2009 Groundhog Day Update: Six More Weeks of Winter!

2/2/09 UPDATE: Jimmy the groundhog DID see his shadow this morning, which traditionally means six more weeks of winter.

January 31, 2009: Celebration and Community Breakfast

St. Albert the Great Church, 2420 St. Albert the Great Drive

8:00 am - Noon

Celebration and Community Breakfast

The free celebration will be held on January 31st, 8 a.m. to noon. The event features booths, entertainment, a birthday party for "human groundhogs" who celebrate their birthdays on February 2nd, Groundhog Chocolates (are back!), and lots of fun!

Price: $6.00 for adults, $3.00 for children 10 and under; pancakes, sausage or bacon, applesauce, milk, juice & coffee.

Birthday cake for "Human Groundhogs": cake cutting at 8:30 a.m.

Booths open: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Entertainment: 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

February 2nd, 2009: Prognostication

Cannery Square

7:00 a.m.

Jimmy makes his appearance at 7:00 a.m. on Monday February 2nd at Cannery Square Plaza, Sun Prairie. At 7:10 a.m., he predicts either an early spring or 6 more weeks of winter. His accuracy rate is 80%! Jimmy always arrives in style with a fire truck escort. "Human Groundhogs" born on February 2nd will be recognized, so please come and celebrate with Jimmy in the Groundhog Capital of the World! Beans 'n Cream Coffeehouse and Market Street Diner, downtown, will be offering specials that morning.

Hotline phone number, 608-837-4547: 7:15 to 9:00 a.m. Call the hotline number on February 2nd to find out Jimmy's prediction.

If you have questions, please call the Sun Prairie Chamber of Commerce at 608-837-4547.

City's Ad Hoc Committee Completes Recommendations for Strategic Business Development Plan

The City of Sun Prairie's Ad Hoc Committee on Economic Develoment has completed its recommendations for the development of a Strategic Business Development Plan to the Sun Prairie City Council. The report has been posted on the City's website and can be reviewed by clicking here. Questions and comments are welcome, and should be forwarded to the City's Economic Development Coordinator via email (click here) or by phone at (608) 825-0894.

The City Council will likely consider formal adoption of these recommendations sometime in February 2009.

Special thanks to all the committee members who participated in more than 25 meetings in a little over 6 months to help complete this effort. This is a great start on setting our course for our future.

Carl's Cakes makes a match with Market Street Diner (77 Square Blog)

Carl's Cakes' creations have been the centerpiece at thousands of area weddings over the years, but now the business will end its solo life to enter its own kind of happy alliance, owner Carl Loeffel said.

Beginning in February, Loeffel and several of his employees will become part of the Food Fight restaurant family, producing cakes for weddings and other special occasions out of the Market Street Diner and Bakery, 110 Market St. in Sun Prairie.

Blogger's note: This is a great addition to Downtown Sun Prairie, but I fear my waistline is going to pay the price. Carl's did our wedding cake, and has been a regular stop for my wife and I for special occasions year round ever since. Welcome!

Click here for the full blog story at 77 Square.

Woodman's to Delay Sun Prairie Store Until 2011 or 2012 (madison.com)

Clint Woodman, vice president of the 12-store discount food chain, said he envisions a 225,000-square-foot Woodman's at the corner of highways C and 151 within the next five years, possibly by late 2011 or 2012, instead of by next year. The proposed Sun Prairie store would include a grocery store, and liquor and photo departments, a 2,000-square-foot convenience store with 10 gas pumps, an oil and lube center and a car wash. Woodman's submitted plans to the city of Sun Prairie in January 2008 and received City Council approval a month later.

Woodman's has consistently told the City that they prefer to focus on building one store at a time, and that a more immediate opportunity in Menomonee Falls will be built before the Sun Prairie store.

And while Woodman's is chipping away at market share in Milwaukee, the delay in Sun Prairie could allow Roundy's to get better traction in the Sun Prairie market, said David Livingston, a former Roundy's executive who now operates a grocery consulting business. Roundy's opened a Copps grocery at the corner of Highway C and Highway 19 in 2007 and has plans to build a second store on Sun Prairie's east side. The Roundy's-owned Pick 'n Save store would close once the second Copps store opens, officials have said. In addition, A Target store is scheduled to open in this area this March.

