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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2018)
September 21, 2018 T he C olumbia P ress 5 Data center: Will be start of ‘something big’ Miss Clatsop gears up for new season Continued from Page 1 The Miss Clatsop County Scholarship Program seeks young people interested in becoming the next Miss Clatsop County, Miss North Coast, Miss Clatsop County’s Outstanding Teen or Miss North Coast’s Outstanding Teen. Females age 13 to 24 are asked to visit the organiza- tion’s Facebook page or web- site to download application. Contestants must reside, at- tend school or work in Clat- sop, Tillamook or Columbia counties. Miss Clatsop County Schol- arship Program is a nonprof- it corporation established to provide contestants with the opportunity to enhance professional and education goals, and achieve those pursuits with the assistance of monetary grants and awards. The program is an official preliminary competition for the Miss Oregon pageant, which is part of the Miss “One of my first investors, a retired mutual fund man- ager, … said she was doing it for the love of Oregon and the Oregon Coast, but also for the social impact we’ll have on education and the chance to bring young minds into tech- nology (careers).” Already Cox has formed partnerships with the Port of Astoria, Clatsop Community College, Clatsop County and the city of Warrenton. The estimated $200 million project would be developed in three phases and will break ground later this year. For local officials, it’s the start of something big. “The creation of a data cen- ter would present the op- portunity for the college to develop curriculum and pro- gramming that would give our students another path- way to success,” said Chris Breitmeyer, Clatsop College president. “A successful data center technician’s certificate could be a one-year program that would allow students to make a family-wage salary. I believe the national average salary for these folks is above $60,000.” Jim Knight, executive di- rector of the Port of Astoria, called it one of the biggest things to happen in the coun- ty in a long time. “It’s an incredible oppor- tunity in that it will radically give us the capacity to have a significant increase in inter- net speed … and it increas- es redundancy,” he said, the lack of which caused prob- lems in the 2007 storm. “The average wage for those working there is about dou- ble the average wage for Clat- sop County,” Knight added. “It will increase jobs, the tax base, the wage base. I haven’t found a downside yet.” An artist’s rendering of how the North Coast Data and Tech- nology Center might look. Cox grew up in Westport and Astoria and attended Clatskanie High School. He studied computer tech- nology at Clatsop Commu- nity College, a program no longer offered there, and graduated from the Universi- ty of Oregon with bachelor’s degrees in both marketing and finance. He co-founded one of the country’s first 200 nation- wide internet service provid- ers in 1997, Global Frontiers Inc. In 2004, he founded Web Hosting Pros, which he still runs. “I’m real excited about the opportunity to bring com- puter technology back to the area,” Cox said. “There’s so much to offer people and young families here. … One thing I’ve really come to ap- preciate is how beautiful it is.” There are many tech com- panies in greater Los Ange- les, but the region doesn’t offer the amenities of Clatsop County, with its rivers, for- ests, lakes, oceans, affordable housing and 17.2-minute av- erage commute time. Also, Oregon is the nation’s leader in linking undersea Internet cables with the rest of the country. There are 17 such cables off Oregon. “They’re projecting over 22 billion devices will be on- line by the end of 2022,” Cox said. “That’s a tremendous opportunity not just for my company, but all companies involved in this industry. And it’s important for this coun- ty.” An estimated 600 zetta- bytes will be generated by all people, machines and things by 2020, he pointed out. One zettabyte is equal to 1 tril- lion gigabytes and 1 gigabyte equals 1,024 megabytes. “To wrap people’s heads around that, if all cell phones had 64 gigabytes of storage, 600 zettabytes would allow for every human on the plan- et to have nearly 1,400 cell phones each.” Having the support of local leaders is important, too. On Aug. 6, the county commis- sion was unanimous in its decision to sell the 67-acre industrial-zoned parcel to Cox’s company, Agile Design LLC, for $1.2 million. There will be challenges: funding, weather, education, housing. “I’m fearless,” Cox said. “I am mindful of the challeng- es, but I’m the kind of person that likes to rise up and meet challenges.” thecolumbiapress.com Visit our website to find back issues, expanded articles, additional photos and more! America Organization. In 2018, Miss Clatsop County made $7,000 in scholarships available to lo- cal women. The Miss Clatsop County pageant is Jan. 26, 2019, at Seaside Convention Center. Contestants are judged in interview, talent, physical fitness, evening wear and an on-stage question. Deadline to enter is Dec. 1. Winners move on to represent our area at the Miss Oregon pag- eant in June 2019. In addition to the Miss and Teen divisions, the Miss Clatsop supports a princess program to mentor girls ages 6 to 12. For younger participants, the emphasis is on citizen- ship, leadership and volun- teerism. A $75 participation fee is requested for those participating in the princess program. Miss Clatsop County Scholarship Program is run by volunteers.