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February 1, 2019
T he C olumbia P ress
Citizens: Chamber and cities bestow annual awards
Continued from Page 1
stand at Robinson Community
Park and serves on the board
of Warrenton Kids Inc. This
year, Debbie Little and oth-
er auxiliary members took on
the Community Thanksgiving
meal at Warrenton Communi-
ty Center.
“I knew Bert was getting the
award because it was my job to
get him there,” Debbie Little
said. “I had no idea I was even
nominated. We’re both sur-
prised and honored.”
Seeing the fruits of their la-
bor has been satisfying.
“To actually see that stat-
ue go up before some of the
people who started it 25 years
ago passed away, makes it all
worth it,” she said.
The George Award, given
to Astoria’s citizens of the
year, was presented to retired
school teacher Ray Merritt
and restaurateur Jennifer Ho-
len.
Merritt serves on the Astoria
Downtown Historic District
Association board and works
Ford Award winners
2000: Diane Collier, Patricia
Williams
2005: Pat O’Grady
2006: Don Patterson
2007: Krista Bingham
2008: Gillian Maggert
2009: Warrenton Volunteer
Firefighter’s Association
2010: Jim Scheller, Jann
Luesse
2011: Barbara Balensifer,
Martin Nygaard
2012: Marlin Martin
2013: Chuck and Sharon
Andersen, Leroy and Muriel
Dunn
2014: Carl and Dianne Bur-
khart
2015: Judy and Gary Sivley
2016: Darlene Warren
2017: Gary Dick
tirelessly making street im-
provements, lighting upgrades
and rehabilitating old build-
ings, Astoria Mayor Bruce
Jones said in making the pre-
sentation.
Merritt records all Astoria
City Council meetings and oth-
er events and uploads them to
the Coast Community Radio
website. He has spent three
decades on the KMUN board
and supervises planning for
the annual Fisher Poets Gath-
ering.
Sen. Betsy Johnson, who pre-
sented the award to Holen, de-
scribed her as a huge advocate
and champion of local support
agencies. She’s on the staff of
United Way of Clatsop County,
volunteers for Iron Chef Goes
Coastal and developed the Pa-
cific Northwest Brew Cup.
The Chamber Ambassadors
also presented an award to a
local business that has gone
above and beyond serving
the local community, Lewis &
Clark Golf & RV Park.
“As the Ambassadors, we
get an up-close and personal
view of the chamber member-
ship,” Ambassador President
Judy Curnow said. “Year after
year, the business we’re hon-
oring tonight has provided golf
carts for chamber events …
and hosts our annual barbecue
each year.”
Welders: Career training center gets a boost
Continued from Page 1
ing with current industry
tools, which will allow stu-
dents … to experience valu-
able career-connected learn-
ing,” Jannusch said.
To
determine
industry
needs, the school district con-
sulted with community col-
lege CTE and high school in-
structors, as well as industry
partners to provide the most
current information about
welders, tools and methods.
“These partnerships are
very important to providing
students with the best learn-
ing opportunities that have
career connections, as well
as connections to post-sec-
ondary programs, such as
with Clatsop Community Col-
lege’s MERTS (Marine and
Environmental Research and
Training Station) campus.”
MIG (metal inert gas) weld-
ing is a process that involves
feeding metal wire into a
weld, which acts as a filler to
join the two metal objects.
TIG (tungsten inert gas) weld-
ing uses a tungsten electrode
to run a current through the
metals being joined.
PacifiCorps’ Pacific Power
Foundation is one of the larg-
est utility-endowed founda-
tions in the United States. The
utility serves 1.8 million cus-
tomers in six western states.