Lynette Bickley, has earned the use of a fifth Mary Kay signature pink Cadillac, one of the the most coveted incentives awarded by the company. This is the eighth career car that Bickley has been awarded. In the past year, Bickley has attended company events in Dallas and Phoenix, where she and her unit of consultants were honored in the $300,000 retail sales Circle of Achievement, Double Star and Queens Court of Personal Sales. Bickley, a Goodland native, began her Mary Kay career as an independent beauty consultant in 1992 and promoted herself to independent sales director in 1998 after graduating from FHSU, completing a degree in music and art education in 1996.

* * *

Midwest Energy has received notification that a grant application for the replacement of electro-mechanical relays at Knoll Substation, located north of Hays, has been selected for award negotiations by the Department of Energy.  The project will entail the installation of a new control house and new SEL relays at the substation. The project will be funded by up to 50 percent by the DOE, approximately $712,000.

* * *

Don Hoffman, a partner in the law firm of Bieker, Dreiling and Hoffman, has been named to the board of the Heartland Community Foundation. The foundation, established in 2007, is made up of a 13-member volunteer board of directors and an executive director. It is an affiliate of the Greater Salina Community Foundation. The Heartland Community Foundation is a collection of funds designed to link donors with charitable causes and serves the west-central Kansas area. For more information, visit www.heartlandcommunityfoundation.org or call (785) 621-4090.

* * *

Donald J. Simons of Simons Tax, Accounting & Financial Services, 1007 Cody, has marked 25 years of professional affiliation with the National Association of Tax Professionals, a nonprofit professional association founded in 1979. NATP members dedicate themselves to continued education and a high code of ethics and professional conduct.

* * *

Lynn Meredith, CEO and general manager of Smoky Hills Public Television, will serve on the board of directors of the Kansas Association of Broadcasters for a three-year term beginning in January. Meredith was elected at the annual meeting of the professional group last month in Topeka. The KAB was formed in 1951.

* * *

Nearly 250 optometrists and 200 optometric assistants attended the 2009 Kansas Optometric Association Fall Eyecare Conference in Wichita. Hays professionals attending were Michael Hattan, Stacey Jones, Travis Kinderknecht, Kendall Krug and Dan Schmidt.

The Hays Daily News welcomes submissions to its Business

Briefcase article, published each Sunday. E-mail items to

newsroom@dailynews.net or mail them to 507 Main, Hays, KS 67601. Photos are encouraged.