High Plains PT sells to larger, multi-location company
Select Physical Therapy Holdings, a Pennsylvania company, has purchased High Plains Physical Therapy, 3880 N. Grant Ave. in Loveland.
Chuck Beneck, who sold High Plains after operating it for 17 years, said he and the other therapists at High Plains will join the larger Select Physical Therapy operation and gain the benefits of having administration duties shift elsewhere.
“I will primarily be involved with patient care,” Beneck said, something he prefers over handling the operational details of running a business. He will remain in charge of the local office, which will remain where it is on Grant Avenue.
“There will be no changes in staff,” he said, although he said a physical therapist from Select will be working part time in the former High Plains facility.
“The idea is to grow; they’ve (Select staff) been very supportive.”
Select has multiple offices around the country, including locations in Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont and another location in Loveland, Beneck said.
Advanced Energy CEO Wasserman to retire
Yuval Wasserman will retire from his post as CEO of power controls maker Advanced Energy Industries at the end of the month after 14 years with the company.
In a statement accompanying its quarterly earnings, the company said it will hire Steve Kelley as its new CEO and board member starting March 1. Kelley was most recently CEO of semiconductor product developer Amkor Technology from 2013 to last June.
In a call with analysts Wednesday morning, Wasserman said he is turning 67 this year and wishes to spend more time with his family and on personal interests. He had planned to retire as part of a prepared succession plan.
Advanced Energy, which produces power and control technologies that are used in making semiconductors and other electronics, was founded in Fort Collins in 1981. It moved its corporate headquarters to Denver last year to be closer to its white-collar service providers.
However, the company has a multiyear lease on its research center in northeast Fort Collins.
Kava bar to open in Longmont; 3 more slated for NoCo
Four business partners are hoping by autumn to open four gathering places around Northern Colorado that serve nonalcoholic drinks featuring an exotic root they say promotes an elevated mood.
The first Colorado Mountain Kava location is to open by March 15 at 615-617 Ken Pratt Blvd. in Longmont, said Joe Monastra, who owns the budding chain along with son Sam Monastra, Mark Kamann and Tobin Osteen.
The partners’ goal, he said, is to open their second kava bar at an undisclosed spot in Fort Collins in May, followed by one in Greeley in July and Westminster in September, he said.
Their first kava bar is in a strip mall at the southwest corner of Main Street and Ken Pratt Boulevard, in a space that had housed a check-cashing business and a provider of trophies, Joe Monastra said, “and we blew out the wall to make it right at 2,000 square feet.” He expects to hire four employees at first and open no later than March 15.
Sam Monastra had owned a holistic herb store in Marion, Ohio, and opened another in Cincinnati, but “he moved to Longmont specifically to open this,” his father said.
A Colorado native, Osteen had been a residential and commercial contractor with Vermilion Construction for more than 20 years. “That’s a pretty rough industry, so I got interested in pain relief,” Osteen said.
He happened upon a kava bar in Boulder — The Root Kava Co., 1641 28th St. — and “as I sat there, I witnessed the connections people made and continued, and the comfort that seemed to be prevalent in that community.”
Kava, according to The Root’s website, is “a small cultivated plant in the pepper family, native to the South Pacific, with origins that can be traced back at least 3,000 years and is associated with both social and ceremonial functions.”
Osteen said the opening of a kava bar was most attractive to him as a “sober lifestyle alternative” to bars that sell alcohol, and provides “a social outlet that has been uncommon in American society.”
In addition to the kava, which Joe Monastra said tastes a bit like green tea, Colorado Mountain Kava locations will serve hot and cold drinks including kombucha and “many botanical teas with many advantageous health benefits,” he said.
Kava “gives a mild sedation and relaxation, a euphoric feeling, and not inebriating at all,” Osteen said. “This is a substance that has a significant effect on mood. When your mood is elevated, it seems to bring everything else up with it.” He said that’s why a kava bar “allows people to sit down and have a good time and not get drunk.”
Joe Monastra said the plan is to open at noon and close at 2 a.m. because the business is not limited by laws governing businesses that serve alcohol.
“It’ll be just like a nightclub, except that you’ll remember the conversation you had the next day,” Osteen said “Several locations around the country are open 24 hours. Police don’t get called to these locations, but we’ll keep our minimum age to 18 so it’s adult focused.”
