|
GP Resuming Full Production Georgia-Pacific West, after acquiring up to 38 diesel-powered generators, was scheduled to have resumed full production at its Bellingham mill by Feb. 1. The G-P mill halted production twice last year — in early July and early December — due to high electric costs. The Dec. 5 curtailment temporarily reduced the workforce to 200 salaried personnel. By mid-December, resumption of some production activities brought an additional 500 hourly employees back to the mill. The mill used about nine megawatts of power from 16 diesel generators to operate three tissue-paper machines and seven tissue-converting units. To reach full production, G-P brought in diesel-powered generators that can produce one megawatt of power each. Its electrical requirements at full production are approximately 38 megawatts. Due to high electricity prices, G-P hasn’t purchased power from Puget Sound Energy since mid-December. Its contract to buy electricity from PSE end in May and the two companies haven’t agreed on a new contract. According to a company statement, G-P “is exploring the possibility of installing a permanent generation system that would make the mill electrically independent.”
Wells Fargo Plans Bellingham Store Wells Fargo, which has more than 5,300 banking stores in the country, plans to open one in Bellingham. “It’s really dependent on finding a suitable site,” says Bob Byrne, regional president for the financial services company. Byrne says Wells Fargo may be able to make an announcement early this month. “We’re growing very quickly now and we’re looking to expand throughout Western Washington,” he adds. Wells Fargo currently has a Bellingham mortgage office in Pacific Meridian Plaza, 4152 Meridian St. The company, with headquarters in San Francisco, offers banking, insurance, investment, mortgage and consumer-finance products and services. It has more than $234 billion in assets. County Jobless Rate Rises to 5.6% Whatcom County’s unemployment rate increased 0.1 percent in December to 5.6 percent. In contrast, the statewide rate fell 0.1 percent to 4.9 percent. “Since 1978, the November-to-December increase in the jobless rate has averaged three-tenths of a percentage point,” says Commissioner Carver Gayton of the Employment Security Department. “As the year 2000 came to a close, the pullback in employment was less than in the past two years, pointing to the underlying strength of our economy.” The county’s jobless rate ended the year nearly a percentage point higher than it was in December 1999 (4.8 percent). Although the number of people employed rose by 1,000 to 77,600 in the one-year period, the number of people unemployed increased by 800 to 4,600. The December jobless rates for other northwest Washington counties were: Skagit, 6.6 percent; Snohomish, 3.5 percent; San Juan, 4.3 percent; and Island, 3.4 percent. United Rentals Consolidating Sites United Rentals, which purchased a pair of Bellingham businesses last year, has consolidating them at one site, 2045 E. Bakerview Road, effective Feb. 1. United Rentals now is located at the site of the former North Sound Equipment Rentals & Sales. The company also acquired Bakerview Equipment, which also was on East Bakerview Road, last year. United Rentals has more than 700 branches in 47 states, seven Canadian provinces and Mexico. Brad Harrington, manager of the Bellingham branch, says the company offers sales and rentals of more than 600 different types of equipment, ranging from heavy equipment to hand tools. United Rentals also sells parts and accessories and repairs equipment, Harrington says. For more information, call 647-7800 or visit the Web site at www.unitedrentals. com. Smiths Operating Bellingham Spinal Care Dr. Todd Smith and wife Teresa opened Bellingham Spinal Care on Jan. 9 at 1633 Birchwood Ave., Suite 102. The office’s hours are 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and by appointments on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Smith has more than two years of experience in chiropractic care and recently left a practice on Whidbey Island to open his own office in Bellingham. He earlier attended Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. Smith is one of only several hundred chiropractors in the county who offer gentle upper cervical care through a technique known as NUCCA, which is used to correct the entire spine. For more information, call 527-3668. Couple Buys Life Rescue Steve and Rene Ness purchased Life Rescue, Inc. in October from Rex Myers of Everson and moved it to Bellingham. Life Rescue is a safety and health training and consulting company that serves businesses and industrial clients throughout Western Washington. Its business services include state Labor & Industries Department-approved training for first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, safety consulting, compliance auditing and