So how’s this for investment advice? Take $100,000 of real U.S. dollars and turn them over to a group of college students for safekeeping.

It might sound risky, but it worked out just fine for Erie native Vincent Intrieri, senior managing director of Icahn Capital Management and a 1984 graduate of Penn State Behrend.

After chatting last year with Hunter Holzhauer, who teaches a portfolio management class at Behrend, Intrieri gave the school $100,000 to establish the Penn State Behrend Student-Managed Fund.

Students, with some oversight from Holzhauer, used the money to purchase and manage a stock portfolio of about 50 stocks, beginning in late 2012.

Intrieri predicted in Decembers that students would make the most of the money.

“When you have real money in the investment versus a mock portfolio, there’s always more thought put into it,” he said in December.

So how well did the class perform?

About six months after the initial investment, the portfolio is worth about $112,000, with gains similar to those of the S&P 500.

“They’ve made $12,000,” Holzhauer said. “That’s a good thing.”

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority has approved a $208,000 grant to help build a compressed natural gas filling station at the Birkmire Trailer Co. facility in McKean Township at Interstate 90 and Route 832.

That funding is part of a $2.6 million project by Butler-based Birkmire. The company plans to convert 15 trucks so they will be able to burn both CNG and diesel fuel. Six new CNG trucks also are being purchased.

The company’s new filling station could provide access to other trucking companies in the area and will feature a 125-gallon-per-hour CNG compressor.

The grant money was provided through the Alternative and Clean Energy program.

The project is expected to save 359,000 gallons of diesel each year.

The General Electric Co., which recently asked Erie’s General Electric Federal Credit Union to change its name, isn’t the only company that’s protective of its name.

In Clarksburg, W.Va., the board of park commissioners found out recently the Scott Enterprises, owner of Splash Lagoon Indoor Water Park in Summit Township, thought one Splash Lagoon was enough.

According to a report in the Exponent Telegram in West Virginia, park commissioners in Clarksburg agreed recently to change the name of its aquatic center after receiving a letter from Splash Lagoon.

Clarksburg’s Splash Lagoon, described as a family aquatic center, will now be known as City Parks of Clarksburg Splash Zone.

“We didn’t think there would be an issue, since it’s so far away and they’re two different facilities,” said John Cooper, park superintendent in Clarksburg. “Theirs is a huge indoor water park, and ours is an outdoor mini water park. But they took exception, so we complied with their request.”

There’s nothing unusual about Splash Lagoon’s interest in protecting its name.

It’s considered standard practice in corporate America for companies to fend off challenges to their identity.

Channellock Inc. in Meadville, one of he world’s largest makers of pliers, goes a step further. Companies that make blue-handled pliers are routinely warned if their blue is too close to Channellock’s blue.

Ron Ames figures he would be among the first to go if GE Transportation moves ahead with its plan to eliminate 950 union jobs at the company’s plant in Lawrence Park.

Ames, who lost his job when GAF closed in 2007, said he’s hoping public support for GE Transporation workers can help prevent that from happening.

Ames is among those working to organize the GE Impact Rally for noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday outside the company’s east gate, at the northeast corner of Water and Main streets in Lawrence Park.

A second union rally already had been scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in that same location, said Roger Zaczyk, president of Local 506 of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America.

The noon rally, “will be more of a community thing,” Ames said. “We wanted the community to have an opportunity to express their support.”

Ames, who has been making signs for the rally, said he’s been at GE Transportation only two years and ranks near the bottom in terms of seniority.

But Ames said the loss of GE jobs would be a hit for the entire community, not just the displaced workers.

Erie’s loss figures to be Fort Worth’s gain — but the loss of 950 jobs at GE Transportation in Erie won’t produce a like-sized gain for the company’s Texas plant.

In fact, according to a story in today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the company expects to add only about 160 jobs at its new facility in Fort Worth.

Thanks to more company-friendly work rules and a more efficient building design, the Texas plant is about 20 percent more productive than the Lawrence Park plant, said Lorenzo Simonelli, the company’s chief executive.

Even with greater efficiency, it’s not immediately apparent why the transfer of AC locomotive production and an additional portion of mining-vehicle wheel production would only add 160 jobs.

In a statement provided to the media, GE Transportation does offer an explanation, noting that some of the work will be moved to other third-party suppliers. Simonelli told the Star-Telegram that about 10 percent of the work being done in Erie will be moved to Mexico and third-party contractors.

