All three of Milwaukee County's bond rating agencies have assigned positive ratings to the county's $30.86 million General Obligation Corporate Purpose Bonds, Series 2008A.
The county's ratings are vastly improved from those in the immediate aftermath of the county pension scandal. The improved ratings mean the county can borrow funds at lower interest rates in the future.
In particular, the county is encouraged by Moody's decision to change its outlook from "negative" to a stable "Aa3" rating. Moody's indicated the county has made significant strides to reducing its largest expenditure pressures related to its pension system and employee and retiree health care costs.
"This news is very encouraging for the county, in both the short-term and long-term, as we work to improve services for the residents of Milwaukee County," said Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker.
"The county is improving," said County Board Chairman Lee Holloway. "The future is brighter than it was before. We are on the right path in managing our financial objectives, and we should all be pleased with this positive change in our fiscal outlook."
Fitch Ratings-Chicago assigned an "AA" rating to the county's bonds, indicating that the county government has eliminated certain pension benefits for new employees and will focus on cost constraint through better oversight.
Standard & Poor's Financial Management Assessment said the county's financial management practices are considered "strong."

Affiliated Foods Midwest Cooperative Inc. plans to build a new 731,000-square-foot high-tech distribution facility in Kenosha.
The company will receive an $800,000 loan and a $400,000 grant from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce for capital investment in the new plant, which is expected to create 450 jobs.
 “Affiliated Foods represents the future of small business - connecting business owners to share resources and tools to compete with large retailers,” said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, who announced the state assistance for the expansion at the site this morning. “I am pleased that the State of Wisconsin is working together with local partners to support Affiliated Foods Midwest's investment in a state-of-the-art facility that will grow Wisconsin's economy. This $99 million project is a major investment in the economic stability of this region and all of Wisconsin.”
Affiliated Foods Midwest, the ninth-largest grocery cooperative in the nation, is headquartered in Norfolk, Neb. The cooperative distributes food products and other merchandise and equipment to grocery stores across the Midwest, including 25 grocery stores in Wisconsin.
The Kenosha facility will serve the company's customers in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio.
For more information on state programs and services for growing businesses, contact the Wisconsin Department of Commerce area development manager at http://commerce.wi.gov/BD/BD-AreaDevManagers.html.

The SynergyHealth board of directors in West Bend approved a definitive agreement this morning to affiliate with Froedtert & Community Health. The affiliation process is expected to be completed by July 1.
Under the agreement, St. Joseph's Hospital, the West Bend Clinic and the SynergyHealth Foundation will become part of Froedtert & Community Health. Froedtert & Community Health also includes Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital in Wauwatosa and Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls.
"We believe that the affiliation is a positive step forward for Froedtert & Community Health and St. Joseph's Hospital and the West Bend Clinic. Most importantly, we believe that the affiliation will allow us to enhance the quality, continuity and accessibility of health care to the communities we serve," the Synergy Health Board said in a statement this morning. "Benefits of the affiliation include enhanced care coordination across a broader network of physicians and better access for Washington County residents to cancer, cardiovascular, primary and other specialty care services."
Under terms of the agreement, St. Joseph's Hospital, the West Bend Clinic and the SynergyHealth Foundation will become part of Froedtert & Community Health.
"This affiliation is the culmination of many months of study and work on the part of board members and senior leadership at the hospital and clinic," said Greg Banaszynski, chief executive officer of SynergyHealth.
The affiliation agreement includes plans to broaden care offerings in cancer, cardiovascular services, primary care and other services in Washington County.
"We look forward to building on our existing partnership with St. Joseph's Hospital and the West Bend Clinic," said Bill Petasnick, president and CEO of Froedtert & Community Health. "We already serve many of the same patients and communities.  This affiliation will allow us to expand local health care services and develop closer working relationships between providers across our growing system."
Under the agreement, both St. Joseph's Hospital and the West Bend Clinic will retain their names and a significant degree of local governance and decision-making for the provision of health care in Washington County. Leadership and staffing at St. Joseph's Hospital, the West Bend Clinic and the SynergyHealth Foundation will not change as a result of the affiliation, the merged systems said.
The boards of directors for St. Joseph's Hospital, the West Bend Clinic and SynergyHealth Foundation will be retained. Two community members of the hospital board will serve on the Froedtert & Community Health board in addition to a third member from the community who will serve on both the hospital board and Froedtert & Community Health board.
"We're looking forward to a very positive and productive relationship with Froedtert & Community Health," said Michael Laird, president of St. Joseph's Hospital. "We believe this will make St. Joseph's Hospital a destination hospital within one of the region's top health care systems."
"This relationship formalizes our existing linkages and sense of partnership with Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin,” said Dr. Gregory Blommel, president and medical director of the West Bend Clinic. "As part of a larger system we can offer access to a broader continuum of care and recruit new specialists to the area. A collaborative clinical relationship with Froedtert & Community Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin will benefit our patients with chronic illness, with the ultimate goal of improving the health status of the community. Through this combination, we can offer the right care at the right time and in the right setting."
"The Medical College of Wisconsin favorably supports the integration of Froedtert & Community Health with SynergyHealth," said Peter Plantes, M.D., CEO of Medical College Physicians. "We look forward to working both with St. Joseph's Hospital and with the physicians at the West Bend Clinic, many of whom trained at the Medical College. Working with both St. Joseph's Hospital and West Bend Clinic, the Medical College of Wisconsin can expand targeted sub-specialty services in Washington County.  We look forward to delivering the full value of our academic medical center enterprise to patients and communities in Washington County."
As part of the agreement, Froedtert & Community Health has committed to significant investments in the development of hospital and physician services in Washington County. This investment includes plans to create a more robust hospital campus, including the addition of a medical office building that will facilitate the future relocation and expansion of cancer services. The building will also provide space to specialists from the Medical College of Wisconsin and other physician groups. 
Froedtert & Community Health will continue to support local community missions by investing in scholarships, community outreach and the accelerated development of local health care services by the West Bend Clinic and St. Joseph's Hospital.

