Downtown Project

Biz Buzz: Donors keep kids’ museum in SLO on time

$55,000 grant and matching funds will help complete the facility and its centerpiece clock by June opening

Recent gifts from local philanthropists are giving the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum the boost it needs to reopen its doors this summer.

Its building was torn down in 2004 to make way for a three-story, 8,400- square-foot museum.

Executive Director Roy Mueller received a $55,000 challenge grant from Greg and Jane Hind of the Hind Foundation to complete the museum’s centerpiece: a two-story interactive clock. Another donor, who has asked to remain anonymous, stepped forward to match the Hind grant.

“This is truly a wonderful thing for us, particularly in our present economic climate,” Mueller said.

The 20-foot-tall clock is a sculpture with moving gears and a pendulum for children to swing on, Mueller said.

About $600,000 needs to be collected by the end of 2008, Mueller said. That money is expected to be raised by that time, he added.

The museum at Nipomo and Monterey streets is expected open in June.

—Melanie Cleveland

Edward Jones worker lobbies in D. C.

Linda McCaughan, branch administrator at Edward Jones’ Atascadero office, is one of 70 Edward Jones associates who recently traveled to Washington, D. C., to discuss investor-related issues with lawmakers.

McCaughan is a member of the firm’s Branch Office Administrators Grassroots Legislative Task Force, which shares individual investors’ concerns with local, state and national lawmakers.

“I appreciate the opportunity to communicate the concerns of individual investors, especially those here in Central California, and make sure they are heard on Capitol Hill,” she said.

McCaughan has served since 1994 in the Atascadero office at 9481 El Camino Real.

Edward Jones provides financial services in the United States and, through its affiliates, in Canada and the United Kingdom.

—Tonya Strickland

Gray & Troy expands insurance services

San Luis Obispo insurance agency Gray & Troy is expanding its commercial services with the addition of property and casualty broker Gary Andreini.

Andreini has more than 20 years of experience in commercial property, general liability, worker’s compensation and other insurance fields.

Andreini and his wife, Denise Andreini, have owned and operated Café Andreini in The Village of Arroyo Grande since 1996. He also is active in his children’s activities, having coached soccer, basketball and baseball teams.

Longtime insurance agents Gene Gray and Dan Troy founded the firm in 1999.

—Tonya Strickland

Architectural firm changes its name

San Luis Obispo-based architectural firm Craig R. Smith AIA Architect & Associates has expanded its offices at 890 Monterey St., Suite A, and changed its name to CRSA Architecture.

The firm will continue to provide architectural design, land-use development management and entitlement services. It’s expanded into existing and new winery development, mixed-use urban infill, sustainability, energy efficient and alternative energy design development, as well as other projects.

The company has projects in San Luis Obispo County, elsewhere in California and in Colorado.

—Tonya Strickland