Aug 19, 1998

ProVideo Productions

John Thomas has been hired as the sales and marketing manager for ProVideo Productions. His responsibilities include implementing the sales and marketing plan for the company and overseeing the sales staff and new project development. Margaret Varra has been hired as new account executive for the firm. Her responsibilities include new business development and sales.

Peterson Russell Cofano

Two Eastside law firms, Peterson Russell and CofanoGroup, recently combined to form Peterson Russell Cofano PLLC. The combined firm emphasizes a practice involving business organizations and planning, estate planning, real estate and electronic commerce. Members of the firm are Peter E. Peterson, Gregory L. Russell and Russell G. Cofano.

Aug 18, 1998

Merit Co.

Tacoma-based Merit Co. recently hired Mike Medrzycki, a marketing and business development specialist. Medrzycki will be responsible for business development and client relations for the company's construction and real estate divisions.

Rafn Co.

Kelley L. Mannon has been promoted to controller at Bellevue-based Rafn Co. Since joining Rafn in 1995, Mannon has led the company's seven-member accounting team, coordinating all accounting activities and preparing monthly financial statements. As controller, she will continue to lead the company's software conversion to Windows-based Bidtek Viewpoint and will train project managers, engineers and superintendents on the new system.

W&H Pacific

Ken Boyd has joined W&H Pacific's Bellevue office as a construction engineer. Boyd has 37 years of experience in road and bridge construction, working 30 of those years with the state Department of Transportation. At W&H Pacific, he will be responsible for construction administration and inspection.

TCA awards

Nominations are being accepted for the Sixth Annual Tilt-Up Concrete Association Achievement Awards Program. The competition recognizes outstanding tilt-up structures made by TCA members. Submittals will be judged by a panel of experts in the following areas: aesthetic appeal, creativity of structural and architectural design, unique application or end use, and sets new standards and advances the industry. The deadline for entries is Oct. 15. Awards will be presented Jan. 21 at the World of Concrete tradeshow in Orlando, Fla. For more information, contact Ed Sauter, Executive Director, Tilt-Up Concrete Association, 107 First St. W., P.O. Box 204, Mount Vernon, IA 52314, (319) 895-6911.

Masons Supply

Woodinville-based Masons Supply Co. has been designated as a distributor of Dywidag form tie systems for medium and heavy concrete forming applications in Washington and Oregon. Masons is a major distributor of concrete construction equipment in Washington and Oregon, with 13 stocking locations from Seattle to Eugene, Ore.

Web 3000

Web 3000 Inc., a Redmond-based Internet software company and maker of the NetSonic Internet Accelerator, has added Doug Woodward as its president and chief executive officer. Woodward formerly served as a general manager in consulting services practices for Microsoft, Oracle and as partner at Ernst & Young.

Mortgage Market

Jason Jacobsen has been named a mortgage banker at Mortgage Market's Lynnwood branch office. John Locke has been named a mortgage banker at Mortgage Market's Federal Way branch office. Brooke Scott has been named a mortgage banker at Mortgage Market's Bellevue office.

Max Sacks International

Roy E. Chitwood, president and C.E.O. of Max Sacks International, a Seattle-based sales management, consulting and training firm, has been selected as the 1998-99 president of Sales and Marketing Executives International. For more information on the organization, visit the website at http://www.smei.org.

American Bar Association

Thomas M. Fitzpatrick, a lawyer with the Seattle commercial litigation firm Stafford Frey Cooper, will become a member of the American Bar Association Board of Governors. Fitzpatrick will represent Alaska, Oregon, Montana and Washington.

Bader Martin Ross & Smith

Bader Martin Ross & Smith, a Seattle-based accounting and consulting firm, has promoted Kelli Bekel to tax senior.

Western Washington Fair Association

Tracey Wittenfeld has recently joined the Western Washington Fair Association to assume marketing and sales responsibilities. Wittenfeld will be working on sales and marketing aspects of the Puyallup Fair and Puyallup Spring Fair. Wittenfeld formerly owned Leading Edge Telecom in Tacoma.

Deloitte & Touche

The Seattle office of Deloitte & Touche, an accounting, auditing, tax and management consultant services firm, has admitted Shelley L. Reynolds and James W. Packard to the partnership.

State releases renewable energy report

OLYMPIA -- The Energy Division of the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development has released "The Next Generation of Energy," its report on the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries in this state. The 40-page report is the state's first comprehensive look at its clean energy industry. It concludes that the state is well positioned to take world leadership in renewable energy as the market expands in the Northwest and abroad, but that government must support the growing industry. Renewable energy companies in the state last year reported revenues of $144 million, with nearly 900 employees. Energy efficiency companies generated $780 million in revenues with 3,000 jobs. The study was conducted by ECONorthwest, a regional economic consulting firm. For more information, or a copy of the full report, call Tony Usibelli at CTED, (360) 956-2125.

