINESS
Welty opens Columbus office
Welty Building Co. Ltd. of Fairlawn has opened an office in Columbus.
Welty’s new office is at Regus suites at 20 S. Third St. in the Galleria building in downtown Columbus.
John Hartman, a native of Columbus, is overseeing the office as group president. He previously was director of business development in Columbus for Danis Building Construction Co. of Cincinnati.
Welty is not new to the Columbus market. The company was the construction manager for the Scioto Downs racino in downtown Columbus.
Welty has an office in Cleveland, in addition to offices in Fairlawn and Cleveland. Welty Building’s work includes teaming up with Gilbane Inc. as construction manager for the new Goodyear corporate headquarters in East Akron and serving with Fred Olivieri Co. as construction manager for the large Timken Co. office in Jackson Township. Welty Building’s past area projects include renovations and expansion of the Akron Art Museum, and renovations to Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls.
SCORE offering workshops
Akron SCORE, the nonprofit business counseling service, will offer its Simple Steps for Starting Your Business workshops beginning Sept. 11 and continuing weekly through Oct. 16.
The free workshop series consists of six three-hour sessions designed to help those thinking about starting a business, as well as existing businesses.
All workshops will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Taylor Institute in the University of Akron’s Polsky Building at 225 S. Main St. downtown. Applicants must commit to attending all six workshops.
Workshop topics and dates are: Start Up Basics, Sept. 11; Business Concept, Sept. 18; Marketing Plan, Sept. 25; Financial Matters, Oct. 2 and Oct. 9; Funding and Next Steps, Oct. 16.
Workshops will be led by SCORE counselors. They include case studies and work assignments based on a participant’s business idea. Attendees will receive a certification of completion.
To apply or for more information, call 330-379-3163. . To learn more about Akron SCORE, go online to www.akron.score.org.
Goodyear to host conference
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is holding an invitation-only investors meeting with industry analysts Sept. 20 in New York City. But the public can listen in via a live webcast of the conference that is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to noon.
Richard Kramer, Goodyear chairman and chief executive officer and Darren R. Wells, executive vice president and chief financial officer, along with other top executives will participate.
Meeting topics will include future performance goals, investments and capital allocation plans. To listen to the webcast, go online to http://investor.goodyear.com. To access the conference by telephone, call either 800-895-1085 or 785-424-1055 before 8:55 a.m. on Sept. 20 and provide the conference ID “Goodyear.”
RPM to pay $65.1 million
RPM International Inc. said it expects to pay a total of $65.1 million to settle a federal lawsuit over its Tremco roofing subsidiary.
The federal government sued the Medina holding company, saying Tremco made false pricing claims on its products and services related to government contracts. RPM said it initially accrued $68.8 million in anticipation of the settlement. The company said it reduced the estimated accrual on July 22 by $3.7 million.
“The majority of the incidents on which the settlement is based occurred between 2002 and 2008,” RPM said in a news release. “We are fully committed to conducting business with the highest levels of compliance, and have taken a number of proactive actions to strengthen our administrative procedures and compliance systems to prevent future errors from occurring.”
LABOR
Fast-food protest is today
Fast-food customers in search of burgers and fries today might run into striking workers. Organizers say thousands of fast-food workers are set to stage walkouts around the country, part of a push to get chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s to pay workers higher wages.
It’s expected be the largest nationwide strike by fast-food workers, according to organizers. The biggest effort so far was over the summer when about 2,200 of the nation’s millions of fast-food workers staged a one-day strike in seven cities.
AUTO INDUSTRY
GM predicts driverless vehicle
General Motors officials said before the end of the decade, the company will put a car on the road that can almost drive itself.
Its system, called “Super Cruise,” uses radar and cameras to steer the car and keep a safe distance while braking to a stop.
Compiled from staff and wire reports