Clark Public Utilities
breaks even for the year

Clark Public Utilities’ electrical utility finished 2008 with gross revenues of $361,110,000, coming in within $23,000 of breaking even for a year that included wildly fluctuating natural gas prices.

“That’s about as close to breaking even as you can get, considering we had sales of 5.1 billion kilowatt hours for the year,” the utility’s director of finance, Rick Dyer, reported to the utility’s board of commissioners this morning.

At the beginning of the year Clark Public Utilities budgeted for a surplus of about $4.8 million at the end of the year, but unpredictable natural gas prices ate up the projected surplus.

The average wholesale cost of electric power last year was just under five cents a kilowatt hour. The utility relies on power from its River Road generating plant and Bonneville Power Administration for the electricity it sells to its residential and commercial and industrial customers.

The utility added 2,060 residential and 407 commercial and industrial customers last year. The 1.2 percent increase in new residential customers was the lowest in several years.

Jobless rates continue local rise

Washington’s seasonally adjusted number of unemployed rose by 23,200 in January, reflecting an increase of 9.2 percent over December’s unemployment level, according to the state Employment Security Department.

Clark County’s unadjusted unemployment rate for the same period was 10.9, compared to 10.6 percent for December 2008. The county’s unadjusted unemployment rate for January 2008 was 6.5 percent.

Of an estimated workforce of 226,080 persons, 24,580 are currently out of a job.

Donald Stovall named lab administrator
at Southwest Washington Medical Center

Donald Stovall has been named administrative director of Laboratory Services at Southwest Washington Medical Center.

Stovall most recently was vice president of Clinical and Support Services, El Camino Hospital, in Mountain View, California.

Stovall began his career as a medical technologist and spent many years as director of Laboratory Services at Washington Hospital Healthcare in Fremont, California.

Stovall earned a masters degree of Health Administration from Central Michigan University.

Trent Rehfeldt elected president
of contractors association

Trent Rehfeldt, CEO of Rehfeldt Construction, has been elected the president of the Southwest Washington Contractors Association, reports Randy Graves, executive director of the 280-member association headquartered in Vancouver.

Rehfeldt is a graduate of Arizona State University. The Vancouver-based construction company was founded by Ray and Vicki Rehfeldt in 1980.

Evergreen Schools get
State Farm science grant

The State Farm Youth Advisory Board has announced that Evergreen Public Schools will receive a $97,155 service-learning grant for the Creating Achievable Pathways in Science for All Learners project.

Evergreen Public Schools is one of 73 organizations to receive a service-learning, youth-led grant across the United States and Canada. More than 500 grant requests were received.

“This grant money will enable us to create more opportunities for more students to participate in hands-on engagement with science projects and presentations,” says Tom Archer, science manager for Evergreen Public Schools.

The State Farm Youth Advisory Board is a diverse group of 30 17-to 20-year-olds, which oversees this $5 million dollar-a-year signature service-learning initiative.

People

Mary Stone, Washougal pianist, earned third place and a $250 scholarship in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s 15th annual Young Artists Competition. She will perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra during its April 18 and 19 concerts.

Calendar

The Vancouver City Charter Review Committee meets in public session at 7 p.m. this evening in the Firstenburg Community Center, 700 NE 136th Avenue. <> The Clark County Board of Health meets at 9 a.m. tomorrow, Feb. 25. <> Clark County commissioners meet in an informal session at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, Feb. 25.

 Community Calendar Links

• Southwest Washington Center for the Arts

• Greater Vancouver Chamber Community 

• City of Vancouver Calendar