Toyota, GM lift U.S. auto sales

Whoops of joy cost
grads’ diplomas
Mormon church
reaches out
Crestview knocked
out in semifinal
SPORTS C1
RELIGION B5
NATION A4
Saturday, June 2, 2007
High 88
Low 65
Page A7
87,500 daily/107,000 Sunday readers
50 CENTS DAILY • $1.50 SUNDAY
A new dawn for P&G
Toyota,
GM lift
U.S. auto
sales
Ford offerings
dip 6.9 percent
By DAVID RUNK
The Associated Press
had grown over and/or fell over
and protruded onto his property and which prevented the
full use and enjoyment of his
agricultural field, and use and
enjoyment of his private property and which encroached on,
DETROIT (AP) — Toyota
Motor Corp.’s U.S. vehicle sales
jumped 14.1 percent in May to
its best monthly level ever and
General Motors Corp.’s sales
rose 9.7 percent, helping boost
industry sales 5 percent, as
both automakers credited in
part the appeal of their more
fuel-efficient offerings amid
high gas prices.
For the second month this
year, Toyota outsold Ford
Motor Co., which saw sales fall
6.9 percent as it continued to
cut low-profit sales to rental
companies. Nissan Motor Co.’s
sales gained 7.4 percent, DaimlerChrysler AG’s sales rose 3.9
percent and American Honda
Motor Co. rose 2.5 percent.
GM, the industry’s top seller,
said Friday it sold 371,056 light
vehicles last month. Car sales,
including the Chevrolet Impala
and Saturn Aura, rose 16.2 percent to 150,979, while light
truck sales, including the
Chevrolet Silverado and GMC
Sierra, gained 5.6 percent to
220,077. GM’s sales include the
European Saab brand.
GM said its retail sales rose
12.8 percent compared with
May 2006.
Toyota, which has been gaining market share in the U.S.,
sold 269,023 Toyota and Lexus
vehicles in May, topping its previous monthly record of
242,675 set in March. Car sales
rose 16.2 percent to 168,270,
while light truck sales, including the Tundra, rose 10.9 percent to 100,753.
Toyota said its sales gains
came as rising retail gas prices
were met by increasing consumer confidence.
Analysts predict that Toyota
likely will knock Ford off its traditional No. 2 spot for the full
year in 2007, but Ford has said it
is focused more on returning to
profitability in North America.
Ford said its sales to retail
customers, which were 3 percent lower than a year ago, still
marked its best retail month of
the year as the Ford Edge and
See TREE-TRIMMING • A7
See AUTO SALES • A7
KELLI CARDINAL • The Lima News
Procter & Gamble technology leader Marcus Stephens explains the workings of their automated warehousing system Friday during a tour and
dedication of the new Lima Distribution Center.
Top officials turn out for tour
of state-of-the-art facility
Distribution Center facts:
• Total cost $153 million
• 1 million total square feet
• 35,000 yards of concrete on site
• Facility eliminates 50% of Allen County truck traffic
• Facility equal to size of 19 football fields
By BART MILLS
bmills@limanews.com
419-993-2184
See video online at
www.limaohio.com/video
Thayer Road
LIMA — The numbers tell the
story of Procter & Gamble’s new distribution center about as well as anything. It’s 1.15 million square feet, or
19 football fields large. It has the
ability to store 95,000 pallets of detergents and dryer sheets.
But for Plant Manager Todd Hoffman, there are more important
numbers, such as 45 — the number
of new employees added for the center — or $900 million — the amount
the company pumps into the Ohio
economy each year.
“We think this makes an important statement. It speaks for itself
that this, Lima and Ohio, is an important place for us to do business,”
Hoffman said.