Calling all salmon scouts

SEATTLE -- King County is calling for volunteers to observe and count salmon as they return to spawn in the Lake Washington/Cedar River watershed this fall. The observers are needed to help determine where salmon are spawning in the county, where barriers block spawning, and how construction projects could be designed to reduce harm to salmon streams. This is the third year King County has participated in the survey, which also includes Seattle, Redmond, Bellevue, Issaquah, Snohomish County, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and the state. The county's Department of Natural Resources and other jurisdictions will provide professional biologists to train volunteers in fish studies. Volunteers will be asked to return to the same spot on a stream twice a week every week between mid-September and the end of December. Training sessions will be held as follows:

• 7 p.m. today in the Community Center at Mercer View, Mercer Island;
• 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24, at the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation, Everett;
• 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, at Lake Wilderness Center, 22500 S.E. 248th St., Maple Valley.

Cars take a toll on rare toad

SUNRIVER, Ore. (AP) -- Why did the Western toad cross the road in this central Oregon resort town? Possibly because it had help from the Toad Patrol. Ten years ago, the Western toad was the most widespread amphibian in the Northwest, ranging from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. Today, because of an alarming drop in populations, the species is listed as "sensitive" by Oregon wildlife officials. Only 10 to 15 breeding pairs of Western toads are known to exist in the Sunriver area. The toads must cross the roads that lie between their breeding areas and hatching ponds. And many don't make it. So the all-volunteer Toad Patrol fights road kill by giving the toads a lift. The volunteers string about 150 yards of 6-inch-high drift fence along the sides of the road, funnelling toads into recessed buckets. Then, they empty the buckets, measure and weigh the captives, and release the toads on the other side of the road. "Automobiles were killing two-thirds of all the breeding adults," said Jay Bowerman, principal researcher for the Sunriver NatureCenter. "It was rare to find one that made it to the center line before being run over." It takes the little toads -- just 3 to 5 inches long, fully grown -- a long time to travel through the danger zone from white line to white line, Bowerman said. They aren't fast enough to move out of the way of vehicles, which generally are traveling about 25 mph. In March and April, the Toad Patrol moved about 20 toads across the road at the most popular crossing site, but cars killed at least two for every toad saved. Toad numbers are being closely monitored, said Steve George, biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Bend.

Supreme Court dismisses waste-site bias suit

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday backed out of deciding a case from Pennsylvania that asked whether private citizens can sue over government agency regulations that allegedly result in racial discrimination. The court ordered the dismissal of the case filed by a group of Chester, Pa., residents who accused the state of "environmental racism" by placing waste treatment facilities in their mostly black city. The justices also set aside a lower court ruling that allowed the residents to sue. The high court had agreed in June to hear arguments in the case. But the residents asked the justices last month to dismiss the case as moot because a permit for a proposed treatment facility was revoked and the facility will not be built. The lawsuit had argued that the results of the permit-granting process were racially biased because most treatment plants were located in Chester rather than the rest of Delaware County, which is mostly white. The residents accused the state of violating a federal law that bars racial bias by any federally financed endeavor. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit in 1996, saying the residents could not sue when they alleged only a discriminatory effect, not discriminatory intent. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year reversed the judge's decision and said the residents were entitled to sue. The state appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. The state's lawyers argued in papers filed with the high court that the case was not moot. But they said that if the justices decided the case was moot, the 3rd Circuit court's ruling should be set aside. The Supreme Court did that on Monday.

McCaslin named Prezant lab director

Jerry McCaslin has been named laboratory director at Prezant Associates. He will be responsible for operations, business development and client services at the AIHA-accredited industrial hygiene laboratory. He previously worked at the Industrial Hygiene Laboratory at the University of Washington's Department of Environmental Health, and most recently as a lab supervisor at the Western Processing Superfund site in Kent.

Pentec adds ecologist, geomorphologist

Pentec Environmental, Inc., an edmonds environmental consulting firm that focuses on port and waterfront development and natural resource management, has hired two new staff members. Scott Luchessa has joined the firm as a wetland ecologist. He has more than 11 years' experience in wetland delineation and mitigation, fish habitat inventories, water quality monitoring, stream restoration plans, permitting, and wildlife habitat management plans. At Pentec he will be managing and conducting stream and wetland projects. Shane Cherry is Pentec's new geomorphologist. He has worked more than five years in fluvial geomorphology, sedimentology and hydrology. In his new job he will manage and conduct watershed assessments, stream restoration design, and hydrology studies. Jon Savelle is the Journal's environment editor. He can be contacted at (206) 622-8272 or jon@djc.com.