Business Pulse

28TH Whatcom Business Person of the Year, March 26 

WWU President 

Bruce Shepard: 

The business of 

academia 

MAGAZINE 

Spring 2014 

How to build 

an empire & 

keep family first 

Windermere dominates: 

40% market share 

Dan Washburn, CEO 

Windermere Real Estate/Whatcom 

Bringing home the bacon 

Hempler grows to $30 million 

Teeing off in ‘14 

Whatcom golf caters to 

Canadians and youth 

Estimating environmental risk 

How it impacts you 

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Table of Contents 

Duane Scholten, CEO, displays one of the major-brand pieces of equipment that has helped his company grow from scratch on a 20% 

interest loan to $19 million in sales, with 9,000 customers. Scholten’s Equipment is one of four finalists for Whatcom Small Business of 

the Year. (photo by Joella Ortega) 

Cover Story: Lifetime Achievement 

46 

The pull of family trumped the pull of the corporate ladder for Dan and 

Sharon Washburn when he had a chance to move around within IBM as 

a young executive on the rise. Instead, he helped grow two businesses 

in hometown Seattle, then a magnet called first Grandchild drew the Washburns to 

Bellingham and into the real-estate business where their Windermere network now 

dominates the Whatcom County market. (Staff Photo) 

The One 

20 

The prestigious Business 

Person of the Year 

nominee list glowed, and 

it narrowed to these four: builder of a 

thriving neighborhood family drugstore, 

Mike Hoagland; driving force behind the 

huge grant-giving Whatcom Community 

Foundation, Mauri Ingram; creator of 

a global business that manufactures 

electric equipment for boats, Scott 

Renne, and the second-generation 

dominator of the local automobile 

industry, Rick Wilson. 

Start-up Upstarts 

30 

This year’s finalists for 

best businesses that 

opened since Jan. 1, 

2011, include one taking a ‘Q’ from the 

environment in the Laundromat, one 

transforming $2 airport parking into a 

web of vehicle services (cab, limo, party 

bus, detailing), one brewing up a storm 

of quaffable pleasure, and one taking 

marketing and advertising to new digital 

realms of innnovation. 

Small Biz, 

Large Impact 

38 

The final lineup of Small 

Business of the Year puts 

a spotlight on hot tubs 

and fireplaces, all-you-need insurance 

coverage, tractors and harvesters, and 

a tiny island inn with a large draw of 

foodies from all across America (and 

some abroad) to award-winning dinner. 

4 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM

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Table of Contents 

Masters of 

Meat-making 

12 

The Hempler’s brand of 

premium meats, bearing 

the family signatures, 

sizzles throughout the Pacific Northwest. 

Their selectivity and excellence have 

spread them into national distribution 

with partners. They’re nit-picky about 

pure, natural ingredients. Grandpa 

would be proud of the heights the family 

has risen to in the world of bacon, 

sausage, and ham lovers during the last 

80 years. (Photo courtesy of Hempler 

Foods Group) 

Whatcom 

Golf: Loonie 

Tunes 

58 A substantial 

number of the 

golfers who tee it up at the 

county’s 13 courses drove 

across the border from B.C. to 

stretch their dollar, providing 

a huge boost to the economy 

of golf countywide. A visit 

with six golf operations 

revealed that the Canuck 

buck plays at anywhere from 

less than 10% at one course 

to upward of 80% at another, 

but they’re all looking 

for creative marketing to 

stimulate interest for every 

recreational golfer. 

All-Vol, 

Standing Tall 

76 

The Mt. Baker 

Chapter 

serves local 

Red Cross emergency 

needs, as designed – but its 

outreach stretches far and 

wide when disaster strikes. 

Local volunteers take care 

of neighbors, yes, but also 

answer calls of distress in 

places like a bridge collapse 

on I-5, and a hurricane in 

New Jersey. 

Personally 

Speaking 

82 

Dr. Bruce 

Shepard 

covers the 

business bases of serving as a 

university president, and how 

a strong economic approach 

strengthens Western 

Washington’s academia and 

its bond with the community 

at large. Good listening, he 

said, is the key…. 

Guest 

Columns 

96 

The right 

to water in 

Whatcom 

County rests with some highcourt 

decisions, and is the 

topic of two columns this 

edition. Other topics range 

from teenagers’ minimum 

wage problems, to the 

environmental-correctness 

of beekeeping and of risk 

management, to the power of 

respect for workers in Lean 

operations. And, of course, 

our regular Tech in the Fast 

Lane insights. 

The Publication of The Whatcom Business Alliance 

M A G A Z I N E 

Managing Editor: 

Mike McKenzie 

Graphic Designer: 

Adam Wilbert 

Feature Writers: 

Pamela Bauthues 

Steve Hortegas 

Sherri Huleatt 

Lydia Love 

Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy 

Joella Ortega 

Special Contributors: 

Roger Almskaar 

Big Fresh 

Randall Benson 

Don Brunell 

Tony Larson 

Ken Mann 

Todd Myers 

Mt. Baker Chapter/Red Cross 

Erin Shannon 

Cover Photo: 

Mike McKenzie 

Photography: 

Lydia Love 

Mike McKenzie 

Joella Ortega 

Courtesy Photos: 

Blue Sea Systems (Scott 

Lechner) 

Hempler Food Group LLC 

LaserPoint Awards 

Todd Myers, Beekeeper 

Mt. Baker Chapter/Red Cross 

Red Rokk Interactive 

Sudden Valley G&CC 

Shuksan Golf Club 

WWU (Matthew Anderson) 

Ad Sales: 

Coni Pugh 

Randall Sheriff 

Subscriptions: 

Janel Ernster 

Administration: 

Danielle Larson 

For editorial comments and suggestions, please write 

editor@businesspulse.com 

Business Pulse Magazine is the publication of the 

Whatcom Business Alliance. The magazine is published 

at 2423 E. Bakerview Rd., Bellingham, WA 

98226. (360) 671-3933. Fax (360) 671-3934. The 

yearly subscription rate is $20 in the USA, $48 in 

Canada. For a free digital subscription, go to businesspulse.com 

or whatcombusinessalliance.com. 

Entire contents copyrighted © 2014 – Business 

Pulse Magazine. All rights reserved. 

POSTMASTER: 

Send address changes to Business Pulse Magazine, 

2423 E Bakerview Rd., Bellingham, WA 98226. 


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Leading Off 

At our most recent 

WBA board meeting 

we invited a panel of 

experts to discuss what 

could be the biggest issue 

facing Whatcom County 

over the next decade – 

water rights. Who has the 

rights, who needs them, 

and how will it impact 

agriculture, dairy, real 

estate, and all property 

owners? 

WBA board member and 

land-use attorney Jon Sitkin 

moderated the discussion; he’s a 

partner at Chmelik Sitkin & Davis, 

P.S., Attorneys at Law. We just 

scratched the surface, but the WBA 

will plan many future opportunities 

to keep you informed on these 

pages and through various events. 

Two guest editorials about water 

rights appear in this edition. 

We invite you to join us at our 

board meetings for these lively 

discussions on issues important to 

business in Whatcom County. You 

can check our meeting schedule 

on our website. 

We believe strongly that it’s 

also important to recognize businesses 

doing good things. 

If you’re a Whatcom Business 

Alliance member, or you’ve 

attended one of the many WBA 

business events, you’ve probably 

heard a simple phrase that sums 

up how WBA members feel about 

our community: “Without business 

success, there is no community 

prosperity.” When local businesses 

10 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM 

Tony Larson | President, Whatcom Business Alliance 

The Whatcom Business Alliance is a member organization made up 

of businesses of every size and shape, from every industry. The WBA 

enhances the quality of life throughout Whatcom County by promoting a 

healthy business climate that preserves and creates good jobs. 

Without business success, 

no community prosperity 

are successful, our community 

prospers. When they are not, our 

community suffers. 

The WBA is committed to facilitating 

business success in every 

way possible. A small part of that 

comes from recognizing and lifting 

up the rising stars, pillars, and 

business icons of the Whatcom 

County business community. We 

do that at an annual event, in it’s 

28th year, coming up March 26 

in the Event Center at Silver Reef. 

We will recognize and honor business 

people and companies for 

their successful efforts in creating 

jobs and enhancing the economic 

and civic vitality of our community. 

The finalists in three different 

categories are profiled in 

this edition. The winners will be 

announced the evening of the 

event. 

The Start-up Business of the 

Year finalists consist of companies 

created within the last three years 

that have operated successfully 

and have great prospects for the 

future. 

The Small Business of the Year 

finalists have operated successfully 

for many years and must 

have fewer than 100 employees. 

Companies like these represent the 

backbone of our local economy. 

The Business Person of the Year 

is an open category intended to 

recognize leaders from private 

or nonprofit organizations who 

deserve recognition for building 

their business, creating jobs, and 

taking leadership roles in making 

our community a better place to 

live and work. The size of their 

company doesn’t impact their eli- 

At the WBA monthly board meeting a roomful of members and guests listened to a water 

rights panel discuss the hottest issue of the next decade: (from left) Doug Allen from the 

state Dept. of Ecology, Perry Eskridge representing the Whatcom County Association of 

Realtors, attorney and WBA board member Jon Sitkin (moderator), and berry producer 

Marty Maberry. (Staff Photo)

gibility to be recognized in this 

category. 

In addition, we will crown the 

winner of the Whatcom County 

Lifetime Business Achievement 

Award. This annual award goes to 

a person who has made significant 

contributions to our community 

over a long period of time. This 

year, Dan Washburn, the CEO 

of Windermere Real Estate in 

Bellingham, receives that award. 

We have a profile of him within 

these pages, as well. 

If you were to read the 

names on the Lifetime Business 

Achievement Perpetual Trophy, 

it would read as a Who’s Who in 

Whatcom County business history. 

Many of the companies they built 

continue with positive impact in 

the county today. Companies like 

Morse Steel, Lynden Transport, 

Haskell Corporation, Yeager’s, 

Allsop Inc., Wilder Construction, 

Brown and Cole Foods, Peoples 

Bank, Bellingham Cold Storage, 

what is now Cascade Radio, Unity 

Group Insurance, Haggen Foods, 

Hardware Sales, Walton Beverage, 

Diehl Ford, Jacaranda Corporation, 

Exxel Pacific, Hempler’s Meats, 

Westford Funeral Home, IMCO 

Construction and Saturna Capital, 

to name a few. 

This special evening of recognition 

has been called the Oscars 

of Whatcom County Business. It 

is a special night with a special 

purpose. As a participant of every 

one of the 27 previous events, I’m 

always encouraged by the fraternity 

of business owners and leaders 

who come together because they 

understand the value of recognizing 

business people for the positive 

contributions they make. 

Few outside this fraternity 

understand the risks, efforts, 

sacrifices, and costs required to 

start, operate, and grow a successful 

business. Few understand the 

weight of responsibility business 

leaders feel for their employees – 

the sleep they lose when things 

aren’t going so well, or when they 

have to make tough decisions that 

impact their employees. 

Many of the business owners I 

speak to feel as though fewer and 

fewer elected officials and people 

in the general public understand 

the valuable role that successful 

businesses play in creating community 

prosperity. Some don’t 

understand that without business 

success, our community cannot 

thrive. 

The businesses and business 

people we honor bring us the 

products and services we need and 

desire. They help make us more 

efficient and effective and provide 

products and services that make 

our lives easier. 

When businesses are successful, 

they provide jobs that allow 

people to support their families, 

and other businesses, and charitable 

organizations in the community. 

Successful businesses and 

their employees pay a significant 

portion of the taxes that allow 

our government to operate and 

to provide its services. They take 

leadership roles on boards and 

commissions. They get involved in 

nonprofit fundraisers and provide 

funding and volunteers for organizations 

that serve the less fortunate 

among us. 

The businesses in our community 

drive our economy and our 

quality of life. Because of them 

we have what we have. They raise 

the tide, and a rising tide raises all 

boats. The business leaders in our 

community deserve to be recognized, 

honored, and thanked. Join 

us in doing so on March 26. 

Whatcom Business Alliance 

and Business Pulse Magazine happily 

invite you to the table on the 

evening of March 26 in the Event 

Center at Silver Reef. It will be a 

night of networking, fun, and celebration 

of business in Whatcom 

County. You can order a table of 

8 or individual tickets online at 

WhatcomBusinessAlliance.com, or 

call 746-0410. 

I hope to see you there. 

Enjoy the Magazine! 

WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM | 11

Business Profile: Hempler’s 

Hempler’s continues 

expansion brought 

by 22% growth rate 

to $30M in sales 

80-year-old company bringing home the 

bacon, more than ever – 10 times more 

than just 8 years ago 

By Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy 

The story at Hempler’s 

is growth. Growth 

today, with their latest 

and largest expansion 

planned this year for their 

facility in Ferndale – and 

growth yesteryear, when 

the Hempler family pitched 

in and twisted sausages by 

hand at the original site 

on F Street in downtown 

Bellingham. 

Consider their explosive 

growth of the last eight years of 

this nationally-distributed brand 

known mostly for its bacon and 

hams: 

During the year 2006, three 

major developments helped the 

business start an upward trend 

that has multiplied the business 10 

times its sales since then: 

1. Stephen Bates, formerly 

with the company in a 

sales/management position, 

returned (in ’05) and bought 

into the business partnership 

along with Hempler 

Enterprises (the Hempler 

family, essentially). 

2. Premium Foods in 

Vancouver, B.C., bought 51 

percent interest and consolidated 

a company in Oregon 

into the operations that 

added clout to marketing, 

sales, and distribution. 

3. Hempler’s built its new 

30,000-square-foot Ferndale 

facility. 

In 2008 they added another 


Photo courtesy of Hempler’s 

3,000 square feet to enlarge the 

production area. Just last year 

they expanded again with the 

purchase of $1.5 million in new 

equipment – smokehouses, a 

200-horsepower boiler, increased 

compressor capacity for more 

chilling units – to boost production 

25 percent. 

The company, which prefers the 

name Hempler’s though it’s formally 

Hempler Foods Group LLC, 

celebrates its 80th anniversary this 

year. “We’re 80 and going strong!” 

Bates said. “That doesn’t happen 

for many companies.” 

Hempler’s makes bacon, hams, 

franks, sausages, bratwurst, 

smoked poultry, and beef brisket. 

Bacon accounts for 50 percent of 

all sales, with hams the secondbiggest 

seller. 

A new 10,000-square-foot addition 

will accommodate new equipment 

that’s expected to increase 

capacity another 30 percent. 

Specifically, Hempler’s will enlarge 

drying space needed to make 

sausage and pepperoni. Another 

3,000 square feet, in addition to 

the 10,000, will provide better 

facilities for employees, including 

locker rooms, cafeteria, restrooms, 

and conference space. Hempler’s 

expects to break ground this 

spring. 

Even just two years ago, more 

than three-quarters of Hempler’s 

sales took place in Washington. 

“Today, our business is 45 percent 

Washington, and 55 percent outside 

the state,” Bates said, including 

California, Oregon, Arizona, 

Alaska, Utah, Montana, and 

“Never go anywhere with 

empty hands. If you’re 

going toward the cooler, 

and there’s something that 

needs to go in, take it 

with you.” 

—Richard Hempler, chairman, 

on managing people 

FROM EUROPE WITH LOVE 

On page 15 read highlights of 

Hempler’s pork sourcing process. 



Idaho. “I envision a day, not too 

distant, when less than 20 percent 

of our sales are in Washington. 

That’s due to exploding population 

growth in other western states.” 

Richard Hempler, company 

chairman, said, “The growth is 

all south and southeast. As our 

company continues to grow, our 

business outside of Washington 

increases. Our sales center 10 years 

ago was Seattle. Now that volume 

percentage is moving south.” 

Hempler’s is a regional company, 

but through sales to Safeway 

their products can be found 

throughout the nation. Hempler 

enjoys hearing fisherman friends 

tell of buying bacon with his name 

on it in a tiny store on a tiny 

island at the tip of the Aleutians. 

Hempler and Bates joke that they’d 

like to call on the Safeway stores 

in Hawaii – just to check on their 

product, of course. 

It’s all a long, long way from 

the company’s Depressionera 

beginning on F Street in 

downtown Bellingham. Richard 

Hempler’s father, Hans Hempler, 

worked in his family’s sausage 

business that started during the 

1800s in Borken, Germany. Hans 

Hempler became a master sausage 

maker before immigrating to the 

U.S. in 1928. 

The story goes that he didn’t 

speak much English, but chose 

Bellingham because it sounded like 

a belly and a ham, and he knew 

what those were. He worked and 

saved, and in 1934, with a partner, 

bought B.B. Meat & Sausage 

Company, 1401 F Street. The business 

operated at that original site 

through 2005. 

“When I was 7 years old, after 

school I’d go down to the plant 

and help with clean up,” Richard 

Hempler said. “I don’t know how 

much help I was. If I wasn’t doing 

anything, my dad put a broom in 

my hand. I grew up in the family 

business. Summers during high 

school I worked in the sausage 

kitchen. 

“It was hard work. You had to 

earn respect. I did; it took me a 

“If I wasn’t doing 

anything, my dad put a 

broom in my hand. I grew 

up in the family business.” 

—Richard Hempler, chairman 

while. We used to twist the sausages 

into individual links by 

hand. You could do 75 pounds of 

sausage an hour. Today, we have 

machines do that 50 times faster, 

and more accurately.” 

The old plant had its own retail 

outlet, which operated through 

the 1980s. The store included big 

butcher blocks, three meat cutters, 

and a 40-foot-long, fullservice 

glass case stocked with 


WILSON TOYOTA 

Pork products – the fastest-growing market for Hempler’s – require travel afar, even 

abroad, for the company to meet its strict quality requirements. 

(Photos courtesy of Hempler’s) 

On Sourcing Pork: 

Ironically, while Hempler’s has grown an enormously popular brand 

locally, and throughout Washington and the entire Western U.S., 

it must go abroad to source some of its biggest sellers – an allnatural 

line of meats. 

“We try to source as locally as possible,” said Kestin Hempler 

Liberato, the director of sales. “We get poultry, beef, and chicken 

from Washington and Oregon.” 

However, she said, there’s not a pork market in the Pacific 

Northwest, so the company goes elsewhere in North America and 

Europe. 

“People wonder why we’d go so far,” Kestin said. “Our product 

quality (for Hempler’s natural line) specifies no growth promoters, 

and no antibiotics, and the animals must be vegetarian-fed and 

humanely-raised. 

“We created a differentiated product in the market. We have to 

go (far) to get that. That side of the business is far and away our 

fastest-growing segment.” 

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sausage and fresh and smoked 

meats. Hempler’s also supplied 

other stores. “Back then, every 

third block had its mom-and-pop 

grocery store, tiny stores,” Richard 

said. “We serviced stores throughout 

Whatcom, Snohomish, and 

Skagit counties. 

“Nothing was refrigerated or 

wrapped. We’d run into a store 

with a little order pad. They’d 

order a bundle of franks, a pork 

loin, a slab of bacon. Some would 

order just three pounds of hamburger, 

or four pork chops. You’d 

run out to your truck, get it, go 

back in the store, put it on his 

scale, calculate the price, and collect 

the money. Everybody used us 

as their banker; sometimes they’d 

pay us with checks for $1.50 or 

50 cents that customers had given 

them.” 

At that time, a sausage made 

in Bellingham on Tuesday would 

be delivered to a store Wednesday, 

then sold and eaten that evening. 

Richard remembered going to the 

Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mill 

(now Bloedel-Donovan Park) for 

sawdust, and he told of reaching 

under whirring blades to collect 

fresh sawdust in barrels. Back in 

the plant and store on F Street, the 

thick layer of sawdust absorbed 

meat juices and kept slipping to 

a minimum. It had to be raked 

nightly and replaced weekly. 

“I’d stand there with Dad 

and Opa (grandfather 

Hans Hempler) in a line. 

We’d twist, and then hang 

sausages, and then put it 

all in the smokehouse.” 

—Kestin Hempler Liberato, sales representative, 

who helped in the plant growing up 

When Richard Hempler returned 

to Bellingham after college he 

started working his way up 

through the company. In 1974 he 

bought his father’s partner’s share 

of the business. 

Richard’s daughter, Kestin 

Hempler Liberato – now a sales 

representative – recalled working 

in the old plant, too. After 

Whatcom Middle School let out 

she’d walk to the plant to pitch in. 

She spoke of an old machine that 

stuffed sausages. 

“When the water pressure let 

out of the stuffer, you needed 

your boots on,” she said. “I’d 

stand there with Dad and Opa (her 

grandfather, Hans). We’d stand in 

a line and twist, and then hang 

(sausages), and then put it all in 

the smokehouse. You could grab 

a hotdog to eat, right out of the 

smokehouse. There is nothing better.” 

Growth in the earlier decades 

was gradual. Hempler said, 

“Things evolved. We broadened 

our sales base into Seattle and 

Tacoma in the ‘80s.” As manufacturing 

equipment improved, 

diane padys photography.com 

[ visual exposure] 

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and when need and affordability 

intersected, Hempler’s updated its 

machinery. 

“Through the ages, sausage 

was stuffed in a natural casing,” 

Hempler said. “They were not uniform, 

one end to the other. You’d 

end up with different sizes and 

lengths. Plus, they were harder to 

handle.” Methods progressed, and 

manufacturers moved to casings 

made of cellulose. 

Congratulations to the 

Business Person of the 

Year Finalists! 

“In any business, leadership 

helps; but Hempler’s is 

built on great products 

and good leadership, not 

the other way around.” 

—Stephen Bates, president 

But before a frankfurter is sold, 

its cellulose casing is removed (90 

percent of hotdogs are sold skinless. 

“We used to take that off by 

hand. If you were really fast, you 

could do 80-to-100 pounds an 

hour. Now our machine does 3,000 

pounds an hour.” 

Hempler’s closed its on-site 

retail outlet on F Street in the 

mid-1980s to concentrate on sales 

to independent grocers. When 

sales gathered momentum the old 

plant – constructed in 1896 – was 

no longer big enough. The production 

area was less than 10,000 

square feet. “We kept it up, and it 

was modern inside, but the structure 

wasn’t ideal for a food processing 

plant. There was no room 

around us; we couldn’t expand,” 

Hempler said. 

If the company was going to 

keep bringing home the bacon, it 

would need a new home. 

Richard, his wife Nancy, and 

the children knew they had to do 

something. “It was build a new 

facility, or quit,” he said. “And 

I’d be damned if I’d quit on my 

Cont #WHIRLS1090D9 



watch. The kids were with me on 

this, my wife was with me. 

“I knew we didn’t have the personnel 

to take us to the next level, 

and the next, and the next. We 

were doing great at the level we 

were, but I was getting older, I was 

68 then.” 

That year, 2005, Richard sought 

out Stephen Bates, who’d previously 

worked for Hempler’s in 

the early ‘80s as sales and general 

manager, and then had been 

employed 20 years at Fletcher’s 

Fine Foods, a subsidiary of the 

conglomerate Premium Brands. 

Hempler recounted the move: 

“I said to Steve, ‘Why not come 

help me?’ He called back and said, 

‘How serious are you?’ I said, ‘Get 

your tail up here.’” Bates came 

back to Hempler’s in 2005, and 

Premium Brands became a slight 

majority business partner with 

Hempler Foods Group LLC the 

next year. Business skyrocketed 

“They’re a large company,” 

Hempler said. “They were able to 

help finance and grow us into the 

future. Steve orchestrated this (and 

the new Ferndale facility). It was 

monumental. A food processing 

plant is very expensive to build.” 

Bates said, “This is a great place 

for making ham, bacon, and sausage. 

We know that if your products 

are successful, the financials 

pay off.” 

In need of yet more space, last 

year Hempler’s moved its assembling 

and warehousing to a coldstorage 

facility in Blaine, and now 

contracts 20,000 square feet there. 

Hempler, vibrant and active at 

76, is moving the responsibility 

for guiding the family business 

to his daughter, Kestin, and her 

husband, Marc Liberato, the production 

superintendent. In 2010, 

Hempler joined a distinguished list 

of Whatcom County business icons 

when he was honored with the 

Whatcom County lifetime business 

achievement award by Business 

Pulse Magazine and the Whatcom 

Business Alliance. The 28th 

Kestin Hempler Liberato, sales representative, and her father Richard Hempler, chairman 

stand next to a framed photo of founder Hans Hempler with his business partner in the 

1940s. (Photo by Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy) 

awards celebration takes place this 

March 26. 

