Philomath City Councilor Teresa Nielson wants to shop local — and that includes at a grocery store.
Trying to come up with a solution for a city that has grown by more than 1,300 people over the past dozen or so years, Nielson believes she might be onto something with possible interest from WinCo, a grocery store chain that operates Waremart stores in smaller markets — Independence, Keizer and Ontario are examples.
“I have been working towards the recruitment of a grocery store for our town … had several emails back and forth and have a new flyer and social media going out requesting that citizens of Philomath, if they’re interested in having a grocery store, to contact WinCo to request a store.”
Ray’s Food Place closed in January 2014 and there have been efforts over the years from past councilors, mayors and the city manager to attract interest. Dollar General opened in February 2017 to provide shopping options but those are limited compared to a full-fledged grocery store. Over the past few years, the Philomath Farmers’ Market has become another option for produce and a handful of other items.
“The more WinCo Foods ‘new store requests’ received, the greater the likelihood the company will consider Philomath for a grocery store,” Nielson says in the flyer.
Nielson had been approaching the grocery store project as a private citizen — she first brought up WinCo about a year ago — but now the entire City Council appears to be backing those efforts by deciding to add it as an item in Philomath’s Strategic Plan.
“At this point, unless I hear from this body, I feel like I’ve got some liberty to go ahead and help promote this and help this effort, as futile as some think it might be — we’re not at 10,000 population yet,” Workman laughed. “We’re not talking about spending a lot of time, a lot of effort, it’s some little things that we can do to help push the effort forward and I’m more than happy to do that with the direction I’ve received tonight.”
Nielson hopes Philomath folks will reach out to WinCo via the flyer, which includes a QR code that takes you to this customer service webpage.
2. Employment help for Interfor employees
Northwest Oregon Works, a nonprofit organization based in Lincoln City that serves Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Lincoln and Tillamook counties, organized two events designed to help Interfor employees who are being impacted by the shutdown of the Philomath sawmill.
According to its website, Northwest Oregon Works “invests federal, state and local funds into individual career development and businesses to bridge the gap between employers and prospective employees.” The organization is funded through the U.S. Department of Labor and the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission. Benton County Commissioner Pat Malone, of Kings Valley, serves on the Northwest Oregon Workforce Consortium.
The first of the two events for Interfor employees occurred Friday with a “Rapid Response” session, which is described by the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission as an event designed “to enable affected workers to return to work as quickly as possible following a layoff or to avoid unemployment altogether.”
Coming up on March 8, Interfor employees will be able to participate in a career fair that is being organized for them. At the career fair, Northwest Oregon Works program director said up to 11 employers will be in attendance and Interfor employees (not open to the general public) will have two hours to connect with them, set up interviews and so on.
“I’m impressed how quickly this has all come together and for the efforts made to make this happen,” Philomath City Manager Chris Workman said.
Philomath-based Alyrica Networks and Daxbot and Oregon State University Facilities Services are among those on the list of potential employers slated to participate in the job fair. Several others are timber industry-related companies.
The Rapid Response session that took place Friday included information on various employment and educational programs and services available to them and also covered topics such as health insurance and food assistance programs.
3. Fundraising runners on C2C Trail
Coming up on May 18, locals may notice (if you’re an early riser) a group of runners making their way through town as they traverse the Philomath segment of the Corvallis-to-the-Sea Trail. A team of 23 runners — 16 participating on relays along with seven individuals — are signed up to cover the entire 60-mile distance.
The runners include those from Oregon State University’s Department of Integrative Biology along with others from the trail-running community. They plan to begin running at 3 a.m. on that spring Saturday.
The runners are participating as part of a fundraiser for undergraduate experiential learning in OSU’s Department of Integrative Biology.
“Experiential learning by definition is ‘learning by doing,’” said Jalyn Devereaux, OSU graduate student. “In the sciences, it is often understood that for students to move on to professional programs, graduate school, or to get a job in their field, they have to provide evidence for certain skills. In larger institutions, those skills can be challenging to obtain in the classroom and often require students to participate in volunteer or unpaid positions in labs or internships to build their scientific tool belt.”
The funds benefit a wide range of students.
“Historically, students from minoritized groups and low-income households had less opportunity to succeed in the sciences because they couldn’t afford to take unpaid positions,” Devereaux said. “This fund is an effort to get students paid research and hands-on experience in labs and in the classroom in our department.”
For those interested in chipping in with a donation, the group has a webpage set up.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