training and hazardous materials training. Besides those services, industrial clients also are offered confined space training, confined space rescue standby, industrial rescue team training and all facets of hazardous materials training. Ness has been a senior instructor for Life Rescue for the past six years and also is a career firefighter with the Edmonds Fire Department. He says Life Rescue’s instructors are experienced and include firefighters, emergency medical technicians, industrial rescue team members and industrial safety inspectors. For more information, call 733-3858. Construction Begins 132-unit Development Construction has begun on Millenia Residences, a 132-unit condominium development at 251 W. Bakerview Road, Bellingham. Phase 1, a four-story, 32-unit building, is scheduled for completion by late this spring. Each condominium will be a single-level unit serviced by elevators from gated, underground parking. Also, each residence will have a private deck, gas fireplace and energy-efficient radiant floor heat. The site is just west of the Barnes and Noble store on Meridian Street and just north of Bellis Fair mall. The owners of Millenia Residences are Doug and Sandy Albee and Sharon Smith of Bellingham and Jerry and Joanna Kostanski and Timothy Motyka of Vancouver, B.C. The Canadian partners have built similar projects in Vancouver. Wellman and Zuck Construction of Bellingham is the general contractor. Couple Purchases World Gym Franchise Tony and Jennifer Joanen on Dec. 1 purchased the Bellingham franchise of World Gym at 1730 N. State St. The couple has spent $100,000 since then on improvements, including new carpet, eliptical cross-training machines and spin bicycles. The Bellingham couple has many years of experience in the fitness field, including health and nutritional aspects. “What I’m prepared to do is offer something for everyone,” Jennifer Joanen says, emphasizing that World Gym will cater to people wanting to lose a few pounds as well as those who want an intensive fitness program. World Gym offers a large array of cardio equipment and free weights, as well as personal trainers. All of its classes — such as aerobics, pilates, self-defense and kick boxing — are included in the price of membership. For more information, call 733-1600. Four Present Seminar on Cross-border Trade Four Bellingham trade professionals presented another seminar Jan. 30 on “Doing Business in the U.S.A.” in Calgary, Alberta. The speakers were immigration attorney Greg Boos, business lawyer Gene Moses, Bill Braunberger of the Moss Adams regional accounting firm and Bill Murphy of Border Brokerage Inc. The event was sponsored by The Exporters and Importers Association of Calgary, a not-for-profit association comprised of Calgary business people who are committed to promoting Calgary products and services internationally. Lynden Clothing Store Closing Owners Ron and Karen Hendricks are closing The New Crescent, a downtown Lynden clothing store, in late March. The store, located at 406 Front St., was opened in 1938 by John Van Dalfsen, a grandfather of Ron Hendricks, and two partners. Ron Hendricks began working there in 1971 and with his wife bought 30 percent of the store in 1976. They became sole owners in 1986. “We are excited to pursue other interests and to see what God has waiting for us at this time in our lives,” the couple said in a letter to customers. After a liquidation sale of clothes, fixtures, equipment and miscellaneous items, the store will close and the building will be available for lease or sale in April. The impending closure is the latest in a series that have struck downtown Lynden in recent years. The most significant include the Alsum & Bode furniture store, which closed late last summer, just a couple of months after the Lynden Mercantile, home for several dozen vendors of art and gift items, also closed. Intalco Plant Cuts Production Alcoa has agreed to reduce production at its Intalco aluminum smelter in Ferndale for the first four months of this year but won’t lay off any employees during that period. Alcoa will redistribute over four months the amount of electricity it had contracted with the Bonneville Power Administration to receive in January and February at its plants in Ferndale and Wenatchee. The extra electricity is being sold back to BPA to help it serve customers during this winter’s energy shortage in the Northwest. Although the Ferndale plant’s production will be reduced by nearly two-thirds, none of its 936 workers will be laid off. Intalco is Whatcom County’s largest private employer. The soaring cost of electricity has made it difficult of intensive industrial users of it to continue production at regular levels. Day Wireless Moves to Hannegan Complex Day Wireless Systems has moved its Bellingham office to the Hannegan Business Park at 4073 Hannegan Road, just south of East Bakerview