Jan Noyes, left, and Kristie Burrill have initiated a monthly First Friday promotion on the boardwalk at Track 29 in downtown Yakima, inviting artists and musicians to help encourage shoppers to visit.  Staff photo

By RICHARD BURGER

Two Yakima entrepreneurs have taken the initiative to build customer traffic and gain exposure for the Track 29 boardwalk.

Jan Noyes, proprietor of De Tails, a home-décor emporium, and Kristie Burrill, who operates Kristie Burrill Designs women’s fashions have begun a monthly First Friday promotion they hope will attract artists and music performers to the boardwalk.

“The boardwalk is known as an art zone,” Noyes said. 

She and Burrill want to encourage local artists to bring their work to the boardwalk and make it available for sale.

To help create a festive atmosphere, they are also encouraging musicians to show up to play for the enjoyment of visitors.

Noyes said musicians who play acoustically or who use a small PA system would be best suited to the boardwalk setting.

Tammy Everts. New Vision Business Development Director. File photo

By RICHARD BURGER

New Yakima County entrepreneurs will have a unique opportunity to grow their businesses with an initiative just launched for Yakima County.

New Vision, the Yakima County Development Association, has announced that it is initiating the Enterprise Challenge, a three-month, multi-round, business-plan competition.

According to a New Vision press release, the competition will begin in September and unfold through December.

At the conclusion of the competition, first, second, and third place winners will emerge, and will be awarded $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500 respectively.

Tammy Everts, Business Development Director, said the competition will provide numerous opportunities for networking, business development classes, and mentoring. 

By Erin McCallum

Our state’s economic health relies on a thriving private sector. 

Not only must large companies such as Boeing, Microsoft and Starbucks remain strongholds in Washington, but small businesses must remain sustainable as well. 

Therefore, it is crucial that in this upcoming election we elect government officials who will take into careful consideration the significant effect legislation has on the private sector in our state. 

According to the Department of Revenue’s most recent data from 2009, small businesses – categorized as having less than 50 employees – make up 96 percent of all state-registered businesses, while their employees make up 46 percent of the state’s workforce. 

Washington’s small businesses create two-thirds of the jobs in our state.

Yet the private sector is suffering. According to the Washington Policy Center’s most recent data, Washington’s small business failure rate is the second highest in the nation for the second year in a row. 

By Scot Overturf

When you look at the grocery store wine shelves and end displays, most of the stock comes from big families. The established wine reps who sell them generally wield more power in the fight for shelf space. Numerous products under the Gallo umbrella would be a prime example. 

Yet some small producers manage to get in. How is that? If you have a blue-chip reputation as an importer, like Jorge Ordonez or Eric Solomon, the stores will make room for you. You can fill a niche to gain point of difference. Sometimes, excelling with awards or high scores can do it. Sometimes not. 

Termes, a deliciously overachieving Spanish Tempranillo ($25) was a house favorite of mine these past years. Last year it rated #2 in a Top 100 wines of the world list and the collectors snapped it all up . . . and then forgot about it this year. 

It’s sitting on the shelves again, this time at $22. 

Employees at the Toppenish Safeway store join store manager Howard Jensen, far left, on July 27, to present a check for $9,100 to Rev. Ron Jetter, Executive Director of Lower Valley Hospice. 

By RICHARD BURGER

Toppenish Safeway employees once again demonstrated their generosity, when store manager Howard Jensen presented Lower Valley Hospice checks totaling more than $9,100.

The funds were accepted by Lower Valley Hospice Executive Director Rev. Ron Jetter.

Store employees donate through the Safeway Foundation employee-based program, and Toppenish Safeway employees have distinguished themselves with their contributions to the foundation.

Jensen said his store is number one in contributions both in the Seattle division of the company and company-wide.

He also said the employees are number one in their level of contributions per employee.

Bruce Lloyd, owner of Selah Powersports, constantly searches for better quality products at lower prices for his value-conscious customers. Denise Keller photo

By DENISE KELLER

A local motor sports business has a new name and location, but its commitment to carrying affordably priced machines remains unchanged. 

After operating Dragon Cycle in Naches for two years, owner Bruce Lloyd has relocated the business to Selah and named the shop Selah Powersports. 

“This is a much larger market for us,” Lloyd says. “We have a big off-road community in Selah. A lot of people ride dirt bikes, four wheelers, ATVs and, of course, street bikes.”

