Thank you for your interest in reading The Astorian. Here are a few stories that you might have missed this week:

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A new effort to expand the welding program at Clatsop Community College is aiming to repair the disconnect between education pathways and industry needs.

Mike Brosius, a retired Costco executive, took an interest in the issue after conversations with Bob Dorn, of Hyak Maritime, and Willie Toristoja, of WCT Marine and Construction, about labor needs for the development of the boatyard at Tongue Point, which will include the installation of an electric, 1,500-ton boat lift.

“We started listing all of the different employees that are going to be needed and Willie at the end said, ‘Hey, the biggest thing I’m going to need, from a pure numbers standpoint, are welders,’” Brosius said. “So then I started to ask, ‘OK, where do welders – where do you get them from?’”

From asking those questions, Brosius found that most of the welders hired at WCT Marine and Construction were poached from other places, rather than coming out of the welding program at the college. Although the college has a successful welding program, industry leaders such as Toristoja and Greg Morrill, of Bergerson Construction, emphasized that the program’s curriculum doesn’t always align with local demand for welders.

Over the past three months, Brosius, Toristoja and Morrill have met with leadership at the college to come up with strategies to bridge the gap.

See the story by Rebecca Norden-Bright by clicking here.

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In the wake of an ice storm in January, the U.S. Small Business Administration is offering low-interest federal disaster loans for small businesses and private nonprofits in more than a dozen Oregon counties, including Clatsop County.

Businesses impacted by the storm could be eligible for up to $2 million in loans to help pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills.

In January, the Clatsop Small Business Development Center sent out a survey on behalf of the Oregon Department of Emergency Management and the Small Business Administration to help gauge the local economic impacts of the ice storm from Jan. 12 to Jan. 20. The survey received 37 responses from Clatsop County businesses, which collectively saw profits slashed nearly in half from the same period the previous year. The Small Business Administration has since declared a disaster.

Jessica Newhall, associate director of the Clatsop Small Business Development Center, said the ice storm particularly impacted businesses in the service industry, especially in Seaside, where a Pacific Basketball League tournament had been scheduled.

“For an economy that relies heavily on tourism, especially in South County with the PBL tournament, when people are banking on tourists to come to town for those kinds of off-season events and they don’t come because they either can’t access the coast because we’re closed or they’re closed up in the metro area, it makes a big impact, especially when you’re already running on pretty thin profit margins in the winter,” she said.

Read the story by Olivia Palmer by clicking here.

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As the spring performance season approaches, voices can be heard joining together in song at the Cannon Beach Chorus, a local nonprofit working to reach every corner of the community with their music.

The chorus, which runs two performance seasons a year, has been incorporating Spanish songs into their repertoire for the last three seasons in an effort to welcome and celebrate a more diverse population.

Some participants are new to speaking another language — and some are new to singing entirely — but with the help of conductor Roy Seiber, the outcome remains harmonious.

“This has been a deliberate choice,” he said. “Because we believe that as a community chorus, we should represent and reflect our community.”

Take a look at the report by Jasmine Lewin by clicking here.

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— Derrick DePledge