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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 10, 2017)
Page 8A BUSINESS East Oregonian HERMISTON Saturday, June 10, 2017 BRIEFLY Elfering to share State of Umatilla County HERMISTON — Umatilla County Commissioner Bill Elfering is the special speaker for an upcoming lunch event in Hermiston. Elfering will share the State of Umatilla County during the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce Business to Business Luncheon. The no-host event is Tuesday, June 27 at 11:55 a.m. at the Hermiston Conference Center, 415 S. Highway 395. The cost is $10 for chamber members and $13 for non-members. Those in attendance are encouraged to bring their business cards to enter a drawing. To RSVP, contact 541-567-6151, info@hermistonchamber.com or visit www.hermistonchamber.com. Contributed photo by the Maxwell Siding Event Center The Maxwell Siding Event Center opens June 16. New event venue to open downtown By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Planners of weddings, class reunions and corporate Christmas parties now have another venue option in Herm- iston. The Maxwell Siding Event Center, located at 145 N. First Place near Nookie’s Restaurant, will hold a grand opening next Friday. The building can seat about 150 people indoors and accommodate another 120 on the back patio. The center will help ease a shortage of local event space caused by the closing of Thompson Hall when the old fairgrounds were turned over to Hermiston School District. Mitch Meyers, owner of Nook- ie’s and Hermiston Brewing Company, said he had always planned to turn the space into an event center someday, but the “vacuum” caused by losing Thompson Hall and lingering questions about the future of the Hermiston Conference Center helped him decide that the time was now. “There are opportunities in life and in business that when the opportunity presents itself, you need to move,” he said. “And this is one of those times.” It doesn’t hurt that a new Holiday Inn Express just went up next door. Meyers is already working with the hotel to offer package deals for people to book a block of rooms for visitors coming in for events at the Maxwell Siding Event Center — a move that should help curtail drunk driving. Thanks in part to the new hotel, Meyers said business at Nookie’s and Hermiston Brewing Company has nearly tripled in the last year, causing the restaurant to start turning away large-scale reservations for corporate events. Now those events can be catered by Nook- ie’s in the event center. Miranda Torres, the Maxwell Siding Event Center’s manager, said the center will offer a variety of catering options for breakfast, lunch and dinner events and beverage options ranging from coffee to hard liquor. They can set up rectan- gular or round tables and offer linens, floral centerpieces and other decorations. They will also offer electronic equipment including a screen, projector and sound system. “We try to make it as comfort- able as possible,” she said. Meyers said the center is cleaner and more attractive than Thompson Hall and has more “personality” than the Herm- iston Conference Center. “It really has a nice warm feel to it,” he said. The Maxwell name comes from the railroad’s Maxwell Siding, which predated Herm- iston as a city. The building where the event center is located was used in the early 1900s as a siding warehouse where trains could pull up and be unloaded directly into the building. “We can’t exactly put a date on it, but we believe this building was built in 1914,” Meyers said. Later, the building was used as a turkey slaughterhouse and dry goods mercantile. In 2007 Meyers remodeled it and had been using it as a business office until remodeling again and adding additional parking and landscaping on the north side of the building over the last few weeks. He said he is working with the city to go through the approval process on turning the large gravel area to the south into an outdoor pavilion where additional events can be held. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony for the center at noon on June 16, with an open house running from 5:30-8:30 p.m. that evening. For more information about the center or to make a reser- vation visit www.maxwellev- entcenter.com or contact Torres at maxwelleventcenter@gmail. com or 541-561-1047. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4536. Banner Bank named star performer WALLA WALLA — The U.S. Small Business Administration recently identified Banner Bank as a Star Performer in Oregon and a Regional Lender of the Year in Washington. The awards were presented at separate ceremonies in May as part of National Small Business Week. The lender award was presented May 2 at the Washington State Small Business Awards Gala in Seattle. The recognition is based on measuring the number of approved small business loans, total dollars approved and a bank’s willingness to utilize all of the SBA programs. Banner Bank ranked third among all banks serving the state and was the top Washington- based lender, closing 168 loans for $28,192,300 last year. On May 3, Banner Bank received performance award for demonstrating “lending excellence” at the Portland District Small Business Week Award Luncheon. The award is based on total loan volume closed in Oregon. Star Performers must close at least 20 loans during the fiscal year. Banner Bank surpassed the requirement by closing 40 loans totaling $3,580,400 with an average loan size of $89,510 — making it the fifth most prolific lender in the Portland District and the top-performing regional bank. “Small businesses are the engine of the regional economy and we are fully committed to be a source of capital to small businesses throughout our footprint,” said Mark Grescovich, president and CEO. “This most recent recognition by the SBA affirms we continue to meet our internal goal of actively lending to this important segment of businesses and in turn doing our part to move the economy forward.” Headquartered in Walla Walla, Banner Bank is a Washington- chartered commercial bank that conducts business from more than 200 locations in Washington, Oregon, California, Utah and Idaho. For more information, visit www.bannerbank. com. NW Farm Credit Services receives workplace award SPOKANE — Northwest Farm Credit Services recently announced it received the 2017 Gallup Great Workplace Award. The award was created to recognize organizations for their extraordinary ability to created engaged workplace cultures that drive business outcomes. “We work hard to cultivate a workplace where every employee can see they make a difference,” said Phil DiPofi, president and CEO. The award, DiPofi said, recognizes the quality of all employees and the company’s commitment to give them the tools and structure they need to succeed. Northwest Farm Credit Services joins an elite group of 37 organizations from across the globe that average 14 engaged employees for every one actively disengaged employee, which is nearly seven times the rate in the U.S. and more than 15 times the rate for workforces globally. Gallup’s scientific research links employee engagement to nine integral performance outcomes, including customer metrics, profitability, productivity, turnover, employee safety incidents, shrinkage, absenteeism and quality. A panel of Gallup workplace experts evaluates applicants and assesses them against criteria established by the most comprehensive workplace study conducted. All of the 2017 award recipients have shown measurable business impact as a result of having a more engaged workforce. Based in Spokane, Northwest Farm Credit Services is an $11 billion financial cooperative providing financing and related services to farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, commercial fishermen, timber producers, rural homeowners and crop insurance customers in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. For more information, visit www.northwestfcs.com. Relay For Life of Umatilla County June 17, 2017 | 10am - 10pm Roy Raley Park 1205 SW Court Ave | Pendleton OR For more information, please contact: Carol Preston, Event Lead | 541.379.6294 | relaypendleton@yahoo.com Heather Farnworth, ACS staff partner | 509.783.1574 | heather.farnworth@cancer.org RelayForLife.org/umatillacountyor Local Offi ce 509.783.1574 | 1.800.227.2345 Relay For Life brings communities together, embracing their collective power to free the world from the pain and suffering of cancer. With every passionate step, Relayers demonstrate courage and strength. They prove that, together, we are bigger than cancer. And together, we can raise the money needed to help the American Cancer Society bring cancer to its knees.
