The Bellevue City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday has been cancelled because of city employees' move into the new city hall.

The new City Hall, at 450 110th Ave. N.E., will open at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

The Feb. 27 council meeting will be at either City Hall or the Meydenbauer Center, depending on if the new council chambers are finished.

Bellevue

3 donations boost arts center's coffers

With three recent donations, the Performing Arts Center Eastside (PACE) has now raised nearly $13 million of the projected $100 million it is seeking to open a 2,000-seat regional center in Bellevue.

Former Microsoft executive David Fulton and his wife, Amy, gave $500,000; James L. "Len" Evans, president of The Evans Company, donated $100,000; and First Mutual Bank gave $250,000.

PACE will be built at 106th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 10th Street.

The group's board expects to break ground for the project later this year, when two-thirds of the money has been pledged. The center is projected to open in 2008.

UW center to help small businesses

Small businesses are getting a new place to look for help through the University of Washington, Bothell.

A new Business Development Center is being started, with an emphasis on start-ups in emerging industries, existing companies seeking to leverage technology and women- and minority-owned businesses.

The announcement of the formation of the center was made Tuesday by the UWB interim chancellor, Steven G. Olswang.

The center will be an administrative unit of the UWB's business program and will provide one-on-one business consulting.

Walter Freytag, a faculty member in the UWB business program, will direct the center, which will work with the Business and Economic Development Program at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Information about the center is available from Freytag at wfreytag@uwb.edu.

The Bothell campus was founded in 1990 to offer four-year degree programs in the north King and Snohomish County areas.

Applications for scholarship sought

The Mercer Island PTA Council is accepting applications for the Nancy Schaps Memorial Scholarship.

The scholarship was established in memory of Schaps, a longtime volunteer in Mercer Island schools, who died in 1996 after battling cancer.

More than 30 recipients have been granted scholarships, which recognize a child who has suffered the death of a parent or who is currently experiencing the terminal illness of a parent.

A scholarship of up to $500 will be given to an elementary-, middle- or high-school student to be used for an activity or other purpose that will aid the recipient's adjustment to this difficult life change.

Applications and information are available from the Mercer Island PTA Council by contacting Terri Caditz at 206-232-6679 or tlcaditz@msn.com, or by contacting any counselor at Mercer Island schools. Anyone can donate to the scholarship fund.

Applications and contributions should be sent to the Nancy Schaps Memorial Scholarship, c/o Mercer Island PTA Council, Mercer Island School District, 4160 86th Ave. S.E., Mercer Island, WA 98040. Applications must be postmarked by March 31.

Seattle Times Eastside bureau