The Skagit/Island Counties Builders Association (SICBA) will feature 11 homes and their builders during its 6th Annual SICBA Home Tour Sept. 10-12.

Albert Construction, Cascade Custom Homes & Design, Clifton View Homes, Landed Gentry Homes & Communities, Quadrant Homes/Skagit Highlands, Pacific Contracting, Waldron Construction and Yonkman Construction.

The tour begins on Friday, Sept. 10, from noon to 4 p.m. and continues Saturday, Sept. 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and wraps up  Sunday, Set. 12, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are available at the homes for $7. For more information, call 360.757.6916 or visit www.sicbahometour.org.

The Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley chambers of commerce and the Skagit Young Professionals have partnered up to present a Business Happy Hour and Open House from 5 to 7 tonight at Eagle Haven Windery on Sims Road in Sedro-Woolley.

The free networking event will include wine tasting, appetizers from Emerald City Grill and drinks from Skagit Fresh Beverages.

Bring a door prize to increase your business' exposure.

Bellingham Technical College (BTC) has launched a new series of evening classes titled "Reaching Out to East 542” in Deming and Kendall to help residents jump-start careers and work towards college degrees. The series was made possible by a $100,000 (over two years) grant from College Spark Washington this past spring.

The courses are specifically designed to aid low-income individuals who need extra help to become college ready and reach their goal of earning a college degree. Fall quarter 2010 begins September 20, with BTC math and English courses at the reduced rate of $25 at Kendall Elementary and Mount Baker High schools. Classes will be available 6 to 9 .m. Mondays through Thursdays.

Students should enroll now to reserve a spot and fill out the East 542 Application online at www.btc.ctc.edu and return it either by e-mail or in person at the Mt. Baker School District office.

Restoring the "Showroom Shine" without a "Showroom Price" is the mission of the Final Touch Auto Spa, now open on Iowa Street in Bellingham between Smith Kia and Northwest Honda.

The company has positioned itself to be the premier auto-reconditioning company

in Whatcom County and is owned by Rick Adelstein, Ari Adelstein and Matt Myers. Rick Adelstein also owns Louis Auto Glass in Bellingham, Lynden and Mount Vernon. The new auto spa continues the family business tradition of the Adelstein family in Whatcom County that began in 1929 and is now in its fourth generation of family ownership and daily operation. It offers a multitude of services designed to restore cars to their cosmetic best, including express detailing, complete interior and exterior detailing, full-window tinting, paint chip restoration and repair, paint polishing and restoration, vinyl and leather restoration, seat and carpet restoration, headlight lend restoration and windshield rock-chip repair.

Despite the recession, Rick Adelstein says he believes in Whatcom County and didn’t have any second thoughts about continuing to grow here.

Currently, Final Touch Auto Spa has 10 full-time employees and is open six days a week.

Washington State University (WSU) Whatcom Extension - Carbon Masters are now accepting applications for the 2010 fall volunteer training program.

The program trains, equips and manages a group of volunteers on climate-change issues and provides knowledge and tools to help lessen the effects of climate change. Volunteers work with the public, including neighborhoods, schools, businesses and local governments. Classes will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, beginning Sept. 21 and ending Nov. 23, in the WSU Whatcom County Extension Office in Bellingham. There also will be four field trips, usually on Saturday mornings.

For registration applications, call Joyce Jimmerson at 360.676.6736 or e-mail carbon.masters@wsu.edu.

Aug. 30 marked the first day of 2010 that citizens in Washington started working for themselves. The typical Washingtonian toils for 241 days — more than two-thirds of the year — to pay for all expenses of government at all levels, including regulatory burdens.

As calculated by Americans for Tax Reform, Aug. 29 marked the day the average Washington resident stopped working to pay for the cost of government at the federal, state and local levels.

In 2010, Washington’s Cost of Government Day (COGD) fell 10 days later than the national date of Aug. 19, causing the state to drop one spot from last year to 46th place. This is Washington’s latest COGD ever. Last year, Washington’s COGD was on Aug. 17.

This year, lawmakers raised taxes and fees $1.1 billion during the current biennium. In addition, total state spending increased $4.2 billion this biennium from the 2007-09 biennium. According to the Office of Financial Management, Washington’s budget deficit next year is estimated at $3 billion.

