Julie Wehling, the director of Canby Area Transit, more commonly known as CAT, has been named Outstanding Public Transportation Manager of the Year by the Oregon Transit Association.
I guess you could say, she’s the CAT’s pajamas.
Wehling received the award at the recent at the transit association’s annual conference, which was held in Seaside this year. Elizabeth Burrows Chapin, a member of CAT’s Transit Advisory Committee, was in attendance.
She says the Oregon Transit Association picked the right person.
“I was so proud of her. She totally deserved it,” Chapin says. “She has served the city of can be for at least the last 10 years, and she just goes about her business, quietly doing whatever she can to make Canby Area Transit be the best it can possibly be. She cares so much about those passengers and her drivers and everybody.”
Wehling has successfully secured over $10 million in grant funds over the years to help support the local transit program, which is a vital lifeline for many Canbyites, especially seniors and lower-income residents.
She has often done this in creative ways, like the time a few years ago that she combined various combinations of federal grant dollars with state matching funds in such a way that CAT was able to purchase three brand-new buses at no cost to the city.
“This is Julie’s typical method of operation,” then-City Administrator Rick Robinson said in a 2016 article in the Canby Herald. “Julie is just extraordinary, not just in how she manages her budget but in how she manages (CAT). She does a great job. We are very fortunate.”
Congrats, Julie, and thank you for your service to our town. I think I can safely speak for everyone here at the Canby Now Podcast when I say, you are one cool cat.
