Published January 2004

Business Briefs

Judge OKs sale of Love Israel ranch
In December, a federal bankruptcy judge in Seattle approved the $3.3 million sale of the Love Israel ranch east of Arlington.

The buyer is the Union for Reform Judaism, a national organization representing about 900 Jewish congregations. The group would like to build a summer camp on the property, said Rabbi David Fine, the group’s regional director in Seattle.

Despite its name, the Israel family is not affiliated with any Jewish group.

The Israels filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Feb. 27 to stave off foreclosure on their 300-acre property, said Serious Israel, a longtime member of the Love Israel family. Community leader Love Israel and the family company, Golden Triangle Development Inc., have total listed assets of about $6 million, including a few properties, buildings and timber in the Arlington area.

Over the years, the Love Israel community has opened and closed a few restaurants in Arlington, including an upscale, fine-dining establishment called The Bistro (now with different owners). The annual Garlic Festival has grown from modest beginnings, drawing hundreds of visitors each summer.

Love Israel said he does not know where his group will go. About 40 family members now live on the property. They hope to stay until the end of the school year, but no deal has been struck. They also may move to Lake Roosevelt in Eastern Washington, he said.

Smokey Point overpass project
gets financial boost
The Washington state Transportation Improvement Board recently awarded a $3 million grant toward a new 172nd Street NE bridge over I-5 at Smokey Point.

The money is the final chunk needed, putting a total of $7 million into the piggy bank for the $6.5 million project, which would create a six-lane bridge. Congestion from the old two-lane bridge has caused a high rate of accidents and limits growth in the area.

“This is the best news we could possibly imagine,” said Becky Foster, owner of Bruce and Becky’s Interiors in Marysville.

Business owners in the area already got promises of $3 million from Congress, not yet officially approved; $750,000 from Arlington and Marysville; $227,000 from the state DOT; and $10,000 from the Tulalip Tribes.

The new bridge could be built in about two years, said Ron Paananen, DOT’s deputy regional administrator.

Monroe approves revised ethics code
Residents who serve on Monroe city boards and commissions will be allowed to do business with the city, but only up to $1,200 worth a year.

The City Council narrowly passed an amended version of the city’s ethics policy, which in some ways is stricter than the state’s ethics code.

The council voted 4-3 on the amended ethics code, with members Jeff Frye, Jim Hunnicutt, Marc Mechling and Tony Balk voting yes and Geoffrey Thomas, Robert Zimmerman and Ken Berger opposed.

Lake Stevens expands auto sales area
The Lake Stevens City Council recently voted to allow auto sales in the central business district north of 20th Street, subject to the normal permitting process.

Auto sales previously were restricted to the city’s industrial zone.

Aculight earns SBA’s
Administrators Award for Excellence
Aculight Corp. of Bothell received an Administrators Award for Excellence from the U.S. Small Business Administration during a December ceremony at the company.

Each year, the agency conducts a national competition to recognize the outstanding Prime Contracting Company of the Year. Aculight was nominated for the award by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, according to the SBA.

In addition to SBA’s award, Aculight, which develops laser technologies for medical, industrial and national defense applications, has been named to Deloitte & Touche’s Technology Fast 50 Program for Washington state.

The ranking of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the area by Deloitte & Touche LLP are based on the percentage of growth in fiscal-year revenues over five years, from 1998 to 2002.

Founded in 1993, Aculight employs 45 people at its headquarters.

Permits approved for proposed composting facility
An Everett hearing examiner has approved permits for a new composting facility that will use giant Gore-Tex blankets to decompose yard and food waste faster while limiting odors.

Cedar Grove Composting Inc. hopes to open the commercial facility on the northwest side of Smith Island by summer. Grading and other work on the 27-acre site could begin this winter, said Mark Wolken, an Everett consultant who worked on Cedar Grove’s permit application and plans.

At its headquarters and primary composting plant in Maple Valley, Cedar Grove already processes yard waste collected by trash haulers in Snohomish County. That arrangement, however, requires extra time and money spent hauling the waste, said Jerry Bartlett, general manager for Cedar Grove.