“We put our personal guarantee 

on our product,” Kestin Hempler 

Liberato said. Kestin’s signature 

graces Hempler’s line of natural, 

preservative-free products. “Our 

meats have a very short ingredient 

list, ingredients you’d have in your 

own kitchen.” 

Richard Hempler’s signature 

appears on other products that 

boast a heritage tracing to original 

recipes from the family kitchen in 

Germany. 

The keys to the company’s success, 

according to Hempler: “Be 

honest. Take care of your customers. 

Take care of your employees. 

Know what it costs to produce and 

sell the product, you gotta know 

that. Never give up. Don’t quit. 

Workers at Hempler’s process the hams that constitute the company’s second-fastest 

selling product next to bacon. (Photo courtesy of Hempler’s) 


Don’t ask anybody to do a job you 

wouldn’t do yourself – though you 

should hire people to do things 

you’re not as good at.” 

He also values the advice that 

his immigrant father instilled: 

“Never go anywhere with empty 

hands. If you’re going toward the 

cooler, and there’s something that 

needs to go in, take it with you.” 

Bates credited Hempler’s 80 

employees with keeping Hempler’s 

products “best in class.” Several 

employees bought homes in 2013. 

“It’s neat to see the employees 

fulfill their hopes and dreams. too. 

Our business success is built on 

really good products and really 

good employees.” 

Hempler’s products can be purchased 

in more than 2,000 stores 

and hundreds of restaurants across 

the country, plus on e-commerce 

sites such as AmazonFresh.com. 

Stephen Bates (left), the company 

president, joins sales rep Kestin 

Hempler Liberato and chairman Richard 

Hempler outside their new facility 

standing next to a 1940s sausagestuffer 

from the original plant. 

(Photo by Cheryl Stritzel McCarthy) 

Business Box Score 

Hempler Foods Group LLC 

• Ownership partners: 

Richard Hempler, 

chairman; Stephen Bates, 

president, with premium 

brands (Canada) as 51 

percent majority holder. 

• Start-up: 1934 (family 

bought an existing 

business that began in 

1896). 

• Annual sales revenue: 

more than $30 million. 

• Growth indicators: a 22 

percent increase in sales 

year-over-year the last 

eight years. Company has 

grown 10 times its size of 

eight years ago. 

• Employees in 1934: 15. 

• Employees now: 80, all in 

Whatcom County. 


Business Person of the Year 

From left, last year’s winners at the Whatcom Business Person of the Year Awards dinner: Randy Hartnell of Vital Choice Seafood & 

Organics (Small Business), Nick Kaiser of Saturna Capital (Lifetime Achievement), Bob Pritchett of Logos Bible Software (Business Person), 

and Mike Hughes of NextLevel Training (Start-Up). (Staff Photo) 

The Oscars of Whatcom County business awarded 

at dinner banquet on March 26 

By the Business Pulse Staff 

A 

dozen finalists in 

three categories and 

a Lifetime Achievement 

Award winner take the 

spotlight March 26 at the 

28th annual Whatcom 


Year Awards, presented 

by the Whatcom Business 

Alliance, Whidbey Island 

Bank and Business Pulse 

Magazine. 

The event, attracting a sellout 

crowd of more than 400, takes 

place in the Event Center at Silver 

Reef. 


This is the longest-running 

event of its kind celebrating business 

success in Whatcom County. 

The finalists among nominees this 

year represent a variety across 

several industries – including family-brand 

leaders in pharmaceuticals/medical 

equipment and in 

automobile and truck sales/service, 

plus boating, and one of the most 

prosperous and generous nonprofits 

in the region. 

The four finalists for 

the Business Person of 

the Year Award include 

(alphabetically): 

• Mike Hoagland is a practicing 

pharmacist (RPh, 

CPG) who owns Hoagland 

Pharmacy, which last year 

stood 43rd on the Business 

Pulse list of Top 75 Private 

Companies in Whatcom 

County. The Bellingham 

business started in 1981, 

and it approaches $20 million 

in revenues with about 

80 employees in retail pharmacy, 

along with special 

medical equipment and 

services. 

• Mauri Ingram serves as 

president of the Whatcom 

Community Foundation. It 

started 18 years ago, and as 

one of about 650 community 

foundations nationwide,

and 19 in Washington, that 

enhance the quality of life 

in their communities, the 

WCF has raised and distributed 

millions to causes in 


• Scott Renne, the founder, 

president and CEO of Blue 

Sea Systems in Bellingham, 

started and created another 

company (since sold) and 

both would have ranked in 

the county’s Top 75. Blue 

Sea Systems (ranked No. 

35), which sprang from a 

seed idea Renne had while 

sailing to Asia and back, 

supplies electrical parts for 

boats to retailers worldwide. 

• Rick Wilson is the son 

of the founder of Wilson 

Motors in Bellingham, 

No. 16 in the Top 75 with 

industry-leading sales in 

excess of $50 million. He 

purchased the business from 

his father, and then added a 

partner a few years 

ago, and the business 

burgeoned 

in 2013 with the 

addition of a fifth 

line of new automobiles 

and the 

buyout of another 

dealership. 

Dan Washburn, owner of the 

storied Windermere Real Estate 

territory covering Whatcom 

County, will join the long line of 

Lifetime Achievement Award winners. 

This is his third company 

that has grown to outstanding levels. 

Read his story in this edition. 

The finalists in the 

other two categories 

(alphabetically): 

Start-Up Business of the Year: 

• I-5 Parking in Ferndale 

• Kulshan Brewing Company 

in Bellingham 

• Q Laundry in Bellingham 

• Red Rokk Interactive in 

Bellingham 

Small Business of the Year: 

• Innovations in Quality 

Living in Bellingham 

• Rice Insurance Company in 

Bellingham 

• Scholten Equipment in 

Lynden 

• The Willows Inn on Lummi 

Island 

Tickets or tables of 8 for the 

dinner awards banquet are available 

for purchase. Go to www. 

whatcombusinessalliance.com and 

click on Business Person of the 

Year event, or call 360.746.0410 

for more information. 


Business Person of the Year Finalist: Mike Hoagland, Hoagland Pharmacy 

Rosa and Mike Hoagland in front of the Yew Street pharmacy they started from scratch in 

1981. (Photo by Joella Ortega) 

A personal approach 

to pharmaceutical needs 

By Joella Ortega 

Hoagland Pharmacy 

opened for business 

33 years ago with one 

employee. Now, with 

the opening of a new 

retail and multi-services 

storefront in Sedro- 

Woolley last year, that 

employee – founder Mike 

Hoagland – has become 

a finalist in the selection 

of Whatcom County’s 


Year. 

A graduate of the pharmacy 

school at the University of 

Washington, he serves as president 

in the company that he and his 

wife, Rosa, began in 1981 on Yew 

Street in Bellingham. Hoagland 

was the only employee in the store 

for the first 1½ years. 

By the fourth year he had to 

double space, and in 2000 the 

company moved into its evenlarger 

current location which will 

add more space soon for one of 

its latest specialties, compounding 

injectable medications. 

From the start, emphasis centered 

on individualized personal 

service at the pharmacy and additional 

specialized services, such as 

a niche market in medicinal compounding. 

The staff grew to 20 

employees by 1988 and has continuously 

gained momentum with 

a staff now numbering about 75. 

Hoagland said that they grew 

the business “through hard work, 

dedicated employees, and continued 

support from the community.” 

Hoagland Pharmacy’s website 

declares, “We excel in providing 

custom solutions to individual 

medication and health needs.” 

Those needs include specialized 

medical equipment, respiratory 

services, over-the-counter medications, 

vaccinations, the popular 

Mediset weekly pill box program, 

compounding, and even delivery 

services. Last year, Hoagland’s 

added an automated prescriptionfilling 

machine. 

Hoagland has successfully created 

a throwback to the era of the 

family drug store –beyond just 

having a prescription filled and 

a quick consultation. Until about 

seven years ago it even had an ice 

cream and soda shop. 

That’s where Molly Greenleaf, 

who manages the company’s 

durable home-health equipment 

and marketing, got her start 11 

years ago. “I managed the coffee 

bar and ice cream stand,” she 

said. “We had one-dollar cones. I 

remembered coming here as a kid 

when my family needed antibiotics 

and other things. It definitely has 

been your hometown drug store, 

thriving with relationships built on 

personalized service.” 

Hoagland Pharmacy has 

successfully created a 

throwback to the era 

of the family drugstore 

(with) custom solutions to 

individual needs. 

The Sedro-Woolley location 

stands as Hoagland’s proudest 

business achievement of 2013. It 

provides retail pharmacy, durable 

medical equipment, and sleep 

apnea equipment. “It’s a bit different,” 

Greenleaf said, “because 

it has a respiratory technician on 

board – something that was missing 

in the Sedro-Woolley market.” 

The new store added four full-time 

employees to the Hoagland roster. 

A target during 2014 involves 

expanding the organization’s loyalty 

program. Also, a plan is in 


place to add space to the facility 

in Haskell Business Complex that 

houses Hoagland Pharmacy’s specialty 

services for long-term care. 

Another goal, Greenleaf said, 

is to grow its market share in the 

durable medical equipment. Also, 

Hoagland’s Pharmacy has been 

recognized locally and elsewhere 

for its contributions in individualized 

compounded medications 

ever since Hoagland attended the 

Professional Compounding Centers 

of America in 1987. He also specializes 

in geriatric pharmacology. 

The philosophy behind the 

organization’s charitable involvement 

is that the local community 

should not be served just 

by Hoagland Pharmacy’s services 

but also supported by its 

resources. Mike Hoagland has 

worked with organizations such 

as the Alzheimer’s Society of 

Washington, Bellingham Food 

Bank, the National MS Society, 

and the Whatcom Hospice 

Foundation. 

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Business Person of the Year Finalist: Mauri Ingram, Whatcom Community Foundation 

Mauri Ingram leads an organization that awarded more than $2.1 million to the community 

last year. (Photo courtesy of Whatcom Community Foundation) 

Nonprofit matchmaker: 

finding catches for donors 

and local nonprofit organizations 


Mauri Ingram first 

learned about the 

Whatcom Community 

Foundation when receiving 

one of its grants on 

behalf of a nonprofit she 

co-founded, now called 

the Downtown Bellingham 

Partnership (nee Downtown 

Renaissance Network). 

A few years later the 

Whatcom Community 

Foundation asked her to 

join its board of directors. 

Now she is its president and 

CEO coming off a banner year 

from which she has become a 

finalist for the most prestigious 

award in the Whatcom business 

community. 

A former co-owner of two local 

restaurants and an employee of 

Trillium Corp., Ingram leads the 

one of the state’s 19 community 

foundations on behalf of a 10-person 

board. “My career path has 

been anything but linear,” she 

said. “I knew I wanted to run a 

business. What I didn’t know was 

that I would want the community 

to own it.” 

The foundation thrived in 2013, 

awarding more than $2 million in 

grants and $100,000 in scholarships, 

and ranking in the top 25 

most active grant-makers among 

the approximate 650 nationwide 

community foundations for the 

fourth consecutive year. Ingram 

said that the new Ferndale library 

was a highlight of 2013, culminating 

a seven-year process of helping 

to raise the funds that built it. 

The Whatcom Community 

Foundation formed in 1996 on 

an anonymous gift. It has grown 

perhaps the largest benefactor 

footprint in the county. “We ended 

our last fiscal year with assets of 

more than $20 million,” Ingram 

said. “That’s 20 times our original 

assets.” 

She said the foundation has 

made grants to hundreds of local 

nonprofits, expanding from about 

$100,000 a year in grant-making 

to over $3.8 million a year. Donors 

number about 4,900 and staff has 

grown from less that two full-time 

to five. 

Ingram deflected credit for the 

successes. “Everything I’ve accomplished 

has been the result of 

working with others,” she said. “I 

don’t feel like I own any achievements 

independently.” 

“My career path has been 

anything but linear. I knew 

I wanted to run a business. 

What I didn’t know was 

that I would want the 

community to own it.” 

In addition to the two nonprofits 

she served in Bellingham, 

she also has engaged in other 

community-service projects, such 

as the Campaign for the Arts, the 

Whatcom Coalition for Healthy 

Communities, and she’s a member 

of the YWCA’s Northwest Women’s 

Hall of Famem, 

The Whatcom Community 

Foundation mission works through 

donors and local organizations to 

properly channel monetary donations, 

and also assists community 

partners with information on business, 

education, and government. 


“We help donors bring their 

philanthropic goals to fruition by 

providing counsel and information 

about the opportunities and 

the variety of ways they can make 

a difference through their giving,” 

Ingram said. “We assist nonprofit 

organizations through a range 

of investments in their success. 

Lastly, we work with a wide range 

of community partners.” 

Through her work with the 

foundation Ingram has left a lasting 

mark on the positive efforts 

that the Whatcom Community has 

made, and the recognition that the 

county has received for its efforts. 

“Whatcom County is known 

well beyond our borders for our 

collaborative nature,” Ingram said. 

“Many of the obstacles to opportunities 

are well-hidden. We work 

well to cultivate relationships with 

our funders, and create opportunities 

for our donors to collectively 

take advantage of the opportunities 

we have to be the community 

that we can be.” 

Fingers crossed is not a business strategy. 

If you’re hoping your way out of 

cash flow problems or a big tax surprise, 

here’s hoping you’ll call us for help. 

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Burlington 

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Business Person of the Year Finalist: Scott Renne, Blue Sea Systems 

Scott Renne built two businesses on high-quality electrical parts for boats and trucks. 

(Photo courtesy of Blue Sea Systems/Scott Lechler) 

Scott Renne set sails based 

on his heart—and made port 

as world’s best retail supplier 

By Steve Hortegas 

mix of community, technical and 

university education.” Renne said. 

The company employs about 75 

people locally, with an additional 

30 short-term contract employees 

expected for 2014. That’s more 

than $5 million in payroll injected 

into the local economy. Renne also 

provides millions of dollars in positive 

U.S. trade balance, with some 

$15 million to American suppliers. 

But it’s a culture of continuous 

“Customer Experience” improvement 

that drives success. 

“We treat every employee as 

a colleague and every customer 

as a friend,” Renne said. “Every 

action we take is in pursuit of 

improving our performance based 

on Ten Elements of the Customer 

Experience.” 

Element 10 states: Products are 

supported by Blue Sea Systems as 

long as the customer owns them.” 

The greatest satisfaction in 

business and life can be attributed 

to how one handles adversity, 

Renne said. His decision in 2003 

to issue a voluntary recall could 

have bankrupted the company. 

It cost more than $1 million, but 

customers appreciated the decision 

and worked with the company to 

minimize cost. 

Scott Renne sailed into 

his future during a 

two-year ocean voyage 

around the Pacific. It was 

during this adventure 

that he realized electrical 

equipment on boats was 

of poor quality. Renne 

then moved forward, into 

the market of high-quality 

electrical products. 

Renne is the founder, president 

and shareholder of Blue Sea 

Systems, an organization that 

manufacturers electrical system 

equipment for marine and specialty 

emergency vehicles, as 

well as alternative energy and 

industrial applications. More than 

1,000 products, mostly made 

in Bellingham, are distributed 

to 44 countries. Last year, Blue 

Sea Systems earned a title as the 

nation’s best supplier. 

“I followed my heart to start a 

business doing what I loved,” said 

Renne. 

His father was a commercial 

fisherman, and Renne spent 

10 years as an executive at the 

world’s largest retailer of marine 

equipment. 

Founded in 1992, Renne has 

grown annual revenues to $25 

million with 22 consecutive years 

of profitability. 

“[Whatcom County is] a fabulous 

home for Blue Sea Systems 

– high quality of life, diverse and 

talented workforce, and wonderful 

“If you are inclined to be 

an entrepreneur, and to 

grow and be successful 

at a company, I rank that 

as one of those defining 

aspects of life. Right up 

there with having children 

and the love of your life.” 

“It was better than any team 

building exercise we could have 

devised,” Renne said. “Every challenge 

we have faced since then 

has seemed trivial.” 

Employees rallied to notify 


owners and replace products scattered 

across the world’s oceans. 

The company emerged with a 

stronger management team and 

tremendous good will from customers. 

“If you are inclined to be an 

entrepreneur, and to grow and be 

successful at a company, I rank 

that as one of those defining 

aspects of life. Right up there with 

having children and the love of 

your life,” Renne said. 

Renne now focuses Blue Sea 

Systems’ philanthropy on challenges 

faced by young people. 

Renne is a father of three and said 

the most influential charitable 

efforts are obtained by directing 

resources to those in the younger 

years of life. 

“Following my heart and doing 

what I loved gave me the energy I 

needed in the early years of struggle,” 

Renne said, “and has made 

me eager to get to work every 

morning for 22 years.” 

“Great partners, incredibly professional, 

and easy to work with.” 

Janelle Bruland, 


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WHATCOMBUSINESSALLIANCE.COM 2/18/14 12:26 | PM 27

Business Person of the Year Finalist: Rick Wilson, Wilson Motors 

Putting family in the 

driver’s seat: 

Wilson Motors cruises 

By Sherri Huleatt 

What’s the recipe 

for success behind 

the No. 1 car dealership 

in Whatcom County? 

According to its president, 

Rick Wilson, it’s simple: 

Treat your customers like 

you’d treat your mother. 

Fortunately for Wilson 

Imports Inc. this familystyle 

philosophy has paid 

off for Wilson in a big 

way. 

For starters, Wilson experienced 

a robust 2013: 

• His company led Whatcom 

County in volume for 

inventory and new and used 

vehicle sales; 

• They won the Toyota 

President’s Award for 

Overall Operating Excellence 

for the fourth time in the 

last five years; 

• And, they added a brand by 

purchasing the former King 

Nissan dealership just down 

the street. 

With two store fronts on Iowa 

Street in Bellingham, Wilson’s 

automobile dealership previously 

sold Toyota, Scion, and Mercedes- 

Benz. In the 2013 listing of 

Business Pulse Magazine’s Top 75 

Whatcom County privately-owned 

businesses, Rick Wilson’s company 

stood No. 16 by topping $50 

million in sales during 2012, and 

stands to rise in those ratings this 

year after a robust 2013. 

Wilson Imports’ growth has 

been a family affair. Rick Wilson’s 

father Dick founded the business 

as a Lincoln-Mercury 

dealership 54 years 

ago, and Rick Wilson 

joined the team in 

1968. 

The company 

gradually added 

more vehicle brands, 

and in 1986 Rick 

Wilson bought out 

his father and became 

president of the company. 

Seven years 

ago Julian Greening 

joined Wilson’s team 

as co-owner and general 

manager. 

Wilson attributed 

their success to the 

company’s dedication to “The 

Wilson Way”—the idea that purchasing 

a Wilson Motors vehicle, 

whether new or used, means 

you’re driving the best, and should 

expect the best customer service. 

“As much as my wife 

and I have traveled,” said 

Wilson, “I can’t think of a 

better place to live and do 

business than in Whatcom 

County.” 

—Rick Wilson 

Because of this philosophy 

Wilson Motors has built up a 

loyal customer base and a strong 

reputation in the community – 

although the story of Wilson’s rise 

isn’t told without its fair share of 

hiccups. 

Exactly one month before 

Lynn and Rick Wilson: Business is thriving after “… 

didn’t know if we could make it,” Rick said. 

(Photo courtesy of Wilson Motors) 

opening their new Toyota store 

in October 2008, the Dow Jones 

Industrial Average dropped 778 

points. Just two weeks after that, it 

sank another 732 points. “I really 

didn’t know if we could make it,” 

Wilson said. However, the recession 

wasn’t enough to hold back 

his company from thriving financially, 

or philanthropically. 

Last year Wilson Motors donated 

more than $45,000 to charities. 

“We try to give back as much 

as we can in both community 

involvement and charities,” he 

said. 

Wilson serves on PeaceHealth 

St. Joseph Medical Center’s 

Finance Committee and he has 

chaired the Finance Committee of 

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for the 

last 15 years. 

“As much as my wife and I 

have traveled,” said Wilson, “I 

can’t think of a better place to live 

and do business than in Whatcom 

County.” 


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Start-Up Business of the Year Finalist: I-5 Parking 

Caleb and Melissa Bowe stay busy booking cabs, limos, buses, and vehicle detailing in 

addition to inexpensive airport parking. (Staff Photo) 

Airport Parking is just the beginning 

for budding entrepreneur 


Between the growth at 

the Bellingham airport 

and the influx of Canadian 

travelers, Caleb and Melissa 

Bowe, co-owners of the 

newly opened I-5 Airport 

Parking, are capitalizing 

on the huge demand for 

affordable airport parking. 

The Bowes set out to create a 

one-stop shop for travelers in need 

of an affordable place to park their 

car. 

“Almost every person or family 

heading out for vacation is 

looking for ways to save money,” 

Caleb said. “What people sometimes 

forget is the costly parking 

fees. We’ve designed our lot to 

save people money even before 

they leave for vacation.” 

By servicing the parking lot 

with their two other businesses 

— Northwest Town Car Service 

and Northwest Limousine — the 

Bowes are able to offer personalized 

services to their customers, 

while growing their other businesses. 

Whether their customer is 

looking for an affordable place to 

park their car, a quick taxi ride to 

the airport, or a relaxing ride in 

a luxurious town car—I-5 Parking 

offers it all. 

“While most businesses are 

building one step at a time, we’re 

building up our other businesses 

as well,” said Caleb. “We started 

our parking business to grow our 

other businesses, and utilize our 

entire facility to provide more services 

for customers.” 

Although the Bowe’s business 

offers affordable pricing, starting 

at just $2 a day, with the recent 

airport expansion they face stiff 

competition from other airport 

parking lots. 

“What sets us apart from the 

other off-site lots, [besides] cost, 

is the personalized service,” Caleb 

said. 

Caleb argues that most other 

off-site airport parking lots have 

limited hours, only offers shuttle 

services, and are reservation only. 

The Bowe’s, on the other hand, 

offer a more personalized service. 

“We can accommodate any 

flight time, while offering a personal 

taxi, 24 hours a day.” Caleb 

said. 

Their lot, which can accommodate 

upwards of 250 cars, parked 

about 50 cars a day when they 

first opened; now, they park about 

100 cars a day. While this growth 

is a move in the right direction, 

for Caleb it’s not quite enough. 

Caleb’s dream is to offer car 

services and repairs while customers 

are away. 

“When our facility is 

100 percent operational, 

we’ll have a multitude of 

businesses that parking 

customers can use while 

they’re away.” 

–Caleb Bowe 

“In today’s society, every car 

owner is in a hurry or too busy to 

get simple car maintenance done, 

like oil changes and car detailing,” 

Caleb said. “We would love 

to offer other entrepreneurs the 

opportunity to build their business 

at our location.” 

I-5 Airport Parking is housed 

in a 15,000 square foot facility in 

Ferndale that used to be a school. 

The business has about 10,000 

square feet available to lease out 

to other businesses, Caleb said. 

“Ideally, when our facility is 

100 percent operational, we’ll have 

a multitude of businesses that 

parking customers can use while 

they’re away,” he said. 


BP Cherry Point Refinery 

recognizes the dedication it 

takes to make this list. 

CONGRATULATIONS 

2014 Whatcom County Business 

Person of the Year Finalists: 

Start-Up Business of the Year 

I-5 Airport Parking 

Kulshan Brewery 

Red Rokk 

Q-Laundry 

Small Business of the Year 

Rice Insurance 

Scholten Equipment 

Willows Inn 

Innovations Stoves and Spas 


Scott Renne, Blue Sea Systems 

Rick Wilson, Wilson Motors 

Mauri Ingram, Whatcom Community Foundation 

Mike Hoagland, Hoagland Pharmacies 

Lifetime Achievement Award 

Dan Washburn

Start-Up Business of the Year Finalist: Kulshan Brewery 

Chris Noskoff (left), systems manager, and owner David Vitt toast the tastes at Kulshan Brewery in Bellingham. (Photo by Joella Ortega) 

The new brew on the block: 

Kulshan Brewery finds its niche 


There’s no question that 

Pacific Northwesters 

love their fair share of 

craft brews. But when 

the locals go so far as 

to start measuring the 

distance from their front 

doors to the entrance of 

their favorite brewery—all 

for the sake of bragging 

rights—you know you’ve 

come across something 

special. 

