Intrust razing starts Monday

Intrust Bank plans to demolish its downtown branch building next week to make way for a new one.

Monday morning, crews are scheduled to start razing the bank’s vacated building at 901 Vt., said Mike Maddox, community bank president.

In its place will go a new main branch, featuring four drive-through lanes and a drive-through ATM. The project (as seen above, looking southwest at Ninth and Vermont streets) is expected to cost nearly $1 million.

Intrust’s two branches in Lawrence have 25 employees and $35 million in assets. The Wichita-based bank also is seeking a third site for a branch in Lawrence, Maddox said.

Lawrence: Gifting seminar set at LMH

The Lawrence Memorial Hospital Endowment Assn. is sponsoring a luncheon seminar, “Give it Away or Keep It? The New Gifting.” The seminar, co-sponsored by Brandon Woods Retirement Community and Presbyterian Manor, will include information about charitable and family gifting.

The seminar will be from 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. Tuesday in the LMH auditorium, 325 Maine. Lunch will be served from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Nancy Goodall, vice president and senior trust officer with Central National Bank, will lead the seminar. Goodall, a frequent lecturer in the areas of estate planning, investments, trusts and taxes, will answer questions about charitable gifting and also about the benefits and drawbacks of gifting after 2001.

The seminar is free, but advance registration is requested. For more information, call 749-6134.

Obituary: Dillard’s founder dies at 87

William T. Dillard Sr., who built one the nation’s largest retail chains out of a modest store he started at the end of the Depression, died Friday. He was 87.

Dillard’s said its founder died at his home in Little Rock, Ark.

Dillard was the chairman of Dillard’s Inc., formerly known as Dillard Department Stores. The chain he started in 1938 with a 2,500 square-foot store in southwestern Arkansas now has nearly 350 stores in 29 states.

In 1989, Fortune magazine called the chain “a quiet superstar … family run, highly computerized, extremely competitive and great for investors.”

Ray Kemp, the company’s retired vice chairman, said in March 1994: “He was quick to foresee the trend toward suburban shopping malls versus the old downtown environment.”

Tiremaker: Goodyear reports job cuts

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. on Friday announced its first annual loss in a decade and said it would cut 3,500 more jobs this year to reduce costs.

Executives told investors that the world’s largest tire maker could return to profitability, despite a weakened economy and slumping tire market.

Union concessions, a changing relationship with automakers and higher prices for consumers bode well for 2002 earnings, said Sam Gibara, chief executive.

The Akron, Ohio-based company said it also was changing its relationship with automakers, whose orders for new cars make up about 25 percent of sales. If automakers won’t accept higher prices for those tires, Goodyear will drop some contracts, spokesman Keith Price said.

The $203.6 million loss for 2001 was Goodyear’s first annual loss since 1992.