Cheers: To new homes for the new year. A first-year report from the Kiggins Village Safe Stay shelter on Vancouver’s upper Main Street showed 17 residents found permanent housing, with four more on the way. Two other residents have moved into treatment for substance-abuse disorder, and other residents have celebrated smaller successes. For a 20-bed shelter, that’s a strong series of victories. “Without this place, my only outcomes were drugs, prison or death. This place allowed me to get my life back. It saved my life,” one resident told The Columbian’s Mia Ryder-Marks. The shelter, which is managed by Portland nonprofit Do Good Portland, reports no one has gone back to homelessness in the last five months, there have been no drug overdoses on site, and staff retention level has been unusually good. The report offers more evidence that, although expensive to build and run, the city’s four Safe Stay villages are effective. Jeers: To electric street sweepers. Several years ago the Vancouver City Council set a laudable goal of trying to reduce the city’s carbon emissions footprint. As part of that, public works managers identified replacing the city’s fleet of four diesel-powered street sweepers with electric models. The idea is a good one, but appears to be premature. A few sweepers are becoming available, but they can cost $700,000 or more, which is at least double the price of a conventional model. Furthermore, electric sweepers aren’t as durable. “To date, we have yet to demo an all-electric sweeper that meets our need for 16 hours of runtime within a 24-hour period,” says the city’s operations superintendent, Brian Potter. So far Vancouver hasn’t bought an electric sweeper, and it seems like it might be wise to wait until the technology matures.

Cheers: To local port districts. A New Year’s Day story by business reporter Sarah Wolf notes the Port of Vancouver is making progress on its Terminal 1 project. The rotting underpinnings of the old Red Lion Hotel at the Quay have been removed from the Columbia River, and this year the port’s contractors are expected to install new steel pilings and a wharf, which is envisioned to become a public market. Located just downstream of the current Interstate 5 Bridge, it will be the perfect addition to Vancouver’s waterfront. Meanwhile, the Port of Ridgefield is making progress on its redevelopment of a former industrial site along Lake River that could be home to a mix of business and residential units, plus a waterfront park. Camas-Washougal is also building a mixed-use waterfront development, and Woodland opened the first phase of its Rose Way Industrial Park. Jeers: To the flu. The positivity rate and hospitalizations for influenza are both on the rise locally. Meanwhile, vaccination rates against the flu have plummeted. You can take action by getting a flu shot, washing your hands, and wearing a mask in crowds. While you’re at it, be sure to get your COVID-19 booster; both shots can be administered in one visit. Cheers: To generous food donors. The final tally of the annual Walk & Knock food drive showed more than 250,000 pounds of food and toiletries were donated for distribution to needy people in our community. In addition, about $20,000 in cash was collected. This was the 40th year for the event, which benefits the Clark County Food Bank. Jeers: To CenturyLink. The legacy landline phone company, which serves most of Clark County, was fined $133,000 by state regulators for repeatedly leaving callers on hold for too long. A phone company should know better!