Business Briefs

Judd &Black tourney benefits Everett groups

MARYSVILLE — Cory Long of Judd &Black presented an $8,000 check to Christmas House board members and a $3,000 check to Jeremy Oshie, North Everett Boys &Girls Club unit director, at the conclusion of the company’s annual charity golf tournament at Battle Creek Golf Course.

Christmas House, a nonprofit charity that was formed in 1981, provided presents to nearly 11,000 children and 3,900 low-income families throughout Snohomish County last year.

Thanks to an agreement with the North Everett Boys &Girls Club, Christmas House once again has a holiday home at the club at 2316 12th St., Everett. Christmas House will open its doors Dec. 3 and serve the public over 13 dates through Dec. 21.

The North Everett Boys &Girls Club serves its local community with licensed day care, before- and after-school pickup for three nearby elementary schools, year-round sports leagues, summer camp, drop-in programs and a free dinner every day of the school year.

The drop-in program serves K-12 aged children in the area with $30 memberships that provide access to a computer lab, homework help, arts and crafts, gymnasium, game room, teen center and baseball field.

To learn more about the North Everett Boys &Girls Club, go to www.bgcsc.org.

To support Christmas House with cash or time donations, go to www.christmas-house.org, call 425-338-2273 or mail to Christmas House, P.O. Box 717, Everett, WA 98206.

Honors for Workforce Development Council

TULALIP — The Workforce Development Council of Snohomish County received the Spirit of Snohomish County Community Partner Award from the United Way of Snohomish County on Sept. 8.

Each year the Community Partner Award recognizes an organization or corporation that exemplifies the most comprehensive, measurable commitment to building strong and caring communities.

Mercy Transportation fights breast cancer

Mercy Transportation is donating $1 from each trip by their designated fleet during October to the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides campaign against breast cancer.

There is no additional cost to passengers and drivers are not allowed to accept donations.

“This is a way for us to use our presence on the road each day to raise stronger awareness, and help raise some money,” Mercy Transportation owner Shirley Allen said.

Learn overseas markets at business roundtable

EVERETT — John Walsh, vice president of U.S. Bank’s International Banking Group, will speak about navigating overseas markets at 7:30 a.m. Oct. 5 at Everett Community College.

His presentation starts the 2010-11 International Business Roundtable speaker series co-sponsored by Everett Community College and the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce.

Challenges faced by importers and exporters, distributors and companies with overseas operations, including cultural, operational and legal issues, will be discussed. Walsh is U.S. Bank’s country manager for South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The presentation is in Whitehorse Hall, Room 105. To attend, RSVP to Cheryl Blackburn at 425-388-9572 or cblackburn@everettcc.edu.

University Center hosts UWB nursing students

EVERETT — The first University of Washington program to be offered in Everett begins Oct. 5 when 40 University of Washington Bothell students start their bachelor of science in nursing degree at the University Center of North Puget Sound.

The University Center, which offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees from eight partner universities, is located on Everett Community College’s campus.

The new program is the result of partnerships between the two educational institutions and local health care providers. Significant support was given by Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, the Everett Mayor’s Office, Everett Area Chamber of Commerce and The Everett Clinic. Local legislators provided key support for funding.

Remodeled 1st Security Bank branch reopens

LYNNWOOD — The Lynnwood branch of 1st Security Bank is now reopen after undergoing an extensive remodel. Award-winning Tacoma architecture firm BCRA created the contemporary interior design and Edmonds-based Wilcox Construction completed the project at 19002 33rd Ave W.

As part of the grand reopening, the Lynnwood branch hosted a document shredding and electronics recycling event, attended by more than 100 people. The event was aimed at helping the community and the environment, while at the same time introducing the new facilities to current and future 1st Security Bank clients.

Tickets now on sale for Gusto! fundraiser

EVERETT — Tickets are now on sale for Gusto! A World of Great Tastes. The EvCC Foundation event features more than 100 wines from the Northwest and around the globe, bites from 15 restaurants and specialty foods and beer from select local microbreweries.

It takes place at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center in Comcast Arena.