Kulshan Brewing Company 

burst onto the Bellingham brew 

scene in April 2012, and has since 

provided for plenty of thirsty 

customers. Between offering nine 

different locally-brewed beers and 

a laid-back atmosphere, Kulshan 

seems like it’s been here for several 

decades—rather than less than 

two years. 

“The response from the local 

community has been astounding,” 

said David Vitt, Co-Owner 

of Kulshan Brewery, located on 

James Street in Bellingham. “We 

have a ton of regulars that come 

in on a daily basis, most of which 

are from the Sunnyland neighborhood.” 

Founding the company on a 

shoestring budget, their life savings, 

and an earnest love of beer, 

the men behind Kulshan pride 

themselves on offering the highest 

quality ales and outstanding customer 

service. When asked what 

inspired Co-Owners David Vitt, 

Mickey Vitt, Jon Greenwood, and 

Ralph Perona to open their brewery, 

David replied: “Simply the 


fact that we love beer.” 

With 12 full-time employees—all 

from Whatcom County—Kulshan is 

a 15-barrel brewery that offers a 

variety of rotating brews, including 

unique options like IPA and 

Kitten Mittens Winter Ale. 

Although Kulshan doesn’t have 

an on-site kitchen, they keep their 

customers well-fed by featuring a 

variety of rotating food trucks that 

set up shop outside the brewery. 

This was a smart choice, David 

said. 

“My father always said: ‘Beer 

has food value, but food does not 

have beer value,’” David said.”I 

think one of the best things I 

didn’t do was open a restaurant.” 

Between wholesale purchases 

and the tap room, Kulshan sells 

about 205 gallons—or 13 kegs—per 

day. Between 2012 and 2013, they 

more than doubled the amount of 

barrels brewed—increasing from 

1,150 to 2,400. With such rapid 

growth, David expects them to hit 

upwards of 3,000 barrels in 2014. 

Much of this success is due to 

their wholesale production. In just 

two years, Kulshan expanded its 

reach to nearly 80 different restaurants 

and stores across Whatcom 

“I took a grungy old 

empty building, made it 

into a living room for the 

neighborhood and put 

people to work with jobs 

they love.” 

–David Vitt 

and Skagit Counties. Customers 

can also take home kegs and 

growlers, as part of their unique 

“growlers to go” program in which 

they clean, sanitize, and refill 

their customer’s growlers using a 

counter-pressure filling machine 

that keeps beer fresh and fizzy for 

weeks, rather than just hours. 

Between steady growth and a 

legion of loyal fans, David said 

one accomplishment outshines the 

rest. 

“I’m most proud of what we’ve 

been able to give back to the community,” 

said David. “Not only 

the donations and fundraisers, but 

also the fact that I took a grungy 

old empty building, made it into a 

living room for the neighborhood 

and put people to work with jobs 

they love.” 

Kulshan is just one part of an 

ever-growing market. The U.S. 

beer market is a $99 billion industry, 

with craft beer taking in over 

$10 billion annually—making it 

the most rapidly growing segment 

of the business. In fact, there are 

more than 2,600 craft breweries 

in the U.S., selling an estimated 

13,235,000 barrels of beer and 

providing more than 108,000 jobs. 

Oltman Insurance would like to welcome 

and introduce Chris Webb as our newest 

insurance professional! 

Serving NW Washington Since 1932 

Stability, Commitment, and 

Personal Service—The Mission 

of Oltman Insurance Yesterday 

and Today. 

Chris is serving both commercial and 

personal clients for their insurance needs 

throughout Whatcom, Skagit, and Island 

Counties. Give Chris a call today! 

Contact us today at www.OltmanInsurance.com 

2417 Meridian, Suite 102 Bellingham • 360-734-3960 


Start-Up Business of the Year Finalist: Q Laundry 

Colleen Unema, owner of Q Laundry, holds a clothes rack in the midst of her eco-friendly 

laundry machines. (Photo by Joella Ortega) 

An entirely new way to do 

laundry: Q Laundry takes 

efficiency and sustainability 

to new heights 


For most people, the 

Laundromat is a dreary 

place known for harsh, 

fluorescent lighting and 

long hours spent staring at 

various stages of the spin 

cycle. 

It’s hardly a place where you’d 

consider ecological sensitivity 

and the latest technology to 

merge, or where you would expect 

impromptu concerts from traveling 

folk musicians. But that’s exactly 

what Colleen Unema, Owner of Q 

Laundry, has created. 

Opening their doors a mere 

10 months ago, in June 2013, Q 

Laundry has turned the idea of the 

average Laundromat on its head. 

“We designed this business to 

be as ecologically smart as possible,” 

Unema said. “From the hot 

water tanks, overhead LED lights, 

air-flow, sunlight—all the way to 

the machines themselves. We did 

everything we could to ensure that 

each washing machine and each 

dryer runs as efficiently as possible.” 

Unema also factored in the 

efficiency of her customer’s time. 

With advanced machines that 

wash and dry in record time, 

Unema says you can wash, dry, 

and fold your clothes all within 

one hour. 

All of her machines also take 

credit and debit cards and can 

sync with smart phones so that 

customers receive a text message 

10 minutes before their load 

finishes. Q Laundry, located on 

Alabama Street in Bellingham, 

also offers free WiFi, mending, 

and minor alterations services, and 

“drop and dash” laundry service. 

After working as a teacher for 

many years and getting her master’s 

degree in Science Education, 

Unema founded the company on a 

loan and her savings, and now has 

eight part-time employees. 

Unema became interested in the 

laundry industry because she saw 

so many opportunities for innova- 


tion. “I kept saying, ‘I will push 

until I find the ‘no go’ in terms of 

equipment, sustainability, finances, 

funding, location, and business 

model,’” Unema said.”I just kept 

researching, studying and pushing 

the envelope.” 

Q Laundry has grown every 

“I kept saying, ‘I will push 

until I find the ‘no go’ 

in terms of equipment, 

sustainability, finances, 

funding, location, 

and business model,’” 

Unema said.”I just kept 

researching, studying and 

pushing the envelope.” 

month and is ahead of forecasts. 

Unema’s goal is to build more Q 

Laundries, and extend her environmentally-friendly 

philosophy to 

new communities. 

More than anything, Unema 

takes sincere pride in her community. 

She said the customer 

response has been “fabulous.” 

Because of this, giving back has 

been a major part of her business 

model. 

“We are proud to be part of the 

community and neighborhood,” 

Unema said. “We donate services 

to Northwest Teen Services and 

various community events, as well 

as sponsor community events, 

like Muds to Suds and Bellingham 

Traverse.” 

Unema also put a locals-first 

policy to work while building the 

Laundromat. 

“This is the laundry that the 

local boys built,” she said. “It was 

incredible to watch all the different 

trades and specialty contractors 

build out the Q—they were all 

vital to this project and I am so 

proud of their work.” 

Meet • Retreat• Dine 

360.756.1005 

The Chrysalis Inn & Spa 

Keenan’s at the Pier 

Me 

3 

Meet • Retreat• Dine 

Me 

360.756.1005 

3 

The Chrysalis Inn & Spa 

Keenan’s at the Pier 


Start-Up Business of the Year Finalist: Red Rokk Interactive 

Owners Tyler Byrd (above) and his wife Ana envisioned creative digital applications to 

marketing and advertising. (Photo courtesy of Red Rokk Interactive) 

Red Rokk: An interactive approach 

to creating a new image 


With technology 

continuously 

evolving, the face of 

business is changing. 

Advertising and marketing 

is moving online and with 

it sales are skyrocketing 

as more people are able 

to connect to different 

markets all over the world 

for their individual needs. 

Red Rokk Inc. is one local business 

that has taken advantage of 

technology by revolving their line 

of work around it. 

Tyler Byrd, Red Rokk CEO and 

president, and Ana Sophia Byrd 

own Red Rokk, which has been in 

business since 2011. 

“We are a full-service marketing 

and advertising agency that 

specializes in developing creative 

digital media campaigns targeted 

“Because we are the 

market, we know the 

market. We live the 

market.” 

towards consumers between the 

ages of 18-40 years old,” Byrd 

said. “This means we do everything 

from marketing strategy to 

video production, website development 

and corporate branding.” 

With Red Rokk being so interactive, 

a majority of their business 

comes from outside of Whatcom 

County, Byrd said. In three years 

of business, Red Rokk has served 

clients all over the world; including 

places such as South Korea 

and Europe. 

“Due to the nature of our 

industry, we tend to work with 

customers across a wide range of 

industries,” Byrd said. “As a young 

company, we really find our niche 

is working with companies that 

market to consumers between the 

ages of 18-40 years old.” 

Red Rokk is comprised of 

employees that fit its demographic, 

Byrd said. Because the company 

aims to reach a younger demographic 

it consists of workers 

within its intended demographic. 

“Because we are the market, we 

know the market,” Byrd said. “We 

live this market. As young professionals, 

we get bombarded every 

day with advertising; we play with 

all the new gadgets entering the 

market and at heart, we are passionately 

creative.” 

This way, Byrd and his employees 

know what consumers are 

interested in, will pay attention to, 

and share. This inside knowledge 

helps Red Rokk achieve customer 

satisfaction, Byrd said. Using analytics, 

the team is able to track 

what is working, what needs to be 

adjusted, and in which areas campaigns 

could improve. 

Even after their success, Red 

Rokk retains its humble philosophy: 

Work hard for your customers 

and they will love you. Though 

Red Rokk has focused on fulfilling 

their customers’ goals, they also 

focus on building the right team 

to bring their clients ideas to fruition. 

“When you have a great team, 

and you work really hard for your 

customers,” Byrd said. “Your customers 

will see that, and appreciate 

it. This leads to not only a 

great portfolio and referrals, but 

also pride in what you do.” 

Choosing the right people for 

the team makes a difference, Byrd 

said. 

And choosing the right people 

has proven effective for Red Rokk. 

With their team they have created 

a successful local business. 

But the adventure doesn’t stop 

there. Over the next five years Red 

Rokk has the goal of making INC 

Magazine’s 500 list, Byrd said. The 

strive for greatness is just beginning. 


Strength in numbers – Nimble in approach 

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Small Business of the Year Finalist: Innovations for Quality Living 

family members serve homeowners, 

home-builders, and contractors 

in Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, 

Island, and Snohomish counties. 

Besides the original Sundance 

Spas, most sales are in new construction. 

Such sales include wood 

burning, gas, electric and pellet 

fireplaces and the largest selection 

of gas, infrared, charcoal and pellet 

BBQ grills and accessories in 


Understanding those customers 

is key to sustaining the business, 

Thramer said. 

“It’s about continuing to follow 

customers’ needs and wants to 

stay successful.” he said. 

But the real accomplishment for 

Jerry was creating something for 

his sons’ families. 

Owner Jerry Thramer (left) stands with his son Ryan Thramer, who serves as treasurer at 

Innovations for Quality Living. (Photo by Joella Ortega) 

It’s all in the name 

A story of innovation, opportunity, and family… Oh yes, and 

hot tubs and fireplaces. 

By Steven Hortegas 

“ 

Innovations” is more 

than the first word in 

the company name. It is a 

way of life for Innovations 

for Quality Living owners 

Jerry and Kathy Thramer. 

Consider how Thramer got his 

first hot tub: “It was the 80s, and 

hot tubs were very popular. But 

Kathy didn’t want one, and the 

company I worked for didn’t want 

to carry them,” he said. “So when 

a spa business offered us the business 

at next to nothing, we purchased 

it and I brought home a 

hot tub on day one.” 

From there it was one innovation, 

opportunity, and family decision 

after the other. 

That $20,000 purchase in 

1989 has grown to more than 

$2 million in retail, wholesale, 

and e-commerce sales per year. 

Thramer credits their real success 

to wife Kathy. “We did not have 

much money in the bank,” he said. 

“When the owner of a motorcycle 

shop on James Street decided to 

retire and offered us the building, 

I was against it, but Kathy pushed 

me. That was a bold step, but it 

gave us a real store. From then 

on, we were more professional and 

visible.” 

Innovations stayed afloat during 

hard economic times by 

purchasing with cash and avoiding 

interest charges. To this day, 

Innovations has still never taken 

on debt. 

“We never had a big boat or 

camper,” Thramer said. “Instead, 

[we] plowed our money back into 

the business.” 

Innovations’ 12 employees and 

“I am not the type of 

person who says I built 

a business and it has to 

stay on forever…But I love 

being here with my sons 

and their families and 

having something where 

they can make a living.” 

–Jerry Thramer 

“I am not the type of person 

who says I built a business and it 

has to [last]forever,” Thramer said. 

“But I love being here with my 

sons and their families, and having 

something they can make a 

living [with].” 

Manager RyanThramer likes it 

too. “We like working with Jerry, 

and enjoy going out to dinner a 

couple times a week as a family.” 

Jerry said he is all about innovating, 

opportunities, and especially 

family. 

“It’s just nice to see everyone, 

every day.” 


Small Business of the Year Finalist: Rice Insurance 

A five-partner ownership group operates the 52-person Rice Insurance group: Owners 

James Fritts (top left) and Roger Chamberlin (top right); (bottom left-to-right) Troy 

Haskell, Greg Gudbranson, and Tim Dickerson. (photo by Joella Ortega) 

Doubling down 

Rice Insurance sustains growth while 

creating local jobs 

By Pam Bauthues 

With sustained growth 

in recent years, Rice 

Insurance LLC doesn’t 

plan on slowing down. 

And they have their work 

cut out for them—with 

the goal of doubling their 

sales in the next five years, 

they plan to keep their 

workforce primarily in 

the Whatcom area while 

expanding business both 

locally and beyond. 

“Our core business is made up 

of both commercial and personal 

insurance and we are historically a 

generalist. Most all of our growth 

outside Whatcom and Skagit 

Counties has been niche business 

in the healthcare, real estate, 

construction, and manufacturing 

industries,” said James Fritts, who 

currently owns Rice Insurance 

along with Greg Gubranson, Tim 

Dickerson, Troy Haskell, and Roger 

Chamberlin. 

Rice Insurance was founded 

as a family business, and now 

involves second-generation family 

members. “Clyde Rice originally 

started this company with the 

intent on serving the people of 

Whatcom County with honesty, 

integrity, and a pursuit of creating 

a better experience for the community,” 

Fritts said. 

Their aggressive, outside-thebox 

growth strategy includes 

workforce growth of over 35 

percent in the past year, which 

generated a need for a main 

office remodel and two additional 

leased spaces. Rice Insurance 

has also added an internship 

program for college students. 

Their first intern was given a job 

directly out of school, and their 

two current interns plan to begin 

work full time after graduation. 

Rice Insurance currently has 52 

employees, 49 of which are local. 

About 80 percent of current 

business is within Whatcom and 

Skagit Counties. However, out-ofstate 

business accounts for about 

25 percent of new business— 

comparable to the amount of new 

business coming from these two 

counties. The other half of new 

business comes from other counties 

in the state of Washington. 

Fritts attributes Rice Insurance’s 

success to their new and existing 

employees’ drive, work ethic, and 

willingness to buy into a culture 

that doesn’t accept complacency. 

“Our goal is to continue to 

expand our presence here 

locally but at the same 

time continue to change 

and innovate so we can 

expand nationally as well.” 

–James Fritts, Partner, Rice Insurance 

“[We] focused on bringing new 

ideas to the insurance industry, 

which at times has lacked the ability 

to accept change, technology, 

and innovation,” Fritts said. 

Moving forward, Rice Insurance 

plans to build off their current 

growth. Within the past year, commercial 

sales grew 30 percent and 

overall sales grew 20 percent. The 

company plans to keep the majority 

of their sales force in Whatcom 

County—creating jobs and sustaining 

a profitable bottom line. 

“Our goal is to continue to 

expand our presence locally, but at 

the same time continue to change 

and innovate so we can expand 

nationally as well,” Fritts said. 


Small Business of the Year Finalist: Scholten’s Equipment 

Duane Scholten, owner, sits behind the wheel of one of the company’s Kubota vehicles in the recently-built shop housing Scholten’s agricultural 

equipment. (Photo by Joella Ortega) 

Building a company from scratch 

Manufacturers award Scholten based on reputation with customers 

By Lydia Love 

Duane Scholten wanted 

to be a farmer. He 

loved driving tractors 

while working at a dairy 

in Sumas. Later in life, he 

began tinkering with the 

equipment and buying and 

selling tractors. According 

to Scholten, the rest is 

history. 

Duane and Arlene Scholten 

started Scholten’s Equipment, Inc. 

in 1980. Today, more than 30 

years later, they have 31 full-time 

employees between their Lynden 

and Burlington facilities, and they 

cater to dairy customers and agricultural 

needs. 

A big achievement for the company 

this past year was finishing 

the new 10,200-square-foot 

building in Lynden, Scholten said. 

The building houses equipment of 

various sizes, acting as a shop for 

merchandise. 

“We had our company dinner in 

it a couple weeks ago,” Scholten 

said. “The spouses were all surprised 

how nice it was for a shop!” 

In 2013, Scholten’s Equipment 

sales grew to $19 million, Scholten 

said. 

“We are more productive today,” 

Scholten said. “Considering we 

are the only dealer in town [who] 

started from scratch and without a 

major line, that sales level is very 

respectful.” 

“In our business if you sell 

five of anything in a year 

you are beaming! In 2005, 

we sold [more than] 90 

mini excavators!” 

–Duane Scholten, President, 

Scholten’s Equipment, Inc. 

At the Burlington location, 

2,250-square-feet has been added 

to the space since 2004. That 

facility is now 7,500-square-feet 

covering four acres, Scholten said. 


With their space growing, the 

company is able to reach more 

customers. 

The customer base for 

Scholten’s Equipment, Inc. remains 

mostly in Whatcom and Skagit 

Counties, but the company’s reach 

extends farther. 

“We have significant customer 

numbers in lower B.C., Northwest 

Oregon, and Eastern Washington,” 

Scholten said.“Wherever there are 

pockets of dairy farmers.” 

One of the proudest achievements 

the company has seen so 

far is the product lines they’ve 

been awarded to carry, Scholten 

said. Other dealers want to carry 

products from lines like Kubota, 

JCB, and Claas, but Scholten’s 

Equipment, Inc. was awarded the 

lines based on their reputation 

with customers. 

“That was a huge feather in our 

cap and still is,” Scholten said. 

Claas is a German agricultural 

equipment company that had no 

presence in the area until they 

started carrying the line in 2004, 

Scholten said. Claas has since been 

one of their best-selling products, 

accounting for 80 percent market 

share in 2011, Scholten said. 

Kubota equipment was new 

to North America as well, and 

Scholten said they jumped in with 

both feet. 

“You have to understand, in our 

business if you sell five of anything 

in a year you are beaming,” 

he said.“In 2005, we sold [more 

than] 90 mini excavators.” 

In 1980, Scholten started 

the company with nothing. He 

received his first loan from Rainier 

Bank in Lynden and paid more 

than 20 percent interest rate. From 

nothing, they now have more than 

9,000 customers on their mailing 

list from the U.S. and Canada. 

“It appears 2014 is going to 

be very good for us,” Scholten 

said.“Milk prices are at all-time 

highs, [and] feed prices are lower; 

2014 should be a record year for 

us.” 

AFTER 50 YEARS, WE’RE 

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ABOUT NUMBERS 

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More than a financial and tax compliance firm, 

we play an active role in helping small to 

medium sized businesses turn opportunities into 

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Give us a call so we can get 

excited about your numbers! 

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in print and digital 

Call Randall Sheriff at 360-746-0417 

or email randall@businesspulse.com 

MAGAZINE 



Small Business of the Year Finalist: The Willows Inn on Lummi Island 

Award-winning Chef Blaine Wetzel (left) and Managing Partner John Gibb have created nationwide appeal for a getaway and premier 

dining experience. (Staff Photo) 

Willows Inn places Lummi Island, Whatcom 

County in national spotlight with a $3 million 

year and stack of awards 

By Business Pulse Staff 

Last year the Willows 

Inn on Lummi Island 

and its widely-acclaimed 

restaurant attracted more 

than 3,000 guests and 

grossed almost $3 million 

– up from about $2.67 

million in 2012. Moreover, 

The Willows Inn likely 

received more national 

(and some international) 

media attention than 

any other attraction in 

Whatcom County, except 

perhaps Mt. Baker. 

While revenue rose into the 

black, the company’s managing 

partner, John Gibb, said the 

horizon looks even sunnier. “Our 

advanced bookings are up 35 percent 

over last year,” he said. “After 

significant growth last year, we 

expect to top $3 million this year. 

“We have saved a legacy (the 

inn is 104 years old) and created 

more than 40 jobs.” 

This occurred over just a twoyear 

period since Gibb, the head 

chef Blaine Wetzel, and an investment 

group kept the doors open in 

November 2011 by purchasing the 

Willows Inn. The business soared 

on the impetus from numerous 

consecutive press raves, jumpstarted 

by The New York Times 

listing the restaurant as one of 10 

places in the world worth flying to 

for dinner. 

Every food specialty publication 

of note – Travel & Leisure, 

Conde Nast, Bon Appetit, Food & 

Wine, et al – and all the major 

travel, recreation, and dining sites 

on the Internet, a list too long for 


this space, and specialty publications 

Modern Farmer and Outdoor 

Magazine have printed glowing 

articles and rankings of No. 1 this, 

and Top 10 that. 

What’s all the fuss about? Food 

and Wine named Wetzel, 28, a 

Top New Chef in 2012 and last 

month he became a semifinalist 

as a Rising Star Chef (chefs under 

30) in the most prestigious recognition 

bestowed in the industry, 

the James Beard Award – for the 

fourth year in a row. (Last year he 

advanced as one of five nominees 

for that award.) 

All this for Wetzel’s creations 

for a once-a-night seating of less 

than 40, counting a 10-seat private 

dining room, in a tiny old 

inn on a tiny island (pop. about 

900) at $165 a person for a farmto-table 

array of 15 to sometimes 

more than 20 servings. 

Wetzel and Gibb are ownership 

partners in the inn’s operations 

that include two other Lummi 

Island eateries, the Beach Store 

Café and the Taproot Café. 

“A group of families were concerned 

that this long-time, iconic 

local business would close,” Gibb 

said, “and an emerging good story 

“We saved a legacy…. 

took over a business losing 

half-a-million, retained 

the jobs (44), retained and 

enhanced the reputation, 

while turning it around 

and making it profitable.” 

–John Gibb, co-owner/managing partner, 

The Willows Inn on Lummi Island 

(the arrival of Blaine as a chef in 

his 20s from the world’s top-rated 

restaurant, Noma in Copenhagen, 

Denmark) and many jobs would be 

lost in Whatcom County.” 

He described the situation thus: 

“We took over a business losing 

half-a-million, we retained the 

jobs (44 employees currently), and 

retained and enhanced the reputation, 

while turning it around and 

making it profitable. We didn’t 

slash costs or employees, and in 

fact did exactly the opposite, and 

that’s very difficult to do in this 

business.” 

Though visitors come largely 

from afar, The Willows Inn 

remains loyal in every way possible 

to the island community where 

most of the employees reside. The 

restaurants all have contributed 

to island nonprofit organizations, 

such as the Boys & Girls Club, the 

Grange, the Heritage Land Trust, 

and others. 

To expand business, Gibb said, 

the staff will create a new line of 

food goods in the Taproot and gift 

shop. “Our own amenities, complementary 

to our theme,” he said, 

“such as canned and preserved 

items that maximize what the 

island and county have to offer.” 


Lifetime Achievement Award: Dan Washburn, CEO, Windermere Real Estate/Whatcom 

Dan Washburn at his desk on West Bakerview in Bellingham, the home office for Windermere Real Estate in the county. 

The guiding credo for a sterling career: 

Family first, business second 

Article & photos by Mike McKenzie 

Dan Washburn, highly 

pleased about an 

impulsive trip to New 

Jersey he’d just come back 

from, placed some of the 

blue-and-green swag from 

that trip on his desk for 

a photo shoot. Seahawks’ 

stuff. 

He grew up in Seattle, lived 

and worked in that area until 

purchasing the Bellingham/ 

Whatcom County agency rights 

for Windermere Real Estate in 

1995, and he holds season tickets. 

He and a friend, after having sold 

their Super Bowl tickets, couldn’t 

resist the lure of the possibilities 

that became reality. 