Click here for the full story at madison.com.

Click here to go the Woodman's website.

Sun Prairie's Ron Pulvermacher and Matrix Product Development Featured in Executive Q&A (madison.com)

In 1998, Ron Pulvermacher left Bou-Matic after 17 years with the company to start his own high-tech engineering and consulting company, Matrix Product Development, out of his home. Six years later, one of his sons graduated from UW-Madison with an electrical engineering degree and joined the business. The company then moved into office space in Sun Prairie.The company's signature work has been in developing radio-frequency identification technology and software for tracking medical equipment in hospital catheterization laboratories.

Click here to read the full Q & A with Ron Pulvermacher.

Click here to learn more about Matrix Product Development.

Sun Prairie's CTI Paper USA Has Its ASPIRE Petallics® Paper Used by Internationally Acclaimed Photographers (Paper Index Times)

Internationally acclaimed photographers Roth and Ramberg chose CTI Paper USA’s innovate pearlescent paper, ASPIRE Petallics® Pearl, to showcase the stunning photography in their annual promotional calendar, The Ultimate Roadside Attraction—2009 Cadillac Ranch.

Roth and Ramberg’s 2009 desktop calendar features the iconic Cadillac Ranch and the intriguing people who come to visit. The ranch, located in Texas off of Route 66, is an exhibition of ten Cadillacs buried nose down in the middle of a farmer’s field. The Cadillacs have been spray painted by visitors thousands of times over the years, and each is an ever-changing canvas. The calendar pages, dominated by vivid imagery, and a colorful, coordinated envelope are printed on ASPIRE Petallics Pearl.

A cross between a premium coated sheet and a pearlescent surface, ASPIRE Petallics Pearl produces vibrant color and detailed imagery, while at the same time radiating a soft, luminous glow. Striking and sustainable, Pearl is SFI- (Sustainable Forestry Initiative®) certified, manufactured 100% carbon neutral and made with Green-e certified wind energy. It is available in 110 lb. text and 105 lb. cover, including a digital HP Indigo-certified surface.

CTI Paper USA offers an eclectic ensemble of papers designed to inspire creative genius. Elegant, sophisticated, fresh and fun — The Fine Paper Collection® includes the world’s finest translucent, cast coated, metallic and pearlescent printing papers available. This exquisite collection is readily available through paper merchants, converters and online at thepapermillstore.com. In addition, CTI Paper USA is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody (CoC) certified (SW-COC-001981) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) Chain of Custody (CoC) certified (NSF-SFICOC-6T721). CTI Paper USA is a division of CTI Paper Group, Inc., a privately owned company established in 1989.

Click here for the full article in the Paper Index Times.

Click here for more information on CTI Paper USA.

Sun Prairie's Ritter Insurance Changes Name to Harms Insurance Group (Capital Times)

Matt Harms, president and owner of Ritter Insurance of Sun Prairie, announced that the agency's name changed to Harms Insurance Group on Jan. 1. Harms has been with the agency 12 years and purchased it in January 2007.

Harms Insurance Group is a full service independent insurance agency that provides commercial, personal, health and benefits, and life insurance in the greater Dane County area.

Harms Insurance Group remains in the Cornerstone Building at 100 Wilburn Road in Sun Prairie. The staff has not changed. Harms' Web site is http://www.harmsinsurancegroup.com/.

Congratualtions to to Harms Insurance Group, and best wishes as they start another chapter in their history here in Sun Prairie.

Click here for the story in the Capital Times.

Madison Metro Area Named #1 Place to Find a Job in 2009 (Forbes.com)

The Madison Metropolitan Area was identified as the #1 place in the country to find a job by Forbes.com. It's got an unusually healthy outlook for job growth and a strikingly low unemployment rate--3.5% in October, when the national rate was 6.5%.

That's why the Madison Metro Area tops Ajilon Professional Staffing's list of top 10 cities to find a job. To compile the list, Ajilon's researchers started by examining the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Metropolitan Area Jobs Report, published in October, to find the cities with the lowest unemployment rate and highest number of new jobs created in the previous six months. They then combined that data with other evidence from their offices throughout the country to discover why these cities have the best job situations.

Click here for the full story at Forbes.com.