Published February 2003

Business Briefs

Stillaguamish Tribe applies
for methadone clinic
The Stillaguamish Tribe has filed an application with the state Department of Social and Health Services to open a methadone clinic in north Snohomish County to treat people addicted to opiates such as heroin.

If the application is approved, the tribe’s would be the first such clinic in Snohomish County.

Eddie Goodridge Jr., the tribe’s executive director, wouldn’t say where the proposed clinic would be built but emphasized that the clinic would not be built on or near the tribe’s planned site for a new casino northwest of Arlington but elsewhere on tribal lands with federal trust status.

Goodridge said the tribe’s proposed clinic would serve not only the Stillaguamish, but also the Tulalips and tribes as far north as the Canadian border. Non-natives would be helped on a space-available basis.

Ken Stark, director of the DSHS Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, said Snohomish County could use at least three clinics, adding that DSHS studies indicate that at least 1,050 addicts live in the county.

Cabbage Patch celebration
includes menu, prices from 1978
The Cabbage Patch Restaurant, located at 111 Ave. A in Snohomish, will celebrate its 25th year of ownership under Sondra McCutchean on Feb. 1 and 2 by offering customers the menu — and prices — that were available Feb. 1 1978, the day McCutchean took over ownership.

Eden subleases space to Ceptyr
Eden Bioscience Corp. of Bothell will make more than $800,000 a year by subleasing 34,000 square feet at its headquarters building to Ceptyr Inc., another Bothell-based company.

Eden, which sells a crop treatment spray it developed, will sublease the entire second floor of its building, about 28,000 square feet, which includes both office and laboratory space.

Ceptyr is developing therapeutic drugs based on compounds called protein tyrosine phosphatases. Such drugs could target diabetes, obesity, cancer and other diseases.

Microvision links with NCR
NCR Corp. will market a version of Microvision Inc.’s bar-code scanner under an agreement announced in January.

Microvision, based in Bothell, said NCR will have exclusive rights to sell the low-cost scanner in America, Europe and the Pacific. NCR, which leads the bar-code scanner market, debuted the Microvision-made model at the National Retail Federation’s show in New York in mid-January.

A developer of augmented vision devices, Microvision introduced its first bar-code scanner last year.

Vixel adds China partner
Vixel Corp. of Bothell, which specializes in storage networking products, will partner with LangChao Electronics of China to sell computer equipment to the Chinese market.

The two companies said in January that Vixel’s network switches will be integrated with LangChao’s servers and sold together there.

With approximately 3,000 employees and more than $500 million in annual revenues, LangChao is regarded as one of the leading high-tech companies in China’s domestic market. The company’s products range from broadcasting equipment to mobile phones.

Quinton completes acquisition
of Spacelabs Burdick
Quinton Cardiology Systems Inc. said in early January that it had completed its acquisition of Spacelabs Burdick Inc.

Based in Bothell, Quinton first announced the $24 million purchase of the cardiology business from Finland’s Instrumentarium a few days before Christmas.

Burdick, which employs approximately 150 people in Deerfield, Wis., makes cardiographs and related monitoring equipment.

Qiagen Genomics to close Bothell office
Qiagen Genomics Inc. in Bothell will close by the summer, affecting more than 20 employees.

The Bothell office’s Dutch parent company, Qiagen N.V., said in January that it will relocate the work done locally to the company’s new facilities in Maryland and Germany.

Qiagen Genomics, which provides genetic analysis and related tools, grew last year after the company’s technology improved the cost and speed of its genotyping services.

Qiagen bought the Bothell business as part of its acquisition of Rapigene Inc. in 1999.

CombiMatrix posts first profit
CombiMatrix Corp. of Mukilteo said in January that it received $8.5 million from Roche Applied Science last quarter, giving the biotechnology firm a profit for the first time.

During the final three months of 2002, Roche rewarded CombiMatrix for reaching product development milestones and related activity. Roche also paid to expand the strategic alliance between the two companies.

CombiMatrix’s agreement with Roche includes collaborating on the development and eventual commercialization of CombiMatrix’s DNA microarray technology.

$1.9 million proposed
for area road projects
Using input from local transportation planners, the Puget Sound Regional Council has proposed spending $1.9 million of federal grant money in Snohomish County on the following projects:

• $1.3 million to plan an I-5 carpool lane in Everett. The money will keep the $230 million project moving while transportation planners figure out how to pay for the larger project.
• $400,000 to help widen 148th Street SW in Lynnwood to three lanes between 52nd Avenue W. and 35th Avenue W.
• $159,000 to plan a $1 million traffic signal on U.S. 2 at Fifth Street in Sultan.

To comment on how the Puget Sound Regional Council should spend the money, call 206-464-6343 or write to the council, 1011 Western Ave., Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98104-1035.