They went on line and found 

flights three days before kickoff, 

and tickets in the end zone 

seats toward which the first 

snap of the game sailed over 

Peyton Manning’s head and into 

Seahawks’ lore forevermore. 

Impulsive fun fits into 

Washburn’s family-centered life 

style, involving his three children 

and 11 grandchildren with his wife 

of 47 years and business partner, 

Sharon. 

But strategic planning, Servant 

Leadership style, and methodical 

growth initiatives surface in an 

X-ray of his record of business 

success and community service. 

On an earlier day at his 

desk in the 10,000-square-foot 

Windermere spread on West 


Washburn Box Score: 

Dan Washburn, Owner, Windermere Real Estate/Whatcom 

Track record: 

• University of Washington (’67), 

Accounting 

• 1974-’79 IBM 

• 1979-‘91: Exec. VP/equity partner, 

William Dieriekx Co., office machines, 

that grew from 20-25 employees and 

approx. $3M annual sales to 400-plus 

employees and $60M-$70M. Sold to 

IKON (’86). 

• 1991-’94: Co-owner/CEO, Image Tech, 

copy machine distributor. Sold to 

Ricoh. 

• 1995-present: , Windermere Real 

Estate for Bellingham/Whatcom 

County, grown from approx. 25 agents 

and 5 percent market share to around 

150 agents and nearly 40 percent 

market share in dollar volume, with 

almost $700M in sales last year. 

• Windermere dominates both 

commercial and home markets, and 

also includes a property management 

division. Last year about 900 homes 

sold in Whatcom County at $400,000 

or more; Windermere sold about 48 

percent of those. 

Professional and community: 

Past President of Realtors Assoc.; past 

Board of Directors and present Board 

of Governors, Whatcom Boys & Girls 

Clubs; Windermere community service 

day annually; Windermere Foundation 

($30,000 distributed last year); Hospice 

and PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center; 

Young Life; Northlake Community Church, 

with main causes of children, shelter and 

care for single mothers and their children. 

Business philosophies: 

“We’re built on God, family, and team 

principles. We’re a business on the ascent 

with a fairly aggressive growth model. 

Everybody wants to be on the winning team 

and make a good income. Our management 

style (follows) the principle of Servant 

Leadership…we in management serve those 

who best influence the customer experience 

– our front office staff, and our agents. 

They are our (management’s) customers.” 

The Windermere Way: 

“You’ll never see us advertise being No. 1. 

We just go about being No. 1. No charts, 

no contests, no ‘agent of the month’….we 

never recognize one agent at the expense 

of another. That fosters an atmosphere 

of sharing among our agents. (And) We 

focus on giving back to the community, 

corporately and individually.” 

Bakerview Road in Bellingham, 

he spoke of values and operating 

principles that foster positive relationships 

and results with family, 

staff, affiliated sales agents, customers, 

and community. 

Washburn’s achievements in 

business over the last four decades 

mounted around ownership stakes 

in three businesses, including the 

Windermere agency hereabouts 

during the last 19 years. Just as he 

has with Windermere, Washburn 

guided the other two small companies 

to exceptional performance 

levels – both within the office 

machines industry in hometown 

Seattle – and then sold them to 

huge corporations. 

Planned, purposeful. 

But impulse has had its place, 

too. He shared two quick-decision 

business transactions that became 

fundamental lessons early on for 

his operational methods in dealing 

with customers. They took 

place within a few weeks of each 

other when he was a partner and 

 

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executive officer with the William 

Dierickx Company that eventually 

sold to IKON Office Solutions (Pa.) 

during the mid-‘80s. 

The positive lesson, of his telling: 

“We were small, like 20-25 

employees, about $3 million in 

annual sales, and growing. At a 

time when Xerox would only sell 

to smaller companies, and would 

lease only to big companies, a little 

company in Bellevue with eight 

employees was just getting started 

and wanted to rent its office 

machines. Xerox had a monopoly 

on plain paper copiers, but their 

patent had run out…(and) we 

were getting in on the revolution, 

the Japanese invasion of Canon, 

Ricoh, Minolta, Sharp. 

next decade we were the exclusive 

office equipment sales and maintenance 

company for Microsoft. We 

sold them thousands of copiers, 

and then when fax machines came 

in, we sold them thousands of fax 

machines.” 

Barely a couple of weeks later, 

the negative lesson: 

“This little company in Kent 

bought one of our first plain-paper 

copiers, a Canon 200. About three 

months later, Canon nationally ran 

a promotion (for) a $200 rebate. 

“That was a manufacturer’s 

inducement to sell new copiers 

(and) receive the $200 to pass 

along to the customer. I get a call 

from this gentleman who said, ‘Mr. 

Washburn, I saw in the newspaper 

where I’m entitled to a $200 rebate 

for the copier we just recently purchased.’ 

“I told him, ‘If you were to 

order a copier now, I could put 

the serial number down for sales 

beginning now, but not for a sale 

three months ago.’ 

“(At) IBM, I learned about 

their whole environment. 

Turns out, it’s where I 

felt I fit best. It’s funny, 

friends said, ‘You’ll have to 

wear dark suits and white 

shirts and neckties.’ I said, 

‘Yeah, good – I love that.’ 

—Dan Washburn, CEO of Windermere Real 

Estate in Bellingham/Whatcom County 

“We decided, OK, let’s do it. 

I went to a stationery store and 

bought some rental contract forms, 

pasted our logo on one, and ran a 

copy of it. We put in some dollar 

figures, and as our sales manager 

was going out the door, I said, 

‘Make sure that the owner signs 

this, that he’s guaranteeing that 

we’re going to get paid.’ 

“Turns out, that owner was a 

25-year-old named Bill Gates.” 

“We had no idea who Bill Gates 

was, or Microsoft, but because 

Xerox stiffed him and our company 

honored that agreement, for the 


Sharon and Dan Washburn on career planning: “It’s always 

been focused on continuity for our family.” 

“And he said, ‘Well, Mr. 

Washburn, you have a decision to 

make. You can give us $200, or we 

won’t do business in the future.’ I 

told him that I’d love to, but we 

didn’t have the $200 to do that. 

“This turns out to be Howard 

Lincoln.” 

Lincoln was the CEO of 

Nintendo USA. Now he’s the 

chairman and CEO of the Seattle 

Mariners baseball team. “That 

$200 was a big deal for our little 

company just starting out; it made 

sense to me, and it didn’t make 

sense to this guy who was pushing 

me. But I’ve never made that mistake 

again.” 

When Washburn graduated 

from the University of Washington 

in accounting, he had no foreshadowing 

of his eventual business 

career. IBM altered his path. 

“At first thought I’d be a CPA 

(certified public accountant),” he 

said. “As I was interviewing for 

that and thinking about a career, I 

interviewed with IBM and learned 

about their whole environment. 

Turns out, it’s where I 

felt I fit best.” 

He said friends kidded 

him about having 

to wear dark suits and 

white shirts and neckties. 

“I said, ‘Yeah, 

good – I love that.’ 

Plus, it was a great 

place to learn your 

trade, and learn how 

to sell in a very professional, 

relationshiporiented 

approach at 

the highest level.” 

IBM would have 

paved his way to 

corporate management, 

he said if he’d 

been willing to move 

around the country. 

For example, they 

offered him a position 

in Buffalo, N.Y. 

“My wife,” he said, 

“told me, ‘Fine, if you 

want to do that, but 

it’s going to be a long commute 

for you.’ Early in our marriage we 

learned to make decisions through 

discussion and mutual agreement. 

We agreed it was best to keep our 

family in Seattle. As far as a business 

or career plan, it’s always 

been focused on continuity for our 

family.” 

After five years at IBM he 

accepted an equity position with 

a printing firm William Dierickx 

Company in 1979. It flourished on 

Canon’s back in the copier market, 

and in 1986 an East Coast corporation 

bought it and renamed it 

IKON. Washburn stayed on, and 

during his 12 years with the company 

the staff grew to exceed 400, 

and sales mounted to a $60-$70 

million peak, he said. 

Another partnership opportunity 

arose with an established small 

company that the group renamed 

Image Tech, a photo-copy machine 

distributor, with a goal of growing 

it. About four years in, Ricoh 

bought it in 1994. 

By then, the Washburns had 

empty-nest syndrome, and felt a 

pull towards Bellingham. It was 

familiar turf, as both daughters 

and their son had graduated from 

Western. Plus Dan had attended 

one year there, and the area later 

had been part of his IBM territory. 

Their oldest daughter married 

a Bellingham policeman, and the 

first of 11 Washburn grandchildren 

was born here. So, logically, 

with the family plan leading the 

business plan, Washburn sought 

a way to start anew here. He 

met Jim Shapiro, the president 

Dan Washburn made two 

decisions early in his first 

business that taught him 

strong lessons. Both were 

in dealings with young, 

small business owners 

named Gates and Lincoln. 

One ended very well, one 

not so much. 

of Windermere’s Seattle-based 

regional real estate giant, who 

introduced him to multiple-agency 

owner Craig Shriner. He had the 

Windermere rights to Whatcom 

County. Washburn bought threefourths 

of that franchise in 1995, 

and the rest in `99. 

Statistically, the spread of local 

Windermere from its home in 

Bellingham to four other locations 

– sales agencies in Fairhaven, 

Blaine, and Lynden, and an outlet 

in Bellis Fair Mall – as this 

region’s real estate leader reveals 

a remarkable story. Steadily it has 

carved out the highest numbers in 

the industry. (See boxed insert) 

But big numbers, always 

impressive, don’t do justice to 

the larger story of the culture 

within and the outreach of the 



Windermere operations. Both individually 

and collectively, reflective 

of both the parent company’s 

and Washburn’s core values, 

Windermere lends high energy 

and dollars to causes for homeless, 

single mothers, and children 

throughout the county. And, the 

Windermere Foundation flourishes 

through receiving a percentage of 

every home sales commission. 

Washburn’s children became 

involved in Young Life while 

in school, and Dan has been 

involved neck-deep in that organization, 

as well as Boys & Girls 

Clubs of America. He’s served 

on the Whatcom Clubs’ board 

of directors, and now sits on the 

fund-raising Board of Governors. 

And, the Washburns are active 

with many activities in hospice, 

PeaceHealth St. Joseph 

Medical Center, and at Northlake 

Community Church. 

“Sharon and I have always 

done things together,” Dan said. 

“In this business we’re co-owners. 

She’s not a real-estate agent, 

but she’s always taking care of 

things around the office, taking 

care of staff, and the like.” The 

Washburn’s son, Rob, and oldest 

daughter, Danielle, have a role in 

the family’s Windermere operation. 

The youngest daughter, Deidre, 

resides in Carnation, Wash. 

The impression clearly is that, 

as foreign as real estate was to 

Dan Washburn, the somewhatimpulsive 

plunge into it has 

worked to near perfection. 

“We looked at different opportunities, 

some retail, but nothing 

really matched what I could bring 

to the table in expertise until this,” 

Washburn said. “Even though 

I’d never sold real estate, I’d run 

sales organizations. It’s the same, 

really – dealing with sales people 

creatively, setting a platform for 

success, marketing, motivating and 

leading. I felt I could add value.” 

Planned and purposefully… 

During Washburn’s 17 years with Windermere, the business has sold more than 17,000 

homes in excess of $6 billion – more than double the next real-estate competitor in the 

county in both categories. 

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CHEERS & 

CONGRATULATIONS 

to all of the 

2014 WBA & BusinessPulse 

Nominees and Winners !

Where Are They Now? 

Since then he has remained 

as the president of Barkley 

Company and he said it was 

an honor receiving his past 

award. 

Retirement may be in 

the not-so-distant future 

for Kochman but it’s still at 

least seven to 10 years away, 

if not longer, he said. 

“The success of Barkley 

Village has a lot to do with 

pursuing opportunity when 

it presents itself and getting 

support from key partners in 

executing a plan,” Kochman 

said. “We have done a good 

job of this and it is something 

I hope to see us continue 

to do.” 

Jeff Kochman (left) of Barkley Company, the 2012 Business Person of the Year, and Tony 

Larson of the Whatcom Business Alliance. (Staff Photo) 

Where are they now? 

Catching up with some 

past winners 


As we enter the 28th 

year of the Whatcom 

County Business Person 

of the Year Awards, we 

thought it would be 

interesting to follow up 

with some of the previous 

Whatcom County business 

award winners in different 

categories to see what they 

are doing now. Following 

are some highlights from 

our conversations with past 

winners. 

Jeff Kochman, Barkley 

Company, Business 

Person of the Year 

2011 

Jeff Kochman has been the head 

of the Barkley Company for 17 

years. 

“Barkley Company develops 

and manages Barkley Village,” 

Kochman said. “[It] also provides 

support of various local nonprofit 

organizations.” 

Kochman received the Business 

Person of the Year award in 2011. 

Gary’s Men’s & 

Women’s Wear 

In 1995 Gary’s Men’s 

& Women’s Wear won the 


award. 

“That helped recognize 

us as a locally owned, small business,” 

said Gary Lupo, owner of 

Gary’s Men’s & Women’s Wear. 

“That award helped us continue 

what we had already worked very 

hard to establish.” 

Lupo and his wife, Barbara, 

have owned their retail store for 

36 years. The couple has considered 

retirement but Gary Lupo said 

they enjoy what they do too much 

to leave their business behind. 

“We’re closer to the end of our 

run than we are to the middle 

of our run,” he said. “It’s in the 

future but it’s not tomorrow. It’s 

important we have a place to go 

in the community, we like what 

we do, and we think it’s valuable.” 

Through the business Lupo has 

gained friends in the Whatcom 

community – customers that Lupo 

said he’s been selling to for his 

entire 36 years in the business. 

“It’s important to be trusted. We 

like what we do and we like being 

a part of people’s clothing lives.” 


Gary’s clothing store in downtown Bellingham was the Small Business of the Year almost 

two decades ago, and since has added top-brand women’s wear to the original men’s lines. 

(Staff Photo) 

If an 18 year old penniless 

immigrant can dream big 

you can too. 

LaserPoint Awards & 

Promotional Solutions, 

Start-Up Business of 

the Year 1997 

In 1997 when LaserPoint 

Awards & Promotional Solutions 

took home the start-up award the 

Kathy and Randy Cross’s Start-Up of the 

Year 17 years ago, Laser Point Awards, has 

blossomed to a customer list exceeding 

400 a year. 

(Photo courtesy of Laser Point Awards) 

company had only a few customers 

making up a small amount 

of accounts, owner Randy Cross 

said. Now, LaserPoint has grown 

to more than 400 customers annually. 

“We are a full-service promotional 

company,” Cross said. 

“Promotional products of every 

kind, style for branding and promotion 

for any business, organization, 

or club.” 

Though their accounts have 

skyrocketed since the time of their 

award, Cross intends to continue 

growing the business. 

For Cross and his wife, Kathy, 

winning the award meant more 

than just honor and recognition; it 

was a validation of all the struggle 

they had put into their business. 

“Our hard work was validated 

by our community,” Cross said. 

“This award gave us credibility. 

It was a big boost to us as a new 

venture.” 

With the huge load of orders 

and customers, Randy and Kathy 

still strive to remain humble and 

level-headed as they look back at 

what brought them success. 

“Kathy and I want to thank 

all of our wonderful customers 

This book traces the business journey 

of well known local business man Sid 

Baron from his childhood to the 

present. Having lived in Whatcom 

County all of his adult life Baron has 

started many businesses including 

radio station KLYN-FM (now KWPZ), 

cofounded Exxel Pacific Construction 

and others. In March of 2008 he was 

awarded the coveted Lifetime 

Achievement Award by Business Pulse 

Magazine. 

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Rud Browne (File Photo) 

who have continued to support 

us through 17 years,” Cross said, 

adding that they look forward to 

another decade with the Whatcom 

community. 

Rud Browne, Ryzex Inc., 


Year 2004 

Ryzex began in newly elected 

Whatcom County Council member 

Rud Browne’s apartment in 

1989. It grew into a multinational, 

mobile technologies solution company 

that operated in five different 

countries. 

Ryzex grew from zero to $7 

million in annual revenue and 

created a grand total of 360 jobs, 

with 140 of those positions based 

in Whatcom County, Browne 

said. Due to his professional 

accomplishment, Browne won the 

Business Person of the Year award 

in 2004. 

Browne sold Ryzex in 2011 to 

Peak Technologies; the combination 

company is now known as 

Peak-Ryzex and has operations in 

multiple markets. But just because 

Browne sold Ryzex doesn’t mean 

he stopped creating jobs for himself 

or Whatcom County. 

“I am currently the founder and 

CEO of Ryanna LLC,” Browne said. 

Ty McClellan co-owns the family business Hardware Sales, the Small Business award-winner 

in 1997, along with his retired aunt, Ladonna George, and Ty’s father, Jerry, who still 

works part-time at the iconic Bellingham store. (Staff Photo) 

“It’s a local company focused on 

supporting other entrepreneurs 

and innovative business models.” 

Browne said winning the award 

was one of the highlights of his 

career. 

“Winning the award raised our 

profile locally,” Browne said. “I 

hope to be able to bring my experience 

in business to my new role 

as a Whatcom County Council 

member, and help others living in 

our wonderful community achieve 

their dreams as well.” 

Stowe Talbot for 

Jim Talbot, Lifetime 

Achievement Award in 

1998 

Jim Talbot won the Lifetime 

Achievement Award in 1998 for 

his work with Bellingham Cold 

Storage and Talbot Industries. He 

was unavailable for comment, and 

Stowe Talbot, his son, answered 

interview questions in his place. 

“I think the award got people 

interested in what Jim and his 

father had accomplished for 

Bellingham since the 1940s.” 

Stowe Talbot said. “Both 

Bellingham Cold Storage and 

Barkley Village have continued to 

grow and prosper.” 

In recent years Jim was diagnosed 

with Alzheimer’s Disease. He 

has been in a memory care facility 

in Bellingham since 2007. He 

passed the company to his son and 

daughter, Stowe and Jane Talbot, 

in 2000. He remained involved 

with the company for the next few 

years. 

“The award was especially gratifying 

to him because it acknowledged 

his contributions to this 

community, for which he cared so 

much,” Stowe said. “I was happy 

that he received that recognition.” 


Award Winners History 


1986 Don Haggen, Haggen Foods 

1987 Dick Metcalf, Metcalf Hodges 

1988 Mike Brennan, Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce 

1989 Fielding Formway, Arco Cherry Point 

1990 Hal Arnason Jr., Arnason Realtors 

1991 Sid Baron, Exxel Pacific 

1992 Jim Wynstra, Homestead, Inc. 

1993 Don Stern, Homax, Inc. 

1994 Jody Bergsma, Bergsma Galleries 

1995 Jim Frederick, Intalco Aluminum 

1996 Peggy Zoro, Key Bank 

1997 Glenn Butler, Arco Cherry Point Refinery 

1998 Dean Shintaffer, Sound Beverage 

1999 Craig Cole, Brown and Cole Foods 

2000 Peter Paulson, Hotel Bellwether 

2001 Ray Caldwell, Little Caesars Pizza 

2002 Elizabeth Grant, Stewart Title 

2003 Larry Wickkiser, Airporter Shuttle 

2004 Rud Browne, Ryzex, Inc. 

2005 Nick Kaiser Saturna Capital 

2006 Larry Weiber, Aluminum Chambered Boats 

2007 Dale Henley, Haggen Foods 

2008 Scott Walker, Walkers Carpet 

2009 Wes Herman, Woods Coffee 

2010 John Ferlin, Brooks Manufacturing 

2011 Jeff Kochman, Barkley Company 

2012 Bob Pritchett, Logos Bible Software 

2013 ??? 


1990 Lehmann and Sons 

1991 Ferndale Drug 

1992 Il Fiasco 

1993 International Athletic 

1994 Louis Auto Glass 

1995 Gary’s Clothing 

1996 Office Systems Northwest 

1997 Hardware Sales 

1998 Bakerview Nursery 

1999 Bellingham Travel and Cruise 

2000 McEvoy Oil 

2001 Northwest Propane 

2002 Brenthaven 

2003 Absorption Corporation 

2004 Andgar 

2005 Northwest Computer 

2006 Brambleberry 

2007 Dewaard & Bode 

2008 Credo Construction 

2009 Fastcap 

2010 Avenue Bread Company 

2011 Chuckanut Bay Foods 

2012 Vital Choice Seafood 

2013 ??? 

Start-Up Business of the Year 

1994 Bagel Factory 

1995 Northwood Hall 

1996 Merry Maids 

1997 Laserpoint Awards 

1998 Pastazza 

1999 Laserjamb 

2000 Siscosoft 

2001 Chrysalis Inn and Spa 

2002 Nuthouse Grill 

2003 Aluminum Chambered Boats 

2004 Emergency Reporting 

2005 K&K Industries 

2006 Fairhaven Candy Company 

2007 Big Fat Fish Company 

20 08 Tatango 

2009 Reset Games 

2010 Fat Cat Fish Company 

2011 Infusion Solutions 

2012 Next Level Training 

2013 ??? 

Whatcom Business Lifetime Achievement Awards 

1990 David Morse, Morse Hardware 

1991 Hank Jansen, Lynden Transport 

1992 Jack Cole, Brown and Cole, Inc. 

1993 Red Haskell, Haskell Corporation 

1994 Ira Yeager, Yeager’s Sporting Goods 

1995 Ivor Allsop, Allsop, Inc. 

1996 Chuck Wilder, Wilder Construction, Inc. 

1997 Irwin LeCocq, Peoples Bank 

1998 Jim Talbot, Bellingham Cold Storage, Barkley, Inc., Talbot 

Industries 

1999 Ann Jones, KGMI, KISM Radio 

2000 Brian Griffin, Unity Insurance 

2001 Don Haggen, Haggen Foods 

2002 Alta McClellan, Hardware Sales 

2003 Harold Walton, Walton Beverage 

2004 Bob Diehl, Diehl Ford 

2005 Hal Arnason Jr., Arnason-Miller Real Estate 

2006 Ken Imus, Jacaranda Corp 

2007 Jerry Chambers, Chambers Chevrolet 

2008 Sid Baron, Exxel Pacific 

2009 Jack Westford, Westford Funeral 

Homes 

2010 Dick Hempler, Hempler Meats 

2011 Frank Imhof, IMCO Construction 

2012 Nick Kaiser, Saturna Capital 

2013 Dan Washburn, Windermere 

Real Estate 


OF THE YEAR 



Small Business of the 

Year award: Hardware 

Sales 1997 

Ty McClellan is vice president 

of Hardware Sales, a family-owned 

company that Bellingham has 

been home to for more than 50 

years. 

“Things have changed dramatically 

with technology,” McClellan 

said. “We have expanded into selling 

online. With online sales we 

can sell all over the world, [giving] 

us greater buying power.” 

McClellan took over for his 

father and became vice president 

of the company. He and his family 

have no intention of selling the 

company and Ty has no intention 

of retiring anytime soon. 

“We’ve got some lifelong goals 

to build the company,” McClellan 

said. “We’re having fun while 

doing it and we’re going to continue 

to grow.” 

Despite now having a successful 

online presence, Hardware Sales 

was one of the few companies 

that didn’t instantly cling to the 

technological revolution. “We were 

one of the last companies to get a 

computer,” McClellan said. 

He still looks fondly upon 

receiving Small Business of Year 

award 17 years ago. “It was quite 

an honor being recognized by 

the community,” McClellan said. 

“There are a lot of businesses out 

there to choose from and for us it 

was absolutely incredible.” 

He said that his family is proud 

to remain family-owned and local 

to the Bellingham community. 

the Chrysalis Inn & 

Spa: Start-Up Business 

of the year 2001 

The Chrysalis Inn & Spa opened 

in April of 2001. Since the business 

began, the surrounding area 

has changed dramatically. The 

boardwalk has been built and a 

restaurant has been added to the 

Chrysalis. 

“The hotel consists of a spa and 

restaurant,” owner Mike Keenan 

said. “[There are] 128 employed. In 

the spa alone we’ve contributed a 

lot in jobs and over $600,000 [into 

the local economy] between sales 

and lodging tax.” 

Keenan said that 2013 has been 

the best year for the Chrysalis 

since their opening. Fairhaven 

traffic has increased the Chrysalis’ 

customer base, and liquor was 

added to the menu options in the 

restaurant. 

