Published September 2001

Business Briefs

Workshop to focus on retirement planning
A workshop for business owners titled “Choosing a Retirement Plan for Your Business” will be held twice this fall at Everett Community College.

Designed to assist owners of small to midsize businesses with selecting an appropriate retirement plan, the workshop will be held Sept. 29 from 9:30 a.m. to noon and again Oct. 20 from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

Cost of the workshop is $39 per individual, $49 per couple. Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, call 425-388-9214.

Monroe marks completion of Tester Road Roundabout
Monroe recently celebrated the completion of the Tester Road Roundabout, the first multilane, five-legged roundabout to pass the state Department of Transportation’s new guidelines and the second multilane roundabout in Washington.

Located at 164th Street SE, Tester Road and State Route 522, the Tester Road Roundabout is one of three planned roundabouts for Monroe that are expected to save the city and state more than $8 million in construction and maintenance fees, according to a news release from Reid Middleton Inc., the design company for the project.

On Aug. 22, Monroe held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the roundabout’s completion. Event speakers included City Administrator Bill Verwolf, who was MC; Bob Holman, Mayor of Monroe; Donnetta Walser, a City Council member and candidate for the office of mayor; and Bill Goodwin, Vice President, Operations, of Reid Middleton.

Fishermen’s Boat Shop
changes name, mission
The Fishermen’s Boat Shop has changed its name to the Everett Shipyard.

“I think the new name better represents what we are and what we do,” said Kevin Quigley, the former state legislator and congressman who took over as President of the 55-year-old company earlier this year. “Fishermen’s Boat Shop ... we grew out of that a long time ago.”

Quigley said the company, which changed its name Aug. 15, has a new mission to go with the new name: He’d like to land much more ship repair and refurbishment work, like the $2.5 million project now under way on the state ferry Hyak.

The company plans to hire an additional 30 people to work on the ferry project.

The ferry is tied up between the Port of Everett’s piers 1 and 2 for dockside repairs and major electrical enhancements, one of a number of contracts the company has won for state ferry repairs.

Quigley said the company is limited in the amount of such work it can do, because it has no dry-dock facilities to work on ships out of the water. He’d like to develop one.

“Right now, we’re restricted to bidding on dockside work,” he said. “A dry dock would open up a whole other class of work — for the Navy, the Coast Guard and the state ferry system.”

Fluke Networks’ Microtest deal
receives approval
Fluke Networks Inc. of Everett has received all necessary corporate and government approvals for its acquisition of Microtest Inc., the Arizona company it offered some $74 million for earlier this year, officials said. Microtest, founded in 1984, sells computer and communications network testing tools and network storage and appliance servers. Chris Odell, President of Fluke Networks, promised continued investment in Microtest to develop needed products.

SonoSite stock sale nets
$25 million for expansion
BOTHELL — Portable ultrasound device maker SonoSite Inc. raised $25 million for expansion efforts through a private sale of common stock, company officials announced last month.

The stock was purchased by an investment group led by the state of Wisconsin Investment Board, already a key investor, officials said, adding that the proceeds will be used for the expansion of sales and marketing efforts and general corporate purposes.

Kevin Goodwin, President and CEO of SonoSite, said the company was pleased with its balance sheet and growing revenues, but thought the extra money would “put us in an extremely strong position going into the second half of this year and into next year.”

SonoSite develops, manufactures and sells a new class of ultrasound systems comparable to larger, more expensive systems but small enough to be hand-carried from bedside to bedside and room to room in many clinical settings.

BFC Frontier becomes Aecon
A new name has emerged from the successful combination of Armbro and BFC Construction.

Lynnwood-based BFC Frontier Inc., whose parent company, BFC Construction Corp., recently was purchased by Armbro Enterprises, has changed its name to Aecon Buildings Inc.

The combined Armbro and BFC companies now operate as Aecon Group Inc., Canada’s largest publicly traded construction and infrastructure development company.

“The merger created a dramatically larger company capable of offering a very broad range of services across an expanded base of clients,” Aecon Buildings President George Kramer said in a prepared statement. “We are now ready to move forward under a single, strong brand.”

Wilder Construction wins DOT awards
The winners of the Washington State Department of Transportation’s 2001 Project Excellence Awards included Everett-based Wilder Construction Co., which was the contractor for both of the Best County Project awards.