Cambridge Major Laboratories Inc. today announced a major expansion of its pharmaceutical plant in Germantown.
The company will break ground on June 5 on a new 120,000-square-foot plant next to its headquarters at W130 N10497 Washington Drive.
The expansion will enable the company to engage in large-scale active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing.
Cambridge Major Laboratories is a global service-based chemistry outsourcing partner to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, producing pharmaceutical intermediates, APIs and other fine organic chemicals.
The new plant is being designed with multiple manufacturing suites capable of producing multi-ton quantities of API, and is in response to the company's large and growing pipeline of late developmental and commercial APIs.
Completion is scheduled for August 2009.
The expansion will enable the company to create 50 to 75 new jobs. Currently, about 100 people are employed at the Germantown headquarters, which is functioning at capacity.
The facility will house several vessels for hydrogenation and cryogenic reactions, giving the site maximum flexibility and utility. The facility has been designed to accommodate additional manufacturing suites up to 4000 gallon scale, and these will be built out as the needs arise.
"It is vitally important for us to extend our service offerings as we have numerous projects in Phase III clinical trials, and our desire is to retain the technology and customers for the initial several years of commercial manufacturing. Since there will be no tech transfers or re-validations of processes and suppliers, delivery of API should be guaranteed along with significant time and cost savings. This will also free additional capacity in our existing developmental plants, in particular where cryogenic reactions and hydrogenations are part of the process," said Michael Major.
As part of Cambridge Major's growth strategy announced in 2007, it is investing internally and through acquisition to continue to drive the 30 percent annual growth rate the company has experienced since its inception in 1999.

Marquette University will break ground next week on Eckstein Hall, its new $85 million Law School building. For more, read the latest edition of the BizTimes Real Estate Weekly bulletin.
 

