Koetje Real Estate has come a long way from its beginnings in 1942.
After selling his Crescent Harbor farm to the Navy in 1940, Neil Koetje started the first real estate and insurance offices in Oak Harbor.
After passing down through the family for more than 60 years, including long-time Oak Harbor mayor Al Koetje, the real estate business recently split and sold half of the agency to Rick Schutte, a broker with the agency since 1995.
Puget Sound Energy is celebrating its five-year anniversary of its office with an Energy Fair 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 1794 Main St., Freeland.
Experts will be on hand to explain PSE’s rebates and incentives for improving energy efficiency in homes or businesses.
Whidbey-based Energy Advisor Brian McCleary will be available to answer questions.
Chris Reissner’s career in the airline industry is going to the dogs.
The cats, too.
After 26 years of traveling the world and living all over the country as a flight attendant for American Airlines, Reissner is hitting the brakes and settling into life as a small business owner in historic downtown Oak Harbor.
In May, he opened the pet boutique, A Paw in Hand, on Pioneer Way.
A new face is behind the counter of a Coupeville boutique.
Oak Harbor resident Cheryl Nunn took over Collections Boutique last month from previous owner Rita Hart, who still works at the popular shop on a part-time basis.
At the store, people are drawn in by the wafting scent of chocolate in the air. Online, word-of-mouth has garnered a significant following around the world.
Marie Lincoln, owner of the Chocolate Flower Farm in Langley, has developed a successful retail store, online product business and farm based on chocolate.
Matt Fikse became a third-generation gemologist last month keeping with family tradition.
Grandson of Gerald and Janet Fikse, founders of Gerald’s Jewelry on Midway Boulevard in 1958, Matt Fikse said he plans to take over the family business after his parents Dave and Jane Fikse retire.
“I’m so proud to be a part of what my grandparents and parents have built,” Matt Fikse said. “It will be an honor to carry on the tradition they have been known and respected for.”
When Whitey Kirschenmann took over management of the Habitat Humanity Store in Oak Harbor six years ago, it was a sleepy business run by eight volunteers.
Since then, the store has increased its revenue by five times and is run by an army of 107 volunteers.
Paired with the income from its sister store in Freeland, Habitat for Humanity of Island County has built 36 homes on Whidbey and Camano islands.
Visitors to downtown Coupeville might find an easier time trying to find a cash machine in the future.
Officials for the Port of Coupeville are considering a plan to place an ATM on port property.
The small port district received a proposal from Premier Merchants Group, based in Kearney, Neb., to place the cash machine in the breezeway of the Coupeville Wharf.
A new Employment Security Department program offers a layoff-avoidance incentives to Washington employers.
The program allows them to participate through June 2015 with little effect on their unemployment taxes.
Since 1983, Washington’s Shared-Work Program has allowed employers to temporarily reduce the hours of their workers, and the employees can claim partial unemployment benefits to help bridge the difference.
When Eliaser Loera and daughter Brenda, both of Oak Harbor, purchased a large food truck, they initially thought they would be selling seafood from it.
Then their friends and neighbors started to get Loeras thinking.
“Everyone kept asking if we were starting a taco truck,” Brenda Loera said.
Given their Mexican descent, Loera said it seemed like an even better idea and that it would be “easy food for us to cook.”
The Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce and its members love the Navy.
With a show of hands during the chambers monthly luncheon meeting Thursday, members expressed their support of Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.
During the luncheon, Chamber Director Kathy Reed spoke about the organization’s new “Jets = Jobs” campaign.
Farmers Insurance and its Richard Voit Agency in Oak Harbor recently donated $2,500 to the Impaired Driving Impact Panel of Island County.
The donation will help to sponsor several DUI prevention panels at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in the coming year as well as funding IDIPIC’s work with driver’s education students.
Applications are available for projects looking to be funded by Island County’s 2 percent Hotel/Motel Tax Tourism Promotion. The Isand County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee solicits proposals until Aug. 31.