Hoffman showed off the new $130
million distribution center Friday to
a crowd of state and local officials
that included Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher,
Cool Road
P&G unveils automated distribution center
Bay Bay Bay Bay Bay Bay Storage
6 5 4 3 2 1
bay
To P&G production plant
Reservoir Road
Source: Proctor & Gamble
See P&G • A7
Dismissal denied in St. Marys tree-trimming case
By BOB BLAKE
bblake@limanews.com
419-993-2077
WAPAKONETA — A judge
has denied a request by an
Auglaize County farmer to
throw out two felony charges
filed against him for trimming
Ohio Northern University
to demolish University
Place Apartments for
new hotel
ONU Campus in Ada
Freed
Center
5
Main Street
Gilbert Street
McIntosh Center
235
University
Place Apt.
on
the
go
BUSINESS ............A5
CLASSIFIED ......D1-8
trees on a neighbor’s property
to the south.
Thomas J. Schmitmeyer,
through his Wapakoneta attorney Robert Kehoe, asked
Auglaize County Common
Pleas Judge Frederick Pepple
on Tuesday to throw out the
charges of felony breaking and
the fence row after asking. The
owner of the trees failed to consent and/or trim the overhanging and protruding
branches which deprived the
farmer from the full use of his
corn field,” Kehoe wrote.
“Some of the fence posts,
branches, tree trunks and roots
Ohio Northern University making room for an Inn
By BETH L. JOKINEN
bjokinen@limanews.com
419-993-2093
ADA — For years potential
students and families have visited Ohio Northern University,
and others have come on campus to attend performances or
other events.
But when they were done,
they either had to go back home
or drive somewhere else to
spend the night.
1
A 72-year-old Florida woman
died in a house fire that
started in her kitchen Friday, unable to get to an exit after a relative put hurricane shutters over
the windows in March.
COMICS ..............C7
COMMENTARY .....A6
entering and felony theft.
Kehoe argued in a brief to the
court that Schmitmeyer had a
right to trim the trees because
their limbs were obstructing
areas of his 100-acre farm near
St. Marys.
“The young farmer was denied the opportunity to trim
LIFESTYLE ........B5-7
OBITUARIES .........B2
“It is really a key thing for the
university.”
— ONU President Kendal Baker
Those days should be over by
the fall of 2008 when the school
opens its own hotel on campus.
Construction of the University
Inn is expected to begin this
fall. President Kendal Baker
said there has been talk of a
2
Universal Orlando secured
the rights this week to build
an attraction centered on the
Harry Potter character. It will be
called “The Wizarding World of
Harry Potter.”
PEOPLE ..............A2
REGION/STATE ..B1-4
SPORTS ...........C1-6
PUZZLES/TV .........C8
hotel for some time.
“It is really a key thing for the
university,” he said. “We just believe that we need to have a
space that can accommodate
folks that come to our university for a variety of reasons.”
3
The mayor in East Cleveland
has ordered the city’s firefighters to cut grass and trim
shrubs while on duty to help the
city care for parks and other
public areas.
CLASSIFIEDS ...........866-546-2237
DELIVERY .................800-686-9914
NEWS ......................800-686-9924
The inn, which will include
about 40 rooms, will be located
south of McIntosh Center,
where the University Place
Apartments currently sit. The
Freed Center for the Performing Arts is just west of the area.
Demolition should begin on the
apartments next month.
Existing university housing
will accommodate those in the
apartments now, and Baker
UNIVERSITY INN
TIMELINE
July — Demolition of
current apartments begin
This fall — Construction
begins
Fall 2008 — Facility opens
• Inn located south of
McIntosh Center; about 40
rooms
See ONU INN • A7
4
Part of the third floor of a
building under construction
collapsed Friday in Maple Grove,
Minn., injuring nine workers
and trapping a man for nearly
an hour.
FREEDOM COMMUNICATIONS INC.
© 2007 • Published at Lima, Ohio
5
A Federal Trade Commission
study found that half of the
ads for sugary, calorie-laden junk
food are on children’s TV programs, double the number 30
years ago.
32 pages
4 sections
Saturday, June 2, 2007 A7
The Lima News
WEATHER
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
HIGH: 88 LOW: 65
HIGH: 83 LOW: 60
HIGH: 74 LOW: 56
HIGH: 76 LOW: 54
HIGH: 78 LOW: 60
Partly
sunny,
40%
chance of
t-storms
WEATHER TRIVIA:
60%
chance of
showers
and
t-storms
Mostly
cloudy,
50%
chance
of rain
Flagstaff, Ariz., at an elevation of
6993 feet, has had a peak
temperature of 93 degrees.
