Faces and places

Louis Bia will join River City Hair Company, 1031 Vt., on June 17. Bia has been a hairstylist for 17 years and has worked in Lawrence for two years. He placed second in a Kansas competition for hair/makeup. He has received 34 customer service awards during the past two years, and worked as a hairstylist for the Miss Kansas pageant.

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Barbara Braa, a trust officer with CornerBank, attended the 24th annual MOKAN Midwest Trust and Financial Services conference May 14-16 in Kansas City, Mo. The conference featured national speakers on trusts, estate planning, investments and retirement planning. More than 200 trust professionals from various Midwestern states and representatives from 40 national and regional financial services companies also attended the conference.

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Allison Ross, a second-year student in Kansas University’s School of Law, has been chosen as a summer intern for Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger.

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Small business owners can apply for U.S. Small Business Administration Pre-Disaster Mitigation loans to cover the costs of protecting their business property from damages caused by future disasters. Small businesses may borrow up to $50,000 to protect their property by taking specific measures to prevent disaster damage. Some examples of mitigation measures include: elevating flood-prone structures or retrofitting buildings to lessen the damaged caused by earthquakes, high winds and floods.

Applications will be accepted from June 16 to July 16. The interest rate is fixed at 2.953 percent with loan terms up to a maximum of 30 years.

To download an application and get more information about the loans, visit www.sba.gov/disaster. Applicants also can contact the U.S. Small Business Administration at (800) 366-6303.

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Taco John’s Lawrence restaurants are showing their support of education by rewarding students with a free taco for every A they receive. The “Taco’s for A’s” is a national program that has received positive feedback in other communities. Students are asked to bring their report card to any of the Taco John’s locations to receive their free tacos. Taco John’s has three Lawrence locations: 2309 Haskell Ave., 1101 W. Sixth St. and 1626 W. 23rd St.

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Beginning July 25, about 251,000 Kansans who claimed the Child Tax Credit on their 2002 tax returns will automatically receive an advance payment of the 2003 increase in this credit. The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service said taxpayers will not have to take any action to get this advance payment of up to $400 per qualifying child.

The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 increased the maximum child tax credit for 2003 to $1,000 per child, up from $600 for 2002. The law instructed the Treasury Department to provide the difference — up to $400 per child — as an advance payment to each eligible taxpayer this summer.

The Treasury Department will issue about 25 million of these checks this year, beginning with three principal mailings on July 25, Aug. 1 and Aug. 8. For more information, click on www.irs.gov.

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The board of directors of Protection One has announced the election of nine directors at its annual meeting of stockholders on May 28 in Irving, Texas.

Directors elected were Richard Ginsburg, president and chief executive officer of Protection One; Ben Enis; James Wilson; Donald Johnston; and five individuals nominated by Westar Energy, the majority stockholder of the company. The Westar Energy nominees elected were William Moore, chief operating officer of Westar Energy; Bruce Akin, vice president of business services of Westar Energy; Larry Irick, vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Westar Energy; Greg Greenwood, treasurer of Westar Energy; and James Clark, a former officer of Westar Energy and of ONEOK.

Before the election of directors, Darius Nevin, chief financial officer of Protection One, resigned as a director to accommodate the election of the five Westar nominees.

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The University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the U.S. Small Business Administration have launched KCSourceLink, a network that links dozens of area entrepreneur support organizations.

With the formation of KCSourceLink, Kansas City becomes one of the first cities selected by the SBA for its new National Entrepreneur Center Alliance, which sets Kansas City as a model environment for advancing entrepreneurship.

KCSourceLink will encompass a growing network of more than 130 entrepreneurship service partners.

Once it becomes operational, entrepreneurs will be able to access the network by either calling or e-mailing KCSourceLink or by visiting its Web site. Or, they can visit the KCSourceLink office at 4747 Troost in Kansas City, Mo. or the office location of any one of the network service partners to receive a needs assessment and referral to the right resource.

For more information on KCSourceLink, call (816) 235-6500.

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Employees and managers of the Applebee’s on Iowa Street will be working with the Lawrence Habitat for Humanity on Saturday. They will provide food along with labor at the site at 17th and Harper streets.

Honors and awards

Lawrence’s Hy-Vee store at 4000 W. Sixth St. was selected by Hy-Vee Inc. as a winner in the company’s 2003 Springtime Party competition.

The store won second place in its division in the annual event. Store director Shawn Brown received a commemorative plaque and special recognition from Hy-Vee CEO Ron Pearson during a recent meeting at Hy-Vee’s corporate offices in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Springtime Party, a Hy-Vee tradition since 1960, is a company-wide promotion designed to kick off the busy summer season. Judging teams from Hy-Vee’s corporate office tour the stores and rate them on the basis of friendliness, enthusiasm, cleanliness, creativity and overall Springtime Party atmosphere.

Coming events

Dr. Rebecca Blank, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, will be the keynote speaker at the Kansas Conference on Economic Inclusion. The conference will be June 18-20 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Topeka.

Blank will give a presentation on the effects of welfare reform and the myths that drive public policy and opinions on poverty-related issues.

The Kansas Conference on Economic Inclusion is sponsored by the Kansas Association of Community Action Programs.

Additional conference information can be found at www.kacap.org or by calling (785) 234-0878.

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The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce announces that KFC will have a ground-breaking ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at 701 Wakarusa Drive.