Admission is $50 per person and includes access to all tastings, plus a commemorative wine glass and plate. Tickets are available at the Comcast Arena box office or by calling 866-332-8499. Save $5 with the discount code STUDENTS until Nov. 9.

Sherwood Services seeks donors, sponsors

Sherwood Community Services, an organization that serves people with disabilities, is holding its 10th annual Scoring Goals for Disabilities dinner and auction at the Comcast Arena in Everett on Oct. 28. Tickets are $85.

Auction donations are being accepted and corporate sponsorship opportunities are available.

Sherwood Community Services is particularly known in the business community for the Career Connection — a completely free resource for employers interested in hiring a disabled worker.

A job developer can identify all tasks in a company that could be done more cost effectively by a part-time worker with a disability. They also screen and match potential disabled employees for the employer.

For more information, call 425-334-4071.

Imagine Children’s Museum recognized

EVERETT — For the third year in a row, Imagine Children’s Museum has been selected as the region’s best museum by voters in Nickelodeon’s 2010 Parent Picks Awards. It is also the second year for the museum to be named the area’s Best Kids’ Party Place.

Other nominees included the Pacific Science Center, Children’s Museum Seattle, KidsQuest Children’s Museum and Bellevue Art Museum.

WSU Extension offers drip irrigation class

EVERETT — Jeff Thompson, a master gardener, will explain how to develop a yard for easy maintenance and low water usage at the WSU Snohomish County Extension office in Everett on Oct. 5.

A good water system targets the exact area where the water should go and allows delivery using a timer. It also prevents disease by minimizing water contact with the leaves, stems and fruit of plants.

Thompson will explain what homeowners will need to buy and how to put the system together with hands-on demonstrations, plus explain how to customize and expand a system. He will also explain the benefits of using drip irrigation for containers, raised beds, vegetable rows and balconies.

Cost is $20 per person or $25 for two people sharing materials. Pre-registration required. To register, download the form at www.snohomish.wsu.edu/garden/workshops/registrationform.pdf and mail with a check, or call 425-357-6039 for more information.

County offers energy efficiency grants to cities and nonprofits

Snohomish County is accepting grant applications from local municipalities and nonprofits for energy efficiency improvements.

As a recipient of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funds through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Snohomish County has $218,000 available to award and is inviting eligible entities to submit proposals for local energy efficiency and conservation programs through a competitive application process.

Proposals should include projects that will improve energy efficiency and conservation. Proposals will be evaluated and scored according to the criteria described in the application packet, which can be found at www.snoco.org.

Applications should be sent to Lisa Dulude at Snohomish County Facilities, 3000 Rockefeller, M/S 404, Everett, WA 98201, and received by 5 p.m. Oct. 8. For more information on eligibility, contact Lisa Dulude at lisa.dulude@snoco.org or 425-388-3965.

Seattle Specialty Insurance Services of Everett is sold

NEW YORK – QBE Insurance Group Ltd. has announced that its subsidiary, Sterling National Corp., has acquired Seattle Specialty Insurance Services Inc. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Everett, Seattle Specialty Insurance Services has provided insurance services to financial institutions since 1992. It will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Sterling National, under the continued leadership of founder, president and CEO Rick Pedack.

Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, QBE has a presence in 49 countries around the globe. Sterling National Corp., a member company of the QBE Insurance Group, is among the nation’s largest providers of specialty insurance and technology-enabled solutions for the mortgage servicing industry.

Stuff the Bus campaign is called a success

EVERETT — The Everett Public Schools Foundation was able to fill all of the 1,584 Stuff the Bus backpack requests from 25 schools thanks to efforts from the community and business partners.

The district particularly noted support from the Rotary Club of Everett, Durham School Services, the Puget Sound Labor Agency in concert with the Boeing Books and Backpacks drive, and the district’s collection site partners Northwest Plus Credit Union, Central Market in Mill Creek and Staples on Evergreen Way.

The district also thanked the volunteers, contributors and businesses who hosted collection bins in their office or store.

