Faces and places

Heinz Pet Products — DLM Foods, Lawrence, has been awarded a Kansas Industrial Retraining grant for $27,385. The company has installed new equipment and new technology and will retrain 21 existing employees. The company is matching the grant by contributing $27,385 for the training.

The KIR program is a job retention tool that assists employees of restructuring industries who are likely to be displaced because of obsolete or inadequate job skills and knowledge.

¢

Hunter Harris has joined Harris Construction Co., Lawrence, as vice president of business development. Hunter will be involved with marketing, sales, client and firm development. He recently received a degree in business administration from Kansas University. He was an intern at the company where he assisted the CEO with business development activities. Harris will be working from the Kansas City office.

¢

Timothy Keller, Lawrence, has been elected as the 2003 president of the Kansas City Chapter of the Appraisal Institute. Serving eastern Kansas and western Missouri, the chapter encourages local real estate appraisers to earn Appraisal Institute professional membership designations and promotes competent and reliable appraisal services to the property owning public.

Keller is president of Keller & Associates, Inc., and has been an appraiser for more than 13 years. He earned a master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame.

¢

Century 21 Miller and Midyett, Lawrence, announces that Lori Fritzel, Brian Johnson, Doug Rusco and Anne Woods have joined the firm as sales associates.

¢

Dillons announces the retirement of Mulford Gentry after 27 years of service. Gentry was hired as a stock clerk in 1976 at the 1740 Mass. store. He retired Jan. 4 as the dairy manager at the 3000 W. Sixth St. store.

¢

EBH & Associates celebrated more than 50 years of service to Kansas communities with an open house Jan. 9 at its Lawrence office, 5040 W. 15th St. Robert Evans and Gail Bierly established Evans, Bierly Engineers in 1951 in Great Bend. Stuart Hutchison joined the business in the mid 1960s to form EBH & Associates. The Lawrence office was opened in 1971 and continues to offer engineering, planning and surveying services.

¢
l

Shawn Lowry, national president of Brooke Franchise Corp., announced that Entrepreneur magazine ranked the Brooke Franchise program as 103rd in the nation. The magazine ranks the top 500 franchises in the country each year, and last year Brooke ranked 278th. Brooke operates an insurance sales office in Lawrence.

Honors and awards

Crown Toyota, Lawrence, was named recipient of the 2001 Toyota Motor Sales President’s Award. The business will be featured in Monday’s issue of Time magazine, which has been on sale since Jan. 20. The President’s Award is the highest honor a dealership can receive from Toyota. In order to qualify for the award, dealerships must excel in each of a series of categories, including customer sales satisfaction and customer service satisfaction.

¢

Cheryl Baldwin was named the top sales associate for 2002 at Century 21 Miller and Midyett, Lawrence. Each year the agency recognizes one agent for superior sales achievement

¢

Edison Electric Institute has honored Topeka-based Westar Energy for its outstanding effort to restore power to 116,000 customers following the worst ice storm in the company’s history last January. Westar received the institute’s Emergency Response Award. Winners are chosen by a panel of judges.

¢

The Living Learning Center at Washburn University, Topeka, is featured as one of the top 30 campus building projects in the nation in the 2002 Sourcebook for Award-winning and Outstanding Education Design.

The building, which was completed in August 2001, was designed by Treanor Architects, Lawrence. The 120,000-square-foot residence facility has beds for 400 students.

The Sourcebook is an annual publication of American School and University Magazine, which has a circulation of about 62,500. The Living Learning Center was the only residence hall in Kansas to be showcased in the publication.

Projects featured in the portfolio were selected by a jury who had the task of identifying exceptional learning environments from among the 250 entries received.

Coming events

The Douglas County Paralegals and Legal Assistants Assn. is hosting a breakfast and forum from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday in the Lawrence Public Library’s auditorium, 707 Vt.

Charles Branson will speak about personal injury law.

The cost is $6. For more information or to register, contact Rosina Houle at 843-6682 or Becky Resau at 843-6195. The registration deadline is Wednesday.

¢

Kansas Women’s Business Center, Lenexa, is offering a weekend class “Starting a Profitable Business.” The class will cover what it takes to open a business, how to choose the right business, how to develop a customer base, how to comply with legal issues and how to get money for start-up.

The class will be from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 7 and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 8. The class will be at 8527 Bluejacket, Lenexa. The cost is $195. For more information, call (913) 492-5922.