OROVILLE – The Oroville Chamber of Commerce elected the 2011 slate of officers and discussed bringing the Culpepper & Merriweather Circus back to town this summer.
Elected for 2011 by unanimous consent were Gary DeVon, president; Patti Garrett, vice president; Dennis Henry, treasurer and board members Joan Cool, Ardi Fitzthum and Rich Solberg. The organization is still looking for a secretary and additional board members.
A contract has been signed with the Culpepper & Merriweather Circus to perform on June 15 at Oroville City Park (behind Dale’s Service Station). The chamber brings the circus to town every other year and this will be the fourth time the C&M Circus has appeared at Oroville as a fundraiser for the organization. There will be presales of tickets and local businesses are encouraged to purchase children’s tickets to give away for one of the two showings on that day.
Chamber members heard a presentation by Okanogan SNIP and Animal Foster Care, an organization that helps pay for spay and neutering services for pets of low-income pet owners. A represeintative of Amedisys Hospice Services also gave a brief presentation and plan on coming back to a future meeting to talk about the services they provide and how it differs from Home Healthcare.
Tim King, COO of Carbon Cycle Crush, was asked to discuss the progress being made at their canola seed crushing plant. King told the organization that there was a bit of a delay when a company they hired to set up a portable crusher decided they could not fulfill the contract for which they had been hired.
“They were paid and asked to leave,” said King. “We are getting back on line with some nearly new equipment we located in Edmonton, Alberta. This means we will be going along just as smoothly as before but the equipment will come from Edmonton, rather than having to source it from China.”
King said the roof had been repaired on the old Oro building they are leasing from Gold Digger Apples and that electrical repairs had been made as well.
“The lights are on and we have decided we will be doing the crushing in the old cold storage room,” he said.
The company advertised extensively for crews to work at the operation that will run four shifts 24-hours a day, seven days a week. King said CCC received over 300 applications with skill and education levels running up to at least one person with a degree from Oxford. The company has whittled the list down to 40 who will be further interviewed for the 12 jobs available.
“Oroville will be our training stage for us. They will learn how to set up, demonstrate, train and move on to setting up equipment in other areas,” he said. “We want to bring good, family-wage jobs, they have a multiplier effect. Good industrial jobs will multiply the money they pay in a community by seven times.”
King said the operation should begin crushing canola seed in March and producing oil to be used in lubricants and for biodiesel. A byproduct the company will sell will be the leftover mash that can be sold to make a high protein animal feed.
