Jan 16, 1996

Convention Services Management

Sally Williams, convention services manager for the Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers, has been awarded the Diamond Award for Convention Services Management, presented by the American Society of Association Executives. The award recognizes outstanding service to the national association community. Williams has been an employee of the Sheraton Seattle Hotel & Towers for more than 12 years, and has worked in convention services since 1986.

Northwest Cable Advertising

Seattle-based Northwest Cable Advertising has promoted Catherine McConnell to the position of general manager. Previously, McConnell was director of sales and retail. She joined the company in 1987. McConnell replaces Penny Taylor, who was promoted to regional vice president of TCI Advertising Sales.

Cascade Clear

Burlington-based bottled water manufacturer Cascade Clear has named shareholder and controller James J. Duffy as general manager and has hired Dan Russell to replace Duffy as controller. One of Cascade Clear's original shareholders, Duffy, a Certified Public Accountant, started working for Cascade Clear Water Company in the late 1980s, assuming part-time accounting responsibilities. In 1993, he joined the enterprise full time after turning over management of a fishing company he partly owned to his business partner. As controller, Duffy played a key role in directing financial affairs that allowed construction of Cascade's new state-of-the-art Burlington bottling facility.

Snohomish County PUD

The Snohomish County Public Utility District has named Commissioner Kathy Vaughn president of the board for 1996, making her the first woman to hold that post in the utility's 60-year history. Commissioner Charles Moon will serve as vice president and Peter Newland is the board's new secretary.

Public Relations Society of America

The Puget Sound Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America invites all marketing communications professionals to enter the annual Totem Awards competition that recognizes outstanding public relations work. The entry deadline is Jan. 29. Public relations programs can be submitted into one of 15 categories. A change in the rules for this year allows professionals to enter programs that span over two years, from 1994-95. For public relations components, the work must still have been crafted during 1995. The program features special awards for the two top campaigns this year -- the Maestro Award for best of show and the Prodigy Award for the best entry from a young professional with three or fewer years of professional experience. Awards will be presented at a banquet on Feb. 22 at the Westin Hotel. For more information about the awards programs, call Alice Collingwood at (206) 689-4043 or Erik Elvejord at (206) 289-3057.

Washington Industry receives grant

OLYMPIA -- Key Technology, Inc. of Walla Walla will receive a federal matching grant of $153,000 to demonstrate a new technology designed to save energy and water and reduce waste, said Judith Merchant, Washington State Energy office director. Key Technology manufactures process automation and electro-optical inspection systems for the food processing industry. In this particular project, the company will demonstrate a new blanching system that captures and recirculates unused steam, reducing water use, energy consumption and wastewater generation. The grant will demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology for many applications in the food processing industry. "We feel the potential for energy savings is tremendous," said Tom Madsen, president of Key Technology. The U.S. Department of Energy and the EPA funded the grant through a program entitled National Industrial Competitiveness through Energy and Economics. In order to receive funding, projects must demonstrate new technologies which reduce initial energy use, reduce waste generated by industrial processes, and improve process economics.

SCS announces new hire

BELLEVUE -- SCS Engineers of Bellevue recently hired Clyde N. Moore, P.E. as manager of the company's landfill/landfill gas group. He brings to the firm more than 20 years of experience in planning, design construction administration and management of civil engineering projects. His areas or expertise include landfill siting, capacity evaluation, design, operations and closure plans, gas control systems, leachate collection systems and sewer and leachate pump stations. Prior to joining SCS, Moore spent 10 years with a local environmental consulting firm where he served as manager of the hazardous waste group and 11 years with King County solid Waste Division where he served both as a supervising engineer and solid waste supervisor. SCS Engineers is a $40 million environmental consulting firm specializing in solid waste and hazardous substances management.