“I’m not going to retire yet,” 

Keenan said. “I still enjoy business 

here and I have young kids 

at home so I don’t want to leave 

town.” 

The Chrysalis is going well and 

continuing to build itself up, as 

2013 demonstrated. “We’re not in 

business to win awards,” Keenan 

said. “If they come along it means 

we’re doing something right. 

Business is rewarding, that’s why 

we do it.” 

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Industry Report – Golf In Whatcom County 

Golf courses 

in Whatcom 

County report 

upward trends 

The Canadian dollar boosts play, 

grow-the-game initiatives aim to 

keep revenues rising 

By Mike McKenzie

Photo courtesy of Sudden Valley Golf & Country Club


Golf season in Whatcom 

County will soon 

awaken to Daylight 

Savings Time, to warmer 

weather, and to heavy 

traffic on tee boxes, 

fairways, greens, carved 

dunes, and places out-ofbounds. 

A good time to ask: How’s business? 

The county is full-bloom with 

golf courses. A baker’s dozen 

courses criss-cross various meadows 

and ex-farm or ranch land 

and forests and housing developments 

around the county. Many 

get high praise from publications 

that deem to rate golf courses. 

But, are all 12 faring well? 

Odds run against them in two 

ways: generally, nationally, recreational 

golf is in a slump; locally, 

supply often exceeds demand. (A 

number surfaces from somewhere 

that compares Whatcom County 

golf to King County golf. One hole 

for every 750 residents here; One 

for every 1600 there.) 

A visit with some of the local 

courses produced reports of 

upward revenue trends and forecasts 

and lots of optimism about 

golfers reinvigorating the sport 

hereabouts, with a boost from 

creative marketing to kids, young 

execs, women, seniors, and disabled. 


Nationwide, initiatives fly 

around like wild tee shots. At the 

annual trade show for the industry 

in Orlando, Fla., to start this year 

equipment manufacturing giant 

Taylor Made put up $5 million 

toward discovery of innovative 

ways for golf course operations 

to attract more golfers back to 

the game. Taylor Made CEO Mark 

King said, “Our game lacks innovation….new 

ideas, new motivations, 

new reasons to get off the 

couch and play the game.” 

In the Wall Street Journal 

recently, golf columnist John 

Paul Newport wrote: “At the U.S. 

Golf Association’s annual meeting 

(in Pinehurst, N.C.) incoming 

President Thomas O’Toole Jr. sent 

a good portion of his inaugural 

remarks….(on) the desire of the 

USGA to address some pressing 

problems, in particular the slow 

leakage in the number of golfers.” 

Whatcom teaching pros 

have revamped their junior 

programs and tee boxes 

to wake up the younger 

set to the perceived joys 

of golf, as well as other 

players who cannot smash 

the ball a mile. 

The CEO of the National Golf 

Foundation, Joe Beditz, cited that 

the number of players between the 

ages of 18-34 is down 30 percent 

from a peak in the 1980s, dropping 

from approximations of 30 

million to 20 million in about 25 

years. 

The prevailing problems, all 

seen somewhere in Whatcom 

County’s golf landscape: too many 

courses, fast greens, slow play, 

and a dearth of places for kids and 

other beginners to have affordable 

fun while learning the game. 

In asking around, we heard 

many possible solutions to attract 

customers and enhance business: 

“Dumb down” the courses. Shorter 

tee boxes for kids, other beginners, 

women, seniors, and disabled 

players. Changes in course maintenance 

and turf management 

(larger, less-treacherous greens, 

less watering and other resources), 

changes in handicapping, alternative 

equipment choices, improving 

the pace of play. 

O’Toole said in his speech, “The 

game has a significant legacy of 

exclusion and elitism that we must 

collectively work to overcome.” 

Locally, one thing rang clearly 

in responses from the persons running 

the operations – O, Canada is 

an anthem for Whatcom County 

golf as well as the neighboring 

nation. Even with the Canadian 

dollar wobbling a bit, golfers 

directly north know a bargain 

when they see one. 

We know this commonly 

because of long lines of B.C. 

citizens purchasing gas, milk, and 

other commodities. The same goes 

for golf on the cheap. Especially at 

the public courses, and especially 

at those closest to the border – 

upward to 80 percent of business 

at Dakota Creek Golf Club, a chip 

shot south of the Blaine crossing. 

Brian Kruhlak, director of 

golf at Sudden Valley, himself a 

Canadian who competed on scholarship 

for the University of British 

Columbia, said that golf up there 

is “more expensive and less supplied.” 

About half of his communityowned, 

semi-private club memberships 

belong to Canadians, 

and about 60 percent of daily 

play comprises Canadian golfers. 

“Customer service is another 

thing better for them down here,” 

Kruhlak said. “I’ve experienced it, 

and we hear it all the time from 

friends up there in the golf business. 

It’s the culture and environment. 

The game is a bit more 

stodgy in Canada, stemming from 

the heritage of its roots in Great 

Britain.” 

Kruhlak also addressed the bigger 

picture of Whatcom County

experiencing the same problem 

as nationally – over-saturation. 

“During the early-to-mid-‘90s, we 

were adding 400 courses a year,” 

Kruhlak said. “The National Golf 

Foundation had put out the word 

O, Canada is an anthem 

for Whatcom County golf 

as well as the neighboring 

nation. Even with the 

Canadian dollar wobbling 

a bit, golfers directly north 

know a bargain when they 

see one. 

along the way that we had to 

open one course a day to meet the 

demand, which was grossly overestimated.” 

He and all the other Whatcom 

teaching pros have revamped their 

junior programs and tee boxes to 

wake up the younger set to the 

perceived joys of golf, as well as 

other players who cannot smash 

the ball a mile. 

Revenue streams seem endless 

at the golf courses: Greens fees, 

tournament fees, club memberships, 

corporate outings, cart and 

club rental, locker rental, lessons, 

pro shop merchandise, equipment, 

food and beverage, residual amenities 

(such as a workout facility, 

swimming pool, sauna and/or 

steamroom, etc.). 

But another main point surfaced 

– greens fees still pay the freight. 

Number of rounds is the critical 

number, and nobody reported 

having hit critical mass. But the 

industry locally appears to be at 

a rallying point. Several of the 

club pros and managers pointed 

out that the ’08 economic slump 

took a large bite because golfing 

became dispensable, and corporate 

outings disappeared. 

Here’s a look at some figures 

and trends at several Whatcom 

County golf courses… 

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Mike Montgomery (left), the director of golf, gives General Manager Trent McAllister some putting tips...their course hosted 45,000 

rounds last year. (Staff Photo) 

Bellingham Golf & Country Club 

The Old Guard of local 

golf, Bellingham Golf 

and Country Club (founded 

1912) has rallied gradually 

over the last two years. 

“Last year was a very 

positive year,” said Trent 

McAllister, who grew up 

on the course and started 

work at the club in 1988 as 

a 12-year-old and worked 

his way up to become the 

general manager in 2010. 

He reported more than 45,000 

rounds played during 2013, and 

profits up 10-12 percent. 

The country-club model differs 

from other county courses. 

Bellingham G&CC is memberowned, 

managed by a board of 

directors, and golf provides only 

about 40 percent of the business. 

Dining for club members, banquets, 

events, and catering makes 

up about 40 percent. Club amenities 

like swimming lessons, the 

workout facility, and others earns 

the rest. 

Also, the club has fewer golfers 

from Canada than most 

other courses – about 8 percent, 

McAllister estimated. 

BG&CC foresaw a rosy and 

robust future back in 2005. On 

Valentine’s Day the demolition 

crews razed the clubhouse, and 

it reopened the next November 

in grand style. “It provided a big 

spark,” McAllister said. “We were 

quite active, and the golf course 

was full.” 

Then 2008 happened, and the 

club became more vulnerable than 

most. “A country club is a luxury 

item. It’s the common tale of private 

clubs…the most expedient 

thing to cut.” 

The club added about 200 

social/golf memberships attributable 

to a “resurgence of young 

executives, players under 40, that 

we marketed to,” McAllister said. 

That target market included a 

reduction in monthly cost by more 


than $50 to $299. The club also 

instituted a corporate program – 

group pricing for a minimum of 

four memberships at $199 each. 

The equity certificate membership 

remains $438. 

BG&CC advertises golf widely 

– Comcast, Golf Channel, CNN, 

ESPN Sports Center, local radio – 

but more for brand awareness as 

reaping memberships. “Word of 

mouth still drives 90-95 percent of 

our business,” McAllister said. 

Marketing events provide 

residual revenue, like wine tasting, 

cooking class, dinner dance, 

and starlight dinner. “We set up 

the restaurant on the course,” 

McAllister said, and added, laughing. 

“But not on a fairway.” 

Mike Montgomery is director of 

golf and head pro among three. 

The golf staff also has a superintendent, 

Dave Bocci, who has been 

there 17 years, and eight course 

attendants. 

Montgomery revamped the 

junior program from a three-day 

camp to 14-16 days. On certain 

Mondays, the tee boxes move forward 

and only kids get to play the 

course. “…Without the pressure 

of adults wanting to play faster,” 

Montgomery said. “We need more 

areas for teens to play with appropriate 

length.” 

Montgomery probed the matter 

of lagging interest by pushing 

on traditional parameters. “We 

must find ways to make it easier 

for the everyday golfer and less 

time-consuming,” he said. “Ask 

ourselves things like, why play 18? 

Why play four hours? Why not 

an 8-inch hole (instead of 4.25)? 

Why not two holes on every green 

instead of the standard one? 

“You have all different types of 

golfers, so why not do things to 

allow everyone to have fun at the 

same time?” 

He also sees diverse activities 

cutting into golf. “I see people into 

mountain biking, paddling boats, 

triathlons, working out. Things 

with no scorecard,” Montgomery 

said. 

“Golf has a brutal scorecard. 

So how do we get from Point A 

to Point B when you have a 15 

handicap or higher and still have a 

good workout?” 

Why play 18? Why play 

four hours? Why not an 

8-inch hole (instead of 

4.25)? Why not two holes 

on every green instead of 

the standard one? 

—Mike Montgomery 

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in the years leading up to 2008. 

Since then the figure had risen to 

43,000-45,000. 

Generally, recreational golfers 

speak of the course as the 

most scenic public layout in the 

county. “It’s tree-lined, with old 

houses on it, like you can’t find 

anymore,” Fish said. “It’s the best 

buy for your golf dollar in western 

Washington.” 

The basic golf dollar for adults, 

in peak season May-October, is 

$32 weekday and $40 weekend. 

Golfers can buy punch cards for 

multiple rounds at a discount. 

Golfing provides about 

60 percent of the 

revenue, and the rest 

comes from the pro 

shop merchandising 

and equipment, lessons, 

tournament events, and 

other services. Canadians 

make up about 30 percent 

of the golf rounds. 

Mel Fish arranges golf bags in the pro shop at the popular municipal course he and a 

partner lease from the City of Bellingham, featuring a Men’s Club and a Golf School. 

(Staff Photo) 

Lake Padden Golf Course 

Mel Fish, the director 

of golf, operates this 

city-owned, public course 

with a management lease 

contract that he and his 

business partner, Barry 

Kramer, negotiated with 

Bellingham effective Jan. 

1, 2006. 

Lake Padden golf course opened 

in 1971. Originally from Bellevue, 

Fish came to Bellingham to attend 

WWU (’75), and he has worked at 

Lake Padden since 1990. 

The course logged about 40,000 

rounds during 2012. “Not a good 

year,” Fish said. Lake Padden was 

busy with 50,000 rounds at its 

peak, and averaged about 45,000 

On March 15 the Men’s Club 

opens its season – 330 men paying 

a $65 membership fee. “It keeps 

this place open,” Fish said. The 

group has 10 tournament events, 

and course availability perks. 

Golfing provides about 60 percent 

of the revenue, and the rest 

comes from the pro shop merchandising 

and equipment, lessons, 

tournament events, and other 

services. Canadians make up about 

30 percent of the golf rounds. 

In 2000 Fish and a club member 

built the Lake Padden Golf School 

on the premises, operated by Luke 

Bennett, the director of instruction. 

He also is the head coach of 

men’s golf at Western Washington. 

“It’s a teaching facility, with an 

office and meeting room, TV for 


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video analysis, and the latest technology,” 

Fish said. 

To keep the clubhouse and 

course active during Fall and 

Winter, Lake Padden offers a 

“Winter Golf Tour” developed and 

run by Josh Fish, Mel’s son, a PGA 

of America-certified club pro who 

studied in the pro golf management 

program at Campbell College 

while playing on a baseball scholarship 

there. 

As many as 100 show up, but 

normally between 40-70. “That 

keeps them coming out all winter, 

something to play for,” Mel Fish 

said. “They win merchandise. It 

helps revenue, and keeps them 

from putting the clubs away all 

winter.” Another fun date on Lake 

Padden’s schedule is the Polar Bear 

Open on New Year’ Day. About 

100 enter, regardless of weather. 

As a public course Lake 

Padden’s round costs below the 

average, and for a couple of other 

reasons. Mel Fish explained, “A 

condition of our contract with the 

city is that we remain the most 

affordable, inexpensive course 

to play. It’s not written in the 

contract, but we agreed to it in 

principle, because I’d been playing 

here for 20 years and didn’t 

want all the players I knew to see 

me as suddenly owning it and trying 

to get rich off of them. It just 

motivates us to work harder in 

merchandising, the driving range, 

lessons, the school, and all.” 

Scott McBeath is the course 

superintendent. “He’s a two-handicap 

player so he knows the game. 

He’s been like gold, as he turned 

this place around just six months 

in,” Fish said. 

“It’s always been a diamond in 

the rough, a very special layout, 

and we’re always polishing that 

diamond to make it better.” 



Call Coni Pugh at 360-746-0412, or 

email coni@whatcombusinessalliance.com 

MAGAZINE 




Brian Kruhlak drives the lake inlet on one of the testiest tee shots at the course that is a Canadian haven that he worked during summers 

as a kid, and now lives on above tee box No. 2. (Staff Photo) 

Sudden Valley Golf & Country Club 

About 26,000 rounds 

were played on this 

semi-private course 

owned by Sudden Valley 

Community Association, 

consisting of around 

3,200 lot owners and 

8,000 residents. A board 

of directors oversees the 

club, and Brian Kruhlak is 

director of golf and head 

pro. 

Kruhlak estimates that about 10 

percent play golf with membership 

discounts (and also to tennis, the 

recreation center that will lease 

to the YMCA this year, the swimming 

pool, and other amenities). 

Otherwise, golf there opens during 

specified hours to the public. 

The business breakdown: Daily 

golf brings 40 percent, membership 

fees 40 percent, and golf 

outings 20 percent, according to 

Kruhlak. Standard greens fees cost 

$40 weekdays, $50 weekends. 

Canadian golfers make up 

about 60 percent of the daily 

golf revenue, and about half of 

the membership players. Kruhlak 

understands that influence firsthand. 

“I grew up on this course 

because my family (from B.C.) had 


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a summer vacation home here,” he 

said. 

“I got special dispensation to 

work at the course since there 

“Carts came along, and 

they’re great for revenue, 

but the caddies went 

away – and that’s one 

important place young kids 

were around the game and 

learned to play,” 

—Brian Kruhlak, director of golf, Sudden 

Valley 

were not enough American kids 

to work. I’ve been on this course 

from early ‘80s when I was a cart 

washer, club scrubber, and then 

assistant pro here.” 

He returned three years ago 

after 20 years as head pro at 

Avalon in Skagit County. Seeking 

ways to make the course more 

agreeable to more players, Kruhlak 

oversaw expanding the greens 

by 20,000 square feet, and he 

changed agronomy practices to 

use less water and different treatments. 

Sudden Valley’s golf business 

has experienced growth of about 

10 percent a year since 

2011. “It was kind of flat last 

year because unfortunately we 

lost our food and beverage operator 

in October of ’12 and didn’t 

reopen the restaurant until July to 

September last year. We don’t own 

the restaurant, and we were hamstrung.” 

To stimulate interest Kruhlak 

operates clinics with junior programs 

and women, a junior camp 

in June, and events to create more 

rounds. In 2011 he cut the junior 

membership fee for 17-under from 

$550 to $250. The result: “We’ve 

gone from four members to 30,” 

he said. 

He has a vision for helping 

young, non-affluent youths to 

play golf. “Carts came along, and 

they’re great for revenue, but the 

caddies went away – and that’s 

one important place young kids 

were around the game and learned 

to play,” he said. Sudden Valley’s 

golf course, sitting on what once 

was a huge ranch in the forest 

and accessible by a winding drive 

through sky-tall Douglas firs, 

offers what Kruhlak calls the best 

combination of outstanding aesthetics 

and a two-pronged test of 

skills. 

“We have two starkly different 

nines,” he said. “The front (where 

his home sits above the No. 2 

tees) wraps around the lake with 

mountainside views, and the back 

goes up into the hills, where it’s 

tree-lined all the way and much 

tighter. Hands-down, it’s the most 

beautiful golf course property 

around here.” 



Shuksan Golf Club 

Rick Dvorak, the CEO 

of Shuksan Golf Club, 

summed up 2013 on his 

course as “…a very good 

year, up in rounds and 

revenue – the best in 8 

years. I don’t like to reveal 

our rounds, but between 

25,000-30,000.” 

Canadian golfers – over 50 percent 

of Shuksan business, Dvorak 

said – love it because it’s close 

and it’s inexpensive. Still, play 

runs far below capacity, and the 

owner said he recognizes decline 

during the last three years in business, 

given the marketing and 

the venue. At one point when 

border problems decreased traffic 

from Canada, Shuksan went from 

75-100 rounds a day to 35. 

A problem for Shuksan at times 

has been its difficulty, length, 

and natural layout. “For a long 

time our course was very difficult 

because of the terrain,” Dvorak 

said. “We have moved tees forward 

for seniors, both men and women, 

to make it a shorter but normal 

course.” 

He referred to a write-up about 

several Northwest courses in 

Alaska Airlines Magazine a couple 

of years ago, in which the author, 

Jeff Wallach, wrote: “Playing 

Shuksan is like watching an entertaining 

stage play that reveals an 

array of quirky, yet engaging personalities, 

ranging from amusing 

to downright ornery.” 

In addition to the core services 

of tournaments and other golf 

events, pro shop, greens fees, cart 

rental, and the driving range, 

Shuksan has places for non-golf 

meetings, and for weddings. 

“We’re set up for it,” Dvorak said. 

“We have an outside wedding terrace 

in front of the clubhouse.” 

The backdrop for a wedding, 

just as for the golfer, lends spectacular 

views of the Cascades 

(a peak of which the course is 

named for) and glimpses of Mt. 

Baker. Dvorak, stating that he has 

a “bunch of favorites” among the 

holes, spoke of what many call the 

signature hole of Shuksan, No. 5: 

“It’s a par-4 strategy hole that 

will beat you up, but its beauty is 

its privacy. It sits among cedars 

and firs and says, ‘You’re sitting 

in the heart of the Pacific 

Northwest.’” 

“Playing Shuksan is like 

watching an entertaining 

stage play that reveals 

an array of quirky, yet 

engaging personalities, 

ranging from amusing to 

downright ornery.” 

— Jeff Wallach, for Alaska Airlines Magazine 

Photo courtesy of Shuksan Golf Club

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Tyler Poster (left), the 2nd assistant, talks about merchandise with head pro and director of golf Nathan Vickers at one of the most popular 

and busiest public courses in the county. The pro shop is but a tiny slice in the course’s revenues. (Staff Photo) 

North Bellingham Golf Course 

Greens and 

memberships make up 

80 percent of the business 

at this county course most 

resembling a traditional 

links layout, sans ocean, 

heather, and gorse, and 

another 15 percent from 

the pro shop. 

Other sales come from the driving 

range, cart rental, lessons, 

the restaurant, and other sundry 

extras. And business as a whole, 

said head club pro Nathan Vickers, 

the director of golf, “…is pretty flat 

as a whole.” 

Referring to the comeback from 

the 2008 economic downturn, he 

said, “Golf is not necessary. It’s the 

first thing you put off. But, we’ve 

been growing a little, which is 

good compared to the average in 

golf. If you’ve been growing at all 

the last four or five years you’re 

better than most.” 

His course welcomed about 

45,000 rounds last year, a robust 

number comparatively – both 

against the rest of the county, 

and against past performance at 

North Bellingham. The number is 

up from the 38,000-40,000 range 

since 2008. 

The course opened in 1995. 

Vickers arrived two years later from 

Spokane. He attributes the growth 

pattern that survived the ’08 recession 

to staying the course. “We 

didn’t cut expenses,” he said, “and 

we kept the course in great shape.” 


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North Bellingham Golf Course 

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205 West Smith Road 

(at the corner of West Smith and Guide Meridian) 

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The course caters especially to 

Canadian golfers, drawing in a 

range between 30-45 percent of 

revenues from the northern neighbors, 

depending on the time of 

year. 

“We cost a lot less to play as a 

municipal course when they come 

down for their groceries, gas, and 

play a round,” Vickers said. “A lot 

of their courses would cost them 

twice as much.” 

He pointed out the main reason 

why the Canadian player remains 

a core customer: border crossings 

in 2008 stood at 10 million; by 

2012 they’d risen to 21 million. As 

second assistant pro Tyler Poster 

put it, “We’re right on the way 

between millions of people and a 

mall.” 

The day of this interview, two 

men putting gear in a car with 

British Columbia plates, identifying 

themselves as Larry and Jerry, 

said they would pay three times 

more to play the municipal course 

nearest their home. They also said 

they made it from their home to 

North Bellingham in 40 minutes, 

and would have spent nearly that 

He pointed out the 

main reason why the 

Canadian player remains 

a core customer: border 

crossings in 2008 stood 

at 10 million; by 2012 

they’d risen to 21 million. 

As second assistant pro 

Tyler Poster put it, “We’re 

right on the way between 

millions of people and a 

mall.” 

long in tunnel traffic going to 

their nearest course. 

Vickers said, “We watch the 

Canadian dollar closely. If it drops, 

we have a double-whammy.” One 

of the two players there that day, 

Jerry, made note that they were 

paying less than $2 more (the loonie 

was down near 80 cents) and 

they wouldn’t care if it dropped 

to half of the U.S. dollar “because 

we’d still be saving money.” 

North Bellingham offers many 

tournaments and club events, 

thriving on competition. They held 

a Super Bowl tournament, and 

throughout the off-season they 

keep points and standings in a 

Frostbite League for both men and 

women. 

During peak play, Vickers said 

the course would draw about 130 

on a weekend day. “We have a 

really good winter course. It drains 

well, and we’re open to the sun. 

Greens are healthier from nice 

water flow, and grass is waist 

high. It gobbles up golf balls.” 



Dakota Creek – a course of a different color 

Pam Smith built it, mows it, welcomes golfers ‘as-you-are’ for family-friendly rounds 

By Mike McKenzie 

Pam Smith refers to 

herself as a “very 

sole proprietor.” She also 

could tag on golf course 

architect, club pro, greens 

superintendent, and head 

of customer service, 

marketing, and every other 

thing that keeps her Dakota 

Creek Golf Club running. 

In Whatcom County’s montage 

of golf, Smith and her unusual 

back-story and operations make 

Dakota Creek a course of a different 

color. She built designed a 

built it on a 100-year-old, 200- 

acre farm. Correction: “Me, God, 

and many, many knowledgeable 

golfers,” she said of its creation. 

“I asked questions, and everybody 

was kind enough to answer. 

I took what we needed, and threw 

the rest away.” 

The result, a chip shot from the 

Canadian border tucked into hilly 

woods off of the I-5 Birch Bay- 

Lynden exit, is a casual-atmosphere, 

family-styled, picturesque 

layout. “Family friendly, that’s our 

theme for 2014,” she said (repeatedly) 

during a ride around her 

course. 

“You can see the whole county,” owner Pam Smith said of her hand-built course that 

relies on as much as 80% Canadian golfers with themes of casual and family-centered 

play. (Photo by Mike McKenzie)

SponSoRED By: 

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MAGAZINE


Relying largely on golfers 

a quick drive away in British 

Columbia, the business chugs 

along steadily on a theme of 

come-as-you-are and leave formality 

at the entrance. 

After she bought the land she 

wanted to turn it into a camping 

business, though the aged barn 

adds a large, looming salute to 

yesteryear as the backdrop to the 

clubhouse. “But the county ordinance 

would allow me to build a 

only a church, a cemetery, or a 

golf course,” she said. 

