North Coast Electric Company

We are hosting the first of our "Brighten Your Business" events on April 19th at the Flowering Around flower shop at 200 Winslow Way W on Bainbridge Island. It's being held in cooperation with Puget Sound Energy and is an opportunity for businesses to receive "instant rebates" to convert their lighting to the latest energy efficient LED bulbs at amazingly affordable prices...(some are even FREE!) Read more

This is a story about upgrading the lights at a federal dam. I will try my best not too include too many dam jokes. (oops) The John Day Dam is one of 3 Hydro electric dams on the lower Columbia River which are owned and operated by the US Army Corp of Engineers. Their existing lighting consisted of 230 old technology 400w High Pressure Sodium (HPS) fixtures mounted at about 75ft. So, other than a constant loud humming noise from the old magnetic ballasts and the classic yellow-orange murky looking light from HPS, the system was great!

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Run, walk, or jog nearly 4 miles of downtown Seattle streets! NCE is proud to be a co-sponsor of the Detlef Schrempf Foundation’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Dash on Saturday, March 17th. The event is acutally on St. Patrick's Day!!!! Festivities include start line appearances by dignitaries and parading bagpipers. The Leprechaun Lap lets kids burn off energy with their own Dash at the Seattle Center. The Post Dash Bash entertains Dashers with live music, a costume contest, sponsor booths, awards ceremony and a beer garden!

If you haven’t been to the St. Patrick’s Day Dash before you’ll see a diverse group of participants. Don’t be surprised if you’re passed by a human pot of gold, a 6ft 3in leprechaun, a 4-pack of Guinness cans, or a grown man in a tutu. With all of the costumes, it’s like a spring version of Halloween. Proceeds will benefit four worthy organizations: Camp Fire USA Puget Sound Council, Seattle Children’s Autism Center, Rise n’ Shine, & the Healing Center.

Teams are forming and we predict some healthy (and friendly!) competition will take place between our Service Centers (& Corp Support?)! Rumor has it that Tony Robinson just formed "North Coast Electric Tacoma" and hot on his heels is Dan Pickard with "North Coast Electric Everett"....and Jeremy Steeb with North Coast Lighting.  We've just heard the Automation Group is plotting....Who will follow?

If you can’t make the Dash but would like to donate to one of our North Coast Electric Teams, visit the Detlef Schrempf website at http://www.stpatsdash.com and click on DONATE.

NCE Salem Associates participated in the Boys and Girls Club 5th Annual Back to School Family Health Fair and stuffed over 2,000 backpacks that were distributed to local families!  Total volunteer time:  15 hours and it was time well spent!

During the Health Fair:

- Over 1,500 backpacks and school supplies were handed out to students

- 788 children and over 443 adults enjoyed a healthy lunch

- 75 vision and hearing checks were provided

- 120 dental screenings were provided by local dentists

- 500 child ID kits were issued by the Oregon State Police

The Boys and Girls Club provides a safe place for kids to learn and grow. Helping youth become responsible, caring citizens and acquire skills for participating in the democratic process is the main thrust of these programs. They also develop leadership skills and provide opportunities for planning, decision-making, contributing to Club and community and celebrating our national heritage.

http://www.bgc-salem.org/

Members of the Energy Solutions Group participated in an “Extreme Makeover” type event at the Yesler Terrace Head Start Preschool building in Seattle. Dave Kunesh, Bob Nietfield, Rob Miller and Sheila Back donated their Saturday to help out with this project. The group racked up 36 volunteer hours and $6,000 in product donations!

NCE team members received donations of lighting fixtures and controls from several key vendor partners, including; ERW/Harvco, Pacific Lighting Systems (PLS), Lighting Group NW and Lutron. NCE Seattle donated additional lighting fixtures electrical supplies to complete the installation. Electricians from Mckinstry and NCE employees installed new energy efficient suspended linear fixtures from Finelite in the classrooms along with Lutron occupancy sensors and new LED exit signs. Existing fixtures in the offices, restrooms and kitchen areas were retrofitted with new Sylvania program start ballasts, T* lamps and Hubbell Building Automation (HBA) occupancy sensing controls. The exterior soffit and covered playground areas received new vapor-tight luminaries from Metalux along with new photocells.

