Lahout's Country Clothing & Ski Shop has partnered with retail-integrated eCommerce provider, Shopatron, to make its entire selection of ski and outdoor sports gear available online. Now shoppers everywhere can make a purchase from America's oldest ski shop, even when they are not in one of their six New Hampshire locations.

Shoppers will find the same level of service and expertise on Lahouts.com that they do in its stores.

"We wanted to bring all the Lahout's stores online without losing the level of service we are committed to," said Susan Lahout, director of eCommerce. "Shopatron enabled us to do this. Plus, Shopatron gives us access to additional orders coming from the websites of many of the brands we stock, supporting a whole new revenue stream for our stores."

Shopatron's retail-integrated eCommerce solution is a great fit for a service-focused multi-door retailer like Lahout's. Shopatron's superior 5-point shopping experience is focused on rich product information, world-class service, effortless shopping, unlimited delivery options, and, of course, strong community connections.

San Luis Obispo City Police Chief Deborah Linden announced last week that she plans on retiring from her public safety career at the end of 2011.

“The time is right, both personally and professionally, to move on to a different chapter in my life and pass the baton to a new police chief,” Linden said. “We will have implemented a new budget, the police department has an excellent leadership team in place, and we’ve completed some significant, long-term projects such as the new dispatch center.”

Chief Linden has served the city of San Luis Obispo as chief of police since January 2003. During her tenure, Linden has been dedicated to protecting public safety while leading the department during many major criminal investigations and significant events such as the Mardi Gras riots. Moreover, Linden has been a true believer in improving quality of life in San Luis Obispo through collaborative problem solving policing.

“I have been incredibly fortunate to have a career that allowed me to serve the public in such a meaningful way” said Linden. “I feel honored and humbled to have worked with some of the finest law enforcement professionals anywhere. I am incredibly proud of the work accomplished by employees at the Police Department every day, and I will miss them tremendously.”

Whizbang, a full-service marketing company in San Luis Obispo, launched their video department on June 24 with a viral video campaign that features numerous San Luis Obispo celebrities. 

The "Happy Town" video is a compilation of well-known community members doing the “Happy Town” dance to the “Happy Town” song. The dance was choreographed by award-winning choreographer Suzy Miller, while the song was created by Whizbang's , Ellen Curtis and Jose Molina. 

Molina is also a cast member of the Second City Improv Group in Chicago and collaborated with fellow cast member Caroline Lucius.

The San Luis Obispo Symphony’s 50th anniversary season closed on June 30 after an impressive year filled with unprecedented successes and one big announcement.

After a little more than a year with the Symphony, Executive Director Brian Hermanson has resigned his position for personal and family reasons, and to pursue other interests. He and his wife, Alice Ann, plan to return to the East Coast. 

Under Hermanson’s leadership, the Symphony increased the number of Strings in the School classes county-wide, including a new school site in Santa Margarita. A new string instruction program called SuperBows was initiated; and Youth Symphony enrollment rose significantly.

Doctor Joe Horne of San Luis Obispo Eye Associates has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from MES Vision for providing exceptional vision care in 2010.

The Certificate of Excellence is awarded based on feedback received from MES Vision patients who rated Horne’s practices as “Excellent” on all surveyed categories. 

Horne provides primary eye care including eye exams, contact lenses, and the treatment of ocular diseases. He focuses on making sure that all visual problems of every patient are perfectly corrected.

“I am honored to receive this recognition and grateful for the wonderful patients I have,” Horne said. “Ensuring my patients receive the greatest quality of care in a relaxed environment will continue to remain my first priority.”

Local children will be helped during KidSpree, an annual event that provides new school clothing to under-served children and youth in San Luis Obispo County. With the community’s aid, young people can be ready to go back to school this fall with pride and self-esteem, and more prepared to succeed.

United Way of San Luis Obispo County, in partnership with Kohl’s, has set a goal to help 300 local children during this year’s event on Sunday, July 24 at both the Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo Kohl’s stores. 

“KidSpree allows the community to help children have a more positive educational experience, while also helping families through these tough economic times,” said United Way of SLO County CEO, Rick London.
For every $100 raised, a child will be able to participate in KidSpree at Kohl’s in Paso Robles or San Luis Obispo.

A team of archaeologists working during the Nacimiento Water Project unearthed a large collection of Chumash artifacts, ranging from bowl mortar and pestles, a milling stone slab, and a number of other stone tools, bone fragments and shells. More than 500 pieces were found and are estimated to be 5,000 – 10,000 years old. 

The property excavated is located on River Road in Paso Robles, and is owned by American Perspective Bank (APB).

The archaeologists, working on the site for the County of San Luis Obispo, cleaned, sorted and catalogued the artifacts, which were then given to APB. The artifacts were turned over to the Northern Chumash Tribal Council as the caretakers for the Chumash Nation.

Two new team members have joined Collaboration, a San Luis Obispo-based business consulting firm. Christin Frederick will lead the business development efforts and Paden Followwill will focus on technology and partner support as the innovation coordinator.

“I’m really excited to have Christin and Paden join our team,” said Collaboration Founder and Managing Partner Michael Gunther. “They each bring so much to the organization, with Christin’s background as a recruiter in the Marines and Paden’s knowledge of implementing business technology.”

Collaboration’s growth continues with an expansion of geographic reach and the implementation of an online education portal. The addition of these individuals, with their expertise, will allow the organization to accelerate the development of those initiatives.

The Pacific Coast Business Times is the winner of two first-place honors in the 53rd annual Southern California Journalism Awards.

The region's only weekly business publication won first place in both the business news and hard news categories at the Los Angeles Press Club's annual awards.