The Lampings with their successful product, locally made to
catch locally grown Dungeness crab.
2016 Technology/Manufacturing Advancement: Award
Airport Crabpot Company
Vern and Lisa Lamping, owners
This company has been manufacturing this product since 1948,
and is one of only five commercial producers on the West Coast.
The product is handwoven in such a way that creates a unique
patented design that allows a very important seafood that we all love
in, but not out! (Hint: We can’t get enough of it as consumers and
you have to crack it before you can eat it)
Until 2014, this company averaged about 50 orders per year, but
in 2015, an order of 800 units came in from Costco, and another
100 from West Marine. This increase in demand caused the owners
to find a new, less time-consuming and labor-expensive ways to
protect the items from corrosion. They discovered a coating in which
the product is dipped and then baked in an industrial oven, providing
a better, longer-lasting solution, but it still a truly artisan product,
with much of it hand-woven.
2016 Business Service to the Community:
Large Business Award
Astoria/Seaside/Warrenton KOA
This letter is to nominate this business for your Business
Service to the Community Award. I would like to see this business
recognized for all that they do for our community.
This business sponsors an Autism 5k walk in April. In May,
they host a Care Camp for children with cancer, and at Halloween
they provide a Monster Bash to keep kids safe and raise food to
benefit the Clatsop Emergency Food Bank. At Christmas time,
the Christmas tree lot proceeds are also donated.
My primary interest in writing this recommendation is due to
their dedication to help the seniors of our area stay healthy by
opening up their swimming pool all winter for an ENCORE class
from Clatsop Community College. In addition to offering the pool
for the class, they allow senior citizens to use the pool all winter
long at no charge! They also provide showers with shampoo,
conditioner, and shower gel also all FREE OF CHARGE. Their
staff not only keeps the pool in running order and suitable for
swimming, but they manage the exercise equipment twice a week
for the class from Labor Day to Memorial Day.
Wendy Higgins and The Ocean Lodge are famous for customer
service. Higgins accepts the congratulations from Kevin Leahy,
CEDR executive director
2016 Customer Service: Large Business Award
The Ocean Lodge
Micha and Jennifer Cameron-Lattek,m owners of Street 14 Café
were honored for entrepreneurship.
2016 Entrepreneurship: Medium Business Award
Street 14 Café
Micha and Jennifer Cameron-Lattek, owners
The winners of the entrepreneurship award for a medium-size
business have international roots; in Germany and locally in
Portland. The two owners met in Berlin, and moved from Berlin
to Astoria to take over a small business in Downtown Astoria.
Their ambition was to live in Oregon, own a small café, and be
part of a smaller community.
They bought the business in 2012. At the time of the purchase,
the business had struggled. With their passion and hearts, they
have made it into a profitable business.
From 2012 to 2015, their business grew rapidly. In 2015, they
expanded into the vacant storefront next to their existing shop,
became a full-service café, and have added dinner to their existing
breakfast and lunch offerings. The new space also houses the
kitchen build out.
And they continue to add jobs.
Wendy Higgins, general manager
Always rated as one of the Top 5 hotels in Cannon Beach, last
year the #1 rated hotel for service, this hotel is undergoing a major
renovation for guest rooms, even though the Hotel is only 15
years old. This hotel is the sponsor of the Women’s Only
Weekend, and in addition they sponsor a training seminar every
year for Leadership Development.
Wendy Higgins is known as the best Hotel GM in Customer
Service in our area. She meets with her management team every
week to work on customer service skills. She thinks a lot about
legacies: the one a community leader inherits and the ones she’ll
leave behind when she goes. “We’re here to serve our community,
but we’ve got to hand things off,” she says. “So that’s my passion
now: legacy. How do we train up this next generation?”
Higgins has always steered her ship by the stars of faith and
service. These compasses have served her well during a decade
and a half running an iconic Oregon inn, and seven years back,
they guided her straight onto the Cannon Beach City Council. She
is now in her final term on the City Council. Higgins mentors
future leaders because she knows it’s an enormously satisfying,
enormously challenging calling.
Who’s Who 2016: The North Coast’s Business Guide • 17