Bert Caldwell

A small Spokane publisher of investment books has reached a tentative agreement to purchase a Phoenix company that specializes in refurbishing computer chip-making equipment. Terms are still being negotiated, said Greg Ruff, president of Investment Book Publishers Inc. of Spokane. He said a combination of factors brought the unlikely couple to the corporate altar.

A second class-action lawsuit has been filed against Itron Inc. alleging the company and several of its officials committed securities fraud. The complaint filed Wednesday in Spokane County Superior Court echoes a suit filed four months ago in U.S. District Court. Both claim the Spokane Valley maker of meter-reading devices overstated its technology's capabilities, in the process artificially inflating the value of its shares.

Ken Leonard, left, E. Suzanne Case and Larry Tripp are the forces behind Team Management Software Ltd. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Residents of Odessa and Harrington will soon have an opportunity to save almost 10 percent on their monthly electricity bills. The Grant County Public Utility District plans to begin selling power in the two communities within the next few weeks, said Dave Osborn, a power planner for the district. PNM Energy Marketing, a subsidiary of Public Service Co. of New Mexico, also expects to enter the market, commercial marketer Al Anzures said.

Pentzer Corp. has expanded its Creative Solutions Group with the addition of companies in California and Florida. Revenues from White Plus Inc. of El Segundo, Calif., and Target Woodworks of Hialeah, Fla., will bring the group's total annually to more than $100 million, said Vice President Jan Plester. Also, she said, White's design abilities will complement the production capabilities of some of the group's other West Coast units.

Customers of Washington Water Power Co. who become unemployed or disabled won't have to worry about paying their utility bills for six months if they buy a new line of insurance the company introduced Wednesday. The Guaranteed Payment Plan will cover up to $400 a month in natural gas and electricity charges for the customer or a surviving spouse.

Customers of US West Communications could pay an additional $1.50 per month for telephone service if Washington regulators approve an agreement announced late Monday. The company, along with the staff of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, and consumer and business representatives, negotiated timetables for retirement of its investment in everything from poles to switches. The commissioners could take action on the settlement later this month.

Steve Matsko will step down as area president for U.S. Bancorp as part of a management restructuring that follows completion of its merger last week with First Bank System. But the reshuffling in the bank's historic downtown office tower will be invisible to customers, who can expect few if any changes in its 17-branch Spokane network, he said. Continued operation of the branch at Third and Stevens is under review, Matsko said, but no decision has been made on its future.

Itron Inc. on Wednesday announced the signing of a $44 million contract to install a network that will read 450,000 meters for Virginia Power. Installation will begin in November with a 5,000-meter pilot, said Itron spokeswoman Mima Scarpelli. Full-scale implementation should start in the first quarter of 1998, with completion expected by the end of the year. Virginia Power, a subsidiary of Dominion Resources, serves about two million customers in Virginia and North Carolina. Scarpelli said Itron's network will be installed in areas where the utility thinks rivals will most likely try to pick off customers as deregulation opens up traditionally exclusive service territories. Virginia Power now uses a system based on Itron's hand-held equipment. The new system uses tiny radios to relay readings from modules mounted on the meters to a central computer. "It's a terrific contract for us," Scarpelli said. "This is a nice testimonial for Itron and our technology." The announcement included a caution from President Johnny Humphreys that the contract would not produce the gross margins of non-network systems. Scarpelli said the company wants to discourage projections that might overstate the earnings potential from the new business. Margins will improve as the market and technology mature, she said.

Ownership of "ENACT" computer software that helped school districts around the Northwest use energy more efficiently has been transferred from the Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Programs to Illinova Energy Partners. Michael McSorley, the program's software team leader, said the state did not want to compete with private providers of similar products, which did not exist when ENACT was written by the Washington State Energy Office in the mid-1980s. Also, he said, the state couldn't afford to rewrite the DOS-based program in a Windows format.

Avista Energy has invested $25 million in a new partnership with one of the country's largest natural gas marketers. The Washington Water Power Co. subsidiary will split ownership of Howard/Avista Energy LLC, a limited liability company, with Howard Energy Marketing Inc. of Traverse City, Mich. Howard did more than $1.5 billion in business in the one-year period that ended April 30, said Avista President Lloyd Meyers. Howard sells almost 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily. Among the company's 1,600 customers are Chrysler Corp. and Procter and Gamble.

