Finalists announced

Winners won’t be named until March, but the finalists for the Jay County Community Awards were announced Thursday at the annual meeting of the Jay County Chamber of Commerce.
Finalists for Citizen of the Year are past chamber president John Boggs of WPGW, Portland Park Board member Donald Gillespie, who helped spearhead a long distance run in honor of veterans in 2015, and Pastor Randy Davis, who serves churches in Dunkirk and Redkey. Davis, who also leads A Better Life – Briana’s Hope, was also honored last year with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award finalists are former Jay County Commissioner Milo Miller Jr., former Jay County Chamber of Commerce executive director Vicki Tague and WPGW’s Rob Weaver, who is also president of Jay County Fair Board.
Finalists for the Dunkirk Community Commitment Award are Rock and Kathy Fuqua, who are involved in downtown redevelopment, businesswoman Beverly Roysden and volunteer leader Cindy Shepherd, who has been active in Glass Days for the past several years.
Business of the Year finalists are Display Craft, Suman Brothers Pizza of Portland and Pennville and Valentine Feed and Supply. This is the second year in a row that Valentine Feed has been a finalist.
Industry of the Year finalists are Coca-Cola Refreshments of Portland, FCC (Indiana) and Pennville Custom Cabinetry. Both FCC and Pennville Custom Cabinetry launched major expansions in 2015. This is the second year in a row that Coca-Cola has been a finalist.
The finalists for Non-Profit Organization of the Year are Jay Community Center, which hosted Thursday’s meeting, Jay County Hospital and United Way of Jay County.
Finalists for Young Professional of the Year are newspaper editor Ray Cooney, banker Zach Chenoweth and hospital administrator Dave Hyatt.
The Innovator of the Year Award finalists are TLS by Design and Jay County Promise, the effort to establish 529 college savings plans for local elementary school students.
The winners will be announced at a dinner meeting on March 3 in the commons at Jay County High School.
Chamber executive director Dean Sanders told Thursday’s gathering that the chamber continues to focus on “the common good,” the shared interests of the community. The chamber now has 289 members, up 33 from last year, and has had a membership retention rate of 94 percent, Sanders said.
He said he was particularly proud of the chamber’s merchant gift certificate program, which pumped nearly $100,000 into the local economy last year.
Sanders said his goal now is to increase membership to 310.
“We have so many great stories to tell,” he said.