Fort Bend Lifestyles and Homes magazine Feb 2009: Sugar Land Texas Info, Fort Bend, Business News, Fort Bend Business, Sugar Land Business News

Craig Schaner and Vicki Ikeler have been named new Fort Bend Baptist Academy board members.

Schaner is the chief operating officer of Royal Oaks Country Club and has served on the board in a variety of advisory capacities.

Ikeler is an educator, past president of the Texas School Counselor’s Association, and most recently on staff at Houston Baptist University.

Jeremy J. Bills has joined Bank of Fort Bend as a vice president, overseeing the bank’s U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) lending. The announcement was made by Bank of Fort Bend President Bruce Mercer.

Bank of Fort Bend is a member of the SBA’s prestigious Preferred Lender Program. This means that Bank of Fort Bend can receive the fastest approval in the country on government guaranteed SBA loans for small business customers who qualify.

Bills has more than six years of banking experience. Most recently he spent three years in business development with banks in Houston. Before that, he was a commercial loan underwriter in Houston. He began his career in 2003 as a loan acquisition officer for a bank in Salt Lake City.

A graduate of the University of Utah, Bills has a bachelor’s degree in economics. He has a comprehensive knowledge of SBA lending programs and guidelines and is fluent in Spanish.

Texana Center has announced the appointment of Sunil Athavale M.D., psychiatrist to the Behavioral Healthcare Services Division.

Dr. Athavale received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston and completed his psychiatry residency at UC Irvine Medical Center, Orange, Calif.

Before joining Texana Center he was assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Dr. Athavale will divide his office hours at three behavioral healthcare clinics; spending two days in Wharton, two days in Sugar Land and one day in Rosenberg each week.

The Buy Close By program is a grass roots effort of the Rosenberg-Richmond Area Chamber of Commerce’s business development department to create an environment for businesses and consumers to buy goods and services locally and promote consumer loyalty in the community. The program is open to all businesses in the chamber ’s service area with discounts to chamber members. This initiative will have a three-tier focus to include business to large business, business to business, and business to consumer.

The focus of the business to large business tier will be to encourage large businesses to purchase goods and services from other businesses in the service area.

The second tier of the program is business to business, which will encourage businesses in the service area to source goods and services locally before shopping elsewhere.

The business to consumer tier provides incentives to consumers who buy locally instead of outside the service area. The program provides an opportunity for chamber members to place events and coupons on their personal portal of the chamber Web site, and provides incentives to consumers who repeatedly purchase their products or use their services. It also offers the opportunity for advertisement in a “Buy Close By” coupon book to be distributed in the service area.

For more information, contact Joy Dowell at 281-342-5464 or jdowell@roserichchamber.org.

East Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry Inc. held an official ground breaking ceremony to kick off the construction of a new facility.

After several months of planning, which included a feasibility study and input from community leaders, the board of directors voted unanimously to move forward with the construction of a new facility. The new building, which will be located next to the current facility, will have 13,000 square feet of space to house the Food Pantry and all offices used for the programs and services offered at EFBHNM. The existing building will be renovated to accommodate growth for the Resale Shop.

“We are excited about the new building plans and our ability to expand our programs and services to better assist those in need, ” said Vickie Coates, executive director. “We are extremely grateful to have community support from The George Foundation, our coalition congregations and the many businesses, organizations and individuals who have continued to help the Ministry over the years. ”

The total cost of the new building construction and renovation of the existing building is $2.8 million. The George Foundation pledged $500,000 to the building project. The expected completion date for the new facility is November 2009.

Missouri City Police Chief Ron Echols and 18 other Texas police chiefs participated in a focus group to develop curriculum topics for the Texas Police Chief Leadership Series program for the upcoming two-year training cycle.

The group met at the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas building on the campus of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Representatives of municipalities, water districts, school districts, colleges and universities were at the event.

Participants brainstormed ideas about key training topics for the Leadership Series. The TPCLS program requires 40 hours of in-service and attendance is required of all chief administrative officers of Texas police agencies.

Memorial Hermann Sugar Land now holds the distinction as Fort Bend County’s only nationally accredited Chest Pain Center, as designated by the Society of Chest Pain Centers.

Because every minute counts when experiencing chest pain and a possible heart attack, Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital has taken steps to speed diagnosis and treatment for patients who arrive at its emergency center with chest pain.

Accredited Chest Pain Centers undergo a rigorous evaluation by the SCPC to measure their ability to quickly and effectively access, diagnose and treat patients to improve patient outcomes. A key criterion is door-to-balloon (D2B) time for patients —the time between arrival at the facility and undergoing a balloon angioplasty to open blocked arteries. The national D2B standard is 90 minutes.

Memorial Hermann Sugar Land significantly improved door-to-EKG times to 10 minutes or less and streamlined processes for transferring patients via Life Flight air ambulance to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, should they need balloon angioplasty. Even with the transfer, the hospital is meeting the 90-minute gold standard of cardiac care.

Planned Community Developers Ltd. announced that IW Marks, the largest independent, family-owned jeweler in south Texas, will soon open for business in Sugar Land Town Square.

“The sophisticated atmosphere and central location of Sugar Land Town Square is ideal for our new IW Marks location, ” said IW Marks owner Daniel Marks. “We feel confident that our high-quality jewelry and superb customer service will be well received. ”

Boasting 4,411 square feet of prime retail space along the perimeter of the plaza of Town Square, IW Marks will feature an assortment of fine jewelry, diamonds, bridal jewelry and Swiss watches. IW Marks is relocating from a previous Sugar Land location and is set to open its doors for business in early 2009.