She had been taking care of 

the grounds on contract at Lake 

Padden’s municipal course, and 

figured, “Why not make myself a 

family-friendly golf course – the 

future of golf.” 

The one job she doesn’t perform 

is instructor. “I don’t even play the 

game. My job is mowing the grass, 

and meeting the folks who visit 

us.” 

The course, while unconventional 

yet refined repeatedly and 

groomed immaculately over the 

years, is no joke. Smith bursts with 

prideful energy as she describes 

it. “Our greens are dynamite over 

“Our action (greens 

fee) stays the same. We 

don’t compete with the 

big boys…we’re not a 

trendsetter….We rely on 

75-80 percent Canadian 

customers.” 

—Pam Smith, owner, Dakota Creek Golf Club 

the last three years. The fairways 

are still a mom ‘n’ pop course. We 

didn’t have the millions it would 

have taken to make them topgrade, 

and they had to mature 

quick.” 

She opened the front first, and 

the back a decade later, and said 

both were too soon. “I opened in 

the ‘80s prematurely as the ‘toughest 

9 holes in Washington.’ In ’96 

we went to 18 holes, but prematurely 

again, with the back nine. 

We teed up on the dandelions.” 

Business? “We hang on,” she 

said. “Like a lot of businesses in 

the county we rely on 75-80 percent 

Canadian customers. We’re 

very Canada-friendly, but 9/11 and 

the border crossing about killed 

us. They’d had a moratorium on 

building courses, and they had 

nothing like our nine-hole so we 

did fantastic, and now we have 

them back on a regular basis.” 

Greens fees cost in the $20s, 

or $15 for nine holes. “Our action 

stays the same. We don’t compete 

with the big boys. I’ll up my prices 

the second I can, but we’re not a 

trendsetter.” 

Golfers at Dakota Creek find a 

friendly practice area with a net, 

and what Smith terms “dynamite 

putt and chip greens.” To add 

user-friendliness to the golf test, 

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she’s widened the fairways and 

moved some tee boxes forward. 

“We’ve dramatically improved the 

course over the last 5-6 years. 

Up-and-down, I believe we have 

the best greens in the county. 

“You will not be bored on our 

course. It has everything the game 

has to offer, and at the top you 

can see the whole county – islands 

in front of you, mountains if you 

turn around. It’s a gorgeous walk 

with nature.” 

“We have the best greens 

in the county. You will not 

be bored on our course. 

It has everything the 

game has to offer, (and)… 

it’s a gorgeous walk with 

nature.” 

—Pam Smith, owner, Dakota Creek Golf Club 

Her relaxed regulations permits 

teeshirts, tank tops even. “We 

welcome you as you are. We ask 

that everyone arrive in a shirt, but 

once out on the course, hey, that 

shirt can come off. Just respect the 

course, and respect others playing 

it.” 

The club also stages several 

tournaments designed for fun. And 

some are free. Smith stages those 

on behalf of three charities – the 

alternative Humane Society shelter, 

a camp for kids, and the Royal 

Family Orphanage. 

The only new consideration 

looking ahead, other than selling 

off several bags of new clubs 

she got in a buyout, is weddings. 

“We’re pitching a tent. We’d 

turned down a lot of requests, so 

my grandson created the facilities 

to accommodate riding into the 

wedding tent on golf carts in a 

slow parade….” 

One more line on the job title 

list for Pam Smith. 

Representing the universal golfer, this stately bronze bust welcomes visitors to 

Bellingham Country Club. (Staff Photo) 

Whatcom County 

Golf Courses 

Bellingham Golf & Country Club (private, 18) 

Dakota Creek Golf Club, Custer (public, 18) 

Grandview Golf Course, Custer (public, 18) 

Homestead Golf & Country Club, Lynden (semi-pvt, 18) 

Lake Padden Golf Course (muni, 18) 

Loomis Trail, Blaine (semi-pvt, 18) 

North Bellingham Golf Course (public, 18) 

Point Roberts Golf & Country Club (public, 18) 

Raspberry Ridge, Everson (exec, 9) 

Semiahmoo Golf & Country Club (semi-pvt, 18) 

Shuksan Golf Club (public, 18) 

Sudden Valley Golf & Country Club (semi-pvt, 18) 


Philanthropy: Mt. Baker Chapter Red Cross 

Executive Director Stacy Rice leads the local chapter that manages a budget of $800,000, of which 91 percent goes to programming, and 

100s of volunteers with a five-person staff. (Staff Photo) 

Mt. Baker Chapter Red Cross: beyond local 

Helping families navigate unexpected emergencies 

Special to Business Pulse 

The local administrative 

team of the American 

Red Cross, based in 

downtown Bellingham, 

bears the name Mt. Baker 

Chapter. It operates with 

just five employees. Seem 

small? 

Take a look at its tentacles. 

They stretch from local, to regional, 

to state, to national, to around 

the world. 

The Mt. Baker Chapter primarily 

covers needs in Whatcom County 

and Skagit County, but also part of 

the Northwest Washington Region 

that includes the Snohomish and 

Islands chapters. They all fall 

under the U.S. umbrella, and work 

within the framework of the largest 

humanitarian organization in 

the universe – the network of the 

International Red Cross Chapters. 

With just a five-person staff the 

local chapter is capable of helping 

thousands of people every 

year – typically on a daily basis – 

because the chapter thrives as a 98 

percent volunteer organization. It 

carries out the mission of preventing 

and alleviating human suffering 

in the face of emergencies by 

mobilizing the power of about 350 

volunteers with about an $800,000 

budget. 

Here’s the astounding fact that 

demonstrates how the free-market 

approach boosts philanthropy: 

All $800,000 comes from within 

Whatcom and Skagit, and all on 

donations. Fund-Raiser is the Mt. 

Baker Chapter staff’s middle name. 

Jayne Heininger, the chief operating 

officer of the regional Red 

Cross, said, “We receive no funding 

from our national organiza- 


tion, or from the government….100 

percent of the funding comes from 

the generosity of our community… 

(including) both individuals and 

businesses.” 

Last year, according to the 

executive director of the Mt. Baker 

Chapter, Stacy Rice, the chapter 

provided emergency services 

and lifesaving skills to more than 

10,000 people. “The services we 

provide are essential to the health 

and well-being of our community,” 

Rice said. “Many of our clients 

would become homeless without 

the immediate assistance that we 

provide. Many people are making 

it month-to-month … but are 

unable to navigate an unexpected 

emergency such as a house-fire 

or flood. With a little help, these 

folks remain vital, healthy, contributing 

members in our society.” 

The private donations remain 

within Whatcom and Skagit counties. 

The only monies allocated 

outside the area are donations specifically 

designated to a national 

or international relief effort by the 

donor. When an emergency strikes 

beyond local capacity to respond, 

support then draws from the 

region, the state, and then from 

the nation as needed. 

“Even though we are responsible 

for all emergency responses 

within our jurisdiction,” Rice said, 

“it is very comforting to know 

that there are multiple levels of 

assistance built in to the Red Cross 

response plan,” said Rice. 

While the Mt. Baker Chapter 

provides all of its services within 

Whatcom and Skagit counties, 

their volunteers often travel far 

and wide to assist others. During 

large national disasters, the 

American Red Cross recruits volunteers 

nationwide. For example 

in 2013, during Hurricane Sandy 

relief efforts, 22 volunteers 

deployed from the Mt. Baker 

Chapter to help folks in New York, 

New Jersey, and West Virginia. 

The volunteers deployed as 

shelter workers, nurses, mental 

An American Red Cross worker helps a child in distress somewhere in America, an everyday 

occurrence for volunteers such as the 350 who support Mt. Baker Chapter in this 

region. (Photo courtesy of the American Red Cross) 



health professionals, Emergency 

Response Vehicle (ERV) drivers, 

and feeding-team members. Linda 

Giles leads these efforts as the 

volunteer services director. The 

benefits cut both ways. “Our volunteers 

learn a great deal when 

deployed to national disasters,” 

Giles said. “They bring new skills, 

ideas and information back to the 

chapter, which is very helpful on a 

local level.” 

The American Red Cross has 

gone through significant change 

over the last three years as the 

national organization has restructured 

and streamlined. Chapters 

merged, and back-office functions 

have been regionalized, databases 

have been standardized, and 

expenses have been drastically 

reduced. 

“In order to remain financially 

viable in our changing world as 

well as excellent stewards of the 

donated dollar, changes needed to 

be made, Heininger said. “It has 

been an exciting and sometimes 

challenging process, but the results 

are proving to be extremely beneficial. 

As an organization, 91 cents 

on every dollar goes toward Red 

Cross programs. 

The local Red Cross provides 

essential services through three 

main programs: Disaster Services, 

Services to the Armed Forces, and 

Health and Safety. These programs 

help prevent, prepare for, and 

respond to emergencies. 

“We receive no funding 

from our national 

organization, or from the 

government….100 percent 

comes from the generosity 

of our community… 

(including) both individuals 

and businesses.” 

–Jayne Heininger, COO of the Washington 

Regional Red Cross 

The Disaster Services program 

provides immediate emergency 

relief to those affected by 

unexpected disasters. This relief 

includes temporary shelter, financial 

assistance for clothes, food, 

supplies and medical needs as well 

as emotional support. After immediate 

assistance is provided, the 

goal is to reestablish each family 

into a residence comparable 

to what they were in before the 

disaster. 

GIVE. ADVOCATE. 

VOLUNTEER. 

United Way 


unitedwaywhatcom.org 

like us on Facebook! 

Skagit Bridge Collapse Mobile Feeding: Mt. Baker Chapter Red Cross volunteers Sue 

Hibma (left) and Judy Holz helped feed and hydrate rescue teams during the relief efforts 

after the I-5 bridge collapsed near Burlington last year. (Photo courtesy Mt. Baker Red Cross) 


With the economic downturn 

over the past several years, the 

number of families needing help 

has increased as well as the number 

of family members living in 

each residence. The Chapter averages 

one disaster response a week 

with the most common disaster 

being house fires. However, the 

Chapter has responded to 18 disasters 

over the past two months … 

more than doubling their average. 

Since disasters are unpredictable, 

the Chapter must always be ready 

to respond with physical and 

human resources as well as have 

the donations necessary to fund 

the response. All of these factors 

depend on our community at 

large. 

The Service to the Armed 

Forces Program provides emergency 

assistance to our local service 

members, veterans and their 

families. This assistance includes 

Emergency Communication 

Services between families and their 

deployed service member, financial 

assistance, as well as classes 

and workshops. The classes assist 

families to deal with the stresses of 

having a family member deployed 

as well as the challenges of reintegrating 

that family member once 

they return home. 

This is one of the least wellknown 

programs of the Red Cross 

but is also one of the most utilized. 

“We recently helped a service 

member return to the bedside 

of his father just hours before his 

father passed away. The gift of 

those few hours for the service 

member, his father, and their entire 

family was priceless for them. We 

felt honored and humbled to be 

a part of that healing process in 

some small way,” Rice said. 

The Red Cross also teaches 

lifesaving skills to thousands of 

individuals every year through its 

Health and Safety Program. “We 

hear stories every day from folks 

who have taken a CPR class or 

babysitting class and have saved 

a life because of their new skills,” 

BUSINESS BOX SCORE: 

Mt. Baker Chapter of the American Red Cross 

• Top Executive: Stacy Rice, Executive Director 

• Started: 1917 

• Employees: 5, all in Bellingham 

• Volunteers: 350 

• How start-up was funded: Individual and corporate contributions 

• Current Budget: Approximately $800,000 

• Services outreach: 10,000 people 

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stated Rice. Statistics show that 

80 percent of the time, people use 

CPR and other lifesaving skills on 

someone they know. Being prepared 

can definitely save a life … 

and often it is a loved one. 

The Chapter just celebrated with 

a young family after their 13 year 

old daughter, Sarah, saved a 6 

year old girl’s life. While Sarah 

was babysitting for only her second 

time, the little girl choked 

on a piece of food and stopped 

breathing. Sarah remembered her 

Red Cross training and began to 

do abdominal thrusts. After several 

attempts, she was able to dislodge 

the piece of food and bring the 

girl back to life. Preparedness 

saves lives. 

While all of the services of 

the Mt. Baker Chapter are provided 

within Whatcom and Skagit 

counties, their volunteers often 

travel far and wide to assist others. 

During large national disasters, 

volunteers are recruited nationwide 

in order to fulfill the need of 

the particular community. During 

Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, for 

example, 22 volunteers deployed 

from the Mt. Baker Chapter to help 

folks in New York, New Jersey, 

and West Virginia. 

The volunteers deployed as 

shelter workers, nurses, mental 

health professionals, Emergency 

Response Vehicle (ERV) drivers, 

and feeding team members. “Our 

volunteers learn a great deal when 

deployed to National disasters. 

They then bring these new skills, 

ideas and information back to the 

Chapter … which is very helpful 

on a local level,” said Linda Giles, 

Volunteer Services Director. All 

costs for national disasters are 

covered by the national organization 

and staffed by Red Cross volunteers 

throughout the country. 

Disaster preparedness is also an 

important part of the Red Cross 

mission and the Mt. Baker Chapter 

is currently involved in a 3-year 

preparedness initiative called Safe 

in the Sound. Safe in the Sound 

Local volunteers Mike Gantenbein, Judy 

Holz (seated), and Noriko Lao (r.) are 

working on a regional disaster plan for the 

Mt. Baker chapter. (Staff Photo) 

(or SITS) is striving to teach and 

prepare 1 million people in the 

Puget Sound area over the next 

three years to be ready when 

disaster strikes. In coordination 

with their founding partner, Puget 

Sound Energy, the initiative has 


already reached over 400,000 

people. 

Within our community, the 

goal is to train 40,000 residents 

in Whatcom and 25,000 in Skagit 

and we are well on our way. 

Statistics show that the more prepared 

a community is for disasters, 

the more lives are saved when 

a disaster strikes. Statistics also 

prove that every dollar spent on 

preparedness saves six dollars in 

response. This makes for a smart 

investment ahead of time. 

The Chapter offers free 

Preparedness Workshops and webbased 

programs to groups and 

businesses to help them prepare. 

Free Red Cross apps are also available 

on a number of topics to 

help all residents prepare for and 

respond during emergencies. 

With such a small local staff 

and so many important programs, 

the Chapter depends on its welltrained 

volunteers to do their 

work in the community every 

day. The Chapter also works very 

The chapter’s Fab Five in the home office (left to right): Office Manager Roxanne 

Pierce, Volunteer Services Director Linda Giles, Executive Director Stacy Rice, Financial 

Development Director Teresa Scott, and Regional Chief Operating Officer Jayne Heininger. 

(Photo by Mike McKenzie) 

closely with local Emergency 

Management, fire, and police as 

well as other nonprofits to fill the 

needs of their clients. “It takes a 

village to help someone in need 

after a disaster or emergency. No 

one organization can do it alone. 

We are very fortunate to live in 

a generous community. There is 

no way we could do what we do 

without our donors, partners and 

volunteers,” Rice said. 

To support the Mt. Baker 

Chapter and the work that it does 

in our community, you can donate, 

volunteer, and get prepared. For 

more information, visit www. 

redcross.org/mtbaker, or call at 

360-733-3290. 

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Personally Speaking: WWU President Bruce Shepard 

Personally Speaking… 

with 

Dr. Bruce Shepard 

Interview and Photos by Managing Editor Mike McKenzie 

Graciously granting 

a special request, 

the president of Western 

Washington University 

wore his CEO hat in a 

visit with Managing Editor 

Mike McKenzie about the 

business of WWU as one 

of the largest employers in 

the county. He revealed 

a management style that’s 

taking WWU into a new 

frontier with inquiring 

leadership, collaborative 

vision, and acute fiscal 

acumen within the business 

community. 

For our business-centered 

reader, Dr. Shepard addressed how 

higher education, i.e., in this case 

WWU, can and must exercise 

strategies and create significant 

impact on the regional economy 

and companies – and the national 

and global free markets, as well. 

“Stewards of place” is his label 

for a strong, vibrant destination 

university that provides real-time 

business opportunity for students 

wanting that, and for businesses 

wanting top-drawer students in 

any field. Oh, yes, and there’s that 

matter of raising funds and balancing 

budgets. 

When he isn’t up to his eyes in 

that, you might catch him roasting 

coffee, woodworking, and hanging 

out with family…. 

Education a Top Priority 

My dad was first person to go 

to college in our family. He was 

moving irrigation water from one 

trough to another in the Central 

Valley of California with a shovel 

at the age of 20….migrant, agricultural 

labor. The life-saver was 

when he wandered down to Cal- 

Berkeley, paid $17 a semester in 

fees and no tuition, got interrupted 

by World War II, and then went on 

to get his Ph.D. 


Photos courtesy of WWU Office of Communications and Marketing 


• Education: B.S., Master’s, and Ph.D. at 

University of California at Riverside in 

political science. 

• Career: Oregon State, 23 years, Poli- 

Sci faculty and various admin roles. 

Eastern Oregon, 1995-2001, Provost 

and Poli-Sci professor. Wisconsin- 

Green Bay, 2001-’08, Chancellor. 

Western Washington, began Sept. 1, 

2008 as President. 

BOX SCORE: 

Dr. Bruce Shepard 

• Professional organizations: Visiting 

scientist, Population Study Center, 

Seattle; policy analyst, USDA Forest 

Service; visiting fellow, School of 

Communication Leadership and Liberal 

Studies, Mitchell College of Advanced 

Education, Bathurst, Australia, 

and Board of Directors, American 

Association of State Colleges and 

Universities. 

• Personal: Hobby coffee roaster, 

woodwork, sailing. Wife, Cyndie, 

is executive director of Compass 2 

Campus (C2C) at Western Washington 

University. C2C, a mentoring initiative, 

and she teaches at Western in 

Woodring College of Education and 

in the dance department, is pastpresident 

of WWU’s chapter of Phi 

Kappa Phi. 

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NORTHWEST BACKGROUND 

Every summer my dad would 

drive us north to camp on the 

Olympic Peninsula, where you 

picked the campsites based on the 

trees to strategically locate the 

ropes and the tarps to keep you 

dry. We’d go to Orcas Island and 

Vancouver Island. 

I spent 29 years in Oregon in 

two different places, served in the 

Midwest, and then had the opportunity 

to come back to Western. 

I’d watched it grow from a typical 

regional university into one of 

considerable accomplishment and 

fine reputation. 

PROFESSOR BEFORE ADMIN 

For 22 years I earned an honest 

living as a professor. At Oregon 

State I had a chance to go into 

administration. My ability to write 

fairly well got me there. People 

noticed my ability to write a clear 

sentence, to think clearly and 

communicate. I’m now learning 

to master Twitter. It’s intriguing 

and fun how you convey a sense 

of your personality, humor, and a 

clear message in 140 characters. 

MISS IT? 

Yes, I miss the classroom. I 

tried to continue to teach while 

also working on the administrative 

side. I don’t know if the students 

noticed, but I thought I was 

cheating the students by not giving 

them my full attention. So I 

stopped because I knew I could do 


a better job. Sometimes my faculty 

invites me in for guest lectures. 

YOUR SUBJECT? 

More recently, the history of 

higher education. At the traditional, 

old private university of the 

early 1800s, the president of the 

university always gave the final 

capstone course, moral ethics…a 

philosophy course. When I went in 

to talk to that class for their last 

lecture, I said that anybody who 

thinks that a modern American 

university president, after spending 

all his time raising money for 

the university and dealing with 

elected officials, hasn’t got anything 

to say about ethics, doesn’t 

understand the job. 

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“(WWU) needs to be the 

stewards of place. We 

have a responsibility, an 

obligation, to take care 

of the places where we 

have the good fortune to 

call home. Economically, 

politically, socially, and 

culturally.” 

BUSINESS SIDE OF PRESIDENT 

I come at it from a couple of 

angles. First, a strong regional 

university like ours needs to be, 

the phrase I like is, the stewards 

of place. We have a responsibility, 

an obligation, to take care 

of the places where we have 

the good fortune to call home. 

Economically, politically, socially, 

and culturally. 

That’s the good reason. The 

smart reason is political. I have 

a slogan I repeat wherever I go: 

Communities support universities 

that support communities. I 

look at Bellingham and Whatcom 

County as huge potential as a 



most attractive area for retirement, 

recreation, scenic beauty, and climate. 

HIGH GOALS 

We have a strong university 

here, (and) with a smile we’d call 

ourselves a community of subdued 

excitement. That’s fine. But we 

don’t want to be a community of 

subdued aspirations. We want to 

set the bar high and go after it. 

WWU’S PART? 

How can Western play a catalytic 

role here? We’re known for 

the engagement of our students 

and faculty and staff in our community. 

We’re the only university 

in the state – public or private, 

big or small – that three years in 

a row has been on the President’s 

White House Higher Education 

Community Service Honor Roll. 

Mainly that’s because of about 

almost 1 million hours of volunteer 

service. A lot of enterprises, 

not-for-profit, would not be possible 

if not for the faculty and students 

supporting them. 

We’re key players in the 

Northwest Economic Council, and 

in the Whatcom County plans for 

sustainable economy…trying to 

figure out how to play a stronger 

and stronger role as stewards of 

place. 

ACTIVELY SEEKING INPUT 

Steve Swan, Western’s vice 

president for University Relations 

and Community Development 

recently surveyed leaders in Skagit 

and Whatcom County and held 

some face-to-face conversations 

about what we could be doing. 

What we heard is that if we need 

help we can go to them. 

It works the other way, too. We 

have all these academic departments 

and classes that want to 

get engaged with a business and 

provide some help and learning 

opportunities. Where do they go? 

The idea is Western’s Front Door 

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it’s a two-way door, that allows 

people in the community that 

want help and expertise. 

Dan Purdy is the person staffing 

that Western program. He knows 

how to navigate the university and 

create that. He’s got eight projects 

going right now. If a faculty member 

has an idea about a business 

class that could work on a strategic 

situation and would love to 

work on that in a real-world situation, 

such as a marketing challenge, 

Dan will go to the business 

community and make arrangements 

there to help. 

IS IT WORKING? 

This is the first year. It’ll take 

a year or two to see how that 

works out. So far I’ve been very 

impressed. It’s not enough to 

just say the good words, when it 

comes to the university supporting 

the community, and the community 

supporting the university. 

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There’s got to be action. 

We’re proactively seeking projects. 

It’s an umbrella organization. 

Under that we have the economic 

research operation with Professor 

Hart Hodges, and the Small 

Business Development Center with 

Jennifer Shelton, and Western’s 

extensive service learning in the 

community. There’s a lot of learning 

by doing, and serving in the 

community takes place. Learning 

becomes more effective, too, 

through real-world problems and 

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EXAMPLES? 

Pro CNC, a high-tech machining 

operation here, has about 

50 family-wage jobs. Six former 

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it, and several alumni still head 

the company. They came up with 

this high-tech machine that makes 

parts for the aerospace industry. 

One of their more profitable products 

is mouthpieces for high-end 

saxophones. 

The old idea of machining is 

somebody’s standing at a metal 

lathe. These days, they’re standing 

in front of computer screens 

with CAD equipment, and robots 

run the machines, moving parts 

around. Pro CNC depends on 

Western as the source for those 

high-tech skills, and hires a lot of 

our grads. 

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“I’ve loved to sail all my life, fish, tennis, 

golf. And I’ve done a lot of woodworking 

lately. That cabinet (in his office) – no 

tax dollars, I built it. I’m a closet coffee 

roaster.” —Dr. Bruce Shepard 

Another example is Alpha 

Technologies. Their group not only 

hires a lot of our graduates for 

their great global success, but they 

reinvest in the University through 

scholarships to insure that they 

maintain a stream of talent. 

There are hundreds of opportunities, 

and we don’t want to just 

be subdued aspirations. How do 

we get up to that level of higher 

success? All of us are looking to 

the future to try to figure that out. 

WWU TOOK BIG HITS 

I don’t want to be Pollyannish 

about the hard times this 

University has been through, 

because they’ve been very hard. 

About 14 percent of our budget 

comes from taxpayers. So, 86 


cents of every dollar we spend 

come from Western students who 

could write their tuition checks to 

somebody else. That means we’re 

already accountable to the marketplace 

for performance and keeping 

people satisfied with the quality of 

the product. 

