Kiger's Notebook

Security biz hiring for Roch. area jobs

Here's some from a piece I wrote about local security office landing federal corrections guards contract. This means local jobs. The full story and all of the details will be in Thursday's print edition of the PB:

Dean Mikel of Stewartville is looking for a few good women … and some good men.

Mikel, who is the local manager for the Twin City Security, is looking to fill a number of guard positions since his company was recently awarded contract for the Federal Medical Center in Rochester and the Federal Correctional Institution in Waseca.

“We’ve hired about 40 people and we’re looking to hire 10 to 12 more,” says Mikel. Overall, he estimates winning this U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons contract back in February will create approximately 50 to 60 security jobs in this area during the next four months.

The reason women are such a priority is that the federal prison in Waseca recently changed from being an all-male facility to one that only house women inmates.

“I’m actively looking for a lot women. I’ve hired about 10 women in last two weeks,” Mikel said last week.

He is looking for women that have backgrounds in security, law enforcement, corrections or the military.

They also have to be able to pass a federal employee background check. The positions he is filling pay almost $17 per hour.

Minn. commercial Realtors bash + Roch.

A meet-and-greet networking event with the Minnesota Commercial Association of Realtors is slated for next week in Rochester.

 And it will feature Rochester's Development Administrator discussing the downtown urban village.

If you are interested in commercial real estate, this will might be a worthwhile event to attend.

Here's the flyer from MNCAR: Cocktail Reception & Networking Event Thursday, October 8  5-7pm

More federal money comes back to Minn. via biz contracts

Here's a few area companies that were awarded federal contracts. The contract with the University of Minnesota regents struck me as interesting, because the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego is the military entity that Mayo Clinic has a long relationship with and currently has a Special Purpose Processor Development Group lab in the Mayo Support Center at 4001 41st St. N.W. focusing on contracts with the military group.

Federal documents show that much of the Mayo work is electronic in nature, but I wonder if the U of M would work with Mayo on this nanopost array for DNA fingerprinting

$38,700 Federal Contract Awarded to Winona Heating & Ventilating

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 -- Winona Heating & Ventilating Co. Inc., Winona, Minn., won a $38,700 federal contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul, Minn., for the replacement of the roofing system on the Central Control Station at Lock and Dam 3 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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$40,001 Federal Contract Awarded to Riverland Community College

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 -- Riverland Community College, Austin, Minn., won a $40,000.80 federal contract from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Prisons, Waseca, Minn., for an advanced occupational education.

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$49,376 Federal Contract Awarded to Kemps LLC

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 -- Kemps LLC, Rochester, Minn., won a $49,376 federal contract from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Prisons, Rochester, Minn., for milk and dairy products.

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MILITARY $123,831 Federal Contract Awarded to Regents of University of Minnesota

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 -- Regents of University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, won a $123,831 federal contract from the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, for research and development on nanopost array for DNA fingerprinting.

Olmsted Med's plans to move its front door

Here's a follow-up to my earlier post about the demo work going on by Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester:

Olmsted Medical Center is moving its front door and expanding its lobby to make coming to the clinic easier.

“We’ve heard a lot patient complaints about lack of waiting space and about the entrance,” says Jeremy Salucka, OMC’s spokesman about the medical center’s main location at 210 Ninth St. S.E.

The plan is to move the entrance from the building’s north side, which faces the busy Ninth Street, to the west side.

“It is a quick improvement to up patient convenience,” he says.

Quick is relative, with work on the clinic starting later this fall or winter. The hope is to complete the more than $1 million project by the spring or summer.

The project has started with the demolition of two OMC-owned buildings on the southeast corner of the parking lot, facing Third Avenue. A white house at 913 Third Ave. S.E. went down first and a brick office building at 915 Third Ave. S.E. was the focus this week.

The white house has a prominent place in Olmsted Medical Center’s history. It was built in 1953 by Dr. Harold Wente and opened under the name Olmsted Medical Group.

Now that portion of OMC’s property is slated to be developed into additional parking, probably for employees. Many of the 359 employees now park across Ninth Street, in the Kmart parking lot.

