Local businesses provide employment for area residents and products and services close to home. Mid-county Memo Business Memos celebrate news, advancements, promotions, retirements, expansions and other noteworthy events at these cornerstones of our community. To share news of your business with our readers, Business Memo submissions for the March issue are due by Saturday, Feb.15. For best results, e-mail Darlene Vinson at editor@midcountymemo.com. You may also mail submissions to 3510 N.E. 134th Ave., Portland, OR 97230. To leave a phone message, dial 503-287-8904. The Mid-county Memo fax number is 503-249-7672.
Business groups hold “Community Summit”
The Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative group known as Historic Parkrose held dozens of meetings and events in 2014. District Manager Bridget Bayer is pictured at one of them with Mark Gardner, left, and Joe Rossi. While Rossi was the group’s president, Gardner chaired the committee that hired Bayer.
Memo photo/Tim Curran
As a way to get to know the people associated with the Mid-county organizations they serve, Historic Parkrose District Manger Bridget Bayer, and new Parkrose Business Association Executive Director Katie Meyer host what they call a “Community Summit” in February.
To ameliorate the fact neither was familiar with the area east of 82nd Avenue before coming to work here, they want to get to know neighbors by hosting a light dinner for community members Tuesday, Feb. 10 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Russellville Grange, 12105 N.E. Prescott St.
According to the event circular, the agenda for the meeting is “Networking, Annual Calendar Planning, Getting to Know Each Other!” To attend, email Abbey@historicparkrose.com to RSVP.
Historic Parkrose is part of the Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative funded by Portland Development Commission.
Plan landscapes to deter burglars
After two burglaries at their homes, Admirable Landscapes owner John Knoernschild, right, added security conscious landscaping to his repertoire of landscaping services.
Memo photo/Tim Curran
Admirable Landscapes, LLC, offers security landscape consultation to area residents. Let owner John Knoernschild assess your property for potential points of entry, likely hiding places and visibility.
Knoernschild and his wife Kim faced break-ins at their home twice in one week last spring. The thieves took cameras, laptop computers, phones, wallets and purses.
Once the family recovered from the loss and trauma of those events, the Knoernschilds set in motion a plan to educate their clients about security landscaping. They recommend such easy steps as raising outdoor lighting beyond the reach of most people so that bulbs cannot be removed to darken the area around your home, planting uninviting shrubs like the prickly barberry to deter would be invaders and pruning shrubs in a way that eliminates hiding spots.
“We learned that if you can’t see the house because of the shrubs surrounding it may be an attraction. Neighbors can’t see what is happening and when you pull in the driveway, you can’t see very well,” Kim says. “Just pruning your shrubs so you can see in or out will help make your home more secure.”
The Knoernschilds started Admirable Landscapes in 1996 with little more than a $50 lawn mower. Today they serve hundreds of customers in Mid-county and beyond.
To learn more, visit admirablelandscapes.com or contact the Knoernschilds at info@admirablelandscapes.com or 503-249-1127.
Gateway sports bar welcomes families
Last year, when PJ’s II Styling Salon closed, next-door neighbor Brad Fouts, who owns and operates Bradford’s Sports Lounge in the same building, saw an opportunity to not only create a complimentary, connecting banquet room, but also make it family friendly. In January, after an extensive remodel of the old barbershop, Fouts opened the large capacity (100), minor-friendly banquet room with separate entrance and restrooms. In addition, Fouts equipped the room with full surround sound and three televisions for the sports viewing experience.
Fouts said the main reason for expanding was to fill the void created when the Refectory restaurant—with its large banquet rooms—closed after more than 30 years (“Refectory goes dark MCM February, 2013), leaving many east Portland groups without private meeting space in a restaurant setting. “With the Refectory closing, there’s absolutely no place to have private functions centrally located,” Fouts said in an interview. “I want to promote the heck out of the banquet room,” he said. “There’s none of them around here; it’d be a big hit for [sports] team dinners, class reunions, wedding receptions, business meetings, or luncheons.” The new room’s windows add natural light to the famously dark bar formerly known as the Candy Store until 2009, when Fouts bought the business and renamed it (Candy Store gets facelift, new name MCM April 2011).
The minor change makes Bradford’s only the third restaurant (King’s Omelets and Gateway Breakfast House the others) from Northeast 102nd to 122nd avenues on Northeast Halsey, offering breakfast to children.
To promote the new, kid-friendly aspect of Bradford’s, Fouts offers free meals to kids 10 and under when they bring their parents in Saturdays. “I want people used to bringing in their kids, and as they eat here and kids get to liking it, they’ll want to come back,” Fouts said.
Open daily at 8 a.m., Bradford’s Sports Lounge is at 10346 N.E. Halsey St. The website is www.bradfordspdx.com.
Unique store offers bulk pricing
Last month, Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette opened a new, 147,000 sq. ft. outlet store near Airport Way in Parkrose.
COURTESY GOODWILL INDUSTRIES
Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette’s new outlet store and distribution center is open at 5950 N.E. 122nd Ave. The building is over 147,000 square feet and marks the nonprofit’s 50th opening since 1927. Michael Miller, Goodwill CEO and president, says the facility serves many purposes. “The new wholesale outlet will bring in yet unsold donations and as-is items from eight local stores and process recycling and salvage goods with greater efficiency.”
On the retail floor, shoppers can choose from a continuous flow of goods presented on 126 nine-foot-long tables. Each table holds about 200 pounds of donations. Goodwill Outlets sell merchandise in bulk, by the pound as follows:
• $1.59/lb. for up to 10 lbs.
• $1.39/lb. for up to 25 lbs.
• $0.89/lb. for over 25 lbs.
• $0.39/lb. for Glassware
The simplified pricing system allows shoppers to purchase small, medium, or large bulk volumes of used clothing and housewares, at tremendous savings over that of traditional retail stores. Heavier items—like furniture—are individually priced.
Behind the retail floor, unsold donations are redistributed to other local and national recyclers as end products (shoes, clothes, and toys) or refined through additional processing into bulk grade commodities such as plastic, steel, wood or wire. More than 197 million pounds of donations went through the facility by year’s end last year. All but 11.5 percent of donations were kept in the recycle stream—more than 65-million pounds were recycled in 2014.
Free job services are available through an on-site Job Connection office. So far 250 people have received services from this office. The facility also has community classroom space for various free programs such as ESL classes. GICW is the North American leader among Goodwills in retail sales and donations. In 2014 it served more than 60,000 local people with barriers to employment in Northwest Oregon, Central Oregon, and Southwest Washington.
