Tribes cling to hope of Columbia Gorge casino

Posted on January 25, 2012 by stuwatson Leave a comment

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs officials tell the Bend Bulletin they continue to hope for permission to open a casino in the Columbia River Gorge, even as they have closed their casino at Kah-Nee-Tah and are nearing the opening of an “interim” casino along U.S. 26 in the reservation’s largest community, Warm Springs. Plans for a casino in Cascade Locks were dealt a blow recently when the Port of Cascade Locks board voted not to renew a lease on port property where the Tribes had hoped to develop a casino that would tap I-84 traffic close to the Portland market.

Events, Government, Miscellaneous , , ,

County seeks info on business storm damages for possible FEMA help

Posted on January 25, 2012 by stuwatson Leave a comment

If you own a business, and the business experienced damage from the recent snow and ice storm, Hood River County wants to hear from you so it can compile data for possible federal emergency relief assistance. County Planning Director Mike Benedict sent this note, and asked that business owners with damage and need for relief help contact him.  Here’s Mike’s note:

Right now, our objective is to collect some basic data such as:

1. Business name and contact information.

2. Description of the damage, when it occurred and how.

3. Extent and impact of the damage.

We then send in a report to FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) listing the damage and the contact information.

FEMA will contact the individual business owners regarding its need for any additional information and letting them know what services they can offer.

This is just very preliminary work with no assurances that anything will come of it.

Events, Government, Miscellaneous , , ,

Ugly, unsafe weather leads Chamber to scrap annual banquet tonight

Posted on January 20, 2012 by stuwatson Leave a comment

Relaying note from Nancy Carlson, events organizer for the Hood River County Chamber of Commerce, re: tonight’s (Jan. 20) previously scheduled Member Appreciation Banquet.  Bad weather bites:

Dear Chamber Member,

The Chamber Member Appreciation Banquet has been canceled due to dangerous weather conditions. Please help us spread the word to our friends who are without power.

Details will all be worked out next week. Again, please stay tuned next week for another informational eblast regarding refunds, etc. The Hood River Chamber is closed until Monday.

I wish you all a cozy, and safe evening,

Nancy Carlson

Hood River County Chamber of Commerce

events@hoodriver.org

541-386-2000

Events, Miscellaneous , , ,

Jan. 24 PubTalk lets early-stage companies learn about Angel Conference

Posted on January 17, 2012 by stuwatson Leave a comment

PubTalk is coming! PubTalk is coming!

And, even though the name suggests beer, the Jan. 24 installment of the popular series organized by the Gorge Oregon Entrepreneurs Network will settle in to the comfy confines of The Pines 1852 tasting room at 2nd and State in Hood River (yes, they have beer available).

The program this time out is “Ask the Angel Investors & Gorge Oregon Entrepreneurs Network.” The event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The event will feature a panel of Angel Investors and Gorge OEN members who will talk about the Gorge Angel Conference™, scheduled for April.

The panel will explain what the Conference is about; what angel investors want to see in companies where they might invest; how companies can prepare for and participate in the conference; and how prospective investors can participate in the Gorge Angel Investor Network 5, LLC.

Audience members will have a chance to ask questions.  After the panel wraps up, representatives of established early stage companies may briefly pitch their business as candidates for help or investment.

PubTalk is an informal event open toentrepreneurs, investors, leaders of local companies, business professionals, consultants and service providers.

Host for the Jan. 24 event is the Port of Hood River. PubTalk series sponsors are Columbia Bank and NW Natural.

For questions about Gorge OEN, contact Robin Cope by e-mail, or by calling 541-296-8080.  If you plan to attend, please contact Robin DeSpain.

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Early returns on Marley’s Corner? Tasty pasties

Posted on January 14, 2012 by stuwatson 1 Comment

The Buzz reported earlier on plans by the family of former high school co-principal Marha Capovilla to open a lunch operation on the heights, to be called Marley’s Corner.