In my time here the state financial 

support has been cut by more 

than 50 percent. Still we’ve come 

out stronger than where we started 

– because you don’t let any good 

crisis go to waste. 

You look hard at what can be 

done. We’ve really understood 

our market edge – quality. People 

expect an excellent education at 

Western; it’s why we have 15,000 

applicants for 3,500 slots. Other 

institutions went to open admissions. 

We didn’t go down that 

road. We protected that edge in 

the marketplace. 

HOW? 

We made changes, became 

more efficient. We learned the 

lessons. Every time we thought 

we’d exhausted every possible savings 

we could think of, we’d go 

back and find that the well wasn’t 

empty. There were still more efficiencies 

and savings to be found. 

I think we really have come out 

of this not merely surviving, but 

stronger in every way. 

FORWARD THINKING 

I’ve studied a lot of the business 

stuff. A lot of the teachers – 

Edwards, Deming – and two things 

that they all say struck me. 

One, dissatisfied customers don’t 

ever tell you they’re dissatisfied; 

they just go away. So you’ve got 

to be proactive and understand 

what’s happening with the people 

you do business with. 

Second, you have to understand 

what your customers need before 

they know it. Your competitors 

are already delivering what they 

want today. That’s what higher ed 

is about…thinking a generation 

ahead of our clients – our students 





MAGAZINE 




– to know what it is they want 

and need before they even know 

it. 

LESSON OF THE ENGINEERS 

Years ago at Oregon State during 

tough economic times, I sat in 

a meeting with a bunch of their 

gurus. They call it the Silicon 

Forest there because of the important 

manufacturers of chips. They 

said that when it comes to their 

engineers they were either going 

to have to fire them, retrain them, 

or turn them into administrators 

because after three or four years 

they’re not good for anything else. 

They sought our help to keep 

their assets on the cutting edge. I 

began to think about that. Really 

our business is to create and innovate 

and stay at the cutting edge. 

That’s another reason why to have 

this role in our local communities 

of helping to move the economy 

forward and stay competitive. 

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[On leading WWU] “Topdown 

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The phrase I use is 

conducting a symphony 

among talented soloists. 

How do you do that? By 

keeping the vision in front 

of people.” 

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I’ll put one other edge on that. 

We have a role that’s shared with 

the community. I’m sitting here 

looking at a map of the Pacific 

Rim on the wall, and I have good 

enough vision I can see Korea, 

and Japan, and China. We’re also 

active in studies of Canada, and 

Africa. We have a role of not only 

bringing the world to Whatcom 

County, but also Whatcom County 

to the world. 

We’re working on that as a university 

as a part of our economic 

community that is an important 

source of strength for us. I’ll come 

back to the example of Alpha 

Technologies – global enterprise, 

locally-based. 

ENTREPRENEURIAL PROJECT: 

WINDOW TO TOMORROW 

I’ve asked business professionals 

and leaders, ‘What are you missing 

in college graduates? What 

are you looking for the most? Two 

interesting things have come up 

most. 

One is a more entrepreneurial 

spirit, and intra-preneurial – hiring 

people for middle management 

positions. They want entrepreneurial 

spirit in middle management 

positions, even at large corporations. 


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ABILITY TO RELATE 

The other one I heard recently 

from IBM, and on the East Coast, 

and down in Seattle. They want 

graduates who are empathetic. Not 

sympathetic. Empathetic. 

People who can put themselves 

in somebody else’s shoes, who 

can see the world from somebody 

else’s perspectives. That’s important 

because they’re working in 

groups, (and asking) what is the 

common ground, how can we 

work on this together? 

In a recent presentation I 

heard from three very high-priced 

people: the heads of learning for 

Apple, Microsoft, and IBM. They 

all three had the same basic message 

– we obviously want graduates 

with technical expertise, but 

they’re no good to us if that’s all 

they have. They have to be able to 

see across cultures, across people, 

and they kept using this word, 

empathy. 

Working on Your Behalf 

WBA ADVOCACY STATEMENT 

Whatcom Business Alliance supports business 

enterprises who demonstrate a commitment to a 

safe, responsible, and ethical work place while 

remaining compliant with all current local, 

state, and federal laws, codes, and regulations. 

The WBA further encourages and steadfastly advocates 

for business development initiatives that 

clearly operate in the best interest of our community. 

WBA advocacy also includes identifying members’ 

primary concerns impacting their businesses, 

and addressing those concerns appropriately. 

Learn more about and join the WBA online 

at www.whatcombusinessalliance.com 

or by calling 360.746.0411. 

Fostering Business Success and Community Prosperity 

Board of Directors 

Dave Adams, President 

Emergency Reporting 

Randi Axelsson, Sales Manager 

Silver Reef Hotel, Casino and Spa 

Pam Brady, Director, NW Govt. & Public 

Affairs, BP Cherry Point Refinery 

Janelle Bruland, President / CEO 

Management Services Northwest 

Jane Carten, President / CEO 

Saturna Capital 

Bruce Clawson, Senior VP 

Wells Fargo Commercial Banking 

Scott Corzine, Major Accounts Exec. 

Puget Sound Energy 

Kevin DeVries, President / CEO 

Exxel Pacific, Inc. 

Greg Ebe, President / CEO 

Ebe Farms 

Andy Enfield, Vice President 

Enfield Farms 

John Huntley, President / CEO 

Mills Electric, Inc. 

Guy Jansen, Director 

Lynden, Inc. 

Sandy Keathley, Previous Owner 

K & K Industries 

Paul Kenner, Executive VP 

Snapper Shuler Kenner Insurance 

Jeff Kochman, President / CEO 

Barkley Company 

Troy Muljat, Co-Founder, NVNTD, Inc. 

Managing Broker, Muljat Commercial 

Bob Pritchett, President / CEO 

Logos Bible Software, Inc. 

Brad Rader, Vice President 

Rader Farms 

Becky Raney, Owner 

Print & Copy Factory 

Jon Sitkin, Partner 

Chmelik Sitkin & Davis P.S. 

Doug Thomas, President / CEO 

Bellingham Cold Storage 

Marv Tjoelker, CEO 

Larson Gross, PLLC 

That resonates well with 

Western. When we survey our students 

we find that they really care 

about and are highly motivated 

about making a difference. Really 

motivated to make a difference, 

and that’s true of Bellingham and 


“We obviously want 

graduates with technical 

expertise, but they’re no 

good to us if that’s all 

they have. They have to be 

able to see across cultures, 

across people, and (have) 

empathy.” 

LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY 

I’m a poli-sci person. In my 

profession I don’t believe in the 

guru you read when you pick up 

a book or magazine in the book 

rack at the airport with the latest 

sort of thing. I believe in researchbased 

stuff in studies of leadership. 

What it teaches me is that in 

complex environments, complicated 

organizations, the answers 

are never obvious. 

And top-down management 

usually doesn’t work. People just 

go off a cliff together. 

What leadership has to be today 

is not by you giving answers, but 

by asking questions. They have to 

be questions that take us outside 

of our zones of comfort, because 

none of us likes to deal with 

change. So, part of your job in 

leading a staff is to ask questions 

that make us a little uncomfortable. 

CUTS BOTH WAYS 

And it has to go two ways. I 

chose at my one chance to speak 

each year to Western faculty 


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and staff at what we call Open 

Convocation, and I posed six difficult 

questions on the campus that 

we’re now working on. But you 

have to ask me questions that take 

me outside of my zone of comfort, 

too, because I don’t like change as 

well. 

That’s the way leadership works. 

It follows that if you ask questions, 

you have to be able to hear 

and listen. People ask me, what’s 

your vision for the university? 

Well, I have a vision. It’s, what is 

the vision of the university, the 

community, our elected officials, 

our donors, our alumni? 

I’ve spent a lot of time listening 

with a lot of people. In a complex 

organization if you keep the vision 

and direction you’re going in front 

of people, creative people – 2,200 

employees, 15,000 students, and 

more than 100,000 alumni – will 

come up with stuff you never 

thought of to move us forward. 

YOUR METHOD 

The phrase I use is conducting a 

symphony among talented soloists. 

How do you do that? By keeping 

the vision in front of people. 

That’s how I approach the job of 

helping lead here at Western – I 

ask them questions, and keep them 

uncomfortable, and listen carefully 

to what people say. 

Then share the answers in front 

of folks until they’re sick and tired 

of hearing them. I get up and give 

my 10-minute spiel, then I go and 

sit down at the table, and hear my 

friend say, ‘I’ve heard that speech 

so many times I could give it 

myself.’ 

And I say, (slapping a table) 

‘Good! That’s the idea!’ That’s 

what I want. 

People have to create their own 

understandings, and that’s education. 

When you do it that way, 

people buy in. They own it, and 

make it successful. That’s really 

important. 

President Shepard said he misses the classroom, but he takes every opportunity to visit 

with students as a visiting lecturer, or walking around the campus. 

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Guest Column: Minimum Wage Law 

Erin Shannon | Director, WPC for Small Business 

Erin Shannon became director of the Washington Policy Center 

for Small Business during January 2012. She has an extensive 

background in small business issues and public affairs. The Center 

improves the state’s small business climate by working with owners 

and policymakers toward positives solutions. 

Will your teen find a job this summer? 

Most teens don’t know that state law makes it harder for them to find summer work 

There is an 

unemployment crisis for 

teens in Washington state. 

Our teen unemployment 

rate (for 16-to-19 year 

olds) is a staggering 30 

percent, the sixth-highest 

in the nation. To compare, 

the state unemployment 

rate for all workers is 6.6 

percent. 

The Great Recession cannot 

be blamed for our state’s poor 

teen employment ranking. Since 

2002, well before the recession, 

Washington has ranked among the 

top ten states with the highest teen 

unemployment every year but one. 

Washington also has imposed 

the nation’s highest minimum 

wage for years. According to two 

decades of research on the impact 

of a high minimum wage, the evidence 

shows that raising the wage 

reduces employment for the least 

skilled, such as young workers. 

At $9.32, Washington has the 

highest minimum wage in the 

nation. Lawmakers recognize that 

a high minimum wage decreases 

job opportunities, so Washington 

businesses are allowed to pay 

14-to-15 year olds a training wage 

to give employers an incentive to 

hire young workers just entering 

the workforce. But those 16 and 

older are subject to the full minimum 

wage, pricing many young 

workers out of the labor market. 

Given our state’s 30 percent 

unemployment rate for 16-to-19 

year olds, it is obvious a much 

larger segment of teen workers is 

in need of similar relief. 

The general consensus of 

decades of minimum wage 

studies is that a 10 percent 

increase in the minimum 

wage reduces teen 

employment by one to 

three percentage points. 

The vast majority of academic 

studies, over 85 percent, show 

that a high minimum wage hurts 

the very people it is supposed to 

help—the young, the inexperienced, 

the unskilled. The general 

consensus of decades of minimum 

wage studies is that a 10 percent 

increase in the minimum wage 

reduces teen employment by 

one to three percentage points. 

The effects are even more pronounced 

for minority teen workers. 

Research shows a 10 percent 

minimum wage increase causes 

four times more employment 

loss for African American young 

adults than it does for non-black 

employees. This might explain 

why the unemployment rate for 

black teens is significantly higher 

than other teens. 

The long-term effects of youth 

unemployment are much more 

profound than a teen who couldn’t 

work to save money for a car. It 

creates a “wage scar” that leaves 

a lasting impact on a workers 

employment prospects and earning 

trajectory. The longer the teen 

remains unemployed, the bigger 

the scarring effect. Numerous 

studies show those who do not 

work as teenagers have lower 

long-term wages and less employment, 

even after 20 years. 

Studies also show a teen training 

wage would help prevent 

wage scarring by encouraging 

teen employment. A study by a 

Federal Reserve economist found 

having a starting wage well below 

the minimum counteracts much of 

the negative impact on job prospects 

for teens. 

The Organization for Economic 

Cooperation and Development 

(OECD), an organization comprised 

of 34 countries to foster economic 

progress, said in a 2010 report 

that teen unemployment could be 

reduced by allowing a sub-minimum 

training wage for teenagers. 

Former Chief Economic Advisor to 

President Obama, Larry Summers, 

has endorsed a teen training wage 

as a way to combat teen unemployment. 


Our state’s high minimum wage 

creates a barrier to teens just when 

they need work experience the 

most. A temporary training wage 

of 85 percent of the state minimum 

wage would provide employers 

with the incentive they need to 

take a chance by hiring a young, 

unskilled teenager. If the law 

forces a higher wage, the employer 

might as well hire an older applicant 

with more job skills and a 

work history. Most teens will 

never know that they can’t find 

a job because of a state law that 

fixes wages. 

The result of allowing a training 

wage would be more teens being 

hired and receiving valuable work 

skills and experience, reducing 

wage scarring and other long-term 

consequences created by prolonged 

periods of unemployment 

for young workers. Young people 

just want a chance. State lawmakers 

should help them get it. 

Sumas: A great place to live and do business 

The City of Sumas has a thriving industrial zone with rail service & heavy haul 

roads making it an excellent place to do business. Here are a few 

more reasons why you should be here: 

• Proximity to Canada 

• Foreign trade zone 

• Low electric rates 

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Guest Column: Free-Market Environmentalism 

Todd Myers | Environmental Director, 

Washington Policy Center 

The Washington Policy Center is an independent, non-partisan think tank promoting sound public 

policy based on free-market solutions. Todd Myers is one of the nation’s leading experts on freemarket 

environmental policy and is the author of the 2011 landmark book Eco-Fads: How the Rise of 

Trendy Environmentalism is Harming the Environment. His in-depth research on the failure of the 

state’s 2005 “green” building mandate receives national attention. He recently became a contributor 

to The Wall Street Journal. 

Why I don’t count on politicians 

to save my honeybees 

As spring arrives, we 

soon will begin seeing 

honeybees as they collect 

pollen and nectar, and 

pollinate flowers and fruit 

in the area. The bees in my 

own hives near Issaquah 

are getting ready and, with 

luck, they will survive 

the winter and I can look 

forward to a strong year of 

pollination and honey. 

Honeybees are an especially 

welcome sight to beekeepers 

because of recent concerns 

about Colony Collapse Disorder 

(CCD). Over the last decade, the 

percentage of hives that fail to 

survive the winter has increased 

from about 15 percent to over 

30 percent, according to the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture. A great 

deal of debate goes on among 

beekeepers about the cause of this 

worrisome decline. 

Some talk apocalyptically about 

a world without bees. Many environmentalists 

have quickly pointed 

to causes ranging from pesticides, 

to genetically modified crops 

(GMOs), to cell phone towers. 

Research shows, however, that 

none of these suspected causes is 

the likely source of increased winter 

die-off of honeybees. 

For example, while bees in the 

United States have struggled, honeybees 

in the Canadian prairies 

where a large amount of GMO 

crops grow, have fared better. In 

Europe, on the other hand, where 

GMO crops are banned, honeybees 

have seen declines. 

Bill McKibben, a wellknown 

environmental 

activist, even blamed 

climate change for the 

decline. Honeybees are not 

native to North America 

and they have thrived 

from California to North 

Dakota. Blaming a onedegree 

global temperature 

increase for the decline 

of honeybees that have 

already adapted across a 

wide temperature range 

is the sort of unscientific 

nonsense that makes it 

difficult to address the 

real issues. 

Some have blamed pesticides 

called neonicitinoids that are seedbased. 

The evidence of a link to 

honeybee death is sparse, however. 

Recent studies found if honeybees 

become exposed to the pesticide, 

they can be harmed. Studies 

also show, however, that honeybees 

are unlikely to be exposed to 

neonicitinoids because the pesticides 

are not expressed in pollen 

or nectar. Neonics actually are less 

toxic than some pesticides they 

replace. Banning neonics, as some 

activists have proposed, might 

increase the use of other pesticides 

that are more harmful to bees. 

Bill McKibben, a well-known 

environmental activist, even 

blamed climate change for the 

decline. Honeybees are not native 

to North America and they have 

thrived from California to North 

Dakota. Blaming a one-degree 

global temperature increase for 

the decline of honeybees that have 

already adapted across a wide 

temperature range is the sort of 

unscientific nonsense that makes it 

difficult to address the real issues. 

Beekeepers worry more about 

other threats, like the varroa mite, 

which has the appropriate scientific 

name of varroa destructor. 

Varroa mites attach themselves to 

bees, weakening them and transmitting 

illness. Reducing the threat 

from varroa is a common topic 

among beekeepers. 


Most research, including a 

report from the Environmental 

Protection Agency last year, 

points to a combination of factors. 

Honeybees can manage stresses, 

but as pressures add up bees have 

a more difficult time surviving. 

Here, however, is a fact that 

many people don’t know: The 

number of honeybee colonies in 

the United States and worldwide is 

increasing. With prices for pollination 

increasing, beekeepers have 

responded to market incentives 

with increased breeding to insure 

against increased winter mortality. 

Politicians can argue endlessly 

about the possible causes of CCD, 

but beekeepers live in the real 

world where feedback is immediate. 

If we don’t take the right 

steps, adapting and changing hive 

management, our bees will die. 

If politicians get environmental 

policy wrong, they still take credit 

for “caring” about the issue, while 

passing the real-world costs of 

failure on to others. 

Beekeepers constantly learn 

more about the causes of CCD. 

We work to keep our hives alive, 

because for many apiarists it is 

the way they earn their living; 

but, also because we feel strongly 

about protecting the bees in our 

care. 

I have been to numerous meetings 

where beekeepers expressed 

sadness at the loss of even a few 

bees out of a hive of 50,000. Only 

the free market can take advantage 

of the local information and 

personal incentives to demand 

success in a way that politics consistently 

fails. 

Given a choice between trusting 

politicians in Olympia or relying 

on beekeepers motivated by profit 

and personal care, the best hope 

for honeybees are the beekeepers. 

We are the ones ensuring that 

spring weather will, once again, 

bring the gentle buzz of honeybees 

going about their work. 

Environmental policy consultant and regular guest columnist Todd Myers is an avid apiarist, 

more commonly known as a beekeeper. He’s all decked out for duty with his ‘family’ 

here. (Photo courtesy of Todd Myers) 

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Guest Column: Risk Management 

Don C. Brunell | Past President, AWB 

Don Brunell retired in January 2014 after 28 years as president of the Association of Washington 

Business. Formed in 1904, the AWB is Washington’s oldest and largest statewide business 

association. Its roster has more than 8,100 members representing 700,000 employees, serving 

as both the state’s chamber of commerce and the manufacturing and technology association. 

Membership includes major employers like Boeing and Microsoft, but 90 percent of AWB members 

employ fewer than 100 people. More than half of AWB’s members employ fewer than 10. For more 

about AWB, visit www.awb.org. 

Putting risk in perspective 

Where there is life, 

there is risk. That’s 

not some insightful 

quotation, it’s just a fact. 

We’re exposed to risk 

from the moment we get 

up in the morning – slip 

and fall, dog bite, traffic 

accident, lightning strike. 

We can manage risk, we 

can minimize risk, but we 

cannot eliminate it. 

That fact used to be accepted 

as common sense, but in today’s 

society, people have come to 

believe that any degree of risk is 

unacceptable. In fact, trial lawyers 

have won lawsuits, not because 

their clients were injured, but 

because they feared they might be. 

Why does this matter to you? 

When government tries to ensure 

a virtually risk-free environment, 

it imposes regulations that are 

needlessly punitive and costly. We 

pay those costs through higher 

prices and lost jobs. 

Case in point: estimating environmental 

risk. There are two 

common ways to calculate risk. 

One method is easier and cheaper; 

the other is more accurate. Most 

government agencies use the first 

one. 

It’s called the “deterministic” 

method. 

This method is easier for agencies 

to use because it’s simple and 

it doesn’t require a lot of data. The 

only problem is it’s less accurate. 

It tends to overestimate risk. But 

that’s not all. Regulators routinely 

take that overestimated risk level 

and compound it by adding an 

additional layer of buffer – “just to 

be safe.” As a result, you end up 

with regulations that are far more 

restrictive and costly than necessary 

to provide protection. 

A recent study by HDR 

Engineering estimates that 

imposing these standards 

in Washington would cost 

local governments, ports, 

ratepayers and businesses 

billions, with little or no 

environmental benefit. 

Last November, the Washington 

Department of Ecology announced 

that it will likely use this method 

as it updates the state’s Fish 

Consumption Level – one factor in 

a complex formula that determines 

our state’s water quality standards. 

That’s a problem. Ecology’s 

starting point on this issue was 

extreme to begin with. They 

wanted to use the same FCR that 

Oregon used, one which resulted 

in water quality standards that 

are virtually impossible to meet 

because the technology to comply 

doesn’t exist, and may not for 

decades. In some cases, the allowable 

levels are so low they can’t be 

measured with existing technology. 

A recent study by HDR 

Engineering estimates that imposing 

these standards in Washington 

would cost local governments, 

ports, ratepayers and businesses 

billions, with little or no environmental 

benefit. 

Despite that, Ecology still plans 

to use this less accurate method to 

calculate environmental risks. 

There is a better way. 

It’s called the probabilistic 

method, as in “probabilities.” It’s 

more comprehensive, more precise 

and more accurate. 

This method analyzes large 

amounts of data and thousands 

of variables in order to calculate 

a range of exposures and risks 

across various populations and 

circumstances. The result is a more 

nuanced, realistic picture of environmental 

risk. 

Think of it this way: When you 

walk out of your house, there’s a 

risk you could get struck by lightning. 

Lightning strikes occur every 

day somewhere on the globe. But 

how likely is it that it will happen 

to you? That’s the question that is 

better answered by the probabilistic 

method. 


Ecology has used the probabilistic 

method, and the EPA says 

it provides the best basis for 

decision-making. “Because the 

results of the refined risk assessment 

show the range of possible 

environmental impacts and which 

ones are most likely to occur, they 

provide a better basis for decisionmaking.” 

If that’s true, why isn’t Ecology 

using it now? Good question. 

It’s a question being asked by 

the members of the Northwest 

Pulp & Paper Association, who 

recently submitted a report to 

Ecology on the probabilistic method 

prepared by ARCADIS, a global 

leader in environmental engineering 

and risk assessment. NWPPA 

has asked Ecology to use the more 

accurate probabilistic method as 

the agency updates our state’s 

water quality standards. 

Let’s hope they listen. 

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Guest Column: Lean Business 

Randall Benson | Lean Operations 

Randall Benson is a management consultant, author, and Lean 

master working out of Whatcom County. You can visit his blog 

“The Lean Heretic” at www.leanheretic.com, and his website at 

www.bensonconsulting.com. 

The power of respect in Lean 

Dr. Alan Dobzyniak, the highly 

respected medical chief of staff 

for Oakwood Health System in 

Michigan, stood before about 100 

of the hospital’s leaders at their 

annual awards ceremony. He 

began to talk, and emotions overcame 

him. He paused, regained his 

composure, and began again, “In 

the 20 years that I’ve been on staff 

at this hospital,” he said, “this is 

the first time that management 

actually asked the staff what they 

thought we should do—and look at 

the incredible results!” 

Respect for people is the 

hallmark of the famed 

Toyota Lean method. 

It’s the defining element 

that distinguished Toyota 

from previous methods of 

process improvement. 

When your Lean initiative 

builds on respect for people, 

expect magic. 

Consider Dr. Dobzyniak and 

Oakwood Health’s story. 

At the awards ceremony, he was 

referring to Oakwood’s creation 

of the nation’s fastest emergency 

room operation.. Oakwood’s 

ER had been dangerously overcrowded 

and visitors often waited 

hours to see a doctor. It was not 

uncommon to find Patients and 

loved ones huddling outside the 

ER in freezing weather because 

there were no seats, or even standing 

room, inside. 

Just nine months after instituting 

Lean principles, and extending 

to ER staff the authority to explore 

and apply their own ideas, they 

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7 Ways to Demonstrate Respect for Employees 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

Be clear about the ends, but let employees determine the means. 

Invite employees to participate in improving their own work processes. 

Encourage staff exploration, discovery, and application. Avoid asking 

staff to blindly execute someone else’s plan. 

Place high value on the experimental method. Celebrate well-run experiments, 

regardless of the outcome. 

Allow your staff to stop the process when they see something gone awry. 

Celebrate learning from mistakes and improving processes. 

Allow employees the latitude to fix customer problems and carry out 

service recovery. 

made a remarkable transformation: 

The nation’s first guaranteed 

30-minute ER! 