Road. Previously located at 2001 Iowa St., Day Wireless Systems offers cellular and wireless phone products and services, including wireless networking, data monitoring, telephony, installation and system engineering, two-way radios, paging and rentals. For more information, call the Bellingham office, 733-4287, or visit the Web site at www.daywireless.com. Casa Valentina Opens near Lake Whatcom Vidette Davoli-Raab has opened Casa Valentina Bed & Breakfast on 10 acres, just a mile northeast of Lake Whatcom. The five-year-old house at 3490 Agate Bay Lane has 2,500 square feet and two bedrooms. Davoli-Raab, an interior designer with years of travel and living in Italy, created a home with features such as Brazilian and cherry wood floors, ceilings as high as 10 to 30 feet and a game room with a billiards table. The home is surrounded by rose and herb gardens, fields with Tennessee walking horses (for viewing only), forests and mountains. Overnight rates range between $150 and $200. Casa Valentina also is available for weddings and receptions. For more information, call 715-2075. Child-care Facility Gains New Name The Bellingham Childcare & Learning Center is the new name of the nonprofit organization that operates the facility at 2600 Squalicum Parkway. The facility, formerly known as Bellingham Community Child Care Center, provides daily care and learning opportunities for 72 children from infants through pre-school. It is one of only two child-care centers in Whatcom County that are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. “The term ‘childcare’ alone is no longer an adequate representation of what we do in the early learning field,” explains Karen Ryan Ekdahl, BCLC director. “Learning, individual development and discovery are as much a part of our program for infants through 4-year-olds as quality care.” For more information, call 676-0950. Morehouses Open Cleaning Business Dan and Miriam Morehouse recently opened Bellingham Home & Office Cleaning. The business, launched in November, cleans the interiors of single and multi-family residences, offices and new construction sites throughout Whatcom County. Services include cleaning of interior windows, vacuuming, mopping and dusting. Equipment such as vacuums with ultra-fine filtration eliminate microscopic particles and dust-mite droppings that can cause allergy and asthma problems. The Morehouses, who have contractor bonding and insurance, personally perform and/or supervise all services. Most of their work is done between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays, but cleaning services are available during evenings and weekends. Pricing is available on an hourly rate, per job or through contract pricing. For more information, call 647-2895, send e-mail to dan@Bellingham Cleaning.com or visit the Web site at www.Bellingham Cleaning.com. Winter Career Expo Scheduled at WWU Western Washington University’s Career Service Center is sponsoring the Winter Career Expo on Feb. 14-15. Expo hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days on the fifth floor of the Viking Union building on the WWU campus. The Winter Career Expo provides job-seekers at WWU and in the community an opportunity to meet with 70 hiring managers from a broad range of private-sector companies, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Exhibitors will include Alaska Airlines, Alpha Technologies, AT&T Wireless, Mervyn’s, Target Stores, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Social Security Administration and Wells Fargo Bank. Workshops to help participants approach and attract employers at the Winter Career Expo will be conducted at 3 p.m. Feb. 8 in Bond Hall 110 and noon Feb. 12 in Humanities 107. The Winter Career Expo and workshops are free and open to the public. For a parking pass, stop at the WWU Visitors Center on South Campus Way — off Bill McDonald Parkway. There is a $1 per hour charge for parking from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information and a list of participating employers, check the Career Services Center Web site at www.careers.wwu.edu, call 650-3240 or visit the Center at Old Main 280. City Offices Move to Crown Plaza The City of Bellingham’s Office of Neighborhoods and Community Development has moved its offices from City Hall to the Crown Plaza Building at 114 W. Magnolia in downtown Bellingham. The newly-created city division is occupying the recently renovated fifth floor of the building. It manages the city’s housing, human services, downtown parking and special projects. The move was announced by Saratoga Commercial Management of Bellingham, broker for the Crown Plaza Building. Child Center Opens in Barkley District The Whatcom Family Child Development Center opened Jan. 2 at 2415 Rimland Drive in the Barkley District of Bellingham. The state-licensed center, operated by the Whatcom Family YMCA, offers care for children