We had casually tracked its progress, but hadn’t heard of an opening  until a couple of early customers shot us notes about how much they liked what they were munching. Check our comment thread for more, but we wanted to share this note from Bill Uhlman, a connoisseur of  pasties (pronounced as in “past-ees”) and executive director of Eastern Oregon Support Services Brokerage. Pasties  are essentially little hand pies, like the Mexican empanadas:

“ …These are the best pasties (pronounced passtees) west of Michigan’s UP. I have sampled them every day since they opened and it takes me back to ice fishing in the frozen north (they also serve beer to complete the mental journey to copper country, but I eat at my desk at work, so no beer for me.”

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Farm Stand’s former location to house Grow Organic, supplier to do-it-yourself food producers

Posted on January 14, 2012 by stuwatson Leave a comment

The Farm Stand has finally moved north into its new location at 12th and June. So, what’s the plan for its former location just south of Rosauers at 2035 12th St., next to Hood River Supply?

Jeff and Ketrina Jerome will open Grow Organic in early March. The plan? A place to get seeds, organic soil, organic feeds (for you urban chicken ranchers, yippee ki yay), bee hives and equipment, worms, chickens, canning, and pickling supplies, cheese making and other supplies for do-it-yourselfers (DIYs).

Learn more about what they’re up to at their blog, or get social at their Facebook page. Or, to complete the trifecta, you can get chirpy with them at their Twitter feed (@GrowOrganics) .

So, who are these people? While the Buzz is taking a vacation along the sunny (and oddly warm) southern Oregon coast, we’re glad to relay what Jeff and Ketrina have told us via e-mail about themselves:

“Ketrina grew up on a hobby farm in California’s Santa Monica mountains. She learned from her parents how to garden organically, ride horses, milk goats and raise bees, chickens and rabbits. Her mom taught her how to bake bread and sew, which are still favorite hobbies. After studying American history and art in college, she worked as a curator at a historical museum. She learned how homestead families adapted to the local area collecting oral histories, interpreting artifacts for exhibits and presenting public tours and lectures. Museum work led to a teaching degree at OSU and work as a co-op preschool instructor and a licensed elementary-level teacher.

“Jeff is an avid skier and kayaker who followed a naturalist’s meandering trail of rivers and mountains through Colorado, New Mexico and California to Hood River, Oregon. Along the way, he studied anthropology, journalism and animation. He currently owns his own web development company, but is looking forward to getting out (from) behind the desk more often. In his spare time, he works on our land and grows much of the fruit and veggies we eat (organic of course)!”

Expansion, New business, People , , , ,

Out of personal need, a Group Fit Hood River business grows

Posted on January 9, 2012 by stuwatson Leave a comment

Beth Turner and Alicia Beckman, partners with Mike Kehoe in Group Fit Hood River.

Alicia Beckman and Beth Turner have been fitness friends for a long time. As of last fall, they’re also fitness business partners.

They didn’t set out to start Group Fit Hood River, in the Hood River Square next door to Snap Fitness. As with many businesses, the need just chased them down, like a wolf bringing a deer to ground.

After Beckman’s doctor noticed some high pressure in her eye, he said she could go through a series of spendy diagnostic tests — or lose some weight.

Alicia found her way into Jacque Johnston’s Zumba classes — and loved it.

“Zumba was the highlight of my week,” she says.

So much so that she and another friend, Ellen Vorster, decided to train as instructors. When they came back to class, Johnston informed Beckman that she was done, and transferred Zumba to her protege.

“I was scared,” Beckman says.

Excited, too. She and Vorster took what they had learned and started teaching at the Big Gym, where they held classes until they outgrew that space.

Beckman learned that Mike Kehoe, who developed the Hood River Square, was hoping to develop a group fitness business in empty space next to Snap Fitness.

Vorster was unable to make a greater business commitment, so Beckman engaged another friend, Turner, and worked out a partnership with Kehoe to manage the class schedule and instructors for Group Fit Hood River. The lineup of options ranges from pilates to step and tone classes, yoga, hip hop and Bollywood dance fitness.