YESTERDAY’S AREA TEMPERATURES Source: Water treatment plants, weather observers
Source: Ray Burkholder, Pandora weather observer
Bellefontaine 86 / 67
Kenton
87 / 67
Sidney
NA / NA
Celina
NA / NA
Lima
85 / 70
Van Wert
89 / 70
Findlay
87 / 70
Ottawa
NA / NA
Wapakoneta
91 / 72
HI
TODAY’S OHIO FORECAST
Akron
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Dayton
Lima
Toledo
Youngstown
87
86
87
89
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87
/ 64
/ 64
/ 67
/ 66
/ 66
/ 65
/ 65
/ 63
PARTLY SUNNY
with a 40 percent
chance of showers
and thunderstorms.
Highs in the upper
80s.
Mostly cloudy in the evening hours with lows in
the mid-60s. Southwest winds up to 10 mph.
LO
HI
LO
HI
90s
Sunny
70s
70s
Pt. Cloudy
Cloudy
Showers
80s
80s
90s
100s
Today’s high temperature: 87
Today’s low temperature: 69
Record high temperature: 93 in 1980
Record low temperature: 37 in 1966
Precipitation today: 0.22”
Precipitation this month: 0.22”
Precipitation this year to date: 14.10”
Precipitation last year to date: 15.22”
80s
T-storms
90s
70s
Flurries
60s
Snow
50s
80s
Fronts
Cold
Warm Stationary
Pressure
Low
High
70s
Ice
Low Over Northern Plains/Moving Towards Gulf Coast
Weather data collected in Pandora as of 6 p.m.
TODAY’S SUNRISE: 6:07 a.m.SUNSET: 9:02 p.m.
SUNDAY’S SUNRISE: 6:07 a.m. SUNSET: 9:03 p.m.
A low pressure system over the Northern Plains will move slightly eastward
Saturday, but rain and thunderstorms will remain from the Northern Plains through
the Mississippi Valley. A low will move towards the Gulf Coast, bringing substantial
rain to the region.
“Clearly, we believe in Lima and we hope we can continue to do
business here well into the future. We are committed, I am committed
to the continued success of Lima and Ohio.”
— Robert McDonald, P&G’s chief operating officer
Procter & Gamble Chief Operating Officer Bob McDonald holds up a glass of champagne Friday during the dedication of the new Lima distribution center.
P&G • from A1 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––
“This is automated technology developed some time ago, but they’ve made it
better. This is really exciting technology,”
Hoffman said.
The center includes 142 trailer docks, allowing crews to load and unload as many
as 1,000 trailers a day. Incoming items are
unloaded with forklifts and stacked on an
assembly line and run through a system to
size and square the package before it is inventoried and moved into the storage system. When it’s ready to move out, the system retrieves the item and moves it to a
doorway where it is moved by forklift onto
the outgoing truck.
The construction goes beyond the warehouse itself. The full property takes up 59
acres of concrete and asphalt, including a
lot capable of holding 1,000 trailers and its
own private road and bridge. The company added 45 employees to man the
plant and provided more than 70,000
hours of classroom and hands-on training.
The new warehouse replaces seven fa-
KELLI CARDINAL photos • The Lima News
A Procter & Gamble employee demonstrates how to move pallets of detergent around the warehouse Friday during
a tour and dedication of the new Lima
distribution center.
cilities the company once leased around
the area. By centralizing the operations,
they reduced traffic on local roads by 50
percent. That comes to three million miles
a year, or 120 times around the world.
P&G’s Chief Operating Officer, Robert
McDonald, said the facility and the company’s efforts to work with the state and
community in getting it built are a tribute
to their commitment to Lima and Ohio.
“Clearly, we believe in Lima and we
hope we can continue to do business here
well into the future,” McDonald said. “We
are committed, I am committed to the
continued success of Lima and Ohio.”
You can comment on this story at
www.limaohio.com.
TREE-TRIMMING • from A1 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
over or in his land.”
Pepple denied the motion to
dismiss on constitutional and
common law grounds the same
day it was filed — on Tuesday.