from birth to 5 years old. It has two infant rooms, two toddler rooms and two pre-school rooms and a total of 84 child-car slots. The center will focus on hands-on activities that promote a child’s natural sense of creativity, independent thinking and decision-making skills and encourage the development of positive social relationships. For more information, call the center, 714-0450, or the YMCA’s downtown office, 733-8630. Von Hipples Open Chiropractic Center Dr. James P. Von Hipple and wife Sarah on Dec. 1 opened Atlas Chiropractic Center at 2228 James St., Bellingham, across the street from Innovations for Quality Living. The couple recently moved from Los Angeles, where Von Hipple graduated from Cleveland Chiropractic College. He has been a practicing chiropractor for more than two years. Von Hipple believes the adjustment is the most important part of what he does and strives to stay abreast of modern techniques. He currently is training in neuro-muscular re-education, a deep-tissue technique designed to rehabilitate injuries and restore the body’s ability to function correctly. Atlas Chiropractic Center is located in a house that was converted into an office. “It has a cottage feel with hardwood floors — a great place for me to deliver our chiropractic message,” Von Hipple says. The office has varying hours to meet the needs of patients: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 8-11 a.m. and 3-7 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-7 p.m.; and Saturdays, noon to 2 p.m. For more information, call 527-1030 or visit www. atlastchiropracticcenter.com. Sudden Valley G&CC Attracts Tournament The Sudden Valley Golf & Country Club in Bellingham will be the site of the 75th annual Washington State Men’s Amateur Championship. The 72-hole tourney, scheduled June 26-29, is limited to 168 players. This will be the fifth time the event has been conducted at the Sudden Valley G&CC. HomeBase Ponders Bellingham Decision Financially struggling HomeBase, as of late January, hasn’t decided whether to close its Bellingham store or convert it into one of the company’s new home-furnishings store. HomeBase converted five of its stores in Southern California and Las Vegas, Nev. to House2Home stores as a test of the home-furnishings market. After they appeared to succeed, the company announced in late December that 62 of its remaining stores would be converted to House2Home stores and 22 would be closed. The company says it will announce the fate of its nine stores in Washington, including the Bellingham operation at 300 E. Bellis Fair Parkway, by April. Keystone Construction Wins Bellwether Projects Keystone Construction of Everson was awarded contracts totaling more than $1.1 million to handle tenant improvements for nine businesses in the Port of Bellingham’s Bellwether Building. The three-story Bellwether Building, located near Bellingham’s Squalicum Harbor at 11 Bellwether Way, is expected to be ready for occupancy this spring. Keystone Construction is preparing offices for the following businesses: First Union Securities, Bellwether Financial, Graymont, Anacortes Yachts, The Muljat Group, A-1 Yacht Sales, Rene Houston Salon and the Bergsma Gallery. Gottfrieds Open Second Figaro’s Pizza Jay and Christy Gottfried opened Dec. 20 their second Figaro’s Pizza franchise at 137 Samish Way, Bellingham, next to a Blockbuster Video store. Figaro’s Pizza offers pizza, calzones and lasagna that is baked and ready to eat or prepared for baking at home. The take-out establishment also sells garden salads, garlic bread and breadsticks. The Bellingham Figaro’s is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. It employs about 10 people. To place orders, call 647-2323. The Gottfrieds also opened a Figaro’s Pizza in conjunction with an All-American Ice Cream franchise last March at 1733 H St., Blaine. That location has 15 employees. Figaro’s Pizza, founded in Oregon in 1981, now has more than 100 locations in nine states. The chain emphasizes making fresh dough and preparing ingredients each day. County Gains New Business Program Whatcom County has been awarded a state grant to create a Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program. The state Office of Trade and Economic Development awarded a $15,000 grant to Western Washington University’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the Bellingham Whatcom Economic Development Center to administer the program. The funds were matched by WWU. The BRE’s objective is to help existing businesses become more productive, competitive and profitable. “The goal of this program is to retain and support the expansion of businesses already located in Whatcom County,” says Tom Dorr, director of the SBDC office in Bellingham. “Economic growth (new jobs, increased investments and higher wages) has traditionally come from existing businesses. “Our goal is to first survey