TROPHY SHOP CHANGES HANDS

STATE-OF-ART ENGRAVER: Bruce Flanagan operates the The Trophy Case's ISO 7000 engraver. It engraves up to 24 inches wide and 33 inches long. (The Observer/Phil Bullock).

Bruce Flanagan has been busy lately. Since taking over ownership of The Trophy Case at 1102 Washington Avenue, he's added equipment in hopes of expanding the business.

Flanagan, along with his wife, Dawna, who comes in during the evenings to do the books, have taken over the business from Karen Gewecke, who operated it for 21 years.

"We've added a laser engraver so we can engrave glasses for such things as weddings, a sand blasting system to do etchings on such things as fancy mugs," Flanagan said.

"We're pretty well-equipped now with engraving machines to do small, medium and large engraving projects. A lot of it is done with computers but we still have two older engraving machines," he said.

He produces trophies for a lot of schools, athletic teams and associations, car shows, he said.

"And we want to try to get more walk-in traffic.

"We are going to offer T-shirts and baseball caps and just hope to add more unique products as we go along. We have quite a few gift items. For example, we can engrave right on a (writing) pen."

The Northeast Oregon Economic Development District provided a $35,000, 10-year, low-interest loan from a revolving loan fund for the Flanagans to help purchase the business and upgrade the equipment, said Donna Betts of the state agency.

Flanagan said he had been a saw filer in mills all over the Northwest until going to work for Oregon Trail Internet two years ago.

On the Internet: www.thetrophycase.net