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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (May 13, 2017)
Page 8A BUSINESS East Oregonian Saturday, May 13, 2017 BRIEFLY HERMISTON Safety health conference includes forklift contest Feelingstone Gifts offers rocks, crystals and beads PENDLETON — Participants will learn how to improve on-the-job safety and health during a two-day event in Pendleton. Topics covered during the Blue Mountain Occupational Safety and Health Conference include ladder and forklift safety, fall protection, hazard identification and effective personal communication. Oregon OSHA, a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, is among the partner agencies presenting the event. Pre-conference workshops are Monday, June 5 from 12:30-4 p.m. and the regular sessions are Tuesday, June 6 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Pendleton Convention Center, 1601 Westgate. In addition to a keynote address by Al Arguedas, a longtime safety professional based in the Portland area, the event features a Forklift Round-Up. Also, break-out sessions address everything from lighting safety and people skills to injury prevention with ergonomics and how to develop a safety culture. Conference registration is $75, which includes lunch. There’s an additional fee of $50 to compete in the forklift event. For more information or to register, visit https://safetyseries. cvent.com/blue17. Construction begins on Ranch and Home store HERMISTON — Work has begun on the Ranch and Home store at 2500 S. Hwy. 395. “They signed a development agreement with us yesterday afternoon,” said assistant city manager Mark Morgan on Friday morning. The city has provided Ranch and Home with an incentive package. If they complete the construction and get an occupancy permit by Jan. 1, 2018, the city will reimburse them for the building permit, system development charges and $10,000 for extension of water and sewer lines, which will make it easier to develop neighboring properties in the future. The total incentive package is estimated to be worth about $107,800. “The tell us they have no concerns about meeting the deadline,” Morgan said. He added that the incentive package is on a sliding scale, and that the reimbursements will decrease by 10 percent for every month the deadline is missed. The deal is off if the store is not complete by April, Morgan said. Ranch and Home currently has two stores in the Tri-Cities and one in Milton-Freewater. It sells supplies for home and garden, livestock, pets, sporting goods and clothing. Group petitions EPA head to upend coal ash rule WASHINGTON (AP) — A utilities group is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to sweep away rules governing the disposal of the poison-laden ash left behind when coal is burned to generate electricity. The Utility Solid Waste Activities Group filed a petition Friday asking EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to reconsider broad sections of the Coal Combustion Residuals Rule. The EPA chief has expressed his willingness to gut or freeze environmental regulations finalized under the Obama administration, especially if doing so aids the fossil fuel industry. Like President Donald Trump, Pruitt denies the consensus of climate scientists that manmade carbon emissions are the primary driver of climate change. The nation’s coal-fired power plants produce tens of millions of tons of coal ash each year that contain such toxic heavy metals as arsenic, lead and mercury. By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by Jade McDowell Cabochons sit for sale at Feelingstone Gifts. Staff photo by Jade McDowell Strings of beads line a display at Feelingstone Gifts. Feelingstone Gifts has a little something for everyone who thinks rocks are cool. “There are so many different types of people who love rocks,” said Jackie Koppany, who owns the new shop on Hermiston Avenue with her husband Attila Koppany. She said the shop caters to rock hounds, craft beaders, “yoga types,” jewelry collec- tors and people “who are spiritually drawn to rocks.” Koppany has been operating online and out of her home since 2013, but she said when customers had trouble getting out to her place on snowy roads this winter it provided the impetus to finally try opening a store in town. “So far I feel really flattered, because everyone loves the shop,” she said. “I’ve had people thank me for being here.” The store, located in Grainary Square at 115 W. Hermiston Ave., sells agates, crystals, geodes, and other stones (both polished and uncut) as well as stone beads and carvings. Staff photo by Jade McDowell Rocks sit on display at Feelingstone Gifts. It also features finished jewelry pieces made by Koppany, and a wide range of supplies — including beads, wires and metal charms — for making one’s own jewelry. There are books, cutting and polishing equipment, wind chimes, candles and incense, too. “People always end up finding something,” Koppany said. She said she first got into the business because she enjoyed cutting and polishing rocks. She started making cabochons, which are flat on one side and curved on the other so that they can be placed into settings on necklaces, bolo ties and other objects. “I thought, ‘What am I going to do with these?’” she said. She learned wire wrap- ping to create pendants out of the cabochons, then moved on to learning bead work and other jewelry-making skills to create a finished product and began selling them online. Feelingstone Gifts is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to “whenever” on Saturdays. PENDLETON Nurse practitioner to receive 2017 State Award for Excellence East Oregonian Tracy Pozar of Pendleton is among the recipients of a 2017 State Award for Excel- lence. The Pendleton nurse practitioner will be honored during the National Amer- ican Association of Nurse Practitioners Conference, which is June 20-25 in Phil- adelphia. Pozar has been serving Pendleton’s community in multiple health care capac- ities since 2010. Trained by Steven Neal in allergy, otolaryngology and cosmetic procedures, Pozar continues to prac- tice with him. She also works with Umatilla County Public Health in Pozar the school-based health centers at Sunridge Middle School and Pend- leton High School. Perceiving an unmet need in the county, Pozar sought advanced and specialized training so she could provide sexual abuse and physical abuse examinations for Guardian Care Child Advocacy Center. She is currently the sole child sexual abuse medical examiner for all of Umatilla County. As Umatilla Coun- ty’s child abuse intervention center, Guardian Care Center provides comprehensive child abuse assessments that include a child forensic interview and a medical exam. Pozar’s work at the center has been an important way for her to serve the Pend- leton community, and the whole of Umatilla County, said a press release from Marisa Remington, the center’s executive director. Pozar encourages health care providers to contact the center to see how they might use their talents to help the children of Umatilla County. The American Associa- tion of Nurse Practitioners is the largest professional membership organization for nurse practitioners of all specialties. It provides a unified networking platform and advocates for their role as providers of compre- hensive and cost-effective patient-centered health care. For more information, visit www.aanp.org.