a sampling of employers, review the data and then work with the entire economic development community to develop programs, policies and support systems to foster expansion and retention activities,” Dorr adds. To begin the process of assisting local companies, staff and volunteers of the local SBDC will survey and visit firms to gather information. A questionnaire prepared by the BRE program will be used to identify needs and respond to concerns and problems within the local business environment. The information gathered through the questionnaires is confidential and is used strictly for the purpose in identifying solutions to local business problems. Any Whatcom County manufacturer, processor or technology company interested in participating in the BRE program may contact the SBDC at 733-4014. Casa Que Pasa Adds Maple Falls Eatery The owners of Casa Que Pasa, a Mexican restaurant in downtown Belling-ham, are opening another restaurant of the same name in Maple Falls. Advanced Renovations of Bellingham expects to open the new restaurant at 7471 Mount Baker Highway this spring. It will be about one-third the size of the Casa Que Pasa at 1415 Railroad Ave. Although the Maple Falls restaurant won’t have a separate bar, it does have a liquor license. Post Point Software Changes Name Post Point Software, a Bellingham provider of Internet performance solutions, has changed its name to XCache Technologies. The change is representative of the company’s strategic transition to cache management and dynamic content delivery that began in early 2000 with the announcement of the company’s XCache software. XCache enables a single server to deliver up to 15 times more traffic than if developed solely as an Active Server Page, providing site administrators with a scalable, cost-effective and easy-to-integrate solution that empowers Web sites to perform 10 times to 100 times faster. Users of the software include magazine publisher PCWorld.com and estyle Inc., a lifestyle retailer with two Web sites, www. babystyle.com and www.kidstyle.com. “The name change is simply part of our effort to clarify exactly what we do in the content delivery space, which is to provide Internet-dependent businesses with feature-packed cache-management solutions to speeding up dynamic content delivery over the Internet, says Wayne Berry, president and chief executive officer of XCache Technologies. Berry also is the founder of Kulshan.com, which focuses on Whatcom County, and recently purchased SanJuan Guide.com. Both Web sites provide community information for residents and tourists. For more information about XCache Technologies, visit www.xcache.com. Wireless World Adding Stores Wireless World, Inc., has opened a Bellingham store in Barkley Village in January and plans to open two more in the city this year. Owner Bob Lowe says the company has been a dealer for AT&T Wireless Services for more than five years and this month is adding cellular-phone products and services from Verizon, Nextel, VoiceStream and Qwest. The Barkley Village store, located at 2945 Newmarket St., Suite 108, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Brian Lowe, son of the owner, is the store manager. For more information, call 527-9735. Wireless World also has stores in Oak Harbor and Marysville. Bob Lowe says he’s looking for two more sites in Bellingham, as well as locations in Burlington and Mount Vernon. If satisfactory sites are found, all of them could have Wireless World stores this year. “It’s just getting started,” Lowe says of the increase in cellular-phone usage. “It’s getting so inexpensive with long-distance (service included) in all 50 states that in many cases it’s cheaper than land-based phones.” He adds that demand for cellular phones will increase as they become easy to use for e-mail and Internet access. Cost Cutter Suppliers Make Donations Two companies that supply products to Cost Cutter supermarkets made donations during the holiday season to local nonprofit organizations. Hormel Foods donated more than 1,000 hams, worth more than $20,000, through Cost Cutter and Thrifty Food Pavilion stores to nonprofit organizations in Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish counties, including the Bellingham Food Bank and Project Hope in Lynden. Hormel’s Hams for the Holidays program works with local supermarkets to make the donations, which totaled about 7,000 pounds of him in the three counties. Also, Friendly Distributors of Everett, which provides Vendange and Talus wines to local Cost Cutter stores, donated $400 on their behalf to the Whatcom Humane Society. Atlas Electronics Adds Cellular Phones Atlas Electronics of Ferndale has added AT&T Wireless cellular and air time to its wide range of products and services. Through AT&T Wireless, Atlas Electronics offers Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Panasonic cellular phones, as well as