Longtime Sinton executive retires

Joel Midkiff retired July 31 as general manager of Sinton Dairy after a 37-year career where he started as a deliveryman.
Midkiff, 59, was replaced by Matt Conner, who previously was general manager of an Oak Farms Dairy plant in San Antonio. Midkiff had been general manager of Sinton since National Dairy Holdings LP bought out him and former partner Larry Losasso in 2003. They led a 1987 management buyout of Sinton from bankrupt Associated Grocers of Colorado.
Midkiff said he plans to remain active with political campaigns and non-profit groups, including the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry. He was named the chamber's Business Citizen of the Year in 2005 and served as chairman of CACI in 2004-05.

An elk of a different color

Vic the elk is looking for friends.

The life-sized fiberglass elk was purchased this year by Experience Colorado Springs at Pikes Peak to represent the region as part of this summer’s Rocky Mountain Elk Tour, a public art project in Teller County. He’s currently at the Cripple Creek Visitor Center. But he’s also hanging around online: Experience Colorado Springs, the local convention and visitors bureau, on Monday announced the launch of Vic’s MySpace page.

Among those in his “friend space” are Budgie, an Australian bird spending his summer at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and Leonardo. As in actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio. Lisa Amend, communications manager for Experience Colorado Springs and Vic’s publicist, acknowledges she — or Vic — never actually talked with DiCaprio. But a friend request to his MySpace site, which Amend figures is maintained by a staff member DiCaprio has never met, was accepted. It was exciting news, she says, for the female staffers at Experience Colorado Springs, “all of whom promptly burst into flames at the mere mention of Leo’s name.”

Nonprofit CEO compensation study

A survey released Aug. 1 of the nation's 5,242 largest charities shows CEOs who work for nonprofit educational institutions make more money than their counterparts in any other nonprofit sector.

Charity Navigator's annual report concludes the average annual salary for the head of a charitable educational organization is $234,595, compared with an arts CEO, who averages $187,341, health organizations at $151,566 and animal-focused organizations, $106,750.

Of all the salaries tracked by the nonprofit industry analyst, the highest in the nation is $5.66 million, paid to the president emeritus at Boston University. The second-highest goes to the emeritus chancellor for health affairs at Duke, $4 million. The third-highest is $3.6 million to the clinical professor of dermatology at Columbia University.

On average, CEOs of nonprofits in the nation earn an average salary of $145,270, a pay raise of 2.34 percent over 2006.

CEOs working in the mountain west states that include Colorado earn an annual average of $120,013, according to the study. That's an increase of nearly 4 percent over last year.

Ent adds Monument branch

Ent Federal Credit Union has opened its 24th branch at 16050 Old Forest Point in Monument's Jackson Creek Shopping Center.
Southern Colorado's largest financial institution will celebrate a grand opening for the branch from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 18. The 4,000-square-foot branch includes three drive-through lanes, automatic teller machines and safe deposit boxes with biometric access.
Tanan Miles is manager of the new branch. He has more than 10 years of financial experience with Deseret First Credit Union and Chase Bank.
Ent has more than 180,000 members and $2.2 billion in assets at branches in the Colorado Springs, Denver and Pueblo areas.

New 24 Hour Fitness coming to north side

A 24 Hour Fitness Super Sport is slated to open by the end of the year at 7720 N. Academy Blvd. in what used to be Media Play. Musicland Group Inc. closed its 61 Media Play stores nationwide, including two in the Springs, about a year and a half ago. Entertainmart leases the other former Media Play location, 651 N. Academy Blvd., at the Citadel Crossing.