Coming&going

Service

A pair of Chico women has started a business designed to get children around town efficiently and affordably. Cabs 4 Kids, owned by Sarah Hurt and Amy Nelson, picks up pre-registered children and, for a fee, takes them to destinations within Chico or five miles beyond.

Appraisal

Richard C. Frey of Chico has earned the top level of recognition as a certified appraiser of personal property. CAPP status—attained by fewer than 125 appraisers in the nation—means Frey has completed extensive courses and exams and has been proven to uphold high ethical standards. Frey has been an appraiser since 1978 and also serves as an expert witness in trials.

Accessibility

A Chico company has made it easier for businesses to get the equipment they need to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and serve their customers with disabilities. Access Store.com’s Web site, www.accessstore.com, on June 18 began offering hundreds of products, from ramps to signs to bathroom accessories.

In a press release, company President Timothy Vander Heiden stated, “Many business owners and people in the construction industry have had nowhere to turn to when it came to complying with the ADA act. … I created a catalog Web site that solves every ADA problem they might encounter.”

Education

Chico State University’s Advisory Board has chosen new leaders. Beginning at the 25-member board’s Sept. 28 meeting, Nancy Fox will serve as chairwoman and Scott Chalmers will take the vice-chairman’s seat. Fox runs the online jewelry business N and J Imports, while Chalmers is president of RSC Associates Inc.

The board advises the university on a variety of university and community issues.

Technology

Spectra-Physics, a subsidiary of Thermo Electron Corporation, announced that it has changed its name from Spectra-Physics Lasers, Inc. to Spectra-Physics, Inc. The name change comes at the same time as the company’s 40th anniversary of founding the world’s first commercial laser company in 1961.

“This return to the original corporate name leverages Spectra-Physics’ 40 years of brand equity as one of the early Silicon Valley companies,” said Patrick L. Edsell, chairman, president and chief executive officer. Spectra-Physics has a manufacturing plant in Oroville.

Award

Sarah Cook, a student at Marigold Elementary School, won first place in the 8- to 9-year-old category for a poster contest sponsored by the American Bird Conservatory’s Campaign for Safer Birds and Cats program. The students are asked to draw about ideas on how to keep cats indoors. Cook will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Wild Bird Centers of America.

Grant

On June 19, the Paradise Community Foundation donated $40,000 in grants to various groups and people. The grants were presented to Julie Shaw, an artist and art instructor at Butte College for the volunteer Art Angels project; Officer Phil Serna of the Paradise Police Department for the department’s K-9 Program “Shop with a Cop"; Paul Weber, PUSD principal of Mountain Ridge Middle School in Magalia for the new state-of-the-art scoreboard for the Mountain Ridge Middle School gymnasium; and Andrew Boone, a cellist and recent graduate of Paradise High School, who received a $2,000 music scholarship from the foundation.

Donation

Chico State’s Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Program just received $274,938 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for students in the field of science and/or mathematics. Forty of the university’s students will receive $3,125 for two years.

“This is especially important to these students in technical fields who often demand an extra year of work in order to graduate,” stated Paul Villegas, director of the MESA program, in a press release.