accessories. Atlas Electronics, founded by Bob and Kathy Hanes in 1997, is a mobile business that goes to the businesses and homes of clients in Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties. It has specialized in the sales and installation of in-car, hand-free cellular phone systems. Atlas Electronics also has installed electronic equipment — radios, sirens, emergency lights, etc. — in police cars and video systems in tour buses and offers marine cellular and citizen’s band radio systems. For more information, call Atlas Electronics at 380-1461 (office) or 961-5703 (mobile) or send e-mail to atlaselectronics@worldnet.att.net. Dawson Construction Starts Two Projects Dawson Construction, Inc., with headquarters in Bellingham, recently started work on two major projects. The firm is leading work on a $1.8 million renovation of an existing bank office into the Oak Harbor School District’s administrative offices and Head Start quarters. Dawson Construction also is working on a $1.5 million modification of Bartlett Regional Hospital’s food services building in Juneau, Alaska. Nature’s Path Creates New Organic Cereal Nature’s Path Foods, an all-natural cereal company with processing facilities in Blaine and Delta, B.C., has added Organic Optimum Power Breakfast Cereal to its list of products. The new cereal is a lightly sweetened combination of organic flax bran flakes, soy threads, Kamut puffs and organic freeze-dried blueberries. According to the company, this innovative whole-wheat combination has a “positive influence” on everything from cholesterol levels to cancer and heart disease. Nature’s Path Foods is North America’s best-selling maker of third-party certified organic and all-natural breakfast foods marketed under the name of Nature’s Path and LifeStream. For more information, visit www.naturespath.com. Dog-washing Facility Opens in Bellingham Ron Miller and Deborah Cook opened Bailey’s Bath House, a do-it-yourself dog-washing business, Jan. 17 at 1633 Birchwood Ave., No. 104, Bellingham. The couple, which named the business after their dog, has installed five raised bathtubs that dogs can enter by climbing steps. The bathtubs have hooks for short leashes to keep the dogs in them. Bailey’s provides shampoo, towels and blow driers and clean up the mess. It also has a separate grooming area for owners who want to cut a dog’s hair. Miller says he first heard about this business concept in Alaska and observes it also is spreading in Seattle. For more information, call 733-9274. Administrative Pros Gathering Feb. 13 Administrative professionals are invited to an open-house networking reception at the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Feb. 13. The reception will be hosted by the Bellingham Chapter of the International Association of Administrative Profession-als (IAAP) and sponsored by the Hotel Bellwether. Guests will have the opportunity to network with other professionals and hear about the new conference services available at the Hotel Bellwether. The program includes information about IAAP and administrative trade certifications. All office and administrative professionals are welcome to attend. If planning to attend, contact Pam Hamilton, membership chair of the local IAAP chapter, at 650-3981 by Feb. 9. IAAP is the leading association for administrative professionals in the world. The Bellingham Chapter, which has 60 members, and new Skagit Valley Chapter hold monthly dinner meetings with educational programs. Village Books Helps North Cascades Institute Village Books in Fairhaven co-sponsored an event that raised $9,000 for the North Cascades Institute. The bookstore is part of the Raincoast Booksellers League, which brought renowned novelist Barbara Kingsolver to Bellingham in November. Ticket proceeds raised more than $9,000 for the North Cascades Institute, a nonprofit educational organization established in 1986 to provide field-based education about the Pacific Northwest to people of all ages. Birch Equipment Drive Collects 300 Toys A toy drive conducted during the holiday season by Birch Equipment Rental & Sales stores collected more than 300 toys. For the third consecutive year, Birch Equipment’s stores in Bellingham, Mount Vernon and Anacortes collected the donations from members of construction and industrial businesses as well as individual citizens. Chevron and Birch Equipment employees were among the top contributors. The donations were presented to the Toys for Tots drive. County Gains New Business Program Whatcom County has been awarded a state grant to create a Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program. The state Office of Trade and Economic Development awarded a $15,000 grant to Western Washington University’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the Bellingham Whatcom Economic Development Center to administer the program. The funds were matched by WWU. The