Classes are scheduled every day of the week, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Cost ranges from $10 for a drop in, to $650 for an individual annual membership. Get details at the web site.

“People can register and pay online,” Turner says.

“Our goal was to make it easy and accessible,” Beckman says.

Final note. Beckman’s eye problem is history — along with 110 pounds. In more ways than one, fitness is paying off.

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Convenience store? Hawaiian shirts? No verdict, until Paris Fair diner deal is done

Posted on January 5, 2012 by stuwatson 1 Comment

In the course of some other labors, the Buzz this week stumbled across a web site for the Idlewild Market, scheduled (again, according to its web site) to open March 1 in the Paris Fair Building at 4th and Oak.

Follow-up phone calls suggest that it’s not quite a done deal, but a lot of optimism surrounds that plan — and others — for the building owned by North Cheatham.

Cheatham says no lease has been signed yet for any tenants, but he’s in serious discussions with someone interested in the cafe space on the east side of the ground floor space (no, it’s not Solstice Wood Fire Pizza; owner Aaron Baumhackl had explored the space, but has no current interest).

Cheatham said he has two potential tenants for the western half of the space that used to house Annz Panz.

“Both are chomping at the bit,” Cheatham says. “It sort of depends on the east side, which is the restaurant space.”

Cheatham declined to share details about his suitors. Nina Buckley, however, expressed a lot of enthusiasm and optimism that her business plan to locate a convenience market there would come to fruit.

“I’m still waiting on a letter of commitment for my financing,” she says.

She says she doesn’t know who is looking at the restaurant space. She has heard that someone wants to sell Hawaiian clothing from the space where she would develop her market.

“I think I’ve got the stronger business plan,” she says.

Buckley is also conducting a crowd-funding campaign through ChipIn! to ensure her lender that she will have enough operating capital to weather two winters.

The store is her way to cement a return to Hood River, where she lived for four years in the early 1990s. She moved to Portland, to help her mother through terminal cancer. Now that the kids are out of the house, it’s back to the Hood — and work.

She has experience with mini-marts, having started a convenience store in Hollywood, Calif., before working more than two decades as a recruiter of trauma physicians.

When she decided she wanted to return to Hood River, she says she came here, walked and walked around downtown, and realized that it lacked a convenience store.

“I think it’ll be a lot of fun to have it and grow it,” Buckley says. “I’ll know at the end of the month.”

Cheatham says he wants to complete some remodeling and secure the restaurant space before firming up a tenant for the west side of the building.

“The restaurant space is 60 percent of the total floor plan,” he says. “It’s important that I get that tenant signed on before I move ahead.”

New business, People, Property deals , , , , ,

Get rid of dead Christmas trees — and help Lions Clubs fund School for Deaf

Posted on January 5, 2012 by stuwatson Leave a comment

The Hood River Lions Club and City of Hood River are working together during the first half of January to help city residents get rid of used Christmas trees — and help fund a third of the cost of completing new dormitories at the Oregon School for the Deaf.

Until budget cuts curtailed the tree pickup service, the city used to pick up dead trees at curbside. That service ended two years ago, according to City Manager Bob Francis.

The Hood River Lions Club, to raise funds for completion of residence facilities at the Oregon School for the Deaf, offered to pick up trees and drop them at the city public works yard.

The pickup service is free, but donations are encouraged. “Two dollars, ten dollars, a thousand dollars — whatever you can afford will be most appreciated,” said Project Coordinator Scott Thomson. “All funds go to the School for the Deaf.”

To arrange tree pickup, call Thomson at 541-380-1645 to provide your address.

Lions Club members will pick up trees through the weekend of Jan. 15.

In 2010, efforts to upgrade dilapidated facilities at the School for the Deaf in Salem got a huge boost when the TV show, “Extreme Makeover,” chose to focus on construction of a 3,500-square-foot dormitory. The effort to create clean and comfortable rooms for eight students involved more than 6,000 volunteers contributing close to 10,000 hours of labor, under the guidance of Rich Duncan Construction.

