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NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

WBA

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May 9, 2018

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Rector’s Vacuum Shop Celebrates 75 Years

A mainstay in Bellingham for 75 years, Rectors Vacuum Shop on Meridian offers a unique “try before you buy” policy.

“We are so proud to be celebrating our 75th year in business and honoring our loyal customers,” said Steve McCallum, Co-Owner of Rectors Vacuum Shop. “We believe that our unusual brand of personalized customer service and customer education that we offer has kept us in business for all these many years.”

Two milestone events will mark this special year for Rectors Vacuum Shop. A Miele vacuum May raffle for customers and a Sebo vacuum September raffle are two such events planned for the community this year. The public will have opportunities to visit Rectors, operate their vacuums, and ask questions about their vacuum cleaners and enter raffles to win one.

“It’s always been a tradition at Rectors to consider our customers as part of our family,” Steve McCallum added. “That is why we want to celebrate this milestone year with them and provide them with chances to win free vacuums.”

Rectors will also be offering discount specials on vacuums and vacuum accessories throughout the year to commemorate their 75th anniversary.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE…

Kevin McEntee has been appointed Sales Manager at Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham Hotel & Conference Center.

He comes to the full-service hospitality property from previous hospitality-industry management positions in Chico, California and Boise, Idaho. He will be responsible here for assisting corporate, government, medical, manufacturing, financial, petroleum, and national accounts with group-lodging needs.

“The Bellingham community has been very welcoming,” McEntee said. “It’s easy to see why so many people are involved in community events throughout the year. With all of the hotel renovations now complete, I’m excited to share Four Points and all it has to offer with our community members and visitors to Bellingham.”

Four Points General Manager John Burns said, “We’re excited to have Kevin as part of our sales team and believe his background will be very beneficial in developing the local corporate market.”

Four Points recently was completely renovated by Providence Hospitality Partners. It offers 132 guest rooms and two restaurants: Chinuk and B-Town Kitchen & Raw Bar. For more information, call 360-671-1011 or visit www.FourPointsBellingham.com.

Network Technician William Ashinhurst and Marketing Assistant Nicole Cortines have joined the team at Litzia, LLC, a provider of tailored information services for small- and medium-sized businesses .

Ashinhurst provides computer-network consulting, design, and support services. He has worked as an engineering technician in Seattle and a network administrator in Bellingham.

Cortines provides image promotion, product and service awareness, and campaign management. An undergraduate working toward her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing at Western Washington University, she has done marketing analysis projects for Microsoft and North Coast Credit Union.

For information on Litzia’s IT and cloud services, and hardware/software, security, and business-collaboration solutions, call 360-714-0565 or visit www.litzia.com.

Bellingham business owner Nancy Leavitt celebrated her 10th anniversary as an agent for American Family Insurance in April.

To mark the milestone, Leavitt again hosted her “Quotes for Community” campaign that donates $1 to charity for each insurance quote issued through the month of June. The tally is updated each week on the office’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Nonprofits who benefited from previous campaigns include Support Officers of Whatcom County, Animals as Natural Therapy, and the Technology Alliance Group of Northwest Washington Scholarship Fund.

Also, each September and October, in recognition of National Life Insurance Awareness Month, Leavitt donates $100 to the client’s charity of choice for each life-insurance policy issued.

Leavitt, a Lynden native, said, “Supporting local charities is near and dear to my heart. We’ve worked so hard and loved every minute of it, knowing it would bring security to policy holders and funds to needy Whatcom County charities.”

Daun Botta Pillo has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Snapper Shuler Kenner Insurance (SSKI), where she has been a commercial-lines agent since 2000.

With 20 years of insurance experience, Botta Pillo will oversee approximately 30 employees, while splitting time between SSKI’s Bellingham and Lynden offices. She will continue to serve as a commercial-lines agent, particularly with construction accounts needing insurance and bonding.

Botta Pillo, a University of Washington graduate, said, “One of my priorities now is finding more top-notch professionals so both of our offices can continue to grow. I’m grateful to my colleagues, including Paul Kenner, the long-time head of SSKI, for the mentoring they have provided me. And I’m glad that Paul will continue to serve his accounts for us.”

An independent agency with origins dating back to 1925, SSKI has offices at 2115 Barkley Blvd., Suite 201, in Bellingham and 501 Front St. in Lynden. For more information, call 360-354-4488 or visit www.sskinsurance.com.

Gary Honcoop has been named 2017 Builder of the Year by the Building Industry Association of Whatcom County (BIAWC).

Honcoop founded Roosendaal-Honcoop Construction (R-HC) in 1979 with a fellow lifelong Lynden resident, Roger Roosendaal, who retired a year ago, leaving Gary as the sole owner.

