Cyndi Holloway named convention sales
manager at Convention & Visitors bureau

 

Cyndi Holloway has been appointed convention and sales manager for the Southwest Washington Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, reports Kim Bennett, president and CEO of the bureau.

Holloway will also be responsible for promoting southwest Washington as a premier meeting destination site in the northwest marketplace.

Holloway has over 16 years of experience working in hospitality and the travel industry and for the past seven years was vice president of sales and marketing for a local business travel management company.

The bureau is at 101 E 8th Street, Suite 240. For further information about the bureau, go to www.southwestwashington.com.

Move Interstate Bridge to Camas-
Washougal, businessman says

      By Tauf Charneski
    Daily Insider Contributor

There is a lot to be said about David Beecher’s clear-sightedness. Beecher is founder, owner and president of Vancouver-based Quality Window Washing. One could say clear-sighted is this window washing savant’s middle name.

“I want to call first dibs on the old two-bridge, six-lane ugly duckling currently [en]cumbering the space across the Columbia River beneath I-5,” Beecher declares.

Now, that’s an idea that’s been overlooked by a whole lot of people. Who would want the old bridge?

“When we own it,” says Beecher, getting a little ahead of himself, “we will barge it up the river and set it up as a toll bridge called Freedom Crossing between the Port of Camas-Washougal,” Beecher says.

How to own the bridge? “Form a People’s Bridge District,” Beecher says. Who would have thought in the 1930s that a bunch of people in Clark County could form an electric utility district, buy out private electric utilities and successfully run such an electric utility?

Beecher’s idea does not stop with the bridge. “The second stage of the project, much bolder than the first, will be to drive a toll road north from the new Freedom Crossing to the new Battle Ground interchange on I-5,” Beecher continues.

“This private Freedom Road will boast maximum speeds, wide shoulders, three lanes each direction, making it very attractive to both cars and trucks.”

The Freedom Crossing is practically shovel-ready, Beecher says, awaiting only the $4-to $5-billion dollars needed for the Columbia Crossing.

“This project will conserve our heritage, expand our horizons and send downtown Vancouver pedal-to-metal in a billion new directions,” Beecher says.

Editor’s note: This story was originally scheduled to appear April 1.

Clark County homes lose
11 percent of value

In Clark County, according to Clark County Community Development Department, the average sales price of a home was $257,700 at the end of 2008, , an 11 percent decrease from December 2007, when it was $291,800.

The most expensive homes in the Vancouver-Portland region were in Lake Oswego/West Linn, $472,700, North Washington County/Sauvie Island, $363,600, and West Portland, 363,500.

The least expensive homes were in central Vancouver, $154,900.

Mayors Dennis and Sellers giving
state of city addresses Thursday

The mayors of Camas and Washougal, Paul Dennis and Stacee Sellers, are giving State of the City addresses at a Thursday, March 19, Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Camas Meadows Gold Course, 4105 NW Camas Meadows Drive. 

The meeting, open to the public, begins at 11:30 a.m. Admission is $15 for chamber members, $17 for nonmembers. For further information and to make reservations, call 834-2472.

Operation Fairy Godmother
sale and exchange is Saturday

The Vancouver School District Foundation’s Operation Fairy Godmother has collected over two thousand formal and semi-formal dresses, along with shoes and accessories for this year’s prom dress exchange and sale, making it the largest in the northwest.

Clark County area high school girls who donated a dress at their schools’ collection will receive a dress in exchange at the event. Girls who did not donate may purchase a dress for $10.

Open to girls who bring their official high school identification, the sale is from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 21, in the upper level across from the food court in the Westfield Vancouver Mall. For further information, call 313-4730.

Calendar

The Vancouver Forestry Commission meets at 6 p.m. this evening in the Esther Short Building, 610 Esther Street. <> The Southwest Washington Blood Program is holding a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow, March 19, in the Hazel Dell Wal-Mart, 9000 NE Highway 99.

Community Calendar Links

• Southwest Washington Center for the Arts

• Greater Vancouver Chamber Community 

• City of Vancouver Calendar