Recently, ownership of an old neighborhood institution, Burnie's Rock Shop, quietly changed hands when Burnell "Burnie" Franke and his wife, Marilee, sold their business to Ryn Etter and Karen Shmerler. Both Etter, a stone cutter, and Shmerler, a jeweler, had previous relationships with Burnie, Etter, as a long standing patron and Shmerler, as co-owner of the adjacent business, Heart of Stone, with Burnie's son, Nevin.

Talking with Ryn Etter, she stated that she and her partner had approached Burnie about buying the business previous to this fall's purchase but the time wasn't right. When Burnie and his wife did decide that it was time to sell, Etter and Shmerler were ready to buy. Since both of the new owners had had good relationships with Burnie, it made perfect sense to them to continue involving Burnie in the activities at the store. But unlike before, when Burnie needed to assume many responsibilities of the store, Etter said that now Burnie needed to concentrate only on doing the "fun stuff."

When asked if there were any changes planned for the store, Etter said that there were only two really visible changes. One will be the name; now the store will be known as Burnie's Rock Shop, Inc. "The other will be a pair of Art Deco light fixtures we dug out of storage, cleaned up and put back in the store," replied Etter. She continued that "lapidary will still be our primary focus but we plan on including more jewelry and custom work now. We will continue the operation as people know it and take the steps to move the business into the 21st century."

She went on to say that as had been Burnie's tradition of involving the local community, particularly the neighborhood school children, in the art of lapidary and the science of geology, the "new Burnie�s" will be building on that custom. "We want to expand the exposure of the community to the great things about geology through more school outreach and community activities." Etter also said that another desire of the new owners is to provide a range of prices that will make lapidary as accessible to as many people as possible.

-David Mandehr


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