Schmitmeyer, 39, was indicted by a grand jury on April
with one count of breaking and
entering, a fifth-degree felony,
and one count of theft, also a
fifth-degree felony. Schmitmeyer first appeared in court
on April 20 and entered pleas
of not guilty to both charges.
Schmitmeyer is free on an own
recognizance bond, according
to court records.
According to the indictment,
Schmitmeyer “did knowingly
trespass on the land or
premises of another, with purpose to commit a felony” on
Jan. 26. The indictment also
alleges he “did, with purpose to
deprive the owner of property
or services, knowingly obtain
or exert control over either the
property or services without
the consent of the owner or
person authorized to give consent and the value of the property taken is $500 or more and
less than $5,000.”
Prosecutor Edwin Pierce declined to comment because the
matter is still pending in com-
mon pleas court.
Kehoe could not be reached
at his office for additional comment.
Schmitmeyer is next scheduled to be in court June 26 for
a pre-trial hearing and possible
change of plea, according to an
entry filed with the clerk of
courts office on Thursday.
You can comment on this
story at www.limaohio.com.
ONU INN • from A1 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
said the school could later build
a second floor onto the inn for
students. The cost of the project is unknown, but Baker
said the school will borrow the
money and then the inn will
generate the income to pay for
the bonds.
The inn will include a variety
Anchorage
Atlanta
Boston
Charlotte,N.C.
Chicago
Dallas-Ft Worth
Denver
Detroit
Houston
Indianapolis
Little Rock
Montgomery
Nashville
New Orleans
Peoria
Philadelphia
Phoenix
St Ste Marie
Tupelo
YESTERDAY
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TODAY
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TOMORROW
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Rain
ALMANAC: Friday, June 1, 2007
who said he would like to see Ohio known
as the P&G state.
“Not just for this great company, but
also for the ‘progress and growth’ state,
because that is exactly what Procter &
Gamble stands for in many ways,” Fisher
said.
The distribution center is a tribute to
engineering and new technologies in
warehousing. The huge steel and concrete
building houses acres of automated steel
tracks stacked three levels tall, three
times larger than any other system of its
type and capable of managing as much as
280 pallet loads an hour. The 7,800 frames
are managed by a computer-monitored
program with more than 700 programmable logic controls and a state-of-theart communications system that allows
workers to call up items on demand to be
loaded into trucks. The system even allows the user to control the order of items
so trucks will be automatically balanced
for travel.
Sunny
U.S. TEMPERATURES
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TODAY’S NATIONAL HIGHS Weather Underground for AP
Partly
sunny
of room types, as well as an exercise space. There will not be
a restaurant, but food will be
available through campus
catering. The facility will also
include some meeting space.
Baker believes the inn will
allow the school to hold more
programs and seminars for
people who visit from outside
the area. Those coming to Ada
for off-campus events, such as
weddings and family reunions,
could also use the inn.
“We are going to build a facility that we expect to be a
successful facility,” he said.
“So it is going to have to be at-
tractive to other people besides university people and for
other reasons besides exclusively just university reasons.
... We think this adds to the
resources of the region.”
You can comment on this
story at www.limaohio.com.
WORLD TEMPERATURES
RESORT TEMPERATURES
Today’s forecasted conditions
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NATIONAL EXTREMES
National high: 114 at Death Valley, Calif.
National low: 27 at West Yellowstone, Mont.
AUTO SALES • from A1–––––––––––––
Lincoln MKX crossovers continued to make gains.
“These new crossovers are
the right products at the right
time,” Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas, said in a
statement. “Consumer demand
for the Ford Edge and Lincoln
MKX has exceeded our original
expectations.”
Ford said it now expects Edge
sales to reach 120,000 this year
— 20 percent higher than its
original forecast.
Sales of Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo, Jaguar and Land
Rover brands, including fleet
sales, totaled 258,391 last
month, including 169,265 light
trucks and 89,126 cars. Truck
sales were essentially flat from
a year ago, but car sales
dropped 17.7 percent. Ford said
its Escape and Mercury
Mariner hybrid sport utility vehicles did well for the month.