Fluke equipment offers network forensics

EVERETT — Fluke Networks, a leader in network installation, monitoring and analysis, has announced the Network Time Machine hardware platform, a high-performance network forensics recorder for back-in-time analysis.

Unlike similar products on the market where the analysis is focused on network-layer data, Network Time Machine focuses its analysis at the application layer. Powerful built-in tools simplify and speed root cause analysis through an intuitive interface so network engineers can easily retrieve the information they need.

Learn more at www.flukenetworks.com/ntm.

Show poster ideas to illustrate Sorticulture

EVERETT — The city of Everett is accepting artist submissions through Nov. 23 for a poster marketing the 2011 Sorticulture event.

The Sorticulture fine arts poster and promotional materials will feature an original piece of artwork that reflects the theme and spirit of Sorticulture, Everett’s Garden Arts Festival. The artwork will be used in all promotional materials including posters, postcards, billboards, bus sides, television spots, electronic media and websites.

Selection will take place in early December. For more information, contact Carol Thomas at 425-257-7101 or cthomas@ci.everett.wa.us

Nominations open for Richard Wendt Award of Excellence and Mayor’s Arts Awards

EVERETT — The City of Everett Cultural Arts Commission is accepting nominations through Oct. 2 for the prestigious Richard Wendt Award of Excellence and the 2010 Mayor’s Arts Awards.

The awards recognize the accomplishments of artists, arts and cultural organizations and community members committed to enriching the Everett community through the arts.

The awards, which are nonmonetary, are presented annually.

This is the 18th year of the Richard Wendt Award of Excellence, a lifetime achievement award given to those individuals whose strong support of the arts has been ongoing through philanthropic and volunteer service.

In recognition of Everett’s growing arts community, the Cultural Arts Commission has created the Mayor’s Arts Awards, which honor those in the field of arts education, established artists in the community and young artists who demonstrate promise and commitment to the Everett arts community.

Nominations must be received in the mayor’s office, 2930 Wetmore Ave. Suite 10A, Everett, WA 98201, by 5 p.m. Oct. 2. More information and nomination forms are available online at www.enjoyEverett.org.

Canyon Creek has a new cabinet line

MONROE — Canyon Creek Cabinet Co. has announced the introduction of a new product. The Italian glass door inserts for the Millennia frameless cabinetry line offer sleek Italian glass designs for aluminum frame doors.

The collection of 72 glass styles are presented in three groups: matte, gloss and texture. The product is easy care. More information is available from www.canyoncreek.com.

Mountlake Terrace wins planning grant

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The city of Mountlake Terrace has been selected to receive a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce for a planning project aimed at encouraging urban development and reducing loss of farmlands and forests.

About $ 1 million is being provided by the state on a competitive basis to cities that applied. Mountlake Terrace won the maximum grant of $100,000.

As part of the study, the city will work with Snohomish County on options for a transfer of development rights program. A schedule for public input will be developed early in the project. The study must be completed by the end of 2012.

The state Department of Commerce is using special funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide the grants.

UW Bothell-Cascadia receives $745,000 from Department of Commerce

BOTHELL — The state Department of Commerce has awarded the University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia Community College $745,000 as part of the Washington State Jobs Act, an initiative to create jobs and save energy costs.

The overall State Jobs Act will create an estimated 660 jobs and will cost $44 million. This includes more than $26 million of nonstate funding.

WWU gets $970,000 NSF grant for solar-energy research

BELLINGHAM – Faculty at Western Washington University’s Advanced Materials Science and Engineering Center have been awarded a three-year $970,000 National Science Foundation grant to continue their research into producing the next generation of solar panels.

The team is building and testing a new type of solar collector that uses a plastic polymer impregnated with special dyes to capture and collect the sunlight and transport that light to a system of silicon chips that turn it into electricity.

Because the plastic solar collectors are much cheaper to produce than traditional silicon-based solar arrays, and because the new system is inherently more efficient, the cost of producing a watt of electricity from these solar panels could be one-tenth the cost of using today’s traditional silicon panels.

The project team comes from a number of departments at WWU including physics, chemistry and mathematics. About 20 undergraduates will have a chance to work on the project as well as a number of graduate students.

