State association honors Blue Shield

Regence Blue Shield in Burlington was one of 25 Washington businesses cited by the Association of Washington Business for outstanding community contribution.

The health insurance company was recognized for their donation of $600,000 to start the Physical Activity for Health project.

“These companies realize the importance of being good neighbors in their communities,” said Don Brunell, president of the AWB, about the winners. “All of them have invested substantial time, money and other resources to improve their corner of the state.”

Other regional winners include

Crown Distributing Company of Arlington for work designed to discourage teen drinking and driving.

Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce for raising up a 45 member volunteer corps and for partnering with local schools

 

Disclosure Committee adds to Web site

Washington State’s Public Disclosure Committee posted 2003 lobbying activity to their Web site. Lobbyists and lobbying firms are ranked according to a top-50 in reported expenses.

Each listed name is linked to information that is more detailed and documentation about specific lobbying activities.

The site is available at: http:// www.pdc.wa.gov.

 

Shell wins safety awards

Shell Puget Sound Refinery in Anacortes won three awards from the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. The awards were presented at the NPRA environment and safety conference in New Orleans.

Shell PSR won a safety achievement award for compiling two years without a case involving days away from work.

Shell’s recordable incidence rate was 0.64 for 2002. This low rate won them a meritorious safety performance citation. The recordable rate is set for number of incidents for each 200,000-work hours. The cut-off rate for safety merit recognition is 1.5.

Finally, the refinery received a gold award for an almost 60 percent reduction in last year’s recordable incident rate, measured against an average of the past three years incident rates. The standard for the gold award is a 25 percent reduction.

Both Tom Smith, refinery manager, and Lee Turner, safety manager, praised refinery employees for their strong commitment to safety in the workplace.

 

North Island Boat announces changes

A new deal brings an Anacortes boat builder back to life.

Resolute Industries purchased North Island Boat Company. Jason Graham, former owner of Sound Diesel Systems, is now president of Resolute Industries.

“We are delighted to be able to bring under one management the combined resources of North Island Boat Company and Sound Diesel Systems,” Graham said.

Paul Schweiss started the North Island Boat Company in 1986. Two years ago, North Island expanded into boat construction, putting together three 55-foot trawlers for a local boat builder. However, the boat builder and North Island severed relations and North Island laid off their entire staff.

 

LifeTek expands in medical market

LifeTek has acquired Occupational Health Resources, allowing them to provide on-site occupational health and safety services. OHR is a mobile trailer that will gives LifeTek expanded reach throughout the region.

LifeTek offers a variety of health-related services to business, including help meeting state and federal workplace safety standards, hearing tests, physical exams for driving tests, and drug testing.

All former OHR clients will have the option to continue with LifeTek.

 

Shannon Point received grant

The National Science Foundation and Western Washington University combined to fund Shannon Point Marine Center’s purchase of sophisticated instruments.

The instruments, a liquid chromatograph and a mass spectrometer, will allow Shannon Point scientists measure physiological and biochemical response of marine organisms in changing environmental conditions.

Shannon Point is WWUs marine science center in Anacortes.

 

College bound students get taste of U life

College Quest invites college-bound high school students to experience campus life. Presented by Extended Education and Summer Programs, the week-long session encourages students to search for the right college, ask admissions questions, write an admissions essay and search for scholarships.

Participants will also take a one-credit River Quest course. Huxley College offers the course, which encourages students to look at the Nooksack River from a number of perspectives.

For details, call (360) 650-6820.

 

Resource center announces business award

The Business Resource Center of Skagit Valley College in association with area Chambers of Commerce gave business of the year awards.

Peggy Stowe of Stowe’s Shoes and Clothing was named county business of the year.

Businesses were assessed according to criteria including, staying power, growth in sales and employment, inventiveness, response to adversity, and community contribution.

Chamber winners include:

• Homespun Market, Jacque Chase – LaConner Chamber of Commerce

• Lotsa MaMas Restaurant, Ember LaBounty – Concrete Chamber of Commerce

• Strandberg Consruction, Nels Strandberg – Anacortes Chamber of Commerce

• Skagit Surveyors and Engineers, John Abenroth and Louis Requa – Sedro – Woolley Chamber of Commerce

• Hawthorne Funeral Home and Memorial Park, Dick Duffy and Kirk Duffy – Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce

• Sandy’s Country Store, Sandy Sopher and Lonnie Sopher – North Cascades Chamber of Commerce

 

Unemployment on the rise

State unemployment figures for April were up, while Skagit unemployment inched down.