Wauwatosa Savings Bank will officially change its name to WaterStone Bank SSB on Monday.
The bank has experienced significant growth in recent years, both in new branch offices and in additional product lines, according to Doug Gordon, president and chief executive officer.
The bank has offices in Wauwatosa, Franklin/Hales Corners, Germantown/Menomonee Falls, Oak Creek, Oconomowoc, Pewaukee, Waukesha and West Allis. 
"A name change is necessary to better reflect what we are now, and what we plan to be in the future," Gordon said. "As we continue to expand geographically to other communities, 'Wauwatosa' does not clearly define our intentions to be the premier community bank in all the communities we serve."
In February, Wauwatosa Savings invited its customers and communities to help choose the bank's new name by completing an opinion ballot.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle will lead a trade mission to India in November.
Wisconsin's exports to India have grown by 29 percent in the last year.
"This trade mission to India is an outstanding opportunity for Wisconsin companies to meet the customers and business leaders that will help them build their sales in these important markets," Doyle said. "It's a good thing if a Wisconsin company finds a strong partner in a rapidly growing country like India and creates jobs in Wisconsin through exports."
Doyle invited Wisconsin business leaders to join him on the trade mission to India.
Doyle announced the new trade mission at the Wisconsin International Trade Conference in Milwaukee on Tuesday, when he also unveiled the recipients of the Governor's Export Achievement Awards.
"Wisconsin's exports have grown more than 80 percent during my terms in office, and our growth continues to climb," Doyle said. "As governor, I'm determined to build on this success and help our businesses continue to reach new markets. I'm proud to recognize these Wisconsin companies and institutions that have demonstrated leadership and innovation in responding successfully to international market challenges. They are building a great name for Wisconsin around the globe."
The award winners were:

• Small Agricultural Exporter - Main Street Ingredients LLC in La Crosse.
• Large Agricultural Exporter - Foremost Farms USA in Baraboo.
• Agriculture Export Plus - Sanimax in Green Bay.
• Small Manufacturing Exporter - Extrusion Dies Industries LLC in Chippewa Falls.
• Large Manufacturing Exporter - Appleton in Appleton.
• Manufacturing Export Plus - Rite-Hite Corp. in Milwaukee.
• High Tech Exporter - Criticare Systems Inc. in Waukesha.
• Export Assistance Provider - World Dairy Expo Inc. in Madison.

For further information, contact Mary Regel at the Wisconsin Department of Commerce at (608) 266-1767.

Paragon Development Systems Inc. (PDS) of Oconomowoc has launched its latest communications endeavor, a biannual magazine called Lead IT.
Lead IT provides a human-interest focused approach to information technology (IT) and business leadership, according to PDS president and chief executive officer Craig Schiefelbein.
The first issue of Lead IT is being distributed nationally to IT executives. Distribution will be expanded for future issues, Schiefelbein noted. Lead IT is being launched in conjunction with a new web site, www.leaditmagazine.com, which offers the full contents of the publication online.
"We're always looking for new ways to educate, inform and inspire our customers to be the best in their widely varying industries, and Lead IT is a great way for us to connect on a deeper level," Schiefelbein said.

Twin Disc Inc. announced today that its board of directors has promoted John Batten, 42, to the position of president and chief operating officer, effective July 1.
Batten will report to his father, Michael Batten, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer.
Since 2004, John Batten has held the position of executive vice president responsible for European operations and global marine strategy and product development.
A graduate of Yale University and the University of Colorado, as well as the Harvard Business School Advance Management Program, John Batten previously served as vice president, general manager of marine and propulsion, commercial manager of marine propulsion and applications engineer since joining the company in 1996. John Batten was elected a director of the company in 2002.
In his new position, John Batten will be responsible for all manufacturing operations, as well as, marketing, engineering, human resources, and global distribution.
The appointment fills the void created in July 2006, when Michael Joyce, then president and COO, retired. Christopher Eperjesy, vice president of finance and chief financial officer, will continue to report to Michael Batten.
Twin Disc designs, manufactures and sells marine and heavy-duty off-highway power transmission equipment.

Middleton-based T. Wall Properties plans to build an eight- to 10-story office building, with retail space on the first floor, as part of its plan to redevelop the former site of the Washington Commons mall in downtown Green Bay. Read more in SBT's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com/#news.

The BizTimes Stock Index gained .40 points to close at 166.33 Tuesday, and local stocks surged again in early morning trading today. The largest local gainers this morning were Kohl's Corp. (up $1.34 to $49.94) and Snap-on Inc. (up $1.21 to $61.72). The largest local decliners this morning were Bucyrus International Inc. (down $2.30 to $138.20) and Joy Global Inc. (down 91 cents to $78.37). The BizTimes Stock Index was created by Small Business Times and is monitored by North Shore Bank. The index, which measures the stock values of publicly held companies based in southeastern Wisconsin, is updated daily and can be viewed at www.biztimes.com.

A turf war of sorts is playing out in Racine, where automobile dealers are asking the state to shut down a credit union's car buying program. Read more in today's Milwaukee Biz Blog by Remar Sutton.