NoCo Hemp Expo to move forward with in-person event in Denver
Just hours after the local organizers behind the Expo West natural and organic products trade show canceled in-person events in May, the NoCo Hemp Expo announced plans to move forward with its Denver trade show in March.
The NoCo Hemp Expo, which moved its popular hemp and CBD industry event from Loveland to Denver in 2019, is set for March 26-27 at the National Western Complex at 4655 Humboldt St. in Denver.
“This year might look and feel different from NoCos of the past, but we’ll maintain our commitment to offering high-quality programming and educational seminars,” NoCo Hemp Expo lead organizer Morris Beegle said in a prepared statement.
“We appreciate the community’s support, including our exhibitors, sponsors and speakers, as we come together and move forward in 2021,” Beegle said.
In addition to the Denver event, the organizers also announced Thursday that the group’s sister event, the Southern Hemp Expo, will be held in person Sept. 2-4 in Raleigh, N.C.
“We’re very excited to be a part of the Raleigh community in 2021, and we’re honored that the Southern Hemp Expo is the first to receive a cannabis-specific, city-funded economic grant. We’re grateful for Raleigh’s significant support as it further advances the conversation about hemp and its opportunity for growth in the South,” Beegle said.
USDA grants UNC $500K to improve cow pregnancy outcomes
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture recently awarded the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley $500,000 over four years to bolster UNC’s efforts to improve pregnancy outcomes in beef and dairy cows.
UNC biology professors Patrick Burns and James Haughian are leading the study, which is using omega-3 fatty acid-rich fish byproducts to enhance reproduction and reduce lost pregnancies.
“It’s been documented that we do see an increase in pregnancy outcomes with the supplementation of omega-3 containing fish byproducts to the diet, and we’re really interested in fine-tuning the mechanisms to make it even more efficient,” Burns said in a prepared statement.
If Burns and Haughian’s research proves positive, then dairy farmers and cattle ranchers could see an increase in profits that would then trickle down to consumers as cost savings when purchasing milk and beef products, according to a UNC news release.
“By increasing pregnancy outcomes, by say, 10%, this translates to an increase of profitability for American ranchers and dairy farmers in the millions of dollars in meat and dairy products,” Burns said in the release.
Unemployment claims rise to 14,018 as federal programs restart
An additional 14,018 people filed for traditional unemployment benefits in the week ending Feb. 6, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said Thursday, marking a sharp rise of 3,029 from the previous week.
A total of 72,507 state residents were on continuing benefits in the week of Jan. 30, a decline of 2,357 from the week before.
The department also began processing claims for two federally funded pandemic unemployment programs last week that were backdated from Dec. 27 to Jan. 30, processing a total of 278,384 claims from 75,415 state residents sent in during that period.
Nationwide, the U.S. Labor Department said 793,000 Americans filed for first-time benefits in the period, a decrease of 19,000 from the week before.
In Brief
• Career Allies, a Fort Collins-based human-resources software developer, opened a $1 million fundraising round on Thursday.
People
• Lighting eMotors of Loveland has hired Kash Sethi as chief revenue officer to oversee its sales plans in the next half-decade. The electric powertrain manufacturer for large vehicles, said Sethi will be based in San Francisco. Sethi spent the past four years in sales roles at California-based Motiv Power Systems, a competitor to Lightning in the medium-duty vehicle electrification market. He also spent four years as a regional and national sales manager for the electric vehicle support segment of German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG.
• The Homebuilders Association of Northern Colorado will transition to new leadership beginning Feb. 19 with the departure of executive officer Nikki Giordano, who plans to return to her home state of Alaska to be with her family. Giordano will continue to work with the HBA on a contract basis beyond her last day in the office to give the board time to fill her position. The organization will host an open house at its office, 1907 N. Boise Ave., Unit 1, Loveland, for members and others from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 19.
• Thomas Olson, currently CEO for Points West Community Bank and chairman for the Bank of Estes Park, First National Financial Co. and First Nebraska Bancs Inc., has been reelected to the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka. Points West has operations in Loveland, Greeley, Fort Collins and Windsor, and Bank of Estes Park has locations in Estes Park and Niwot.
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