Betty Levenhagen, coordinator for Oregon’s Lions Clubs, says the clubs have committed to raising $50,000 of the $150,000 still needed to finish additional facilities that will house upwards of 30 more students from age 5 up to 21.

Events, Government, Uncategorized , , , ,

New Viento Wines tasting room skeleton defines future profile

Posted on January 5, 2012 by stuwatson Leave a comment

Framed against the sky, steel beams suggest the future rooflines of the new Viento Wines tasting room just west of the intersection of Country Club Road and Frankton Road, near the western entry to Hood River.

Expansion, On the move , , ,

Get state help to put your product on the world stage

Posted on December 26, 2011 by stuwatson Leave a comment

It’s a bit world out there, but how do you reach it with your products? Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, wants to prime your pump.

Grants are now available for Oregon small businesses to help offset the costs of exhibiting their goods and services at international trade shows in 2012.

The state recently got a $375,000 federal grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration to create a pilot program that will help Oregon firms find new customers and markets around the globe. The funding will support Oregon companies’ participation in international trade shows and trade missions through individual grants of up to $5,000.

Business Oregon has already received more than three dozen applications seeking export assistance and support for participation in these and other shows. Applicants may suggest specific trade shows or trade development activities of interest. Grant dollars are available to help off-set the cost of attending seminars and workshops as well.

For more information, visit the STEP Program Web page.

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Confused about personal property taxes? Jan. 25 event is just for you

Posted on December 26, 2011 by stuwatson Leave a comment

That ticking sound? Tax season, about a week away.

Hood River County and the Small Business Development Center at Columbia Gorge Community College are teaming up to offer businesses a free workshop to help businesses learn what is required in filing their business personal property reports for tax filing purposes.

The event — from 9 a.m. to noon on Jan. 25 at the Hood River-Indian Creek Campus of the college — will explain the personal property tax law, the forms you need, how to file, and how to determine value (including depreciation and appeals).

Juan Reyes and Diana McCrea, Hood River County personal property tax specialists, will present the program and answer questions.

Call the college at 541-506-6011 to reserve space.

Events, Government , , , ,

College links to national hiring network, allows local postings and search

Posted on December 26, 2011 by stuwatson Leave a comment

Columbia Gorge Community College is creating a bulletin board for job seekers — and employers looking to fill hiring needs.

The College has linked up with the College Central Network, an on-line national networking tool.

Ann Harris, career counselor and academic adviser at the college, says the site allows local businesses to post openings, which will be merged with listings from a national network of job sites.

“For job-seekers, it’s a way to access a lot of jobs through one portal,” Harris says.

The system also allows the college to learn more about students’ career goals, occupational interests, and successes in locating long-term employment. Harris will also be able to notify groups of students when she learns of job openings in their areas of interest.

Through the system, the College can link students with community volunteers who are interested in helping students prepare or a career or transfer to a four-year institution.

Best of all, the service is free.

Go directly to the website, or direct other questions to the Pathfinder Career Center at Columbia Gorge Community College, 541-506-6024.

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WindSurfing, Kiteboarding magazines fold Hood River offices

Posted on December 23, 2011 by stuwatson 1 Comment

Word from Stefan Lunding, owner/manager of two properties fronting Oak Avenue just west of Third Street: Space previously occupied by the editorial teams of WindSurfing and Kiteboarding magazines is now available.

Since earlier this year, they had occupied second-floor office overlooking Oak Avenue in downtown Hood River, right upstairs from Redfeather Mercantile.

Previously, they had been based in Florida, home of Bonnier. No independent confirmation yet that the pubs have been killed, and not simply returned to the home base, but Lunding says the offices closed as of last Friday.

Lunding says the Bonnier Corp., owner of the two pubs, is folding them. More victims to the declining share of advertising dollars going to print publications.