One project was King County’s $12.2 million Novelty Bridge replacement project, with Wilder working with consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff. The other was the $10.5 million improvement of Cook Road in Skagit County, with Wilder working with consultant David Evans and Associates to widen the road and build two bridges.

The awards will be presented at the fall conference of the Washington State Association of Counties in October.

Investment strategies
to be topic of workshop
Everett Community College is offering an investment workshop titled “Strategies for Serious Stock Investors,” which will run for four consecutive Tuesdays from 7 to 9:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 2.

The workshop, intended for serious, long-term stock investors, will include common-sense rules for choosing stocks, ways to analyze stock research and how to build an equity portfolio.

Cost of the workshop is $39 per individual. Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, call 425-388-9214.

John L. Scott launches
transaction service center
TranServ, a new regional transaction service center, has been opened in Bellevue by John L. Scott Real Estate, the nation’s fourth largest regional real estate company. The center will serve Scott’s in-house transaction management team and the company’s FirstWest Escrow Services.

The new service is one of the first operations of its kind in the United States, owned and operated by a real estate company to provide enhanced services for its customers and agents.

Similar centers are planned throughout the Northwest to provide access for all of John L. Scott’s offices, agents and customers, according to the firm’s President, J. Lennox Scott. He said the new centers will increase agents’ productivity because much of the time-consuming paperwork involved in real estate transactions will be provided by TranServ staff.

Human Services Council
awards scholarship
The Human Services Council of Snohomish County has awarded its first Human Services Council Scholarship of $1,500 to Heidi McMahan, teen advocate for Cocoon House of Everett, who will use the money to continue her studies in human services at Everett Community College.

Union authorizes strike for Herald drivers
Members of Teamsters Local 763 at The Herald last month authorized a strike against the paper, saying they are frustrated with a lack of progress in talks toward a new contract.

The union represents about 25 Herald drivers, who carry the paper from the printing plant in downtown Everett to distribution points around Snohomish and Island counties.

The issues revolve around money, union officials said in a prepared statement.

Herald management has prepared a wage-and-benefit counteroffer, Herald Publisher Allen Funk said, adding that “we’re intending to negotiate in good faith.”

The contract expired on May 31. The two sides have been talking about a new contract since April.

So far, the only pay-and-benefit proposal on the table is one presented by the union, Funk said. He described it as being “a significant increase over what we already believe to be reasonably high costs.”

A slowdown in advertising revenue growth has the Herald keeping close tabs on spending this year. While studying ways to cut costs, managers found it would be cheaper for The Herald to hire an outside trucking company to do the drivers’ jobs than it would be to keep the work in-house.

Management is not now considering outsourcing the work, Funk said. However, it has told Teamster negotiators what it has learned, he added.

Home Depot opens at Quil Ceda Village
The Home Depot opened its new store Aug. 16 at the Tulalip Tribe’s Quil Ceda Village business park at 9310 Quil Ceda Blvd. off of I-5 west of Marysville.

The store’s hours will be 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. The 115,000-square-foot store will stock more than 40,000 different products. About 140 people will be employed at the store.

Home Depot also makes annual philanthropic contributions of about $25 million. To mark the store opening, the Home Depot made a charitable contribution to a local nonprofit group.

Founded in 1978, Home Depot is the third largest retailer in the United States with fiscal 2000 sales at $45.7 billion. The company employs more than 250,000 and has 1,249 stores in 48 states, seven Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico, Chile and Argentina.

Frontier Bank plans
‘Business Breakfast Clinic’
Are you a business owner with banking questions? Then get them answered at Frontier Bank’s “Business Breakfast Clinic” from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Oct. 4 at the Everett Holiday Inn at I-5 and 128th Street.

Frontier Bank personnel will be on hand for the event, including Dave Sato, Assistant Vice President and Commercial Loan Officer from the Marysville office; Robin Reinig, Vice President and Manager from the Smokey Point office; Bill Temple, Vice President and Manager from the Mill Creek office; and Cindy Melland, Vice President and Manager of the bank’s Cash Management Department.

The event is free, and a continental breakfast will be provided. Seating is limited, and reservations are required.

For reservations or more information, call Barbara McCarthy, Senior Vice President and Marketing Director, at 425-514-0714.

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