Horizon hangs on, chief sees better

Charlie Conoley, a veteran Gulf Coast community banker at the helm of Bradenton-based Horizon Bank, has had better weeks than the one that began Nov. 17.

First, the bank's publicly traded parent company, Horizon Bancorporation, posted a nine-month loss of $6.6 million, or $3.71 per share for the first three quarters of 2009. The bank posted a net income of $711,000 in the first three quarters of 2008.

The nine-month loss overshadowed one positive aspect of the bank's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission: It actually posted a profit for the third quarter — $161,664, or 9 cents per share.