There’s another possibilty, of course.

Could the company be leaving itself some wiggle room in case it is able to obtain concessions from union workers in Erie?

That remains a difficult question to answer. But company and its union workers will soon begin a 60-day process called decision bargaining that’s expected to determine the ultimate depth of the job cuts.

— Jim Martin

It’s snowing outside, kind of windy and hovering right around the freezing mark.

Italian ice anyone?

Some folks in the Erie area apparently thought it sounded like a good idea.
Rita’s Italian Ice, located at 1406 W. Gore Road just off Peach Street, ended its winter hiatus today as snowy weather returned to the Erie area.

Turns out the allure of frozen custard, Italian ice and milkshakes is more powerful than the snowy leftovers that Old Man Winter has been serving.

“We’ve been busy,” said an employee who answered the phone.
Customers had been waiting since late September when the shop closed for the season.

Rita’s is open until 9 p.m.

Officials at Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group have yet to determine if any bank branches in Erie or Crawford counties will be among the roughly 200 the bank will close this year.

The bank, one of the nation’s largest and a prominent player in this corner of Pennsylvania, announced recently that it planned to close 200 offices in an effort to cut expenses by $700 million.

While the bank has announced plans to close a branch in Clarion, no decisions have been made about any branches in the northwestern corner of the state, said Amy Vargo, a spokeswoman for the bank.

PNC, which operates 2,900 branches in 19 states and the District of Columbia, is constantly evaluating the number of offices it needs, Vargo said.
This year’s planned closures, she said, “Are a sign of the times,” as customers continue to do more of their banking electronically.

Vargo said possible closures for local branches haven’t ruled out or ruled in.
“We’ll continue to look at this month by month,” she said, adding that customers would be given at least 90 days advance notice.

Buffalo-based First Niagara Bank and Ohio-based Huntington Bank already have announced plans this year to close Erie branches.

First Niagara is closing a branch on East Avenue. Huntington is closing its location at 813 State St.

The focus shifts — at least in part — back to the world of business this year at the Manufacturer & Business Association’s Annual Event.

The association has announced the speaker for this year’s event, scheduled for May 14 at Erie’s Bayfront Convention Center, will be Carly Fiorina, former chairwoman and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co.

A commentator on Fox News and CNBC, Fiorina ran unsuccessfully in 2010 against Sen. Barbara Boxer of California.

Fiorina, who served as chief executive from 1999 to 2005, was the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company.

Recent speakers have included former Vice President Dick Cheney in 2010, former General Electric Co. Chairman Jack Welch in 2011 and political commentators and journalists Chris Wallace, Laura Ingraham, Charles Krauthammer and Dick Morris in 2012.

For more information, call 833-3200 or visit www.mbausa.org.

Thousands of people left the Erie Auto Show after getting a look at the latest cars and trucks on the market.

Representatives of the Sight Center of Northwest PA left with something better — the keys to a new Ford van, a gift from Erie-area Ford dealers.

“The goal of the Ford Friendship Express program is simple — to provide the gift of transportation to the people and organizations that need it most,” said Mark Winkler, chairman of the Erie Ford Friendship Express Selection Committee.

The Sight Center was selected from among more than 30 charities that submitted applications from Erie, Crawford and Warren counties.
The organization will use the van to transport people in the area who are blind or severely visually impaired.

The philanthropic program, already established in western New York, was announced in November for Erie County.

Tom Karle’s 60-year career in the menswear business began more than 60 years ago when he landed a job brushing suits for 40 cents an hour.

That career ended Jan. 5 when Karle, owner of Tom Karle and Son Clothiers, died at Saint Vincent Health Center at the age of 80.
Now his daughter and co-owner, Christine Karle, and his nephew, Tim Means, who managed the store, have announced plans to close the shop, located since 2009 in the Colony Plaza on West Eighth St.

“It had become a situation basically of diminishing returns,” Means said. “It’s just the nature of the clothing business. And if you look at the last 10 to 15 years, the extent of mangement-level business has been steadily dwindling in our town.”

Christine Karle said closing the store sometime this spring won’t be easy, but she thinks it’s the right move.

“It’s going to be sad,” she said. “It’s going to be an end of an era.”
For more coverage, turn to Friday’s Erie Times-News and GoErie.com