After several years of packing the ballroom at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center, Celebrate Corvallis will spread out to the adjacent LaSells Stewart Center as well - and it's still looking like a sellout.

"We've had to turn people away in the past," said Mary McKillop, programs and events director for the Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition, which puts on the annual awards extravaganza. "This is allowing us to increase the number of people who can participate in Celebrate Corvallis."

The grand ballroom in the Oregon State University alumni center can hold 416 people, and the Chamber Coalition has already sold more than 500 tickets for the 59th edition of the city's business and civic awards banquet, McKillop said.

A handful of individual tickets are still available for Wednesday's ceremony. Priced at $38, they can be reserved online at www.cbchambercoalition.com or by phone at 757-1505.

The event begins at 6 p.m. in the lobby of the LaSells Stewart Center, where hors d'oeuvres will be available along with beer, wine and nonalcoholic beverages. The awards presentation will begin at 7 p.m. in the center's main auditorium.

Afterwards the festivities will move to the CH2M Hill Alumni Center, where the recipients will be toasted at a dessert reception. The ballroom will be filled with tables reserved for group ticket purchasers, and limited seating for individual ticketholders will be available in the foyer.

There will be a couple of other wrinkles this year as well.

In an unofficial kickoff to Corvallis' yearlong 150th anniversary celebration, the Chamber Coalition will give away four baskets of "birthday gifts" valued at $150 or more.

And Gov. Ted Kulongoski has donated the spoils of his Sun Bowl bet on the OSU Beavers - a basket of Missouri produce from the governor of the Show Me State. The proceeds will go to Linn Benton Food Share.

Masters of ceremonies this year will be Rick Dancer, a news anchorman with KEZI-TV in Eugene, and Kelley Kaiser, chief executive of Samaritan Health Plans in Corvallis.

Valley catering will provide the food, and entertainment will be provided by the Heart of the Valley Children's Choir and a quartet Corvallis Youth Symphony players.

Valet parking will be available in front of the OSU conference complex starting at 5:30 p.m. Beaver athletes will handle the duty, with the suggested $5 fee going to the Children's Farm Home.

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.

AND THE NOMINEES ARE…

Business of the Year

Barker-Uerlings Insurance

El Sol De Mexico

First Alternative Co-op

Gracewinds Music

Francesco's

Tripod Data Systems

John & Phil's Toyota Subaru Scion

Entrepreneur of the Year

Bill Buskirk, ImTech Inc.

Dennis Hruby, Siga Technologies

Tammy VanVleet, PEAK Elite

Devon Wilson, Information Management Solutions

First Citizen

Lillian Brown, Oregon Department of Human Services

Mike Corwin, OSU Federal Credit Union

Cindy Dahl, ONAMI

Doris Johnston, Pacific Power

Curtis Kiefer, Corvallis-Benton County Public Library

Gerry Kosanovic, Wilson Elementary School

Penny York, educator

Future First Citizen

Rachel Lee, Crescent Valley High School

Kristin Rudolph, Crescent Valley High School

Logan W. Storie, Corvallis High School

Haley Thompson, Corvallis High School

Junior First Citizen

Jennifer Gardner, Visual People Design

Christopher Nordyke, Jim Kuhlman State Farm Insurance

Patron of the Arts

Kitty Bunn, artist

Charles Creighton, Corvallis School District Orchestra director

Keith Moses, Crescent Valley High School art teacher

Ross Parkerson, artist

Jon ten Broek, musician

Robert C. Ingalls Business Person of the Year

Michele Adams, First Alternative Co-op

Steve Amsberry, West Hills Animal Hospital

Mike Corwin, OSU Federal Credit Union

Phillip Doud, John & Phil's Toyota-Subaru-Scion

David Lundahl, InsightsNow Inc.

Senior First Citizen

Kenneth Johnson, retired dentist

Don Jones, retired professor

John Kruger, retired

Sandra J. Powell, Garland Nursury

Jean Starker Roth, retired

Lester Whittle, retired business educator

Tom Wogaman, retired school superintendent