In its first phase, the Smith Island composting plant would be able to handle all of the yard waste collected by Waste Management Northwest in Snohomish County. There also has been enough interest from other companies, so the second phase may also be built in the spring, Wolken said. After a third phase is built, the plant will eventually handle approximately 123,000 tons of material a year.

Everett port wins security grant
The Port of Everett will receive $61,000 from the Department of Homeland Security to beef up its security systems, Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., announced in December.

Port Director John Mohr said the money will be used to provide backup power to the port’s security systems in the event of a power failure. The port earlier received a grant for perimeter fencing.

Mukilteo YMCA receives
$3,000 grant from REI
The YMCA of Snohomish County has announced that its Mukilteo family branch will receive a $3,000 grant from REI to strengthen the YMCA’s Earth Service Corps Program.

REI, a consumer cooperative founded by a group of mountaineers in 1938, has distributed more than $8 million since 1976 to fund conservation efforts around the nation.

The Earth Service program, which runs January through June, serves Kamiak High School students. The program is an environmental program designed to help teens make a difference in communities.

The grant will help fund several of Kamiak’s Earth Service Corps programs, including the environmental education unit, which teaches students about the environment through speakers and field trips; the wetlands cleanup unit, whose members keep the Snohomish River trails clean; and the recycling unit, which promotes recycling as a financially lucrative and environmentally healthy activity.

AquaSox sign deal
to continue Mariner affiliation
The Everett AquaSox Baseball Club recently signed a two-year contract with the Seattle Mariners to extend their partnership, the AquaSox said in December.

The agreement ensures that the AquaSox will be a Mariner affiliate through the 2006 season. Currently, the team is in its final year of a four-year contract with the Mariners.

“We are excited to continue what has been a great relationship with the Mariners,” AquaSox owner and President Mark Sperandio said in a prepared statement. “And we’re pleased to be able to keep the future of the Mariners here in Everett. We’re proud of former AquaSox players like Joel Piñeiro and Willie Bloomquist who are now with the Mariners.”

In addition to Piñeiro and Bloomquist, the AquaSox have been host to Mariner players such as Gil Meche and Rafael Soriano.

A short-season, Class “A” ballclub in the Northwest League, the AquaSox’s 2004 season will be its 10th as a Seattle Mariner affiliate.

Workers’ compensation rates
to increase by 9.8 percent
Washington’s workers’ compensation premiums will increase by 9.8 percent effective Jan. 1, the state Department of Labor and Industries announced in December.

The general rate increase is significantly less than the 19.4 percent L&I proposed in September, Director Paul Trause said. It comes after a series of statewide public hearings, in which the vast majority of those testifying were employers who urged the department to hold off on such a large increase because of the state’s poor economy.

“Much of the testimony we heard was heartfelt and sincere about the effects of a significant rate increase in a tough economy,” he said.

The increase is the second in a row for the agency, which last year adopted a 29 percent increase following eight years of stable and declining rates.

Gov. Gary Locke is expected to appoint a panel made up of business and labor leaders to examine long-term changes to the state’s workers’ compensation system and propose administrative and legislative reforms, according to the agency. Among the things it will review are L&I’s rate-setting and reserving policies. Staff from the Governor’s Office and L&I also will be involved.

ER doctors scramble to find
malpractice insurance
Emergency room doctors who care for more than 100,000 patients a year at Everett and Monroe hospitals have been told their malpractice insurance will be dropped April 1.

That leaves 33 doctors and 15 physician assistants of Emergency Physicians’ Medical Group Northwest, who staff the emergency departments at the hospitals, scrambling to find new insurance.

Fifteen companies have been asked if they will underwrite malpractice insurance for the emergency room physicians next year.

Officials at both hospitals, Valley General and Providence Everett Medical Center, have pledged that their emergency departments will remain open, even if the hospitals have to temporarily step in to help find a solution.