More indoor sports + Rochester

Kevin Lowery, owner of Rochester’s Soccer World dome, 380 Woodlake Drive S.E., is adding to the indoor sport options by taking over the former Jets Gymnastics building on the other side of the city at 4430 19th. N.W.

His plans are to keep people moving by running turf from wall-to-wall in the large facility and renaming it Arena Sports.

He plans to offer flag football, lacrosse and arena softball in the new arena when it opens Oct. 19. It will also be available for birthday parties and special events.

Arena softball, which is a faster-paced version of the outdoor sport, allows each team 16 times at bat each inning and there are no foul balls.

Creation of Rochester’s newest arena came about quickly after Lowery was approached to buy the site a few weeks ago.

“I’ve always been wanting to kick around this idea. So the opportunity came up and we decided to give it a try,” he says.

Five to six employees will likely staff the arena, Lowery said.

FDIC tweaks Security State Bank

In what has become a dreaded Friday tradition, the FDIC issued is list of banks that it has sent letters asking for improvement (or more serious things).

 On this Friday's list was Security State Bank of Lewiston, which has branches in Spring Valley, Lewiston, Hokah, Wykoff and Ostander.

I chatted with Bank President Mike Bue, who is well-known in Rochester for leading many banks gpoing back to the Marquette Bank days. He explained that the core of the issue a number of loans from outside of this area that the bank bought as an investment.

In the current market, those loans have become problematic and the FDIC is demanding that the bank take care of that. A plan has been put in place and approved by FDIC.

Security State, which has assets totaling $74 million, remains open and active. Bue says none of the loan problems are local. The bank is still well capitalized, is still opening accounts and is still issuing loans.

I'll have more in print very (very) soon.

Indoor sports

As the impending, long Minnesota winter looms in the near future, two area businesses are making moves to bring traditional outdoor sports inside.

I should have more on this in print Monday.

Stuff brewing locally…maybe

Here's sort of a very rough and very unconfirmed vague version of Biz Buzz of things I'm trying to track to see if there is anything to them:

• A local floral business might be building a new facility.

• A sports-related business growing locally.

• A local counseling office might be changing its name.

• Things might be looking better for an area health operation, which some are saying had a record month recently.

Olmsted Med. Center + demolition = ?

I've been hearing Olmsted Medical Center has a new project in the works in Rochester for a little while.

However, I have not gotten around to checking it out yet. Really, it is on my list, but I just haven't done the checking yet.

Well, while I've been off doing whatever I do all day (sometimes I don't even know. Heh.), OMC has started knocking a building down at 915 Third Ave. S.E., just off OMC's side parking lot.

Last night, I swung by there and snapped a couple pics before it got too dark.

Hopefully today, I'll come up with details on what OMC has up their sleeve for that spot.

Stress incontinence = $?

Rochester Medical Corp. is looking to start 2010 by launching a major play for the female stress incontinence market in both the U.S. and the U.K.

“The market potential for this is bigger than any of our other products,” said Anthony Conway, CEO of the Stewartville catheter maker, after announcing that its FemSoft Insert has been approved by in the United Kingdon as a prescription product.

It is a soft silicone insert with a fluid-filled bulb at the end to conform inside the patient to block leakage.

This follows U.S. Medicare’s preliminary reimbursement approval for the FemSoft Insert earlier this year.

If all goes as expected, both the U.S. and the U.K. will begin reimbursing for the product in January 2010.

“The market potential for this is bigger than any of our other products,” says Conway.

It is estimated that more than 12 million women are diagnosed with stress incontinence in the U.S. This condition can cause urinary leakage occurs during certain physical activities such as exercise, coughing, laughing, or sneezing.

Conway believes FemSoft could used by about five percent of that group, which tallies to about an estimated $1 billion piece of the market.

While being OKed for Medicare reimbursement spotlights FemSoft, it has been used for years by women paying the full cost for the product. The Federal Drug Administration approved it after a five year, eight clinical site study.