George Pipas, Ford’s top sales
analyst, earlier this week had
predicted that his company’s
retail sales to individual buyers
would show a year-over-year
monthly increase for the first
time since October 2006. But
he said Friday that sales during
the Memorial Day holiday
weekend didn’t rise to his expectations.
“The last week of the month
was softer for us,” Pipas said
during a Friday conference call
with analysts and reporters.
Pipas, however, said the numbers indicate Ford’s U.S. market share appears to have stabilized between 14 percent and
15 percent, a milestone since it
had been losing about 1 percentage point of share per year.
The company had set 14 percent to 15 percent as a goal for
2007 and 2008 under its restructuring plan.
Industrywide U.S. sales in
May rose to 1.56 million from
1.49 million in May 2006, according to Autodata Corp. Car
sales rose 6.1 percent to
776,277, while sales of light
trucks, which include pickup
trucks, vans and SUVs — and
generally offer poorer fuel economy than cars — rose 3.9 percent to 787,664.
DaimlerChrysler sold a total
of 221,164 vehicles in the U.S.
last month. Chrysler Group’s
passenger vehicle sales, which
include the Chrysler, Jeep and
Dodge brands, rose 4.3 percent
to 199,393 with help from a 20
percent jump in its Jeep brand,
while Mercedes sales rose 0.7
percent to 21,771. Dodge sales
were up about 3 percent.
Chrysler Group’s sales included 59,970 cars, up 15.4 percent, and 139,423 light trucks,
essentially flat from the same
month a year ago.
Michael Keegan, Chrysler’s
vice president for volume planning and sales, said the automaker’s “Maximize Your
Miles” sales campaign resonates with drivers and will
continue this month. He said
the appeal of the program is especially reflected in the company’s rising May car sales.
“Facing continued pressure
on gas prices, the program communicates Chrysler Group’s
fuel economy message across
all three of our brands and offers customers a great value
package based on low-rate financing plus additional bonus
cash,” Keegan said.
With retail gas prices well
above $3 per gallon across the
nation, some analysts were expecting lower U.S. sales from
May 2006. But rebates and
other incentives, which the Edmunds.com auto Web site reported Friday were on the rise
last month, may be offsetting
uncertainty about future fuel
prices.
Toyota has been banking on a
reputation for reliable and fuelefficient cars — and making
monthly sales gains — as its increases U.S. market share. GM
and Ford have been working to
cut fleet sales, and that effort
has weighed on their U.S. sales
totals in recent months, but
GM still made gains.
American Honda, which includes Honda and Acura
brands, said it sold 145,367 vehicles in May. That included
87,064 cars, a 2.6 percent increase, and 58,303 trucks, a 2.4
percent rise. Honda said its
sales got a boost from the compact Civic and subcompact Fit,
as well as the CR-V small
crossover SUV.
“Small is big right now,” Dick
Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda, said
in a statement. “Smaller vehicles have become more attractive ... and we expect this trend
to continue for the time being.”
Nissan said its U.S. sales, including Nissan and Infiniti,
rose on good performances by
its larger sedans and fuel-efficient small cars. The company
said it sold 93,062 vehicles, up
from 86,667 during the same
month last year. Car sales rose
24.7 percent to 59,911, but light
truck sales fell 14.2 percent to
33,151.
It said it pushed the fuel-efficient Versa subcompact and
Sentra compact cars in May
advertising as gas prices were
rising.
“Obviously people responded
to that,” said Brad Shaw, Nissan’s senior vice president for
sales and marketing.
Ford, meanwhile, announced
North American production targets for the third quarter. It said
it plans to build 640,000 vehicles
in the quarter, down slightly
from the 642,000 it built in the
third quarter of 2006. For the
second quarter of 2007, it left
unchanged its production target of 810,000 vehicles.
GM also left its second-quarter North American production
forecast unchanged, at 1.15 million vehicles, including 403,000
cars and 742,000 trucks. GM
gave a third-quarter production
forecast of 1.08 million, including 377,000 cars and 698,000
trucks. GM said that is up 2
percent from the third quarter
of 2006.