The long-anticipated, often-frustrated renovation of Spokane's Davenport Hotel will start early next year, Executive Director Jeffrey Ng said Friday. The downtown landmark could be accepting its first guests by the end of 1999 - more than 14 years after the prior owner locked the doors, Ng said.

Ray Daigh, Rahco International's chief electrical engineer, works on the control panels of the Self Guided Transport Vehicle. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review,

A new study prepared by a Portland consulting firm rates Washington Water Power Co. the second most efficient utility in the United States. Of the 94 electric companies included in the survey and analysis by Barakat & Chamberlain Inc., only American Electric Power Co. outperformed WWP.

The country's first one-stop provider of energy, telecommunication and security services Monday added Itron Inc. to its product offerings. Itron will join companies like AT&T; and ADT on a growing roster selected by EnergyOne, which was formed last month by UtiliCorp United Inc. of Kansas City and PECO Energy Co. of Philadelphia. Itron spokeswoman Mima Scarpelli said the deal, when signed later this year, will give the Spokane Valley company a new distribution channel for its line of meter-reading equipment.

The Millennium Bug will take a bite out of some Spokane area businesses and government agencies, but the swelling should be relatively minor. Most have applied "bug repellents." And for the consultants and other exterminators selling solutions to the problem, the bulging will occur in the wallet.

More Options for Power Service ("MOPS") is short of options. As a result, the experimental Washington Water Power Co. program will be limited to the towns of Harrington and Odessa, officials with the Spokane utility said Monday. MOPS was supposed to include 2,800 randomly drawn residential and commercial customers from Washington and Idaho in addition to the 980 accounts in Harrington and Odessa.

A proposed pipeline from Puget Sound to the Tri-Cities will bolster sometimes critically short fuel supplies in Eastern Washington, a spokeswoman for the Cross Cascade Pipeline Co. said Friday. But an opponent said the $105 million project will succeed only by forcing competitors out of the market, setting the stage for monopoly pricing. Joann Hamick and David Bricklin discussed the pipeline before a small Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce audience. The chamber may vote next month on whether to endorse the project.

Washington Water Power Co. Friday asked Washington regulators to approve a 15.6 percent rate increase for residential users of natural gas. Other customer classes face smaller hikes. Senior Rate Analyst Don Falkner said a second filing is expected in August. That, and a companion filing in Idaho, will cover the higher prices the company has paid to its gas suppliers in the last year.

With coarse sediment chewing on its turbines, Washington Water Power Co. wants to drill a bypass pipe through Nine Mile Dam. An environmental coordinator for the project says that already the company has been forced to shut down a turbine installed at the facility just three years ago when the bearings failed. Rod Pharness, the coordinator, said heavy runoff the last two years has carried coarse sediment that normally settles out of the water upstream right to the dam.

WWP project manager Harold Wilkinson prepares to open the doors on the fuel cell installed at the downtown Doubletree Hotel. It is the first commercial fuel cell sited anywhere in the Northwest. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

When Montana deregulates its electricity industry next July, Avista Energy will be there peddling megawatts. The Washington Water Power Co. subsidiary Monday announced formation of a joint venture with Energy West Inc., a natural gas and propane marketer based in Great Falls. Energy West serves about 25,000 customers in Montana, most in the Great Falls area. The state's two largest university campuses, an oil refinery, talc plant and other industrial customers boost the company's share of the total Montana natural gas market to about 40 percent, said Jim Morin, Energy West manager of sales and marketing.

Dakotah Direct Inc. could add several hundred jobs in Spokane as a result of a merger announced Monday with a new East Coast tele communications company. The five-year-old Spokane telemarketing company will become a unit of Genesis Teleserv Corp., based outside Philadelphia in West Conshohocken, Penn. Mike Kuhn, Dakotah's president, and Larry Martin, president of Dakotah Reservation Services Inc., will become senior vice presidents of Genesis, as well as part owners.

Itron Inc. has landed one of its largest contracts ever, a $100 million deal with the City of Philadelphia for reading water meters. The project, approved by the city council Thursday, is also the largest contract covering water metering ever undertaken by a North American public utility. Itron spokeswoman Mima Scarpelli said the bulk of the revenues - $65 million - will cover installation of 487,000 new meters equipped with company modules that read and transmit information on water use.