VISTA Today Daily News Business Briefs are concise stories that bring you up to date with what’s going on around Chester County. This morning:

Record Earnings for First Resource Bank in Second Quarter

First Resource Bank’s new charter is working out as it announced this week its record financial results for the second quarter of 2015.

Net income for the locally owned and operated state-chartered bank was $329,300, nine percent higher than the prior quarter and ten percent higher than the same period last year.

Glenn B. Marshall, President & CEO, stated, “The second quarter was incredibly successful with our most profitable quarter to date, a fully subscribed common equity raise, the opening of our second branch and payment of our second cash dividend.”

The Exton based bank also reported that total assets are now at $193.2 million at June 30, a seven percent increase over the end of last year.  During the first six months its loan portfolio has grown by four percent to $163.5 million with deposits doubling that growth at 14 percent to $163.7 million.

Nicole Lyddane joins Swope Lees Commercial Real Estate

Swope Lees Commercial Real Estate has added Nicole Lyddane to their team of Leasing and Sales Agents.

Lyddane comes from a background of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service, and brings valuable experience in these and other areas with her.  She is coming from Comcast Spotlight where she was the Supervisor of Business Operations.

Following in the footsteps of her father, who is a Commercial Real Estate Developer in Chester County, Nicole made the decision to change her course after five years, and enter the world of Commercial Real Estate with a desire to learn the complex ins and outs of the real estate market.

Claudia Hellebush is Getting Results and Creating Lasting Change in Chesco

Last year the United Way of Chester County, led by CEO Claudia Hellebush, worked with 145 Chester County companies, to raise almost $5 million dollars.

It is not hard to see that a lot of it is due to the contribution of Claudia Hellebush, who truly lives by the best piece of advice she was given “above all, be fair in all that you do.”

In an interview with VISTA Today she talks about growing up in Malvern where she later went to West Chester University and earned a Bachelor’s in Psychology and later a Masters in Administration focused on Social Work.

Her Executive Director’s role at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chester County let her use her love of children and helping people, and in the interview she shares some of her success stories. This later transitioned into the CEO role at the United Way where she was instrumental in launching the Leadership Chester County community initiative, now in its fifteenth year.

Longwood Fire Company Looks for Dedicated Funding

In a letter issued by Longwood Fire Chief A. J. McCarthy  he shows his support for four companies who are helping in his desire to increase funding to keep a high-level of community service.

In the letter, he outlines how the Berwyn, Paoli, Radnor and Malvern fire companies formed the T-E Fire Companies Funding Coalition, in order to combine their efforts and reach out to residents and governmental leaders to find money for budget shortfalls.

The T-E group so far has received less than 25 percent of its funding from the government. With the high cost of fire trucks and the general maintenance of their equipment, one of the chiefs warned, “If a sustainable funding solution isn’t found, we fear that eventually we may not be able to promptly and effectively respond to fire and EMS emergencies.”

 Multi-Modal 2015 Handbook Available for Chester County

The new Multi-Modal Circulation Handbook for Chester County has been published and made available as a pdf file for download.

This handbook was prepared by the Chester County Board of Commissioners and the Chester County Planning Commission to provide municipal officials, designers, planners and other key areas with a complete reference guide on how to accommodate all types of transportation into land use and land development design.

The handbook is used to help municipal officials establish policy level direction for their communities, identifying commonly accepted design standards and to provide continuity in development as well as a myriad of related topics.