Tom Mears Receives 2009
Vocational Service Award

Tom Mears, chairman of The Holland, Inc., today received the Vocational Service Award of the Rotary Club of Vancouver during a noon luncheon at the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay.

The Vocational Service Award recognizes an individual who exemplifies outstanding commitment to his or her  business or profession, over a significant number of years, leaving a lasting positive influence on the vocational area and the community in general, and who reflects the values of Rotary.

Last year’s recipient was Mark Matthias, Owner of Beaches Restaurant & Bar.

Mears joined the Holland's management program in 1966. Under Mears’s leadership, The Holland, Inc. has grown from a small restaurant company to a major Northwest food provider with 39 restaurants in Washington and Oregon and 1,500 employees.

The Holland’s subsidiaries to include the Beaches and Noodlin’ restaurants.

The award is sponsored by the Rotary Club and the Columbia River Economic Development Council.

Nancy Baker’s re-election
bit to be announced tonight

Nancy Baker’s official bid for reelection as a member of the board of Port of Vancouver commissioners will be announced at 5:30 p.m. this evening in the Vancouver Market Place at Evergreen Boulevard and Columbia Street.

Baker, a long-time executive assistant at the port, successfully ran against an incumbent six years ago and has since also served terms as president of the board.

The filing period for countywide offices begins in June.

Most of 1-5 traffic does
not cross Interstate bridge

Not attracting too much attention in the Columbia River Crossing project is the fact that 70 percent of the traffic on both sides of the Interstate 5 bridge does not cross the bridge, although bridge planners agree that a total of 12 lanes on the proposed crossing would improve safety and reduce congestion.

The proposed new bridge will have exactly the same number of through bridge lanes as to the existing I-5 bridges: six.

The six add/drop lanes will improve safety and reduce congestion by providing space for cars and trucks entering the highway to speed up before merging into traffic lanes and to slow down after diverging out of traffic.

By connecting interchanges add/drop lanes will allow some of these trips to use the highway without merging through travel lanes at all.

The next meeting of the Vancouver Working Group of the Columbia River Crossing project is 6 p.m. Thursday, May 14, in City Hall.

Celebration of Bob Bates’s life is
Saturday in McLoughlin School

A celebration of the life of former Vancouver superintendent of schools Bob Bates is from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 9, in the media center of the McLoughlin Middle School, 5802 MacArthur Boulevard.

Mr. Bates, who died last February at the age of 90, was a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps and a World War II combat Navy veteran. He earned his doctorate from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. He earned his masters degree from the University of Washington.

Mr. Bates was superintendent from 1959 to 1973 of then the county’s largest school district. During his Vancouver years, he guided a rapidly growing and changing educational system through changes required to serve the baby boomer generation and the construction of over twenty new schools, and professional development for teachers and educators, the introduction of new, flexible educational methods to meet the needs and demands of a new generation.

Long after his tenure as Vancouver superintendent, Mr. Bates served as an advisor, interim superintendent and in other capacities fulfilling his life-long penchant for education. His chief assets were his ability to listen and to laugh.

Mr. Bates is survived by his wife of 65 years, Elizabeth; a daughter, Christine Stubblefield, and her husband, Thomas; a son, Peter, and his wife, Jacqueline; and five grandchildren: Karen and Andrew Stubblefield, and Elliot, Lauren and Spencer Bates.

Regional economic conference
set for May 18 and 19

The Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference, Monday May 18 and 19 in the Hilton Vancouver Washington, is being hosted by Vancouver’s Scott Bailey, regional economist for the state Department of Economic Security.

The two-day conference showcases two luncheon presenters, on Monday, Yves Smith, one of the nation’s leading commentators on economic meltdown, and on Tuesday, Bob Baugh, from the national AFL-CIO.

Economists from around the Pacific Northwest—Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta—will also be making presentations.

The two lunch presentations are separately priced at $35. Registration can be had by going to www.pnrec.org. Sponsors are the Northwest Power Planning Council, the Columbia Credit Union, and the City of Vancouver. Further information is available by calling Bailey at 906-2768.

Calendar

Port of Vancouver commissioner Nancy Baker kicks off her campaign for reelection to the post that she has held for the past six years at 5:30 p.m. this evening in the Market Place, at the corner of Evergreen Boulevard and Columbia Street. <> Clark County Communicators meets for a no-host luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, May 7, in the Salmon Creek Brewery and Pub, 108 W. Washington Street. For further information, call 699-8815.

Community Calendar Links

• Southwest Washington Center for the Arts

• Greater Vancouver Chamber Community 

• City of Vancouver Calendar