BRE’s objective is to help existing businesses become more productive, competitive and profitable. “The goal of this program is to retain and support the expansion of businesses already located in Whatcom County,” says Tom Dorr, director of the SBDC office in Bellingham. “Economic growth (new jobs, increased investments and higher wages) has traditionally come from existing businesses. “Our goal is to first survey a sampling of employers, review the data and then work with the entire economic development community to develop programs, policies and support systems to foster expansion and retention activities,” Dorr adds. To begin the process of assisting local companies, staff and volunteers of the local SBDC will survey and visit firms to gather information. A questionnaire prepared by the BRE program will be used to identify needs and respond to concerns and problems within the local business environment. The information gathered through the questionnaires is confidential and is used strictly for the purpose in identifying solutions to local business problems. Any Whatcom County manufacturer, processor or technology company interested in participating in the BRE program may contact the SBDC at 733-4014. Casa Que Pasa Adds Maple Falls Eatery The owners of Casa Que Pasa, a Mexican restaurant in downtown Belling-ham, are opening another restaurant of the same name in Maple Falls. Advanced Renovations of Bellingham expects to open the new restaurant at 7471 Mount Baker Highway this spring. It will be about one-third the size of the Casa Que Pasa at 1415 Railroad Ave. Although the Maple Falls restaurant won’t have a separate bar, it does have a liquor license. Post Point Software Changes Name Post Point Software, a Bellingham provider of Internet performance solutions, has changed its name to XCache Technologies. The change is representative of the company’s strategic transition to cache management and dynamic content delivery that began in early 2000 with the announcement of the company’s XCache software. XCache enables a single server to deliver up to 15 times more traffic than if developed solely as an Active Server Page, providing site administrators with a scalable, cost-effective and easy-to-integrate solution that empowers Web sites to perform 10 times to 100 times faster. Users of the software include magazine publisher PCWorld.com and estyle Inc., a lifestyle retailer with two Web sites, www. babystyle.com and www.kidstyle.com. “The name change is simply part of our effort to clarify exactly what we do in the content delivery space, which is to provide Internet-dependent businesses with feature-packed cache-management solutions to speeding up dynamic content delivery over the Internet, says Wayne Berry, president and chief executive officer of XCache Technologies. Berry also is the founder of Kulshan.com, which focuses on Whatcom County, and recently purchased SanJuan Guide.com. Both Web sites provide community information for residents and tourists. For more information about XCache Technologies, visit www.xcache.com. Wireless World Adding Stores Wireless World, Inc., has opened a Bellingham store in Barkley Village in January and plans to open two more in the city this year. Owner Bob Lowe says the company has been a dealer for AT&T Wireless Services for more than five years and this month is adding cellular-phone products and services from Verizon, Nextel, VoiceStream and Qwest. The Barkley Village store, located at 2945 Newmarket St., Suite 108, is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Brian Lowe, son of the owner, is the store manager. For more information, call 527-9735. Wireless World also has stores in Oak Harbor and Marysville. Bob Lowe says he’s looking for two more sites in Bellingham, as well as locations in Burlington and Mount Vernon. If satisfactory sites are found, all of them could have Wireless World stores this year. “It’s just getting started,” Lowe says of the increase in cellular-phone usage. “It’s getting so inexpensive with long-distance (service included) in all 50 states that in many cases it’s cheaper than land-based phones.” He adds that demand for cellular phones will increase as they become easy to use for e-mail and Internet access. Cost Cutter Suppliers Make Donations Two companies that supply products to Cost Cutter supermarkets made donations during the holiday season to local nonprofit organizations. Hormel Foods donated more than 1,000 hams, worth more than $20,000, through Cost Cutter and Thrifty Food Pavilion stores to nonprofit organizations in Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish counties, including the Bellingham Food Bank and Project Hope in Lynden. Hormel’s Hams for the Holidays program works with local supermarkets to make the donations, which totaled about 7,000 pounds of him in the three counties. Also, Friendly Distributors of Everett, which provides