Selah Powersports sells sport and  utility ATVs, go karts, dirt bikes, trail bikes, dual-sport motorcycles and street bikes. 

Bucky Covington, one of the new generation of country singers, and a successful participant on American Idol in 2004, will be performing on the final Saturday, at this year’s Central Washington State Fair.

Covington, who had three consecutive top ten hits in 2005 after the release of his debut album, will be performing at the Fair at 7:30 on October 2.  He’ll be performing hits “A Different World”, “It’s Good To Be Us”, “I’ll Walk” and many other original songs when he appears in Yakima.

Earlier Fair officials announced that they had signed country artist Clay Walker, rock band The Guess Who, comedian Bill Engvall, singers/comedians Williams & Ree, musical group Pablo Cruise and pop group Collective Soul to appear at this year’s Fair.  

By RICHARD BURGER

There is a natural tendency to try to find a silver lining in unfortunate situations, particularly when it comes to life-threatening illness. 

For Dale Carpenter, the silver lining is gleaming pewter.

It comes in the form of a beautifully-designed commemorative pin that is the centerpiece of Operation TINCUP.

The program is the brainchild of Barb Petrea, with the help of Kim Hall.

Carpenter is the general manager of Yakima Theaters, and is well known in the Yakima Valley for his efforts on behalf of local charities.

When he was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, a fund was set up to help defray his medical expenses. But Petrea said Carpenter had good medical coverage, and asked if he could use the money for charitable donations, if he didn’t need it. Petrea decided she wanted to find a way to help Carpenter continue to help the charities he supported, even while he was recovering.

“I just wanted to try to help,” she said. “Putting myself in his shoes, I knew I’d want to know that the things I loved were being taken care of.”

She said she met Carpenter before his illness, at a Yakima Rotary meeting, during which she spilled her iced tea on the table.

“Dale was relentless about teasing me,” Petrea said. “He’s a gentleman that you meet once and you remember him.”

JOURNAL STAFF

Yakima Valley Newspaper Publisher Mike Lindsey has been named Director for Region 9 of the National Newspaper Association, which covers Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. 

He will join the Board at its September meeting in Omaha. 

Lindsey was raised in a newspaper family. 

He started work at the age of 10 in his father’s newspaper in Sundance, Wyoming. 

He worked there as a “printer’s devil,” learning the California type case, pouring pigs, running a flatbed press and operating a linotype.  

He also sold advertising and did news and photography. He worked here through high school.

Following duty in the U.S. Navy, Lindsey attended South Dakota State University and earned a degree in journalism-printing. 

After graduation he worked in an advertising and public relations firm in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Mike and his wife, Pat, owned their first newspaper in Gillette, Wyoming in 1968. 

He converted the hot type plant to offset, one of the first to do so in Wyoming.  

The couple sold in 1970 and Mike became a publisher for Buckner News Alliance, headquartered in Seattle.

RICHARD BURGER

With all the other stuff that’s happening to our poor old planet, I almost hate to bring this up, but it’s something we should all be thinking about. Yes, I’m talking about sun burnout. It’s coming!

It’s something scientists have known for a long time. At some point, the star we know as Sol, the center of our solar system, will run out of hydrogen, the fuel that keeps it burning.

When this might happen is not known for certain, but Sol is using hydrogen at a prodigious rate, about five million tons every second! 

Though scientists may not know exactly when it will happen, they all pretty much agree about what will happen when the hydrogen runs out.

In a nutshell, old Sol will become a huge chunk of carbon and oxygen and begin cooling off. He will no longer provide the heat and light we have come to know and love. 

Of course, that won’t be all bad. For one thing, we won’t have to buy sunscreen any more. But we also won’t be able to get a tan just by lying outside in the summer, either. We’ll have to go to tanning salons for that. We’ll also have to keep the lights on everywhere all the time to be able to see. No more day baseball. Between that and the lights on the tanning beds, our power bill is going to go way up!

But it gets worse. No sun means no plants. Next thing you know, you won’t be able to find much to eat, even at McDonald’s. 

All in all, when the sun goes out, things are going to go downhill fast. So, what can we do about it? As you’ve probably already figured out, the key here is hydrogen. The sun needs a lot more of it. The good news is that we have plenty of hydrogen here on earth.