BUSINESS NOTES

NISSWA - Jan H. Segers was appointed general manager of Grand View Lodge in Nisswa.

Segers previously worked with Lenore Hotel and Resort Consulting where he provided management consulting for luxury hotels and resorts in a variety of locations around the world, including Canada, Singapore, Taiwan, Cambodia, Palau and Guam, Micronesia, Bali and Jordan.

His many years of hotel and resort management experience include positions with industry leaders such as Grand Metropolitan Hotels, Canadian National Hotels, Hyatt Hotels International, Westin Hotels, Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts, Raffles International and Sanctuary Resorts.

Segers will be overseeing an extensive resort renovation with enhancements, including new furnishings for guest accommodations and upgrades to resort guest amenities to complement the new decor.

Cote Family Companies owns Grand View Lodge, as well as Tanque Verde Ranch and Bellota Ranch in Tucson, Ariz., and Camp Lincoln and Camp Lake Hubert in Nisswa.

Pickard joins Brainerd Tire One

Jim Pickard joined Brainerd Tire One as a sales associate specializing in service writing.

Pickard has 14 years of experience in the industry and has been in top management and sales positions. After spending a lot of his career in the Twin Cities, Pickard moved to Brainerd.

Pagarigan joins Nystrom & Associates

BAXTER - Dr. Roberto Pagarigan, psychiatrist, joined Nystrom & Associates Baxter office in February.

Pagarigan will be providing psychiatric assessments and medication management services to child, adolescent, adult and geriatric populations. Pagarigan has years of psychiatric service in the lakes area.

Cowell earns designation

BAXTER - David Cowell, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network financial representative in Baxter, earned his Chartered Advisor for Senior Living designation from The American College, Bryn Mawr, Pa.

With a CASL designation, Cowell completed a comprehensive curriculum addressing items affecting seniors in retirement and individuals preparing for retirement.

Bourassa received top sales recognition

Tastefully Simple consultant Beverly Bourassa, Brainerd, received the gourmet food company's Top 10 Regional Sales Achiever award in the northwest region.

To win the award, Bourassa outperformed other consultants in the region among the company's more than 24,000 consultants nationwide.

Boehmer advanced to coordinator

Pamela Boehmer, Brainerd, advanced to the coordinator level as an independent distributor with Market America.

Boehmer became eligible for the coordinator level after developing two sales and distribution organizations, in addition to selling an established amount of product that produced a first commission check. Boehmer was previously qualified as a distributor. She has been an independent distributor since 2002.

Business After Hours planned in Staples

The Stapes Motley Area Chamber of Commerce networking event Business After Hours is planned from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the NJPA Building and is hosted by the chamber's executive board.

For more information, call (218) 894-3974.

BHS sophomores attend Career Day

STAPLES - The Staples campus of Central Lakes College played host to 560 Brainerd High School sophomores recently at Career Day. Twenty-two presenters presented short overviews of their careers and the training and education that led to them.

Presenters were:

Accounting: Pam Thompson, instructor, and Melissa Marthaler, student, CLC.

Armed forces: Chris Spieker, Army.

Commercial art and design: Leon Dahlvang, CLC instructor.

Art careers: Don Garey, CLC instructor.

Carpentry: Jared Evens, Minnesota State Community and Technical College student.

Computer networking: Janet Johnson, MSCTC instructor.

Cosmetology: Heather Rollins, Family Hair Care, Staples.

Dental: Melanie O'Keefe, O'Kane Dentistry, Wadena.

Diesel mechanics: Dan Gunderson, CLC instructor.

Drafting: Mike McKittrick, CLC student.

Education: Ray Gildow, retired CLC administrator.

Heavy equipment operations and maintenance: Andy Anderson, CLC instructor.

Law enforcement: Chris Goff, Staples police.

Manufacturing: Keith Card, CLC instructor.

Massage therapy: Katie Brotherton, R Salon and Spa, Staples.

Medical careers: Jennifer Strickland, Lakewood Health Systems.

Nursing: Kim Scott, CLC director of nursing.

Photography: Mike Aulie, Sothers Photography, Brainerd.

Robotics: Nathan Peterson, CLC instructor.

Social work: Char Savaloja, Crown College, Minneapolis.

Veterinary technician: Jennifer Allen.

Going Into Business class offered at CLC

Central Lakes College will host a Going Into Business For Yourself class from 6 to 9 p.m. April 5.

This class covers all areas of business startup, helpful advice on how to get a dream off the ground, how to become and stay profitable, including financing a new venture.

This session will assist the potential business owner through the process of developing the project, provide the opportunity to have questions addressed, and identify other assistance resources. Follow-up counseling is available to qualified individuals from the Small Business Development Center's team of consultants free of charge.

Tuition is $40 per person and $60 for two business partners. Instructor is Jay Bock.

The class meets in the Business and Industry Center on the Brainerd campus. The deadline to register is March 29.

For more information, call (800) 933-0346 ext. 8142 or 855-8142.

Heartland Home Health Care & Hospice makes list

Manor Care, which owns Heartland Home Health Care & Hospice in Brainerd, announced it was named one of America's Most Admired Companies in the Medical Facilities industry for 2007 on Fortune's 2007 list of "America's Most Admired Companies."

The list and related stories appear in the March 19 issue of Fortune. Manor Care was ranked No. 1 in quality of products/services, innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality management and long-term investment.

Edward Jones gains recognition

Edward Jones ranked sixth among 25 national and international companies considered the best providers of customer service, according to BusinessWeek magazine's first ranking of "Customer Service Champs" published in its March 5 edition. Laurie Fitterer, Edward Jones financial adviser in Nisswa, released the information.

Pools can be risky business

Associated Press

Before you wager $50 on the office pool Web site to back your favorite March Madness basketball picks, make sure those few minutes don't wind up costing your company even more.

As with any other major event in the news, the weeks surrounding the NCAA tournament are ripe with opportunity for online scammers as millions of fans fill out Internet brackets and comb the Web for news on their teams.

Possible attacks include fake betting Web sites and viruses that can infect legitimate office pool sites and threaten a company's entire network, according to Dmitri Alperovitch, principal research scientist at Secure Computing, a web gateway security provider.

"Consumers and businesses need to be prepared in order to beat the bad guys at their game," he said.

To keep scammers from cashing in on your bets, follow these tips:

Never open e-mails from unknown sources. If you do, don't click on any links in the message, and open a new window and enter the link manually instead.

Guard your personal information and submit it only to reputable sites.

Be wary of online message boards and discussion forums. Anyone can post content to such sites, including online thieves who load viruses into messages and video links.

DROPPING DRUG USE: Chances are better that your cubicle-mate is showing up to work sober. Fewer people are using drugs in the workplace, thanks to employer crackdowns and increased awareness of drug-testing programs.

Workplace drug use hit a new low in 2006, according to the annual Drug Testing Index recently released by Quest Diagnostics Inc., a workplace drug testing service.

Amphetamine use among federal workers, including pilots, truck drivers and others mandated by the U.S. Department of Transportation for drug testing, fell 20 percent last year, the index reported. Use of marijuana, the most commonly detected drug, fell 6.3 percent among the general work force, according to Barry Sample, Quest's director of science and technology for the employer solutions division.

More businesses are submitting their employees to drug tests, including the majority of the Fortune 1000 companies, he said.