Further, they established new 

benchmarks for almost every 

aspect of emergency care delivery. 

• Instead of waiting hours to 

be seen, patients received 

evaluation by a doctor 

within 15 minutes on average. 

• Patient length of stay was 

reduced by 70 percent. 

• Overcrowding was nonexistent. 

A visitor would find 

only a few family members 

in the waiting room. 

• Satisfaction scores skyrocketed. 

• Word of mouth spread, and 

Oakwood rapidly attracted 

new patients to the system, 

producing a financial turnaround. 

The ER leader, Corrine Victor, 

earned recognition as the VHA 

Healthcare Leader of the Year for 

these accomplishments. 

By any measure this was 

a breakthrough, not just for 

Oakwood, but also for emergency 

room care throughout the United 

States. More than 80 media 

reports told Oakwood’s story, 

and dozens of other hospital systems 

visited them for tours and 

insights. 

The value of the Oakwood 

story lies not just in its successes, 

but also in the perspective of 

how they got there. It was not 

their first, but their fifth try. Yes, 

fifth. 

Oakwood tried and failed to 

fix the same ER four times in a 

five-year span. Not until they 

implemented Lean care delivery, 

anchored with newfound respect 

for staff, did they achieve, and 

exceed, their objectives. 

When I first met Corrine, she 

handed me the four thick consulting 

reports prepared for her 

over those years. The reports 

contained many suggestions, 

often based on Lean principles, 

for every aspect of ER operations. 

The staff did its best to comply 

with the recommendations, but 

the overcrowding and long waits 

continued. 

The consultants’ reports all 

revealed the same fatal flaw: lack 

of respect for employees. 

Previously, the external 

experts analyzed the information 

they gathered from staff 

and made their recommendations. 

Managers and staff members 

were expected to simply 

implement the expert’s untested 

ideas. During the four failed 

attempts, staff members never 

became masters of their own 

fate. Oakwood failed to improve 

because it didn’t honor the key 

hallmark of Lean: respect for 

people. 

Corrinne, as the ER chief executive, 

asked me to help her create 

a quest – a journey of exploration 

and discovery in which we 

invited staff to search for their 

own solutions. If they achieved 

what we termed a “big change,” 

a breakthrough innovation, they 

could apply it to their ER. 

The team engaged vigorously 

in their quest, running almost 

200 experiments and making 

dozens of innovative changes. 

During the nine-month journey, 

they used their collective genius 

to discover and ultimately apply 

their “big change.” The result 

– the nation’s fastest ER – was 

a breakthrough far beyond their 

expectations. 

The biggest difference was how 

their ideas and their capabilities 

for innovation were respected 

and celebrated. 

In Oakwood’s case, respect for 

people meant granting them the 

authority to explore, to discover, 

and to apply employee-developed 

ideas. Oakwood described this 

to the press as “employee-driven 

innovation.” However you 

describe it, that respect might 

make the difference between 

pedestrian results and a strong, 

positive and prosperous breakthrough. 

The difference that choked up 

a chief of staff. 

How does your organization 

demonstrate respect for people? 

How would you describe the 

results? Send me a note at 

rbenson@bensonconsulting.com. 

I’d love to share your stories. 


Guest Column: Water Rights 

Ken Mann | Whatcom County Councilman 

Ken Mann is a member of the Whatcom County 

Council and serves as Chair of the Finance 

Committee. Ken has a background in finance and 

civil engineering. Ken and his wife, Amy, have a 

real estate development company that restores 

commercial and residential buildings. 

Water rights from two viewpoints 

Through the eyes of a business owner, and of a member of County Council 

Personally, we are not 

concerned about the 

effects of “exempt wells” 

and other water rights 

challenges facing Whatcom 

County residents, farms, 

fisheries, and businesses. 

It is extremely unlikely 

that our properties will 

be impacted. The vast 

majority of our properties 

get water from a purveyor 

with unassailable, perfected 

water rights. 

However, if I were in an agricultural 

business in Whatcom 

County, such as a farm growing 

berries or a slaughterhouse—and if 

I did not have legal water rights— 

I’d be scared to death. 

Here’s why, from the viewpoint 

of an at-risk business owner: If 

I do not have a water right, my 

business is and always has been 

vulnerable to senior water rights 

holders. If a senior water right 

demands an adjudication of water 

resources and prevails, junior 

water rights and those without 

water rights can be shut down. 

Period. 

Looking at it from a seat on the 

Whatcom County Council, this is 

a tremendously important issue to 

property owners and businesses 

throughout the county, many of 

whom have been operating for 

years without water rights. 

There are no more water rights 

available; Whatcom County is 

closed to new water withdrawals. 

Thus, it is of critical importance 

to Council members to stay 

If a property owner wants 

to dig a well, we (County) 

can issue a permit to 

dig the hole. But only 

the state’s Department 

of Ecology can grant (or 

deny) permission to withdraw 

water from that hole. 

— Ken Mann, Whatcom County 

Council Member 

engaged on this issue. I know we 

face some mistaken perceptions 

about County government’s role in 

the middle of all this. 

For example, if a property 

owner wants to dig a well, we 

can issue a permit to dig the hole. 

But only the state’s Department of 

Ecology can grant (or deny) permission 

to withdraw water from 

that hole. 

County government issues 

building permits based on water 

availability, as established by a 

letter from a water purveyor or a 

well driller’s report. However, if 

you do not have access to water, 

you can not get a building permit 

- and that has always been the 

case. 

At issue recently, and the subject 

of wildly inaccurate rumors 

and internet hysteria, was a claim 

that the County was debating a 

ban on private wells on private 

property, or elimination of build- 





MAGAZINE 



ing permits without a water right. 

These claims were ridiculous for 

many reasons. 

We did vote (Jan. 28) to pursue 

litigation that stems from a 

Growth Management Hearings 

Board ruling. The County is 

appealing a ruling that delegated 

unprecedented authority over 

water resources to county governments. 

Counties do not have (or want) 

the legal responsibility, or the 

scientific capacity, to adjudicate 

water rights. We await a ruling 

from the courts. 

If anyone or anything eliminates 

water withdrawals, (a.) it 

will be the Washington State 

Department of Ecology, not 

Whatcom County, and (b.) apply 

only to anyone not holding a legal 

water right. 

This has always been the case, 

and the County cannot and will 

not do anything to change that. 

A panel discussed the potential travails of dissent and possible litigation over water rights 

at a recent board meeting of the WBA at the Mt. Baker Theater in Bellingham: (from left) 

Doug Allen, local official for the State Dept. of Ecology; Perry Eskridge with the Whatcom 

County Realtors Association; moderator Jon Sitkin, an attorney with water-rights expertise, 

and local berry producer Marty Maberry representing agricultural interests. 

(Staff Photo) 

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Guest Column: Water Rights 

Roger Almskaar | President, CAPR 

Roger Almskaar has served as a land use 

management consultant for the last 32 years. He 

is president of the Citizens Alliance for Property 

Rights, Whatcom Chapter. 


Sometimes a challenge is necessary 

On Jan. 28, 2014 the 

Whatcom County 

Council voted 6-1 in 

support of moving forward 

in its lawsuit against the 

state Growth Management 

Hearings Board’s Final 

Order in Case 12-2-0013 

regarding water rights. 

Whatcom County’s Citizens 

Alliance for Property Rights 

(CAPR) is a public-interest group 

affiliated with the larger regional 

CAPR organization comprising 

many county-based chapters and 

100s of members in our state 

and in California. We support the 

County Council in this move and 

encourage them to stand strong 

against the Growth Management 

Hearings Board in this case. 

During the last year, water 

rights and resources became a 

major county-wide land use and 

resource issue. We have actively 

participated in this Rural Element 

process since mid-2009, now 

going on its fifth year. 

Many of our members, and 

hundreds of other residents, own 

acreage and businesses in the 

county, and have been adversely 

affected by this long, drawn-out 

process. 

This is due to two actions: 

1. The re-start of the longneglected 

Planning Unit, 

which is the key party in 

the Watershed Inventory 

Area 1 (WRIA 1, most of 

County Council votes 6-1 to fight a good fight 

2. 

Whatcom County) planning 

process. 

The June 7, 2013 Final 

Decision and Order (FDO) 

by the state Growth 

Management Hearings 

Board, saying the County’s 

Rural Element rules and 

policies were out of compliance 

on protection of 

surface and ground water 

resources, as required by the 

Growth Management Act 

(GMA). 

We need to secure the 

best possible outcome in 

a court of law, instead 

of caving to the political 

appointees on the 

board, who lack relevant 

knowledge of the geology, 

hydrology, biology, history, 

and culture of Whatcom 

County. 

Whatcom County government 

wisely and properly sued the 

board over this FDO, and the case 

is headed to the state Court of 

Appeals. While the topic of water 

resource planning and regulation 

is complex, many citizens believe 

this challenge is in their best 

short- and long-term interests, and 

the county as a whole. We need 

to secure the best possible outcome 

in a court of law, instead of 

caving to the political appointees 

on the board, who lack relevant 

knowledge of the geology, hydrology, 

biology, history, and culture 

of Whatcom County. 

We offer these 6 major reasons 

why this suit should be 

fought by the County Council, 

County Executive, and Prosecuting 

Attorney, especially regarding 

water quantity, including water 

rights. There are many more reasons; 

we think these are the most 

critical at this time. 

1. The Hearings Board’s decision 

is flawed in several ways. 

It dismisses controlling state 

rules regarding basin closures specific 

to WRIA 1, such as the law 

that clearly states exempt wells 

are allowed (WAC 173-501-070; 

see p18, FDO). The Hearings Board 

should not be allowed to substitute 

its layperson-board judgment for 

that of the Department of Ecology, 

which rules as the sole state 

authority on water rights. 

The Hearings Board also wants 

to impose an open-ended, oftendifficult 

scientific burden on 

individuals to prove a negative, 

i.e., that a proposed well has zero 

hydraulic continuity with streams 

in the area. Such studies could 

cost tens of thousands of dollars, 

and can and will be challenged. 

2. It often will be very problematic 

to conclusively prove or disprove 

that a new well will impair

in-stream flows to any significant, 

measurable degree. This is because 

of the very diverse physical geography 

within most rural areas. 

Key factors – including geology, 

hydrology, level of ground water, 

soils and slope – can vary greatly, 

even within a few hundred feet 

apart. Wells as close as 300 feet to 

each other will often differ greatly 

in both quality and quantity tests, 

even within the same type of 

landscape. 

3. Simply giving in to the 

Hearings Board will have severe 

negative economic impact on a 

large segment of citizens, and on 

the county as a whole. To deny 

people access to water based on 

arbitrary “zero” standards will cost 

many times the expense of this 

litigation. The costs take the form 

of reduced land values, lost tax 

revenue due to massive land value 

losses, lost opportunities for homes 

and businesses including farms, 

and ensuing litigation from those 

affected. 

4. The FDO greatly exaggerates 

the negative impacts on water 

quantity and quality of exempt 

wells for homes in rural areas and 

on fisheries. A recent Department 

of Ecology rule for Clallam County 

states that for a typical rural 

home on a septic system, only 

“10 percent of indoor water use is 

assumed consumptive” (WAC 173- 

518-085). Thus DOE has concluded 

that 90 percent of the water consumed 

indoors by this type of use 

typically returns to groundwater. 

Common knowledge holds that 

the quantity of ground and surface 

water withdrawn by local municipalities 

(cities and utility districts) 

and businesses, including farming, 

is several times that of exempt 

wells. This especially rings true 

in the dry season when in-stream 

flows are lowest. 

Also, a high portion of these 

withdrawals are discharged to 

marine waters, not to rivers and 

streams. 

5. Water for allowed rural land 

uses is not readily available from 

approved systems in many areas 

of Whatcom County, or too costly 

for some. Effectively prohibiting 

new exempt wells by excessive 

regulation in rural areas will stifle 

lawful plans, and lower land values. 

6. The water rights issues raised 

by the Hearings Board’s very 

questionable decision have raised 

serious concerns way beyond 

Whatcom County. Several statewide 

groups, such as Washington 

Realtors, have committed resources 

to support the county suit. And 

several others, such as Farm 

Bureau, Association of Washington 

Counties, and Association of 

Washington Business, are considering 

joining in. 

While we believe litigation 

should always be the last resort, 

we believe the history between the 

parties, the facts, and the law in 

this case justify going to court. 

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Fostering Business Success and Community Prosperity 

Member News 

Port partnering with 

Ireland? Maybe… 

The Port of Bellingham administration 

has undertaken a deep, 

intensive study of Harcourt 

Developments Ltd in Dublin, 

Ireland, to determine whether 

the company will be selected to 

develop about 11 acres of the central 

waterfront between downtown 

Bellingham and the Whatcom 

Waterway. “We need to get into 

their balance sheet,” said Rob Fix, 

the executive director of The Port 

who will lead the process. 

And, it’s a two-way mirror. 

Harcourt also will be determining 

whether this smaller slice of their 

original vision is financially viable 

for them. Deadline is June 8 for 

what Fix called “due diligence” 

and a decision by both parties. 

Harcourt originally proposed to 

develop the Port’s entire 237 acres, 

but the Port Commission nixed 

the larger offer and approved the 

current vetting process. 

Harcourt must meet zoning regulations 

and specs of the waterfront 

master plan in the area that 

includes the nearly 100-year-old 

Granary Building. Upon approval 

of ongoing talks, Commissioner 

Dan Robbins stressed that this 

was “not a selection,” and 

Commissioner Mike McAuley 

sought and received assurances 

that the commission will play a 

role in final determinations. Fix 

said at the meeting, “We’ll keep 

you informed every step of the 

way,” Fix said. 

Harcourt, which would work 

collaboratively with multiple local 

companies if selected, is best 

known for its Titanic Museum and 

development at the site where that 

infamous vessel was built. 

SILVER REEF RISING HIGHER 

Silver Reef Hotel Casino Spa 

has broken ground on its sixth 

expansion of its 12-year existence 

– a larger lobby, a tower 

almost doubling rooms to 205, a 

3,000-square-foot meeting space, 

and a bar. 

Lummi Nation Chairman Tim 

Ballew II said in a news release, 

“…This new construction will provide 

more jobs (to) help grow the 

economy for the greater region.” 

Scheduled completion date is June, 

2015. 

PEOPLES PROMOTES PEOPLE 

Peoples Bank announced three 

recent promotions: Mark Swanson 

to Vice President as branch manager 

for Cordata and West Lynden; 

Shannon Day to assistant vice 

president a branch manager for 

the Fairhaven office in the Haggen 

Fairhaven Market, and Steve Gray 

to assistant vice president as a 

senior real estate loan officer at 

the Bellingham Real Estate Loan 

Center in the Barkley District. 

$1K GIFT TO LOCAL HS 

Signs Plus is giving $1,000 

to the student body of one of 10 

county high schools based on voting 

by their constituents through 

social media. Go to SignsPlusNW. 

com/Whatcom-County-highschool-1000-giveaway/ 

for details 

by March 31. 

“Our owners believe that supporting 

local students and schools 

is a vital part of having a healthy 

and prosperous community,” said 

the company’s president, Jim 

Sutterfield (671-7165 for further 

info, or JimS@SignsPlusNW.com) 

ALL-AMERICAN MARINE 

All American Marine is designing 

and building two 250-passenger 

ferries for the King County 

Ferry District on an $11.8 million 

contract. 

Mark Always, founder of the company Penumbra Tables, won two categories of prize funding in a recent “Pitch Fest” staged by Red Rokk 

and The Big Idea Lab with his digitized Beer Pong table. (Photo courtesy of Red Rokk Interactive.) 


RED ROKK/BIG IDEA ‘PITCH’ 

Red Rokk Interactive and the 

Big Idea Lab stage a monthly 

“Pitch Fest” in which entrepreneurs/inventors 

make a presentation 

to a judging panel of local 

business leaders for an investment 

prize for best business idea. 

The latest winner was Mark 

Alway and his Penumbra Tables 

company’s interactive beer pong 

table, replete with digital scoring, 

lighted sensors, air compressors, 

and a phone app. Alway plan to 

take the table to the Las Vegas 

market where beer pong is an 

organized industry. 

WBA member Ken Bell, owner 

of Best Recycling, was one of the 

judges, along with Dusty Gulleson, 

founder of eResources; Ed Love, 

WWU director of marketing; Port 

Commissioner Dan Robbins, and 

Rosemarie Francis, founder of 

Etelu. 

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Ask the Experts: Life in the Tech Lane 

Tech Help Staff | Big Fresh 

Experts at Tech Help in Bellingham, a division of Big Fresh, 

provide answers to the questions that are trending among 

clients. If you have a tech question for our experts, send 

an email to getanswers@gotechhelp.com 

Free desktop remote access tools 

Recently LogMeIn, one 

of our favorite remote 

desktop tools, suddenly 

pulled the plug on the free 

version of its remote access 

tool. Now you’ll pay to 

keep using it. 

Or, switch to an alternative. 

We thought it would be helpful to 

come up with a list of alternatives 

for you to have a free, remote 

desktop service like LogMeIn. 

Teamviewer 

Teamviewer supports Windows, 

OS X, Linux, Android, and iOS, 

and is free for personal use. It’s 

probably the most obvious and 

popular alternative to LogMeIn. 

Teamviewer offers remote support 

and management, in that you 

don’t necessarily need to have the 

remote side set up before you need 

to connect. Further, it sports useful 

features like: 

• Wake-on-LAN to wake up a 

sleeping computer and put 

it back to sleep when you’re 

finished; 

• File transfer capabilities; 

• Clipboard pass-through; 

• Support for connecting from 

mobile devices like phones 

or tablets; 

• Support for online meetings 

and collaboration, so 

multiple people can connect 

to one host, or share a session…and 

much more. 

The beauty of Teamviewer is 

that all features are free, setup is 

incredibly easy, and the app actually 

has more features built into 

it than you’ll probably ever really 

need. 

Chrome Remote 

Desktop 

Chrome Remote Desktop supports 

Windows and OS X (and 

Linux, sort of), and is completely 

Top Technology Trends in 2014 

By the Staff at Tech Help/Big Fresh 

Space tourism 

Virgin Galactic is scheduled to become the first private 

commercial “spaceliner” to blast tourists into space, 

with an inaugural trip in 2014 carrying its founder, Sir 

Richard Branson. He and his children, Holly and Sam, 

will lift off on SpaceShipTwo from the Spaceport America 

in New Mexico. 

Wearable tech 

Google is expected to ship its groundbreaking, augmented-reality 

glasses, Google Glass, to the public in 

2014, expanding the wearable tech market. Samsung’s 

Galaxy Gear watch and the Pebble Smartwatch will continue 

their usefulness as developers create more apps for 

them. Health-tracking devices like the Nike Fuel Band, 

Jawbone Up, and Fitbit Force will continue to drive the 

health technology marketplace into the mainstream. 

Internet of things 

At the 2013 IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, 

the technology company Philips demonstrated a concept 

called the HomeCooker Next that could time cook, 

change temperature, and stir food -- using a smartphone. 

The Nest thermostat not only can control your home’s 

temperature remotely, it also learns your behavior and 

makes adjustments accordingly. 

The networking of our physical world will continue to 

boom in 2014. Connected devices are no longer just limited 

to smartphones and computers. Everything from door 

locks and home appliances to bikes and watches can now 

be networked. 


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free for personal and commercial 

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You’ll have to log into Chrome 

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It’s not packed with additional 

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you get more features, such as 

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and transfer, and more. That’s the 

catch, though—there’s a VNC client 

and server that supports every 

operating system, mobile and 

desktop. 

And as long as you know what 

you’re doing and set it up properly 

you’ll be able to connect to any 

system you control, anywhere you 

have internet access, completely 

for free. 

The “Official” VNC software is 

RealVNC, which offers its client 

and server apps for Windows, OS 

X, Linux, Android, iOS, and even 

Chrome (and will happily add features 

and support if you’re willing 

to pay for them). 

Experts at Tech Help in 

Bellingham, a division of Big 

Fresh, provide answers to the 

questions that are trending azmong 

clients. If you have a tech question 

for our experts, send an email to 

getanswers@gotechhelp.com 

The beauty of Teamviewer 

is that all features are 

free, setup is incredibly 

easy, and the app actually 

has more features built 

into it than you’ll probably 

ever really need. 

It’s not perfect; Chrome Remote 

Desktop has no mobile apps or 

support (although the word is, 

that’s coming soon), has some 

trouble with multiple displays, 

and it’s pretty featureless when 

it comes to things like wake-on- 

LAN, file transfer, streaming, and 

other support tools. But what you 

trade in heft you get back in simplicity 

and ease-of-use. 

VNC 

Virtual Network Computing 

is less of a specific product and 

more of a platform. It uses existing 

protocols to send keyboard 

and mouse actions to a remote 

computer, and in turn it sends the 

screen from that remote system 

back to your viewer. 

Depending on the VNC client 

and server software you use, 


MAGAZINE 


SUBSCRIPTION FORM 

(Please print clearly) 

Business Pulse brings you information regarding the people, companies, 

ideas and trends that are shaping our county. Business Pulse Magazine 

is the official magazine of the Whatcom Business Alliance (WBA) and is 

a quarterly publication. 

Please complete and mail to: Business Pulse Magazine 

2423 E. Bakerview Road 

Or, subscribe online at: Bellingham, Washington 

businesspulse.com 98226 

Company Name:________________________________________ Title:_________________________ 

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M A G A Z I N E 


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Signature (Required):___________________________________________ 

Anderson Paper ........................... 112 

Archer Halliday ............................63 

Bank of the Pacific .........................14 

Banner Bank................................ 7 

Barkley Company ......................... 116 

Bellingham Athletic Club.....................11 

Bellingham Bells ...........................19 

Bellingham Fitness .........................89 

Best Western Lakeway Inn .................. 51 

Big Fresh ................................. 41 

BP Cherry Point Refinery.................... 31 

Brooks Property & Storage .................. 81 

Charter College, Bellingham Campus .........56 

Chmelik Sitkin & Davis......................37 

Chocolate Necessities.......................85 

Chrysalis Inn and Spa.......................35 

City of Blaine ..............................85 

City of Sumas .............................97 

Dakota Creek Golf & Country................ 61 

DeWaard & Bode............................ 5 

Diane Padys Photography ...................16 

Dynasty Cellars Winery .....................99 

Evergreen Christian School..................23 

Exxel Publishing............................53 

Faber Construction .........................25 

First Federal Savings........................ 91 


ADVERTISER INDEX 

Great Floors ...............................77 

Gym Star Sports Center.....................45 

Hardware Sales ............................88 

Hotel Bellwether ...........................86 

I-5 Parking ................................93 

Industrial Credit Union .....................94 

Kulshan Brewing Company..................80 

Lake Padden Golf Course....................65 

Larson Gross CPAs & Consultants ............25 

LaserPoint Awards..........................17 

LegalShield ...............................101 

Metcalf Hodges ............................43 

Mills Electric..............................107 

Nature Tech ..............................109 

North Bellingham Golf Course............... 71 

North Cascades Institute....................50 

Northwest Propane.........................97 

Northwood Casino .........................79 

NW SkyFerry...............................48 

Oltman Insurance ..........................33 

PeaceHealth St Joseph Medical Center.......102 

Peoples Bank ..............................69 

Print & Copy Factory .......................27 

Q Laundry ................................101 

R & R Excavating .........................109 

ReBound Physical Therapy ..................23 

Red Rokk Interactive .......................95 

Rice Insurance .............................27 

Saturna Capital ............................. 2 

Scrap It/Stow It ............................47 

Semiahmoo Resort Golf Spa.................74 

Shuksan Golf Club ......................... 61 

Signs Plus .................................90 

Silver Reef Hotel Casino Spa ............... 114 

Skagit State Bank ......................... 115 

Skagit Valley Casino Resort..................84 

St Paul’s Academy.........................105 

Sudden Valley Golf & Country ...............67 

TD Curran .................................. 9 

The Willows Inn on Lummi Island ............111 

Transgroup Worldwide......................87 

United Way................................78 

VSH Certified Public Accountants ............87 

WECU ....................................57 

Western Refinery Services................... 21 

Whidbey Island Bank ........................ 3 

Whirlwind Services .........................17 

Wilson Motors .............................15 

Windermere Real Estate ....................35 

Windows on the Bay .......................39

Business Pulse

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