The Everett and Monroe emergency doctors said they were surprised their insurance wasn’t being renewed because “we haven’t had a claim in many years, and there are no claims pending,” said Dr. Jeff Wajda, medical director for Providence’s emergency department.

Family Bundles publishes
entertainment, travel guide
Family Bundles, a cash-reward marketing program for small businesses, has created a new publication geared toward travel-related businesses.

Scheduled for distribution early this year, The Western Washington Entertainment & Travel Guide will include hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfasts, resorts, restaurants and specialty shops, said Kim Vogler, chief executive of Family Bundles.

Family Bundles Cash Reward Cards will be good at all participating travel-guide businesses, Vogler said, adding that the guides will be available at those businesses as well as on Washington state ferries, tourist information centers and through select advertising.

For more information, call 888-209-0077 or go online to www.familybundles.com.

CT board approves 2004 budget,
to look for new revenue sources
Community Transit’s governing board in December approved the agency’s $111 million budget for 2004, but the transit agency needs to find a new source of revenue to keep up with growth in Snohomish County, said Joyce Olson, the agency’s executive director.

There’s nothing specific on the table yet, however.

“We haven’t identified any potential sources,” Olson said, quickly adding that officials won’t be looking at a sales tax increase.

Olson said Community Transit estimates that bus service will grow 5 to 10 percent the next six years. Options for expanding revenues will be developed over the next six months.

Community Transit’s operating budget in 2004 will be $73.8 million, up 9 percent from 2003. Transit officials say much of the increase is because of higher fuel costs and bigger expenditures on benefits and insurance. Including capital projects, the bus company’s budget for 2004 is $111.8 million.

At its meeting, the board also renewed contracts with Edmonds Community College and the University of Washington to continue the EDPass and U-Pass programs, which let students, staff and faculty ride on Community Transit buses by showing school IDs.

The UW will pay Community Transit roughly $1.4 million to continue the program, while EdCC will contribute approximately $180,000.

Wells Fargo, KeyCorp
make Top Givers list
Wells Fargo and KeyCorp, the parent company of KeyBank, ranked 12th and 13th, respectively, among the 15 most generous cash-giving companies in the United States, according to BusinessWeek magazine’s Dec. 1 special report, “America’s Top Givers.”

According to the report, which ranked giving by percent of revenue, Wells Fargo made $82.3 million in monetary donations, or 0.289 percent of revenue in 2002, while KeyCorp donated $17 million, or 0.277 percent of revenue.

Other companies listed included Computer Associates, Corning, Eli Lilly, Fifth Third Bancorp, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, General Mills, Guidant, Intel, Janus Capital Group, Medtronic, Nike, Northern Trust and T. Rowe Price.

“We’re thankful that philanthropic endeavors reflect well on Key, but, in the truest sense, enriching the lives of people and the quality of life in the communities we serve is at the heart of who we are,” said Jim Peoples, president of Key’s Seattle-Cascades District.

That district, which serves the Puget Sound region and Eastern Washington, donates more than $800,000 annually to community organizations, according to the company.

New businesses, locations
n Dave and Teresa Andrade have opened a new franchise of the UPS Store in the James Village Shopping Center at 19410 Highway 99, Suite A, in Lynnwood. The store offers UPS shipping, as well as packaging materials, office supplies, copying, laminating, faxing and notary services. It is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

n Seattle’s Allstar Fitness is opening a new fitness center at 19579 U.S. 2 in Monroe. It will offer programs, classes and nutrition products, as well as a lounge, children’s pool and free day care.

n Martha’s Coffee & Pastries celebrated a grand opening of sorts in December at 2930 Rucker Ave. in downtown Everett. The business opened earlier in 2003 under Martha Augustson and is now run by Katherine Bigney. Hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Bigney said she plans afternoon theme teas in the near future.

n Netplay Gaming Federation, 19725 40th Ave. W., Suite H., Lynnwood, is offering a networked system of 50 personal computers and 12 Xboxes. Gamers can play the latest releases either at the shop or over the Internet at www.netplaygaming.com. The owner is Sarah Chappelle.

Back to the top/January 2004 Main Menu