The public also can comment at two meetings in February. The Puget Sound Regional Council’s transportation policy board meets at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 13, and the executive board meets at 10 a.m. Feb. 27 at the regional council boardroom, 1011 Western Ave., Suite 500, Seattle.

EverTrust ends venture-capital venture
EverTrust Financial Group is getting out of the venture capital business after announcing it will take a $414,000 hit against last quarter’s earnings, the result of an unsuccessful investment by its venture capital subsidiary, Mutual Bancshares Capital.

The decision isn’t a direct result of the failed investment, EverTrust spokesman Brad Ogura said, but more of a decision that the EverTrust Bank parent company should stick to banking.

The loss came from Mutual Bancshares’ investment in a limited partnership, which invested mostly in medical technology companies, Ogura said. EverTrust put $2.3 million into the partnership in 1999.

EverTrust now plans to turn over its venture capital investments to what the company is calling “a local venture capital firm.” The plan is for the two principles who led Mutual Bancshares to join a third venture capital specialist in managing the new partnership, Ogura said.

That deal still must be approved by all the parties, he said.

Seven groups benefit
from bank’s Employee Giving Fund
The Coastal Community Bank Employee Giving Fund, established by bank employees to benefit charitable causes in Snohomish County, made grants in 2002 to seven area nonprofit agencies: Assistance League of Everett, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Campfire, Christmas House, Friends of Monroe Library, Mount Baker Boy Scouts and YMCA of Snohomish County.

The fund, which is held at the Greater Everett Community Foundation, is supported entirely by personal donations contributed by the bank’s employees.

PUD’s ‘green power’ program
leads state in per-capita sales
Snohomish County PUD customers are buying more renewable energy per-capita than other utility customers in the state, a new report says.

A review released in January of a year-old state law requiring 16 of Washington’s largest utilities to give customers the ability to buy “green power” shows that none have been as successful as Snohomish County PUD.

About 1,300 residential and business customers participate in the program, which accounts for 0.57 percent of the power the PUD sold during the study period.

To participate, PUD customers pay regular price for the power they use and then agree to chip in extra money that the utility uses to help buy a block of renewable energy, usually wind power produced at the Stateline Project near Walla Walla.

The utility that has the second-most renewable energy buyers per-capita is Tacoma Power, at 0.55 percent. On volume, Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy sold the most.

New e-mail addresses
for AT&T Broadband Internet users
Customers of AT&T Broadband’s high-speed Internet service will get new e-mail addresses starting in February. Prompted by Comcast Corp.’s $72 billion acquisition of AT&T Broadband last year, e-mail addresses ending with “@attbi.com” will switch to “@comcast.net.”

E-mail sent to the phased-out addresses will be delivered for at least 60 days after the switch. After that, however, it may not get through.

Steve Kipp, spokesman for AT&T Broadband, said the change will give all subscribers to the newly combined company the same domain name.

Kimberly-Clark awards
$40,000 grant to county YMCA
The YMCA of Snohomish County has been selected to receive a $40,000 grant from Kimberly-Clark to strengthen the YMCA’s family programs. The organization currently provides programs to more than 5,600 families in the Everett, Mukilteo, Marysville, Monroe and Silver Firs/Silver Lake communities.

Area engineering firms honored
The American Council of Engineering Companies of Washington recently recognized these area engineering companies for their work on various projects, including:

• David Evans and Associates Inc., which has an office in Everett.
• Sparling, which has an office in Lynnwood.
• Reid Middleton Inc. of Everett.
• Landau Associates of Edmonds.
• ECS Engineering Inc. of Bothell.
• W&H Pacific of Bothell.
• Perteet Engineering Inc. of Everett.
• RH2 Engineering Inc. of Bothell.

New businesses, locations
n Northwest Digital Surveillance recently opened at 3301 Rucker Ave., Suite A, in Everett. Principals are Steve Schechter and Kim Seavy. The company offers digital surveillance systems for homes and businesses. For more information, call toll free at 866-280-4321 or visit www.nwdss.com on the Web.

n Raymond James Financial Services, which offers retirement and investment planning, has opened an office at 2825 Colby Ave., Suite 303, in the Frontier Bank Building in downtown Everett. Carolyn Christoferson is the branch manager. For more information, call 425-252-1802.

n Beals Digital Productions of Silvana has reopened. Owner Jason Beals transfers audio-visual materials to a computer, where the programs are digitally edited and transferred to video tapes, CD-ROMs or DVDs. Beals, who has muscular dystrophy, had suspended operations in 2000 due to health problems. For details about his business, call 360-652-4033 or go online at www.bealsdigitalproductions.com.

n Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse has opened at Murphy’s Corner, 132nd Street SE and the Bothell-Everett Highway, in the Mill Creek area.

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