As you’d expect from the energy solutions group, the high efficiency lighting system will save the school 9786 KWh annually generating approx. $700.00 per year in power bill savings.

The Head Start Program serves 40 preschoolers from 3-5 years old. More than half of the students are children of Somali refugees. All of them live in Yesler Terrace, a subsidized housing project run by the City of Seattle. On average Yesler Terrace residents earn less than 30% of the City’s median wage. This was a great way to promote our philanthropic philosophy of helping distressed children.

http://headstartmakeover.org/

NCE Seattle Associates along with some of their family and friends participated in a program called Rebuilding Together Seattle (RTS). RTS is a program assisting people in need of home repairs and maintenance. On this day, NCE Associates contributed their time (140 volunteer hours!) and effort helping with yard work, house hold clean-up, painting in bathroom and kitchen, assembling and installing new light fixtures, new exhaust fan and range hood, new kitchen appliances, new doors and hardware, new porch railing and wall building, all completed in one day. At the end of the day, a very thankful homeowner, who has lived in the house for over 40 years, returned to her newly updated and improved home.

Rebuilding Together Seattle was established in 1989 and is part of the national Rebuilding Together organization. This charitable group repairs or rebuilds homes at no cost to low-income homeowners, particularly those who are elderly, disabled or families with children.

Special thanks for Jeff Haines for putting this all together, Brian Stanton for helping coordinate, CJ Chapman from Chapman Electric for providing electrical services, Evergreen Home Heating and Energy for helping with HVAC services, Starbucks for providing coffee, and Mad Pizza for providing lunch for volunteers.

To learn more about rebuilding Together Seattle or to volunteer, visit their website at http://www.rtseattle.org/#2

James, a young boy from Soldotna, Alaska suffering from progressive degeneration of his muscles, made a wish with Wish Upon A North Star to spend time with his family away from hospital and see Disneyworld for the first time. This year, James’ wish will come true, thanks to the $1,500.00 donation from North Coast Anchorage raised through their annual golf tournament. The organization will send James, his parents, and 2 siblings to Orlando, Florida to Disneyworld to stay in “Give the Kids the World Village”. For a short period of time they can be a regular family together on vacation instead of together at the hospital.

Wish Upon The North Star has been granting wishes for twenty-five years without paid staff. All monetary donations go directly toward providing wishes for Alaska children with life-threatening illnesses. The all-volunteer Board of Directors appreciates donations because they help provide a few smiles, some much needed laughter, and a get-a-way from ongoing medical treatments.

To learn more about Wish Upon The North Star or to donate, visit their website at:  http://wishuponthenorthstar.com

Congratulations Veronica Stana for being the North Coast Electric School of Business Scholarship recipient for 2011/2012! When Veronica enrolled she was not sure which major she would pursue but after taking an Operations Management course, she was convinced that the Logistics and Supply Chain program was the direction she wanted to take.

 

Veronica says: “Thank you so much for your generous scholarship! It has really been an honor and a blessing at the same time. I am so grateful for your support and hope someday I will be able to give back what I am receiving right now.”

Knipex Tool Demonstrations

Congratulations to Fermin Fernandez, the 2011/2012 NCE Scholarship recipient at Perry Technical Institute in Yakima Washington. Fermin is enrolled in the Electrical Technology Program and one of his future career goals is to be an independent Journeyman Electrician. Good luck Fermin!

Perry Technical Institute is a private, non-profit technical school offering 10 specialized training Programs. Its primary mission is to provide industry with well-trained employees and to offer students of all ages and walks of life opportunities to train for meaningful careers.

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