NEW IN TOWN
Sierra Toyota moves into expanded, new showroom
 Afni opens new call center Pima County Supervisor Ann Day, center right, and Pete Vegors, vice president of contact centers for Afni Inc., cut the ribbon opening Afni’s 53,000 square-foot call center, 5230 N. La Cholla Blvd. With the new facility, Afni will add 200 positions for a total of nearly 1,800 at three locations in the Tucson area. The call centers handle calls for debt collection and credit services. Afni is headquartered in Bloomington, Ill. Stuart Mattingly Photo |
Sierra Toyota in Sierra Vista has expanded into a new 42,000 square-foot dealership and is now also carrying the Scion line.
The dealership, the only Toyota dealer in Southern Arizona outside of Tucson, is at 2596 E. Fry Blvd.
The dealership is open Mondays-Fridays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s also open other times by appointment, by calling (520) 458-8880 or toll-free at 1-888-340-8696.
Owner Elsie MacMillan says Sierra Toyota ranks among the top 50 dealers across the nation in customer satisfaction for new vehicle delivery. As the dealership continues to grow, MacMillan says she wants it to "continue to provide great customer service and have car buying be a fun experience."
Entrepreneur opens On Target consulting
A management consulting service called On Target Consultants has been launched by entrepreneur Chuck Bolotin, founder of two businesses and former vice president of BioVigilant Systems.
Among the services from On Target are due diligence, product commercialization strategy and execution planning, and strategies for increasing revenue.
Bolotin says he founded his first successful business when he was 15. At 23 he went to work for a commercial office equipment reseller where he became a vice president within five years after increasing the company’s earnings by 1,100 percent. He then founded Office Solutions and, after selling that, founded InterMed Software, which created a clinical automation software to run on a pen-based notebook PC. He joined BioVigilant in 2005.
On Target is based in Oro Valley. The website is www.ontargetconsultants.com or call (520) 498-0427.
TECHNOLOGY
Paragon part of contract to develop new spacesuit
Paragon Space Development Corp. was among seven subcontractors included in a $183.8 million contract to design, develop and produce a new spacesuit to protect astronauts for the planned Constellation Program voyages to the International Space Station and, by 2020, to the moon.
NASA awarded the overall contract to Oceaneering International Inc., in Houston.
The contract, which starts next month and runs to September 2014, is for space suits and support systems needed for as many as four astronauts on moon voyages and as many as six space station travelers. For shorter trips to the moon, the suit design will support a week’s worth of moon walks. The system also must be designed to support a significant number of moon walks during potential six-month lunar outpost expeditions.
The Constellation Program is scheduled to have its first human flight in 2015.
Paragon Space Development Corp. is headquartered at 3481 E. Michigan St. It also has an office in Houston.
Global Solar shows off flexible solar breakthrough
Global Solar Energy says it has achieved a major breakthrough in its development of thin, flexible thin-film solar electric material.
PowerFlex Solar Strings is a pre-connected flexible material that makes it easy for product designers and module manufacturers to use.
Global Solar, headquartered at 8500 S. Rita Road, introduced the PowerFlex Solar Strings last week at Intersolar, a trade show in Munich, Germany.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Sunquest is named as UK approved supplier
Sunquest Information Systems now has approved supplier status for information technology products and services through United Kingdom’s National Health Service. The status allows Britain’s healthcare system to streamline the procurement process because Sunquest has demonstrated its experience providing information technology services in the health sector.
Sunquest Information Systems, headquartered at 250 S. Williams Blvd., specializes in providing laboratory informaton systems.
SMALL BUSINESS
Omega Wallbeds wins small business HR award
Proving small businesses without a human resources department can still be innovative, Omega Wallbeds, 4601 S. Seventh Ave., has been honored with a Bocker-Meza Innovation Award at the Workplace Excellence Awards.
The company has seven employees.
Omega filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May but owners Sarah Lee-Allen and Jay Allen are vowing to work through those issues, which were brought about by an out-of-state lender.
ENGINEERING
Aker Solutions building Safford Mine’s acid plant
Aker Solutions, formerly Aker Kvaerner, will design and provide procurement services for a sulphuric acid plant for the leaching pads at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold’s new Safford Mine.
Engineering for the plant was started in February with construction planned to begin in October. The project is to be finished in the third quarter of 2009.
The work is being done by Aker Solutions Tucson office, 2550 N. Dragoon St., Suite 150.
The Safford Mine is located about eight miles north of Safford. It began limited production in December 2007. The mine is the first new large-scale copper mining project in Arizona in more than 30 years.
Terracon to do design work on border fence
Terracon Consultants Inc., 355 S. Euclid Ave., will provide geotechnical exploration and related design services for vehicle barrier fences and access roads along the United States-Mexico border near Nogales and Douglas.
The work will be done under an agreement with Michael Baker Jr. Inc.
GOVERNMENT
Council unanimously OKs anti-mini dorm ordinance
The reworked Neighborhood Preservation Zone Ordinance was unanimously approved by Tucson’s City Council June 10, despite the objections of developers who have threatened lawsuits claiming it violates a measure approved by voters in 2006.
The ordinance allows the Jefferson Park and Feldman’s neighborhoods, north and west of the University of Arizona, to develop and adopt a design manual for all new structures. The two neighborhoods were selected to develop their plans as pilot programs.
The ordinance is intended to address neighborhood concerns over the deveopment of "mini-dorms," larger new buildings being built on residential lots.
But owners of some of those properties say it will lower their values and that, under state law, the city is required to compensate them when that happens as a result of a government land-use change.
"Property values will probably go down in those neighborhoods because of it," said Richard Studwell, a developer and property owner in the pilot neighborhoods.
