AVALON HOLDINGS Klingle takes over CEO position

The former CEO says he left the money-losing company in better shape.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
HOWLAND -- Ron Klingle is chairman and chief executive of Avalon Holdings Corp. after CEO Ted Wesolowski resigned.
Wesolowski gave up his position overseeing the day-to-day activities of the Howland-based company last week and returned to the Pittsburgh law firm of Babst, Calland, Clements & amp; Zomnir. He will remain on Avalon's board of directors and will consult with management as needed.
Klingle had been company chairman but has assumed the CEO duties as well. He had been CEO before Wesolowski joined the company in December 2002.
Avalon Holdings owns the Avalon Lakes Golf Course, Dart Trucking and other companies and hasn't made an annual profit in four straight years.
Wesolowski resigned after Avalon Holdings sold its businesses that handled environmental consulting and remediation of hazardous waste. He is an attorney with a specialty in that area.
He said he was hired to assist in the company's strategic evaluation. Since then, the company has left some businesses, changed its credit and collection policies and expanded its involvement in the golf business, he said.
"The company is now in a much better position to focus its efforts on continued improvement of its remaining lines of business," he said.
Klingle said officials of the company intend to keep the businesses it is operating now.
Companies owned
Besides the golf course and trucking company, Avalon owns American Waste Management Services, which handles waste brokering, and American Landfill Management, which manages landfills.
He said officials are considering ways to simplify operations at Dart, including closing some terminals in other areas.
Avalon announced last October that it was combining Avalon Lakes with Squaw Creek Country Club in Vienna Township. Avalon Lakes is leasing Squaw Creek in exchange for making $3 million in improvements, including upgrading the clubhouse and fairways.
Avalon recently sold its waste remediation business for about $200,000 and closed its environmental engineering company. An environmental laboratory was sold a year ago. All of those businesses were located in Murrysville, Pa.
Klingle said those businesses were no longer attractive because so much remediation work has been done over the past 10 years.
Avalon said Monday that it lost $2.2 million in the fourth quarter of last year on net operating revenues of $13.4 million, compared with a loss of $1.7 million on revenues of $13 million in the same quarter a year earlier. For all of 2003, Avalon lost $3.6 million on revenues of $53.5 million, compared with a loss of $5.8 million on revenues of $56 million in 2002.
shilling@vindy.com