March 2008

Last fall, Shelter Insurance agent Mike Messer teed up a deal with Bryan Ninichuck by treating him to a round of golf at Columbia Country Club. Over the four-hour round, they hashed out a plan for insuring Ninichuck’s business, Winegate Environmental Pest Management. The outing made Ninichuck wonder whether a country club membership could help his own business.

       The Columbia metropolitan area has been designated a declining real estate market by the federal government’s Housing Price Index, which affects how local lenders determine mortgage rates and policies and can increase down-payment requirements.        Columbia was ranked 202nd in housing appreciation out of 291 Metropolitan Statistical Areas and was the only declining MSA in

      Craig Chval, who formed The Chval Law Group, P.C. with his brother, Keith, in suburban Chicago, has opened an office at the Buttonwood Business Center in Columbia.       Craig Chval was the chief of the High Tech and Computer Crime Unit in the Office of Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon before opening the office

      Columbia Sunrise Southwest Rotary Club, which has been gathering informally for six months, will be formally recognized on Charter Night, April 24.       The Southwest Rotary has 37 charter members and meets at 7 a.m. on Thursdays at Country Club of Missouri. Dr. Neil Riley, a dentist, is the president and Mike Kelly of

      The price of regular gasoline has started creeping above $3 per gallon in Columbia, and industry analysts expect the price to keep rising through spring.       The price at the pump in Columbia reached the highest level at $3.22 per gallon for regular gas last May, but the retail prices for gas are expected to