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.