With San Diego aflame, business ground to a halt for some, and stayed critically active for others. Kim Merrill, who nearly lost his home in the Cedar Fire, was at a memorial service for his father, Shelby Merrill, at Fort Rosecrans when his cell phone rang: Scripps Ranch was evacuating. “I had one foot at the service, the other one in my truck,” says the president of Merrill Marketing, who also had out-of-town family staying with him. “The service ended, and we literally jumped in the truck and raced from Point Loma to Scripps Ranch.” Taking a creative route that avoided the roadblocks already in place, he was able to get home and grab the family’s already-packed emergency belongings.

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Stone Brewing closed its World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido during the fires, canceling local distribution for a few days and losing the ability to produce about 25,000 gallons of beer each two days. CEO Greg Koch says the only serious damage came from a 50-foot pine tree that toppled in the high winds.

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When fire closed Fish & Richardson’s local headquarters in Carmel Valley, the firm went with its existing emergency plans and operated from remote locations. (The firm has many non-San Diego clients.) “The support our office received from the other Fish attorneys and offices was a perfect example of the culture of which we are so proud: we banded together as a family and got the job done,” says John Phillips, local managing partner. The firm also deployed an automated phone system that called employees to check on their welfare and determine what employees and their families needed to get through the crisis.

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Cox employees worked Oct. 22 to restore service while the fires still raged.

Cox Communications suffered few outages thanks to its redundant fiber ring. For customers affected in the areas Cox serves in portions of Poway, San Marcos, Escondido and Ramona, the firm depended on the nearly 80 percent of employees who were able to come to work each day. It also leaned on its “cyber agent” program that allows certain employees to work from home and answer customer calls through a secure network.

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The median price of a resale condo Downtown was $576,000 for the 30-day period ended Oct. 23, up $3,000 from September but down $19,000 (3.19 percent) from $595,000 in October 2006, reports Realtor Lew Breeze of sdcondo.com. The number of condos pending sale during the past 30 days was 41, the same as last year. The number of condos closing sale during the 30 days prior to Oct. 23 was 31, compared to 27 from this same period last year.

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Digital recording has a new groove in Downtown. The Recording Arts Center (TRAC), the state-licensed vocational training enterprise of Peter Dyson’s Rancho Bernardo-based Studio West, has spun off to the East Village, at 726 Ninth Ave., Suite 1 (tracsd.com). “Artists are bypassing record labels completely, recording their albums at home and selling them on the Internet,” says Dyson. His Studio West clients have included Jewel, blink-182 and Natalie Merchant.

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Mission Valley businesswoman Linda Thompson traveled to Detroit to accept an award from Escape International for topping 40,000 North America reps in new business for the quarter. The company’s varied product line includes skin care, an antioxidant drink, travel services and videophones. Thompson racked up $10,000 in sales in just one week in October. Besides training her own regional sales team, she also runs Maddock’s Collection Service. Ten years ago, Thompson founded Medipaid, bridging doctors with new patients by financing cosmetic surgeries.

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The San Diego Unified Port District is looking at up to a two-year timetable for the demolition of about 50 buildings, occupying nearly 1 million square feet on the 46 acres of the former Teledyne-Ryan operation off North Harbor Drive. The project’s draft environmental impact report is in review.

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Neighborhood National Bank has received a $2 million deposit from the city of National City. The deposit, the first of its kind to be made by a public agency in Southern California, is part of a citywide effort to promote economic redevelopment from within. It started two years ago when bank chair and CEO Robert McGill began working with city officials to get a legislative bill passed that would allow local governments throughout California to deposit larger amounts in a single institution through a Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service program. Under the CDARS initiative, which was signed into law in January, NNB, member FDIC, can receive deposits of up to $50 million from government agencies. Earlier, the maximum insurance allowed per account on CDs was $100,000. “This new legislation enables cities, counties, and local agencies to keep more deposits in local institutions —recycling local tax dollars to benefit California taxpayers,” says McGill. “More deposits means more loans in the community — loans to homeowners, small businesses and families.”

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Qualcomm links bits and bytes by hosting the seventh annual GadgetFest, presented by CommNexus San Diego, from 4:30 - 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 in Irwin Jacobs Hall, 5775 Morehouse Drive in Sorrento Mesa. The event showcases new technology to global industry reps; Google acquired last year’s winner of the Greatest Gadget award, GrandCentral, after the show. Registration is $45 in advance and free to students and military. For more, go to commnexus.org.

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For the seventh consecutive year, Pardee Homes employees brought their home-building skills to Tijuana for the annual Project Mercy Baja Challenge. With RND Construction of Vista, Pardee’s team built two 440-square-foot homes - including paint, carpet, furnishings and solar-powered lighting - in an outlying colonia. Pardee’s Mark Pelley supervised.

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Back in the spring, Nokia made a telecom splash by announcing it was getting out of the CDMA market. This was a big deal in San Diego since Nokia had more than 1,000 folks in San Diego doing CDMA R&D. But while they are scaling back research, the company continues to release CDMA phones, with its newest being the Nokia 2135, which features a 400-entry phonebook. Of course, 400 new telecom R&D jobs would be better for San Diego.