"Given the state’s contribution to overburdening its citizens, is it any surprise Washington made such a poor showing? And let’s not forget the cost of regulatory burdens, as evidenced by last year’s decision by Boeing — which has long complained about the state’s business climate and frequent strikes by production workers — to build a second assembly plant in South Carolina instead of Everett,” said Brett Davis, Economic Policy analyst for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. "With Initiative 1098 — the high-earner income tax — on the ballot in November, Washingtonians face the possibility of more taxes."

Thanks to a partnership between Skagit Farmers Supply and the Northwest Agriculture Business Center, a second set of Featherman Poultry Processing equipment will be available for rent this fall, benefiting small-scale poultry farmers in Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, Island and Snohomish counties.

The rental program is administered by 

NABC administers the low-cost rental program, which allows farmers to efficiently process and market birds without significant capital investment. The program services more than 60 producers throughout the production season and often turns away farmers when the equipment is not available. NABC Project Manager Jake Fowler says, "The new set of equipment will be located in Mount Vernon, and the old set will be transferred to Whidbey Island to service farmers that aren't able to make (the) two-hour, roundtrip drive.”

Skagit Farmers Supply in Mount Vernon has provided storage of the current equipment for the past few years and has sponsored the purchase of the new equipment. 

To sell chickens that are processed using the rental equipment, farmers will need a special, temporary license issued by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. No license is needed if the birds are for personal consumption.

Whatcom County spokesman Joe Bates died in an accidental fall from a ladder at his home in Bellingham on Aug. 28.

Medical Examiner Gary Goldfogel told The Bellingham Herald a health issue may have caused the 60-year-old to lose consciousness before he fell.

Bates had been the county communications coordinator since 2007. He previously worked 17 years at KVOS-TV and earlier at Bellingham radio stations including KPUG.

Reported by The Associated Press, with information from The Bellingham Herald.

The runway and main taxiway at Bellingham International Airport will close after the final scheduled flight leaves at 11 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31, while the airport undergoes a $29 million runway-resurfacing project. The runway is scheduled to re-open at 5 a.m. Sept. 22.

During the runway closure, the airport will continue to serve helicopters and the Control Tower will remain operational. Other services information: airport parking lots will remain in operation and will continue to charge for parking services, the Airport Commercial Terminal will remain open throughout the runway closure and car rental businesses and other airport vendors will be operating with reduced hours, Allegiant Air will be staffing its ticket counter from 10 a.m. to noon each day, ticket counters for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air will be closed until the runway re-opens, private bus services via Airporter Shuttle and Quick Shuttle will provide bus service between the Bellingham Airport Commercial Terminal and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and General Aviation Aircraft arriving from Canada will need to report to United States Customs and Border Protection for clearance at alternative area international airports.

The project, the first major repair work on the runway since it opened in 1941, began in April and will continue in various stages through November. The Federal Aviation Administration is providing 95 percent of the funds, with the remaining portion paid by passenger use fees. Icon Materials of Tukwila is the general contractor for this project.

Western Washington University (WWU) is one of 10 organizations selected by the Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) to compete for $3 million in loans and grants from the new Export Assistance Program.

CERB received 31 proposed projects, which included WWU’s $585,726 Jump Start Washington Exports (JustWaEx).

"These proposals will help open additional export opportunities for Washington businesses,” said Rogers Weed, director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. "They represent one of many steps Washington will take toward supporting the National Export Initiative. Opening these doors for Washington businesses will create more jobs in our state.”

Responding to the export assistance needs of Washington businesses, CERB is targeting innovative projects that leverage high amounts of other funding and can measurably increase Washington state exports in the short term and over the next five years. By encouraging collaboration among applicants, as well as creative solutions to the export problems facing businesses, CERB aims to fund projects, which will achieve substantial, profitable results. Funds will be awarded by CERB in September.

Nearly 1.3 million out of 1.8 million state tax returns were filed electronically during Fiscal Year 2010, a 30 percent jump over the prior year, according to the Washington State Department of Revenue. More than 70 percent of returns are now filed electronically, and the department expects usage to increase. Nearly 75 percent of all excise taxes are now paid electronically.

Revenue Director Cindi Holmstrom said the resulting reduction in paperwork is helping the department operate more efficiently, and it benefits businesses, too, because they make fewer errors when filing electronically. She noted that efficiencies such as E-file have helped the department accommodate a 109 percent increase in registered businesses during the past 15 years with only a 2.7 percent increase in staffing.

The department maintains a secure a website within www.dor.wa.gov for taxpayers to file returns electronically, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This year, taxpayers have accessed the Department’s secure online applications more than 1.4 million times through July 31.