Statewide, seasonally adjusted unemployment was at 7.3 percent, up two-tenths of a percent from March. In Skagit County, unemployment was down three-tenths of a percent to 7.5 percent.

“The increase in state unemployment is not unexpected,” said Sylvia P. Mundy, employment security commissioner. “Most economists predict the unemployment rate will peak later this year before coming down.”

Statewide, non-agricultural employment increased by 13,400 in April. The 0.5 percent increase reflected normal seasonal growth, as construction, manufacturing, retail trade, and hospitality began to awake from late winter doldrums.

 

Evergreen Networks splits from WebEKG

Pete Person and Dan Staheli recently launched Evergreen Networks. The pair formerly headed up WebEKG’s managed network services operation.

Evergreen Networks sees an opening in helping businesses upgrade their networks. While many companies made capital investments in 1999 to combat the Y2K bug, the pace of new investment has slackened considerably since. Pearson and Staheli feel companies are now looking at making judicious upgrades to keep their networks running.

 

Summer program teaches kids about business

Washington Business Week is an immersion learning experience for high school students throughout the state interested in building business and interpersonal skills.

Students will learn a variety of critical thinking and problem solving skills while being exposed to a number of different business concepts.

Participants are grouped in teams of 10-12 and work as a company under the volunteer guidance of a volunteer representative of the company being modeled. Among the businesses that send volunteers are PEMCO, State Farm, and Boeing.

Three summer sessions remain for Washington Business Week. A Central Washington University program takes place from July 20-26. There are two upcoming sessions at Western Washington University, Aug. 3-9 and Aug. 10-16.

Call the Washington Business Week office at (800) 686-6442 for more information or to register.

 

Benz joins surgeons’ office

Deborah M. Benz, MD, is now with Northwest Orthopedic Surgeons. She specializes in occupational medicine.

“Occupational medicine is a specialty devoted to prevention and management of occupational and environmental injury, illness and disability, and promotion of health and productivity of workers, their families and communities,” said Laine Dowling, administrator at Northwest Orthopedic Surgeons

Benz had her medical degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson and completed a residency at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Most recently, she worked at the Skagit Valley Medical Center.

Northwest Orthopedic Surgeons has offices in Mount Vernon and Anacortes.

 

County asks Mount Vernon to go first

Skagit County Commissioners drafted a letter to Mount Vernon city officials asking for specific steps before releasing funds for fiber optic upgrades.

The letter, signed by Gary Rowe, county administrator, asked the Mount Vernon mayor and council to:

Sign operating agreements with governmental agencies, including the City of Burlington, the Burlington-Edison School District, the Port of Skagit County and United General Hospital

Take steps to insure built infrastructure is not duplicated and find ways to achieve faster build out

Explain to the private sector what the project is about to clear up misconceptions

 

T Bailey reaches heron truce

T Bailey and the Skagit Land Trust have agreed on a plan to mitigate the noise from a new March Point manufacturing plant on a nearby heron colony.

The agreement includes noise caps, activity setbacks during nesting season, special lighting system, and a 5 acre forested buffer between the new plant and the heron’s nesting site.

Both T Bailey and the land trust will hire biologists to implement the plan and monitor the heron colony through two nesting seasons.

The Skagit Land Trust has also agreed to drop their court appeal of T Bailey’s manufacturing plans, brought last year when the trust was unhappy with the Port of Anacortes’ attempt to resolve the issue.

Issues remain between T Bailey and the Port, which sold the company the land. Company representatives are unhappy they have been making payments on the forested buffer, even thought they will not be able to use the land.

 

Mall hosts photo contest

Cascade Mall is offering valley residents a chance to snap their vision of their country.

My America My View is a nationwide contest sponsored by Macerich Company, the company that operates Cascade Mall. Patrons can submit a photo to the mall’s Web site at http:://www.shopcascademall.com. Site visitors can also vote for their favorites at the sane site.