Landscaper wins award

Aalbu Landscape Maintenance Inc., of Everett, has received Hewlett Packard's "Supplier of the Year award." The award was given for the company's Lake Stevens Instrument Division, which is located on 135 acres of formal grounds, recreational fields, wetlands and walking trails. The two companies have worked together closely for the past three years to improve the overall appearance of the site and to implement cost saving and environmentally safe practices. These include: mulching mowers, onsite-composting, significant reduction in chemical use and an improved irrigation system to reduce water consumption and runoff.

Waste generator workshop planned

OLYMPIA -- The Washington Department of Ecology is offering a workshop for all businesses that deal with hazardous waste. It will help businesses understand regulations and compliance, interpret the dangerous waste rule amendments, present a panel of local and state regulatory agency inspectors, and explain the new waste annual report forms. It is scheduled for 9 a.m. Feb. 8 at the Red Lion Hotel, in Seattle. People interested in attending must send $22 to the Department of Ecology, Attn: DW Workshops, Box 5128, Lacey, WA 98509. For more information contact Victoria Sutton, Ecology Northwest's Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction program at 649-7085.

Port to reuse terminal building

Just about anything can be recycled these days, even old marine terminals if the economics are right. Port of Portland, Ore., officials have come up with a deal that will save the port $60,000 by dismantling, rather than demolishing, its 200,000-square-foot container freight station building at Terminal 6. The 600-foot-long by 145-foot-wide building will be taken apart by Obrist Excavation Inc. of Portland and reconstructed near Medford, Ore., by Erickson Air-Crane, a helicopter manufacturer and operator. The port is thinking about a similar recycling strategy for an old wooden warehouse at Terminal 4. The warehouse was built in 1919 with old growth timber. Erickson Air-Crane will reassemble the Terminal 6 building for use as a helicopter hangar or a warehouse for its manufacturing operations. The company renovates and operates Sikorsky S64 Skycrane helicopters, which are used mainly for harvesting timber, aerial construction projects and aerial fire fighting. Many parts of the building with no commercial value will be reused, the port said. The sand will be moved to another part of Terminal 6 for use as fill, and about 3,000 tons of concrete that makes up the building's foundation will be recycled for use as paving material.

Citizens object to tree removal

SUNRIVER, Ore. (AP) -- Environmentalists have raised objections to plans to cut big ponderosa pines along a one-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 97 to prevent ice buildups in the winter. A coalition of five environmental groups is appealing the proposal to reduce the shade falling on the pavement by clearing all trees and brush within 45 feet of the east side of the highway and thinning 155 feet farther into the Deschutes National Forest. The appeal says the Forest Service failed to adequately consider the needs of wildlife, and take into account the cumulative effects of the clearing. A survey indicates 34 ponderosa pines over 16 inches in diameter would be cut. Joining in the appeal are the Oregon Natural Resources Council, the Eastside Protection Project, Eastside Conservation Ontology and Concerned Friends of the Winema. The Oregon Department of Transportation initiated the project last summer after finding a higher rate of accidents in that stretch of highway than on a neighboring section.

Court lets owl ruling stand

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court today left standing the designation of some 6.8 million acres of federal land in Oregon, Washington and California as protected "critical habitat" for the northern spotted owl. The justices, without comment, rejected an Oregon county's arguments aimed at setting aside the critical-habitat designation Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt made in 1992 under the Endangered Species Act. In the spotted owl case, lawyers for Douglas County, Ore., contended that Babbitt violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to file the required environmental impact statements before making the designation. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, however, that no such impact statements are required when the secretary makes critical-habitat decisions. "Congress intended that the (Endangered Species Act) critical-habitat procedures displace the NEPA requirements," the appeals court ruled last year. The spotted owl was designated a threatened species in 1990, and Interior subsequently identified areas essential to its conservation that may require special management consideration or protection. Douglas County, located in heavily forested southwestern Oregon, owns more than 4,000 acres contiguous to or within national forest land. About two-thirds of the county's annual operating budget is derived from federal timber sale receipts, and much of its property tax base is tied to the timber industry. The county sued Babbitt and two environmental groups -- Headwaters and Umpqua Valley Audubon Society -- after learning that Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not plan to file an environmental impact statement in compliance with NEPA.