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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Four firms settle airport lawsuit

Compiled from staff and wire reports The Spokesman-Review

Four companies involved in the design and construction of the water feature at Spokane International Airport agreed Tuesday to pay $800,000 to settle a lawsuit related to the project.

The settlement announced Tuesday concludes more than a year of negotiations following a lawsuit filed by the airport board against the companies that worked on the project.

The waterfall-and-basalt-column feature was erected in late 2001. The following spring, airport officials discovered the columns were tipping over. Engineers hired by the airport said the fault was due to improper site design and construction.

Each of the four companies pointed at poor work by the other firms as the cause of the problem.

Airport attorney Steve Phillabaum said Bend, Ore.-based David Evans and Associates, the project engineer, agreed to pay $400,000. Hidden Rivers, a Spokane company that was the general contractor, will pay $255,000. Half Moon Construction, a subcontractor, will pay $140,000. Cameron Concrete, another subcontractor, agreed to pay $5,000, Phillabaum said.

The airport originally paid about $840,000 for the 17-acre project, constructed on the main access road leading to the main terminal. Since then, the airport hired another firm to redesign the site and rebuild the rocks and waterfall. The waterfall was turned on last year.

Itron earnings up for quarter, year

Spokane-based Itron, Inc. Tuesday reported fourth-quarter 2004 revenue of $131.4 million compared with $80 million in the same period of 2003. For the full year, Itron had revenue of $399.2 million, compared with $317 million in 2003.

Due to charges related to the acquisition of electrical-meter manufacturer Schlumberger last year, Itron booked losses in both its fourth quarter and 2004 as a whole, the company said in a press release.

As a result of that purchase and adjustments, Itron had a net loss of $6.8 million, or 32 cents a share, for the fourth quarter of 2004. The company lost $5.1 million, or 24 cents a share, for the full year.

One year earlier, Itron had a fourth-quarter net loss of $1.6 million, or 8 cents a share, and net income of $10.5 million, or 48 cents a share, for 2003.

Itron designs metering systems and software tools used by companies in the gas, water and electrical-power utility industry.

Idaho House passes energy production bill

Boise

Legislation setting up a new way to finance energy production and transmission facilities in Idaho passed the Idaho House Tuesday on a 62-6 vote.

Sponsored by Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, HB 106 would set up a new authority to issue revenue bonds to pay for the facilities, and would allow municipalities and co-ops to go into joint ventures with private utilities.

Eskridge told the House, “We are entering a crisis in our energy supply and our transmission capability.” Idaho now imports 50 percent of its energy from out of state, he said, and the current drought threatens to push that figure even higher.

Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, spoke against the bill, saying it set up a governor-appointed board to oversee the bonding without legislative oversight. “We’re just going to be out of the loop,” he said.

But all the rest of North Idaho’s representatives voted for the bill, which now moves to the Senate. Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, told the House, “This is something that will give rural Idaho a step forward.”

Log home-building workshop Sunday

People interested in building a log home are invited to a public workshop on Sunday from 1 p.m.-4 p.m., hosted by the International Log Builders’ Association. The group is holding its annual conference at the Coeur d’Alene Resort this week: pre-conference courses started Tuesday and the conference begins Thursday.

“We want to make sure that people who are building or thinking of building are educated on what to do,” said chief operations officer Cathy Hansen. “It’s helping the consumer make the right decisions” on things like design, tree species and budget.

The registration fee is $25, and the deadline to register is Friday.

For more information and to register, visit: http://logassociation.org/ conference/2005/index.php or call (800) 532-2900.

Mike’s Hard Lemonade moving to Seattle

Mike’s Hard Lemonade said Tuesday that it is moving its headquarters from Denver to Seattle and plans to expand its 90-person staff.

In a statement, the six-year-old, privately held company said it chose Seattle because it believes the city has a talented work force. The company plans to add an unspecified number of employees in marketing, finance, human resources, operations and information technology.

The move is planned for April.

Mike’s Hard Lemonade bills itself as a line of “malternative” beverages — alcoholic drinks that aren’t beer. In addition to the alcoholic lemonade, it also offers alcoholic cranberry lemonade and iced tea.

Nordstrom quarterly earnings up 34 percent

Nordstrom Inc. said Tuesday that fourth-quarter earnings rose 34 percent, helped by strong demand for its clothing fashions during a quarter that included the all-important holiday season.

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 29, the Seattle-based clothing chain reported earnings of $140 million or $1 per share, up from $104.3 million or 74 cents per share in the comparable period last year.

The company said the most recent quarterly earnings were reduced by $4.7 million, or 3 cents per share, because of a non-cash correction related to the company’s lease accounting policy.

Without the charge, the company would have earned $1.03 per share, just beating analysts’ expectations.

Analysts polled by Thomson/First Call were expecting quarterly earnings of $1.02 per share on revenue of $2.08 billion.

Revenue for the quarter rose 9.4 percent to $2.1 billion, from $1.92 billion in the same period a year earlier.

The company said performance was helped by fashion offerings that customers liked, as well as some operating efficiencies. Same-store sales — a key measure for the retail industry — rose 7.2 percent for the quarter, more than the company had been expecting.