Vote leader on July 27 will be declared the local winner. Winners of individual mall contests will compete in a final round against winners from all other Macerich Mall properties.

 

KAPS hosts country showdown

Aspiring Dixie Chicks or Toby Keiths can fight it out on stage through the 22nd annual Colgate Country Showdown.

KAPS radio is the Western Washington sponsor of the nationwide country music talent search. Local winners advance to one of 40 state contests, leading to six regional showcases and a final national competition.

Eligible artists must not have charted with Radio and Records, Billboard or the Gavin Report in the 18 months preceding this year’s showdown.

 

Rental association launched new Web site

Northwest Rental Owners Association recently introduced a new members Web site. The site provides information to current and prospective members.

The NROA is the member association for owners of commercial and residential rental properties in Skagit, Whatcom and Island counties.

Visit the new Web site at http://www.nroai.com.

 

Freeland chamber to adopt road

Freeland’s Chamber of Commerce applied to Island County to adopt part of E. Harbor Road. The stretch will extend from Main Street and progress one mile north.

 

Business administration announces two loan programs

The US Small Business Administration announced two programs to increase and protect money loaned to small business.

SBA officials added $1.4 billion to the amount they will lend small business in fiscal 2003. In sum, the SBA will lend almost $11 billion this year through their primary lending program.

The new loan authority will be made available by applying a new econometric subsidy model to the Supplemental Terrorist Activity Relief Program. The program was established to assist small business affected by the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Using the new model, the cost of the STAR program dropped by more than $12 million, freeing up additional money for other small business lending.

“Hundreds of small business owners and entrepreneurs will benefit from this new authority,” said Hector V. Barreto, SBA Administrator.

Small business owners can also borrow money to cover the cost of protecting themselves from disaster damage.

A two-year pilot program, the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Loan Program, is offered in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster mitigation program.

Small businesses are eligible to borrow up to $50,000 to cover the cost of protecting property by taking “specific measures to prevent disaster damage.” Funds must be used for projects that conform to the goals of FEMA’s disaster mitigation plan for the community where the business is located.

“As we’ve seen from the devastation caused by tornadoes in our nation, being prepared for a disaster should be a priority of every business owner,” said Alfred E. Judd, SBA area director for the Sacramento Disaster Office. “Mitigation examples include roof tie downs, elevating flood prone structures, and retrofitting buildings to lessen earthquake damage.

“Doing so will avoid future catastrophic losses, protect business owners and save taxpayers from subsidizing huge disaster assistance costs.”

Loans will be offered at 2.953 percent over terms of up to 30 years.

To apply, visit the program Web site at http://www.sba.gov/disaster, contact the Sacramento district office at P.O. Box 13795, Sacramento, CA, 95853 or call them at (800) 488-5323.

Application deadline is July 16, 2003.

 

New line for non-emergency calls

Skagit Valley residents are reminded to call (360) 428 3211 for non-emergency calls to civil authorities. Previously, residents were advised to call 911 and let dispatchers determine the level of need, according to Rick Smith, director of Skagit 911. Now, they have introduced the new number as a means of letting dispatchers more effectively prioritize calls.

 

Parskide puts meals on wheels

Don’t let summer vacations lead to summer burnout

Managers should plan ahead to avoid shorthanded crises during the peak summer vacation season.

“Many companies are already operating with reduced staff levels, which makes the impact of additional absences more pronounced,” said Max Messmer, chair of Accountemps, a staffing agency for financial professionals.

Messmer offers the following tips for dealing with summer vacations:

Keep the team informed – Let everyone know who will be out of the office and when to give adequate time to prepare cover for major projects

Bring in short-term assistance – Temps can help reduce stress and boost morale

Assign tasks – Delegate duties to existing staff, with an eye to allowing employees to assume new responsibilities and expand skills

Tie up loose ends – Encourage employees to leave with a cleared out inbox. Ask them to provide contact information on their voice mail message or through email, so customers’ requests can be handled without delay.

Time strategically – Encourage employees to sign up in advance on a vacation calendar, so several staff members are not absent at the same time.