CIVIC
Oro Valley No. 44 as place to live, launch
Oro Valley ranks No. 44 on Fortune magazine’s "100 Best Places to Live and Launch 2008."
The magazine says Oro Valley is an up-and-coming location for the biotechnology industry and has seen its population grow by 25 percent since 2000. It credits the town for having a strong pro-business local government and a high start-up business rate. With 83 new businesses licensed in 2007, they calculate that’s two for every 1,000 inhabitants.
Two other Arizona cities also made the list: Scottsdale at No. 25 and Prescott at No. 92.
NONPROFITS
Vote for ‘Good Guy’ to get office makeover
It’s now time to for the public to vote online for which one of 10 finalists will receive a $20,000 office makeover in Goodmans Eye for the Good Guy contest from Goodmans Interior Structures.
The finalists were selected from nominations of leaders of nonprofits submitted by the public.
The finalists are:
• Anthony Young, executive director of Southern Arizona Legal Aid.
• Bonnie Kampa, executive director of Interfaith Community Services.
• Kelly Langford, president and CEO of the Tucson Urban League.
• Larry Rush, executive director of St. Luke’s Home.
• Leslie Ann Williams, executive director of Information & Referral Services Inc.
• Marcia Berger, executive director of Arts for All Inc.
• Nancy Johnson, executive director of St. Elizabeth’s Health Center.
• Susie Huhn, executive director of Casa de los Niños.
• Wilene Lampert, executive director of Southern Arizona Children’s Advocacy Center.
• William Carnegie, president and CEO of the Community Food Bank.
Voting will conducted online through 5 p.m. June 30 at www.GoodmansGoodGuy.com.
Call for nominations of Tucson Dynamic Duos
The 13th annual search for "dyanamic duos" is on. A Dynamic Duo is two people who, working together, have done something to make the community a better place to live.
For 13 years, Compass Behavorial Health Care has been honoring Dynamic Duos in a fundraiser awards celebration that this year will be Sept. 21 at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave. A special award this year is the Don and June Jorgensen Award given to a duo working in the field of addictions.
Nominations of people from all walks of life are encouraged. Past nominees have included Jeanette Maré Packard and Dean Packard for the Ben’s Bells project, Herb and Kerry Stratford for the Fox Tucson Theatre Renovation, and Jim Click and Mel Zuckerman for the "Save Our Sabino" fundraising effort.
Nomination forms can be downloaded online from www.compasshc.org or to receive one in the mail, call (520) 882-5608. The deadline for nominations is July 14.
RA Sushi raises $132,000 for St. Jude’s research
RA Sushi Bar Restaurant, 2905 E. Skyline Drive in La Encantada, raised more than $8,000 of more than $132,000 that was raised by all 19 RA restaurants in the fourth annual "Nicky’s Week" fundraiser for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
RA donated the proceeds from the sale of Tootsy Maki, Edamame, Pork Gyoza, Fiji Water, Red Bull and some other beverages to the research hospital known for its pioneering work involving cancer and catastrophic diseases in children.
The annual drive is named in memory of St. Jude patient Nicholas "Nicky" Mailliard who lost a long battle with brain cancer in February 2005. Maillard was the nephew of RA founder Rich Howland.
The annual drives have raised nearly $400,000 for St. Jude’s. This year’s goal was $100,000.
KUDOS
Adobe Rose Inn owner receives national honor
Marion Hook, owner of Adobe Rose Inn bed and breakfast, was one of three women across the country recognized June 12 with a Trailblazer Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners and Well Fargo.
The seventh annual award ceremonies were part NAWBO’s Women’s Business Conference in Phoenix. Each winner also won $5,000.
Established in 2003, the Adobe Rose Inn is at 940 N. Olsen Ave. in the Sam Hughes neighborhood. Built in 1933, it offers six unique guest rooms and has earned a reputation of delivering customized service.
To expand and diversify her business, Hook launched the Adobe Rose Inn Buttermilk Scone Mix and plans to offer additional retail products. Striving to be a "green" business, Adobe Rose Inn uses solar tube lighting and a gray water drip irrigation system.
The two other award winners were Virginia Arauza-Madueño, president of IMAGEN public relations and marketing in Modesto, Calif., and Assunta Ng, publisher and president of the Seattle Chinese Post and Northwest Asian Weekly.
Local moving franchises win excellence awards
Tucson’s two franchises of the moving company Two Men and a Truck earned top spots in the system’s Achievement in Excellence Award program.
The local franchises, 6914 N. Camino Martin, Marana, and 3860 S. Palo Verde Road, were among 14 of 173 franchises that met or exceeded the standards for excellence ranking among the top three overall. The standards include customer service, operational excellence, learning and growth, system involvement and commitment to the community.
Both of the winning franchises are owned by Jay and Robin Bulmer and have been in operation since 2005.
AGM Container Controls wins workplace award
AGM Container Controls, 3526 E. Fort Lowell Road, was the winner in the small business category for Best Practices at the 2008 Workplace Excellence Awards by the Society of Human Resource Managers.
The annual award recognizes outstanding human resource practices, visionary leadership and acknowledges the contributions that human resource departments make toward accomplishing organizational goals and objectives.
Bedmart named top dealer by three manufacturers
Three different bed manufacturers - Simmons, International Bedding and Leggett and Platt - have honored Tucson-based Bedmart as their largest dealer in Arizona.
Bedmart has 26 stores across the state including five in Tucson, one each in Oro Valley, Marana, Green Valley and Sierra Vista along with stores in Phoenix, Casa Grande, Chandler, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Glendale, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Scottsdale and Sun City.
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