Vendange and Talus wines to local Cost Cutter stores, donated $400 on their behalf to the Whatcom Humane Society. Atlas Electronics Adds Cellular Phones Atlas Electronics of Ferndale has added AT&T Wireless cellular and air time to its wide range of products and services. Through AT&T Wireless, Atlas Electronics offers Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Panasonic cellular phones, as well as accessories. Atlas Electronics, founded by Bob and Kathy Hanes in 1997, is a mobile business that goes to the businesses and homes of clients in Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties. It has specialized in the sales and installation of in-car, hand-free cellular phone systems. Atlas Electronics also has installed electronic equipment — radios, sirens, emergency lights, etc. — in police cars and video systems in tour buses and offers marine cellular and citizen’s band radio systems. For more information, call Atlas Electronics at 380-1461 (office) or 961-5703 (mobile) or send e-mail to atlaselectronics@worldnet.att.net. Dawson Construction Starts Two Projects Dawson Construction, Inc., with headquarters in Bellingham, recently started work on two major projects. The firm is leading work on a $1.8 million renovation of an existing bank office into the Oak Harbor School District’s administrative offices and Head Start quarters. Dawson Construction also is working on a $1.5 million modification of Bartlett Regional Hospital’s food services building in Juneau, Alaska. Nature’s Path Creates New Organic Cereal Nature’s Path Foods, an all-natural cereal company with processing facilities in Blaine and Delta, B.C., has added Organic Optimum Power Breakfast Cereal to its list of products. The new cereal is a lightly sweetened combination of organic flax bran flakes, soy threads, Kamut puffs and organic freeze-dried blueberries. According to the company, this innovative whole-wheat combination has a “positive influence” on everything from cholesterol levels to cancer and heart disease. Nature’s Path Foods is North America’s best-selling maker of third-party certified organic and all-natural breakfast foods marketed under the name of Nature’s Path and LifeStream. For more information, visit www.naturespath.com. Dog-washing Facility Opens in Bellingham Ron Miller and Deborah Cook opened Bailey’s Bath House, a do-it-yourself dog-washing business, Jan. 17 at 1633 Birchwood Ave., No. 104, Bellingham. The couple, which named the business after their dog, has installed five raised bathtubs that dogs can enter by climbing steps. The bathtubs have hooks for short leashes to keep the dogs in them. Bailey’s provides shampoo, towels and blow driers and clean up the mess. It also has a separate grooming area for owners who want to cut a dog’s hair. Miller says he first heard about this business concept in Alaska and observes it also is spreading in Seattle. For more information, call 733-9274. Administrative Pros Gathering Feb. 13 Administrative professionals are invited to an open-house networking reception at the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Feb. 13. The reception will be hosted by the Bellingham Chapter of the International Association of Administrative Profession-als (IAAP) and sponsored by the Hotel Bellwether. Guests will have the opportunity to network with other professionals and hear about the new conference services available at the Hotel Bellwether. The program includes information about IAAP and administrative trade certifications. All office and administrative professionals are welcome to attend. If planning to attend, contact Pam Hamilton, membership chair of the local IAAP chapter, at 650-3981 by Feb. 9. IAAP is the leading association for administrative professionals in the world. The Bellingham Chapter, which has 60 members, and new Skagit Valley Chapter hold monthly dinner meetings with educational programs. Village Books Helps North Cascades Institute Village Books in Fairhaven co-sponsored an event that raised $9,000 for the North Cascades Institute. The bookstore is part of the Raincoast Booksellers League, which brought renowned novelist Barbara Kingsolver to Bellingham in November. Ticket proceeds raised more than $9,000 for the North Cascades Institute, a nonprofit educational organization established in 1986 to provide field-based education about the Pacific Northwest to people of all ages. Birch Equipment Drive Collects 300 Toys A toy drive conducted during the holiday season by Birch Equipment Rental & Sales stores collected more than 300 toys. For the third consecutive year, Birch Equipment’s stores in Bellingham, Mount Vernon and Anacortes collected the donations from members of construction and industrial businesses as well as individual citizens. Chevron and Birch Equipment employees were among the top contributors. The donations were presented to the Toys for Tots drive.
|
||