For the DRC/Danny Fulgencio

Fred Ferraro of F&D Pro Shop demonstrates how bowling balls are drilled in his workshop at Denton’s Brunswick Zone bowling center.

F&D Pro Shop’s glass door muffles the thunder of pins and bowling balls in a Denton bowling alley, as it has for nearly a decade. Like an attentive Old World craftsman, 63-year-old Fred Ferraro caresses the contours of a bowler’s fingers, fashioning a perfect fit. Ferraro’s own hands are grandfatherly and precise as a whirring drill press sinks three holes into the bowling ball. In a refuge built for recreation, in a sport with its own culture and peculiar personalities, the Ferraros and Brunswick Zone’s close-knit household now face a slippery economic dilemma: Bowling’s skidding popularity is provoking change across the knock-and-crash world of oiled bowling lanes.

Courtesy photo

Tony Clark, left — Northstar Bank president and CEO — stands with Stacy Curtis, president of Northstar Bank Mortgage, and Ted Leveridge, bank executive vice president.

Tony Clark, president and CEO of Northstar Bank, recently announced that the bank’s mortgage division has merged with Curtis Mortgage, which has been in Denton since 1999. The new division will be known as Northstar Bank Mortgage, and will be located at 3111 Unicorn Lake Blvd., Suite 120. “We have followed Curtis Mortgage through the years and have been impressed with Stacy [Curtis] and his team,” Clark said in an e-mail. “Like Northstar Bank, they are dedicated to keep customer service a top priority. Curtis Mortgage complements our operations and fits well with our mortgage goals.” 

DRC/David Minton

This boat, which survived Hurricane Ike when it hit Kemah, waits to be purchased at Lake Ray Roberts Marina on Saturday. According to boat retailer Jeff Norwood, there are many customers who have the means to spend on large boats, but today’s buyers are much more specific in what they want and will delay their purchases until they find exactly the boat they are looking for.

Jeff Norwood, a tanned, middle-aged salesman at Lake Ray Roberts Marina, drifts between row after row of used sailboats and schooners — stacked and ready to be spruced up and sold at a discount. But Norwood is awash in big, brand-new, high-priced yachts and houseboats. As he faces a punishing recession, finding buyers for a $150,000-plus craft is about as easy as finding water in the Sahara. In Denton County, sales of high-priced luxury goods — yachts, jewelry, fine art, motorcycles and high-end real estate — are taking it on the chin.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Joni and Lynn Chatwin, co-owners of AlphaGraphics, are shown Thursday at their business on Loop 288.

Not only is AlphaGraphics focused on quality, it also is focused on giving back to the community. The printing company was honored by the Denton Chamber of Commerce as the Small Business of the Year for 2009. Lynn and Joni Chatwin, who have been married 36 years, have owned the almost 11-year-old business for about eight of those years.