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For those who have pondered joining the USS Midway Museum, the timing might be good. The retired aircraft carrier is hosting a members-only viewing party on both Dec. 9 and Dec. 16 to watch the 36th annual San Diego Bay Parade of Lights. The $30 per-person cost includes dinner and access to a cash bar. More information is at midway.org or (619) 398-8229.

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Joining in the celebration of the Chairmen’s RoundTable’s 10th anniversary were Jack Hayes, one of the group’s founders, and members Charlotte Hayes, Alice Reinig and Norm Schoenfeld. Jack Hayes remains particularly pleased with the organization’s tagline: ‘Strengthening San Diego, one company at a time.’ (photo/Orlando Guiang)

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San Diego’s Great American Credit Union, which has 8,800 members and $57 million in assets, is merging into Pasadena-based Wescom Credit Union in December. The merger is dependent on approval by Great American’s membership. Under the merger agreement, Wescom will operate all four Great American branch locations in San Diego and offer jobs to all Great American employees. Great American was founded in 1928 by and for post office employees. Since then, the credit union has received a community charter and expanded to serve the cities of San Diego and Poway as well as members of UCAN.

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Nessel & Friends Advertising Inc., is celebrating its 35th anniversary in San Diego. Reed Nessel and Carl Woodend launched the company in 1972. “The biggest changes are in the proliferation of media outlets, and in the technology of the industry,” says Nessel. “When we started, there were three network television stations, and cable penetration was negligible.” Artwork was done manually with type and photo prints pasted onto art boards.

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Opening this month in Encinitas is Lux Art Institute, a visual arts institution in Southern California that promises to be the first green museum in California. It also aims to be interactive, allowing visitors to see art happen. “Through our innovative programs that focus on the living artist and the creative process, Lux is poised to become Southern California’s must-see interactive art destination,” says Reesey Shaw, museum director. Lux is one of the first museums in the United States to establish a program that invites international artists to live and work on site while producing a commissioned work of art. Chilean Tomás Rivas will be the first artist-in-residence. More is at luxartinstitute.org.

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SDG&E has received two national awards for its Sustainable Communities Program, of which the 10,000-square-foot solar photovoltaic array on the roof of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center was a high-profile project. The Solar Electric Power Association recognized SDG&E with its ‘Solar Business Award for Innovative Program Design’ and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy honored the utility with its ‘Exemplary Program’ award in the Commercial-Industrial New Construction Programs category. ‘We are proud to receive national recognition for our Sustainable Communities Program, which helps develop renewable-energy technologies and applications,’ says Richard Morrow, v.p. of customer services and major markets for SDG&E.

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In October’s cover story on Councilman Kevin Faulconer, Wayne Raffesberger was identified as being a former chief of staff to then-Councilman Ron Roberts. He was chief of policy. Also, Raffesberger only ran in 2002 for the District 2 seat on the City Council, not a second time in 2006. “I only made the mistake of running for City Council once,” Raffesberger says. San Diego Metropolitan regrets the errors.

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After 19 years as founding President and CEO, Ruth Riedel is leaving Alliance Healthcare Foundation on Jan. 1, reports Rob McCray, board chair. “Dr. Riedel has done a great job leveraging the resources of this organization and addressing a wide variety of health care needs in our community,” says McCray. “At the same time, she has been a powerful advocate for the underserved, and will continue to focus her efforts on behalf of medically underserved populations.” Alliance Healthcare is one of San Diego’s largest private, independent, nonprofit foundations.

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The future of Downtown’s transit system will be the subject of a $475,000 study performed by McCormick Rankin US Inc., a division of McCormick Rankin Corp. of Ottawa, Canada. The study is part of a final settlement of a lawsuit brought against the city’s Downtown Community Plan by Save Our Forest and Ranchlands. Among the complaints: the existing plan relied too heavily on automobiles and providing parking spaces.

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The dot.us that ends most government Internet sites in the United States is but one of many. San Diego’s Byte Level Resource has created a nice online map that shows the top-level domains of 245 countries and territories, from .az (Azerbaijan) to .za (South Africa). The actual map is at bytelevel.com. If you want a wall size version, the company, which provides Web globalization research and consulting to clients such as FedEx, Google, Dow Corning, and Panasonic, will sell you one for $27.50, plus shipping.

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The Greater San Diego Business Association has formed a corporate partnership with FirstGroup, a commercial real estate developer. The company recently presented $5,000 to the GSDBA in an effort to raise continued awareness of the 800-member chamber of commerce, the nation’s second largest gay and lesbian chamber. “The GSDBA appreciates the support of corporations like FirstGroup, which understands the work we do to help area small businesses grow and prosper,” says Joyce Marieb, executive director of GSDBA. Catherine Strada, an associate with the real estate company, says its role is is to “help promote gay and lesbian business and increase the powerful gay market in San Diego.”

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In the category of Best Song Dedication, Bruce Springsteen did San Diego no favor with his song “Balboa Park.” But the “The Seaport Fudge Factory” is a sweet and favorable ditty on the sunny side of San Diego by Irish electro-lounge artist Skully on his new first solo album,“Without a Voice.” The digital album is downloadable online. The eponymous fudge song is downloadable at Seaport Village.