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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2001)
Page 4 The INDEPENDENT, April 18, 2001 Local firm now provides comprehensive building maintenance Finding the right people for building maintenance can be a complicated process. A li censed CFC technician may be needed for work on air condi tioning; a licensed mainte nance electrician may be need ed for certain electrical repairs; another person for some com mercial remodeling, another for the water system. Precision Building Mainte nance solves the problem. Michael Botchie and Barney Eastlick, with a combined 30 years of experience and sever al certifications, can handle all of those situations. Between them, they have the certifica tions and licenses for all com mercial facility maintenance needs, including welding and the installation of overhead doors, even conveyor systems. “When anything goes wrong inside your walls, we fix it,” said Botchie. Operations manager Marie Botchie handles the inside work for the Vernonia business and will schedule service as needed. The team also re sponds with 24-hour service to handle any emergency that may arise. Precision Building Mainten- nance is registered with the state Contractors Construction Board and is licensed, bonded and insured. They may be reached at 503-708-6809. Your voice is heard when you speak from the ballot box. Register to vote today. The H ealth H abit 5O3-429-O5O1 Complete Co-Ed Gym Facility The name on their truck tells the story: For precision building mainenance, Barney Eastlick and Michael Botchie are the people to call. Chamber hears presentation on fraud “It’s your money...protect it!” was the message Vernonia Po lice Officer Jim Gaskins brought to the Vernonia Cham ber of Commerce at their April meeting. Gaskins presented the information on protection from fraud at a presentation sponsored by U.S. Bank. There are steps businesses can take to protect themselves from bad checks and other fraud, according to Gaskins. He outlined several rules busi nesses should establish and follow, including requesting photo identification, requiring employees to write their names on all checks they accept, nev er accepting third party checks, never cashing payroll checks, accepting checks only for the amount of purchase and never come from taxpayers. The actual number of bad checks passed in Columbia County is far in excess of this simple example, according to Gaskins. In Vernonia, staff is not available to regularly inves tigate bad checks, but they are available to discuss the prob lem with local businesses that have questions about specific incidences. Store owners who fail to im plement strict rules to prevent accepting bad checks must ac cept some responsibility, Gask ins said. As an example, he made a comparison of two stores, just across the street from each other: One had a policy of always accepting checks to avoid offending cus tomers. Across the street, em ployees were constantly re minded to ask for and record identification tor every check. The first store had losses of ap proximately $25,000 per month. At the second store, losses due to bad checks were almost nonexistent. Gaskins distributed informa tion about other frauds, includ ing employee theft, credit card fraud, identify theft and com puter crimes. He concluded by saying that fraud is usually dif ficult to investigate and prose cute, but just as a driver is re sponsible for removing the keys and locking the car, busi ness owners are responsible for protecting the assets of their small businesses. Wu field rep will meet the public Ann Richardson, field repre sentative for Congressman David Wu, will hold community office hours at the following lo cations and times on Tuesday, April 24 and Tuesday, May 22: Vernonia City Hall, 1001 Bridge Street, Vernonia, 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Columbia Technology Cen ter, 375 S. 18th, Armstrong Room, St. Helens, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Rainier City Hall, 106 West “B” Street, Council Chambers, Rainier, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Clatskanie PUD, 423 N. Ne halem, Meeting Room, Clats kanie, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Although not required, to schedule an appointment, call the Portland office at 503-326- 2901 or 1-800-422-4003. For special accommodations, con tact Richardson at least 48 hours prior to the meeting. accepting starter or counter checks. By being committed to main taining clear, consistent check cashing policies and constantly encouraging employees to fol low them, businesses can limit the amount of loss they have due to bad checks. To illustrate the scope of the problem, Gaskins said to as sume that 1000 businesses each accept 20 checks per day. If only one percent o f, these 20,000 checks are re turned, there would be 200 bad checks per day in Columbia County or 73,000 bad checks per year. According to Gaskins, bad checks are not prosecuted because of the enormous vol ume of these crimes and the number of judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and depu ties necessary to prosecute them. To prosecute these crimes, testimony would also be needed from all store em ployees and bank personnel in volved. Jails could be com pletely full of bad check writers and the millions of dollars to pay for all of this would have to PERSONAL TRAINING AVAILABLE Weight Loss/Gain Body Building General Conditioning Toning & Shaping i Wolff Tanning Nutritional Counseling Olympic Weights Full Line Apparatus OPEN: 7a-9p M-F, 7a-5p Sat • 16720 Noakes Rd., Vernonia, OR 97064 VERNONIA INN Enjoy a quiet weekend with us. FULL SIZE, IN ROOM $55“ HOT TUBS $80“ REG. ROOM $45“ Q u e e n B e d s • P riv a te B a th • S e p a ra te E n tra n c e C a b le T V • P h o n e s • H a n d ic a p p e d A c c e s s CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST FOR RESERVATIONS CALL 1-800-354-9494 / 503-429-4006 GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE 900 MADISON AVE., VERNONIA, OR 97064 Just one block off scenic Nehalem River Hwy. (Oregon 47) F armwoman ' s N ursery PREENS " V ariety 10% 0« Clothing for the Entire Family Linens • Decor • CDs Books *Toys • Notions and Much More Flowering Trees & Shrubs Through April 30, 2001 S ift C ertificates A vailable O pen T hur -S un . 10 am -6 VARIETY IS OUR NAME 12891 KEASEY ROAD, VERNONIA Open 1 0 -5 Tues - Sat 831 Bridge, Vernonia 503-429-4333 (7 miles out of Vernonia) 5 0 3 4 2 9 -8 2 0 0 X