DOE invites comments on greenhouse gas emissions revision

OLYMPIA — The Washington Department of Ecology invites the public to comment on the state’s retooled rule for legally required reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposed rule reduces the number of Washington businesses that must report their climate-changing greenhouse gases in the state. It also clarifies how and when emissions will be reported.

Comments will be accepted until Oct. 14 by e-mail to neil.caudill@ecy.wa.gov, fax to 360-407-7534 or mail to Neil Caudill, Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600.

The agency expects to adopt a reporting rule in December 2010.

Local poultry producers have a processing opportunity

Small scale poultry farmers in Snohomish, Skagit, San Juan, Whatcom and Island counties may be able to take advantage of a second rental set of Featherman Poultry Processing Equipment this fall through a partnership between Skagit Farmers Supply and the Northwest Agriculture Business Center.

The lack of processing facilities and equipment has been a major hurdle for many small farmers and could be the reason there are few poultry growers marketing birds locally. The low cost rental program allows for farmers to efficiently process and market birds without significant capital investment.

Reservations for use of the equipment can be made by calling 360-336-3727. More information about the equipment rental program is available at www.agbizcenter.org.

Regional EPA grant targets truck emissions with Washington technology

An $875,000 EPA grant to the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center will help a national trucking company eliminate almost 200,000 tons of diesel emissions through the use of aerodynamic trailer skirts developed by a Seattle company.

The grant will enable Tacoma-based Interstate Distributor Co. to implement one of the trucking industry’s largest installations of aerodynamic trailer side skirts to date using an innovative new product engineered by Freight Wing Inc. in Seattle.

Interstate selected the Freight Wing Aeroflex product through a rigorous testing program that evaluated several emerging efficiency technologies verified by the EPA Smartway Transport initiative.

The EPA and PPRC predict a seven percent reduction of diesel fuel consumption and emissions for over 2,000 trailers in the Interstate fleet, resulting in estimated annual savings of 1.1 million gallons of diesel.

A Taste of Edmonds generates $19,000 for county service clubs

A Taste of Edmonds, which celebrated its 28th year in August, brought more than delicious food to Edmonds this summer. It also generated $19,000 for local service clubs.

This annual three-day celebration of culinary creativity is presented by the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce. Beneficiaries include: The Exchange Club, Soroptomist Club, Rotary Club of Edmonds (Lunch Club), Kiwanis, Edmonds Lions Club, Explorers, Edmonds Community Foundation, Edmonds Woodway High School’s senior class, and Edmonds Boys &Girls Club.

The 28th annual A Taste of Edmonds was held Aug. 13-15 at Civic Playfield in Edmonds. In 2010, this popular festival featured dozens of food vendors, live music and entertainment, arts &crafts booths, beer and wine gardens, kids’ activities, and more.

Poverty Action to hold mortgage help day in Seattle

SEATTLE — Statewide Poverty Action Network, a program of Solid Ground, will hold a Mortgage Help Day Oct. 2 at South Seattle Community College. The free event will provide free one-on-one advice and resources from state-certified housing counselors for families facing foreclosure.

In addition to helping Washington homeowners understand and navigate the foreclosure process and possible options, Poverty Action is also promoting legislation that would create a mandatory mediation process in the state to give homeowners every opportunity to avoid foreclosure and maximize the ability for loan modifications.

More information is available from www.povertyaction.org.

WSU survey reveals mixed reactions from Seattle business community

PULLMAN — While some aspects of the Seattle economy are improving, others are getting more difficult, leaving the overall economic picture mixed and uncertain, according to Seattle business executives surveyed by Washington State University.

In the latest in a series of surveys conducted by the WSU School of Economic Sciences IMPACT Center and the Seattle Business Executives Association, executives surveyed said that although their number of employees increased, financing for capital expenditures continues to be difficult for some establishments.

That, according to WSU economist Andrew Cassey, means that initiatives to update equipment or expand facilities may be more difficult as well.

Uncertainty about the economy continued to be the top concern of those surveyed, followed by health care expenses, domestic competition and government regulation.