Former Ottawans earn business award

Former Ottawa residents Carl and Dottie Spencer, owners of Spencer LLC, a kitchen cabinet manufacturing company in Monroe, Wash., have been named runners-up in the manufacturing category of the 2009 Green Washington Awards.

Sponsored by Puget Sound Energy, Spencer LLC caught the judges’ eyes because of its continuous waste reduction policies.

Since 2005, Spencer has re-evaluated its entire manufacturing process and improved the general design of its cabinet products to reduce labor, cut its waste in half, use fewer materials and quadruple the normal industry return on assets.

In 2008, when the make-to-order cabinet industry was down 36 percent on average, Spencer LLC grew 18 percent.

Carl Spencer is a former Ottawa Herald news carrier and recipient of the “Outstanding Newspaper Boy Award” in 1969. Dottie Underwood Spencer is a 1974 Ottawa High School graduate.