The Columbia Press
August 21, 2020
3
Business and development tidbits
Oregon’s average student borrower
Favorite restaurants dishing up some changes
leaves school $26,328 in debt
The Columbia Press
Student loan debt has bal-
looned to $1.67 trillion na-
tionwide and Oregon stu-
dents rank in the top 30
percent.
The average debt per bor-
rower in Oregon is $26,328,
although the figure rep-
resents a drop of 8 percent
over last year’s figures, ac-
cording to LendEDU, an on-
line seller of student loans
and other financial products.
The company has complet-
ed an in-depth analysis of
hundreds of public and pri-
vate schools in all 50 states
for the fifth consecutive year.
Oregon’s student borrow-
ers rank 17th of the 50 states,
with 36 percent of the class of
2019 shouldering debt upon
graduation.
The schools with the high-
est average loan debt per
borrower were the private
Corban University, where
the average borrower walked
away $40,239 in debt. Sev-
enty-five percent of the stu-
dents had outstanding loans
to pay.
Other schools and their
average debt per borrow-
er: Oregon State University,
$27,392; University of Ore-
gon, $26,548; Eastern Ore-
gon University, $25,756; and
Western Oregon University,
$6,815.
The topic of student loan
debt and the rising cost of
college in the U.S. is more
important now than it has
ever been before, according
to LendEDU.
The coronavirus pandem-
ic has students and par-
ents weighing the true value
of higher education and the
financial burden of student
loan debt that usually comes
with earning a degree.
A little spruce-up
Dairy Maid
Dairy Maid, the town’s fa-
vorite burger joint, reopened
Tuesday after a monthlong
closure for maintenance.
The parking lot has been
repaved and some repairs
have been made inside, al-
though most everything else
is the same, said Jodi Helmer,
daughter of business owner
Julia Salmi.
The drive-through restau-
rant at 89 N. Main Ave. also
revised its hours of operation.
Dairy Maid is open 10:30 a.m.
to 6 p.m. Tuesday through
Saturday and closed Sundays
and Mondays.
If you’re looking for a job,
instead of a great burger, the
restaurant is hiring.
Arnie’s Café
Crystal Neahring-Green and
the crew at Arnie’s Café will
serve their final meals Sunday
in the old building near War-
renton High School.
The popular eatery’s new
home near City Hall is nearly
complete, said Rick Newton,
owner of the building that
housed his auto parts busi-
ness before he retired.
Opening of the new café
could come as early as Thurs-
day, Aug. 27.
New middle school
Photo courtesy Spruce Up Warrenton
Spruce Up Warrenton members Norm Hoxsey, left,
and Jim Dutcher, along with Chris Connolly, who isn’t
shown, replace the handrails at Lighthouse Park at
the four-way stop. The volunteers have made im-
provements large and small throughout downtown in
the past year.
The design phase of War-
renton’s new middle school is
complete and it’s time for the
project to fully move into the
construction phase, project
manager Scott Rose told the
school board late last week.
“There’s a lot of activity hap-
pening and it’s very exciting,”
he said. “In November, the
steel arrives and we’ll start
getting vertical.”
After excavation, which is
nearly complete, the pave-
ment of Warrior Way, fea-
tured on today’s front page,
begins Oct. 16.
Grade School
A contract to build Warren-
Cindy Yingst/The Columbia Press
An excavator works on a stretch of Warrior Way at the site
of Warrenton’s future middle school. The school will be off
Dolphin Drive, south of Walmart.
ton Grade School’s securi-
ty vestibule was awarded to
Mark Baldwin Construction,
who was the only bidder on
the project.
The vestibule will be near
the front office and provide a
barrier between the entrance
and student areas. It’s in re-
sponse to violence such as oc-
cured at Sandy Hook in New-
town, Conn., where a gunman
shot and killed 20 children
and six adults after gaining
easy access to campus.
The vestibule construction
should be complete in early
September.