Business notebook: Kranig new IT director at casino

Treasure Island Resort & Casino recently named Doug Kranig as its new director of information services.

Kranig is now responsible for the help desk, network support, applications support and telecommunications for Treasure Island.

Kranig holds a master's of science in information technology information security, and a bachelor's of science in business and computer systems.

He also boasts several certifications, including certified ethical hacker, certified hacking forensics investigator, and certified security analyst.

Before joining Treasure Island, Kranig held several MIS positions.

• Treasure Island held a bingo birthday bash Saturday.

The resort and casino began as a Bingo parlor 25 years ago. The following are fun facts about the casino's beginnings:

-- When the Bingo hall as first opened it held 1,300 guests and it was strictly Bingo as there was no Casino area then.

-- One of the current team members was on the construction crew and helped build the Bingo hall. When it opened, he was hired on as Bingo staff and has worked there ever since.

-- Both of the "Bingo Day 1" clerks - Barb Wiley and Jack Harvey - have only worked in the Bingo hall.

-- In the beginning, 24 floor clerks staffed the Bingo hall; now there are eight full- and part-time floor clerks on staff. Of the 24 team members, 12 worked during the Bingo shift.

-- The team members sold only paper Bingo sheets; the electronic version came years later.

-- Many varieties of Bingo games have been played during the 25 years, including one in which team members got pies thrown in their faces.

• For the third year in a row Potter's Ridge was awarded its parent company's resident choice award.

Welcome Home Health Care also bestowed Potter's Ridge with the company's best community award. Potter's Ridge along with two other sites received the distinction.

Criteria for the community award included employee, resident and family satisfaction, safety, financial performance and overall occupancy.

The Resident Choice Award is based in part on an annual resident satisfaction survey. While the average score of each community was 90 percent, Potter Ridge took home the award with a score of 95 percent.

• Wieser Concrete Products, Inc. of Maiden Rock has been selected as a finalist for the 2008 Wisconsin Corporate Safety Award, as overseen by the Wisconsin Safety Council and the Department of Workforce Development.

Wieser Concrete Products, Inc. is a finalist for this award based on its lost time injury incidence rate for 2008, and the preceding two calendar years.

• Earlier this month, Dan Washburn began his tenure as the new manager of the Ellsworth Pamida.

He is the third manager the store has had since opening less than a year ago.

The turnover is something Washburn intends on changing.

"I plan on being the last" manager, said Washburn, 30, who has worked for Pamida for 10 years. Before taking over the reigns in Ellsworth he worked in Mora, Minn.

As he makes over the Ellsworth location, Washburn said refocusing the store's employees is atop his to-do list.

"We're going to be retraining all the employees," he said. "There was a lack of accountability in training the employees when the store opened.

"They're going to be starting over from new. It's going to be a big learning process in the next couple of months."

But the workers are off to a good start, he said.

Another key for the store's success, Washburn said, is community involvement. An example Washburn gave is in Mora a bus transported senior citizens to the store. That's something he'd like to incorporate at the Ellsworth location.

Tags: news, red, wing, treasure, island, resort, and, casino, pamida, wieser, concrete, potters, ridge