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Independence, MO —
The longtime leader of a local nonprofit business that serves developmentally disabled adults is stepping aside.
Stan Shurmantine, CEO of JobOne and its predecessor, IBS Industries, for 24 years, is retiring. His last day is Friday. He will stay on in a new role, helping with business development and governmental affairs. Executive Director Aaron Martin will take over as CEO.
It’s been a quarter century of change for organizations like JobOne that have traditionally run sheltered workshops. One story always stuck with me. The company used to have a contract with Hallmark to assemble various items into packages. Let’s say the pieces of a Nativity set. Then Hallmark discovered that it’s cheaper to send those pieces by train to Mexico, have them assembled there and brought back. That’s the kind of work that’s been disappearing.
“Certainly things in 2012 are not the same as they were in the past, and the past isn’t coming back,” Shurmantine said.
So IBS – it became JobOne last year with a merger with a similar group, FWI, in Grandview – has adapted to new opportunities to find employment for its clients. Shurmantine said probably the biggest change he’s seen is a shift under a government program that sets aside contracts for groups such as JobOne.
“Really that’s what led us to the entrepreneurial spirit that we have today,” he said.
There’s still the subcontracting, but JobOne also runs a variety of other programs, including recycling and secure document shredding (in an era of heightened concerns about the privacy of medical and other information, that’s really important for lots of companies). For about 18 months, it ran a small store in the Maywood area of western Independence, and it’s hard to overstate the amount of hope that people in the community – not to mention IBS – invested in that idea. Last year, the store closed, but Shurmantine won’t rule out future retail ventures if they look good. “Even with the Corner Spot, we learned from our mistakes,” he said.
Think about it. JobOne has a demanding mission: Adapt to an ever-changing marketplace while creating jobs that give its clients the paycheck, fulfillment and degree of independence that come with a job. And do so, Shurmantine adds, in the least restrictive environment possible with clients being well integrated into the community.
There are opportunities. Shurmantine says the new Independence bus service, which takes off next week, should improve options for his clients. More broadly, he says, people have become more and more aware of people with disabilities.
The longtime leader of a local nonprofit business that serves developmentally disabled adults is stepping aside.
Stan Shurmantine, CEO of JobOne and its predecessor, IBS Industries, for 24 years, is retiring. His last day is Friday. He will stay on in a new role, helping with business development and governmental affairs. Executive Director Aaron Martin will take over as CEO.
It’s been a quarter century of change for organizations like JobOne that have traditionally run sheltered workshops. One story always stuck with me. The company used to have a contract with Hallmark to assemble various items into packages. Let’s say the pieces of a Nativity set. Then Hallmark discovered that it’s cheaper to send those pieces by train to Mexico, have them assembled there and brought back. That’s the kind of work that’s been disappearing.
“Certainly things in 2012 are not the same as they were in the past, and the past isn’t coming back,” Shurmantine said.
So IBS – it became JobOne last year with a merger with a similar group, FWI, in Grandview – has adapted to new opportunities to find employment for its clients. Shurmantine said probably the biggest change he’s seen is a shift under a government program that sets aside contracts for groups such as JobOne.
“Really that’s what led us to the entrepreneurial spirit that we have today,” he said.
There’s still the subcontracting, but JobOne also runs a variety of other programs, including recycling and secure document shredding (in an era of heightened concerns about the privacy of medical and other information, that’s really important for lots of companies). For about 18 months, it ran a small store in the Maywood area of western Independence, and it’s hard to overstate the amount of hope that people in the community – not to mention IBS – invested in that idea. Last year, the store closed, but Shurmantine won’t rule out future retail ventures if they look good. “Even with the Corner Spot, we learned from our mistakes,” he said.
Think about it. JobOne has a demanding mission: Adapt to an ever-changing marketplace while creating jobs that give its clients the paycheck, fulfillment and degree of independence that come with a job. And do so, Shurmantine adds, in the least restrictive environment possible with clients being well integrated into the community.
There are opportunities. Shurmantine says the new Independence bus service, which takes off next week, should improve options for his clients. More broadly, he says, people have become more and more aware of people with disabilities.
All in all, the work Shurmantine describes is rewarding.
“The one thing I’ve learned from this population,” he says, “is to be grateful for everything you’ve got.”
Housing starts gaining
The upbeat news on new housing keeps coming. Permits issued for new single-family homes are up 45 percent in Eastern Jackson County in the first five months of the year, which is on pace with the eight-county metro area as a whole.
The Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City reports that 1,216 permits were issued in January through May, a 47 percent jump from the same period in 2011.
Eastern Jackson County accounts for 15.87 percent of that market, compared with 38 percent for Johnson County and 20 percent for Clay County. (The Kansas City and Grandview portions of Jackson County aren't contributing much growth, as the county as a whole accounts for 18 percent. Almost all of Kansas City's growth is in Platte and Clay counties.)
Some of the specifics:
• Independence has issued 30 permits, up from 24 in the first five months of 2011.
• Blue Springs has issued 26, up from 22.
• Grain Valley is holding steady at 16.
• Lee's Summit easily leads the area with 90, up 58 percent from last year's 57.
It trails only Kansas City (239), Olathe (180) and Overland Park (136) among metro cities. Independence is No. 8, and Blue Springs is No. 10.
Overall, the numbers are nowhere near what they were in the middle part of the 2000s. Permits fell 32 percent from 2006 to 2007 and then 49 percent from 2007 to 2008. But the Homebuilders Association says the area is on track to beat the numbers coming out of the trough in the market from 2009 through 2011. So far, each month's figures for 2012 have been at least 30 percent of the same month in 2011.
Do your homework
Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan is out with her annual list of top threats to investors, and she has some simple advice: Call to check, get it on paper, and know your goals.
The potential scams are fairly well known, starting with online pitches. "Online investment opportunities offered by startup companies with no operating history may have limited or no disclosures, and scam artists are very creative about luring in new, unknowing victims," her office writes. Other worries are unlicensed sales people, risky startups and brokers making special offers. And one more: a flood of offers to cash in on commodities such as gold, oil and gas. Markets fluctuate, Carnahan's office reminds us, and scammers see fertile ground in commodities markets these days.
So do your homework. Carnhan urges those making new investments or working with a new broker – or anyone with a worry about current holdings – to call the investor protection hotline at 1-800-721-7996. Carnahan also has an investor protection website at www.MissouriInvestorProtection.gov.
And remember, it's old advice and it still applies: Get it in writing.