The company’s most notable residential project is Semiahmoo Shore, a 46-unit development in Blaine with 14 different floor plans. It was featured in the BIAWC Showcase of Homes. Recent commercial construction projects include a high-tech propagation building for Enfield Farms/Northwest Plant Co. of Lynden and structures for Innotech Process Equipment of Bellingham, Pacific Tire Co. of Ferndale, Sarbanand Farms of Sumas, and T.C. Trading Co. of Blaine.

The company has wide-ranging experience, including design-build, high-end residential, commercial, food-processing, cold-storage, public-works, industrial, and pre-engineered steel construction. It also assists clients with pre-construction services, such as design and permitting.

Under Honcoop’s leadership, R-HC has been an active BIAWC member, supporting programs such as the annual Home & Garden Show and the Whatcom County Showcase of Homes. And the company’s employees have worked more than eight years without a time-loss injury, for which it has received several safety-record awards.

Regenis is Converting Manure into an Environmental Success Story

Dave Brumbaugh

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May 9, 2018

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Regenis is Converting Manure into an Environmental Success Story

The consumer knows that dairy cows are the source of many delicious and nutritious foods, including milk, cheese, and ice cream. The farmer knows that they also produce a tremendous amount of manure—thousands of gallons daily on even the smallest dairy farms.

When not handled properly, the manure’s greenhouse gasses and bacteria are harmful to the environment—and the odor isn’t too pleasant, either.

A Ferndale company has stepped up (and not in!) to those problematic matters. Regenis has made the processing of cow pies and other organic wastes into an environmental success story, creating anaerobic digesters to generate renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gasses, and virtually eliminate fecal coliform bacteria, while dramatically lessening their odor.

“With the digester and the DAF installations, Edaleen has one of the most advanced manure-treatment facilities of any dairy in the United States. Our next main focus is making clean water…”

—Eric Powell, Business Development Director, Regenis

Andgar Corporation, located in the Grandview Industrial Park just north of Ferndale off I-5, began making anaerobic digesters in 2004, with dairy farms as a target market. Four years ago, Andgar created a separate division—Regenis—to manufacture digesters. The offspring has constructed 13 anaerobic digesters and also operates and/or maintains digesters for some customers.

“They are not all on dairy farms,” said Eric Powell, Business Development Director for Regenis, “but all of them do process some amount of dairy manure. Most also process other organic waste, such as pre-consumer food waste from various food processors.”

The environmental benefits of the digesters, like the product they deal with, cover a lot of ground:

Electrical generation: A dozen of the 13 Regenis projects produce renewable electricity with a total capacity exceeding 15 megawatts an hour (MWh)—enough to power more than 9,000 homes. Unlike other forms of renewable energy that produce electricity only when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, anaerobic digesters can make electricity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, except for short periods of time when the engine is down for maintenance.

Greenhouse-gas reduction: Methane, a natural emission from cow manure, is 22 times more harmful to the environment than carbon monoxide, according to scientific studies. Digesters reduce the amount of methane emitted into the environment.

Bacteria Reduction: Digesters reduce the fecal coliform in manure by 99.9%, allowing dairy farmers to use separated and dried manure (called digester fiber) as bedding for the cows, rather than having to purchase sawdust or use sand. The result is a significant cost reduction for a dairy. The farms then sell any excess fiber to soil companies that use it as a replacement for peat moss. Also, farmers store processed dairy manure without fecal coliform in lagoons on their farms until they can safely apply to crops for irrigation and fertilizer.

Regenis is in the process of expanding beyond the manufacturing, servicing, and operating of digesters. Last year, the company installed a Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) unit at Edaleen Dairy’s home-base facility north of Lynden that treats manure even more after it’s gone through the digester process.

“This system removes more than 85% of the phosphorus and roughly 35% of the nitrogen,” Powell said. “It concentrates those nutrients into a solid that can be hauled to fields farther away at a lower cost. With the digester and the DAF installations, Edaleen has one of the most advanced manure-treatment facilities of any dairy in the United States.”

Potential customers, other than dairy farms, include swine and poultry farms, food-waste producers, composting facilities, municipalities, breweries, and anyone who has a large volume of organic waste. “We want to be an agricultural wastewater-treatment provider and help our dairy, food-processing, and other agriculture customers with solutions,” Powell said.

Next on the broad horizon for Regenis, as a stalwart model for environmental stewardship? Powell said: “…Making clean water from a variety of agricultural wastes, such as dairy manure.”

Andgar Corporation (est. 1973) stands very high on the Business Pulse annual Top 100 Privately-Owned Companies in Whatcom County year in and year out, with divisions in agriculture waste solutions (Regenis), commercial metal fabrication, food processing, and residential HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning). The company name stems from co-owners Andy Mellema and Gary Van Loo.

Their statement of purpose contains unlimited vision with some unordinary phrasing. In part: “Our goal…highest quality products and superior service at a fair cost….through the application of Biblical principle….carry on Andy and Gary’s values of honesty, reliability, and professionalism….

“We may be from a small town, but we look forward to bringing you into our growing family of satisfied customers in NW Washington and across the globe.”