In an e-mail exchange, WindSurfing editor Josh Sampiero confirmed that a lack of ad support from the windsurfing/kiteboarding industry had led to the closures. Readers loved the publications, and subscribers were renewing, Sampiero says, but advertisers — as they are everywhere — have started to take a closer look at where they put their dollars.

 

Events, On the move , , , , , , ,

Haskell Davies & Dunn law firm to take new space in Union Building

Posted on December 21, 2011 by stuwatson Leave a comment

The Haskell Davies & Dunn law firm will take up new space at the west end of Pasquale Barone’s Union Building sometime around March 1. The firm is currently in offices at the east end of the building, at 216 Columbia St. Those offices are owned by former partner Teunis Wyers Jr.

This post updates an earlier report Dec. 20, which may have left the wrong impression on a couple of points, for which I apologize to those involved.

Conversations since then with Johnson Dunn and Wyers shed more light on the situation.

Dunn said the breakup of the longtime partners was not an “implosion” (a word I had used), nor was the it initiated by him, Lesley Apple Haskell and Lisa Davies, as the first report had suggested.

Dunn said Wyers asked to leave the partnership. Wyers confirmed that. The big question: Why?

Both parties sidestepped discussion of the back story. Details suggest one possible scenario: Wyers wanted his son to join the firm; his former partners did not.

Wyers had succeeded his father, and his had been the only name on the masthead until Haskell (2002), Davies (2007) and Dunn (2008) became partners.

Wyers said he had dreamed that his son, Teunis G. Wyers, would also become a lawyer, and that they might practice law together. The younger Wyers passed his bar exam last spring, but his father said it became unworkable to have his son join the firm.

Dunn said that the four partners held roughly equal shares in the firm (Wyers 28%, and each of the others with 24%). In short, Wyers and one other partner could make a decision, as could the three minority partners.

Dunn said every member of the staff, including attorney Jennifer Bisset, will continue with Haskell Davies & Dunn.

“The thing I don’t want is any implication that this was firefight or bad blood,” Dunn said. “We purposely had this firm as a team of people who have different areas of interest in what we can provide people. There’s not much overlap among our attorneys.”

He said Wyers in his practice will continue to focus on estate planning. Dunn will focus on litigation, Davies on corporate law, and Haskell will emphasize domestic relations.

Wyers agreed, noting as well that his son hopes to focus on litigation.

“Johnson and Lisa and Lesley and Jennifer are all wonderful lawyers and great people,” Wyers said. “They will do a fine job.”

Dunn said Wyers officially left the firm in July, but has remained “of counsel” — meaning he and they share space, and he continues to serve his clients from that space, but the business assets are severed.

Dunn said he, Haskell and Davies will retain all of their existing clients. After March 1, they will be serving those clients out of new offices in the west end of the Union Building. Wyers intends to continue his practice in the space at the east end of the building, as well as from offices in Bingen, Wash.

Dunn said the firm acquired those offices in September 2010 after the retirement of attorney Bob Weisfield. Wyers said he favored that acquisition, but his partners didn’t.

The separation has been the subject of much coffee shop discussion the past several months.

News, when it came, arrived in the form of a press release announcing that Barone had  leased space in his Union Building to Haskell Davies & Dunn.

The release talks far more about Barone’s remodeling project than the business decisions behind the arrival of its newest tenant.

Barone bought the vacant Union Building in 1996. He intends to remodel the 65,000-square-foot building into a mix of retail, commercial and residential spaces.

According to the release, Haskell Davies & Dunn plan to move into their 2,500-square-foot office space by March 1. Barone is planning to pre-sell loft spaces in early 2012, before beginning further work in the $6 million renovation.

“This is a perfect fit for Haskell Davies & Dunn,” Dunn is quoted as saying in the press release. “Being deeply rooted in the communities of the Columbia Gorge, we are proud that our new office will embody both our region’s rich history and its exciting future.”

Wyers said his new firm has more business than it can handle. “We’ll need help as time goes on,” he said.

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