Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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The 5th Annual Cathlamet Downhill Corral will take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday next week. Longboarders from around the world will converge for a variety of competition ranging from slaloms to races down Cathlamet's hill. Sponsors have put up $6,000 in prize money. Streets will be closed during some of the events; sponsors will have openings for local traffic to pass. Action starts at noon Friday with slalom races on 3rd Street near the Elochoman Slough Marina. On Saturday, racers head to Puget Island for a push race at 9 a.m. This race...
It took just 16 votes to make Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Department Detective Mike Balch consider seeking election to the office of sheriff this year. That's the number of votes, all write-in votes, counted for Balch on election night, August 6. His boss, Mark Howie, was the only declared candidate, and he drew 750. (Editor's note: In a tally updated August 8, Howie had 805 votes and Balch had 26.) Still, state law provides that a write-in candidate receiving 1 percent of the primary election vote will have his or her name on the general...
Wahkiakum County commissioners rejected one bid and put another on hold Tuesday to look for more funding for construction of a new ferry for the Puget Island-Westport run. Commissioners had two bids last week for the construction project, both were over the engineer's estimate of $4.5 million. Nichols Brothers Boatbuilders was low bidder at $5.68 million and Diversified Marine was high at $7.15 million. On Tuesday, the board aproved the recommendation of Public Works Director Pete Ringen to reject the bid from Diversified and to ask Nichols Bro...
Wahkiakum County commissioners voted 2-1 to approve a closure of Steamboat Slough Road during the construction of a setback dike on the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge. The closure is authorized to run August 20 through October 20. The closure will start where the road intersects with SR 4 near the Elochoman River Bridge and run roughly 3.5 miles. Public Works Director Pete Ringen said the closure is needed for public safety, for large construction vehicles will be using the road, which is very narrow. County officials have been ve...
Elsewhere on this page is a letter to the editor from a Rosburg man, Jim Perry, who is upset by the recent reports in The Eagle of gun crime across the state. Mr. Perry objects to "gun control." He assumes I have an anti-gun agenda. My agenda is to learn more about the whole issue. In the past year, gun related crimes have rocked the nation and spurred debate on the national and state levels about what can be done to prevent such crimes in the future. I'm not sure anyone has the right idea of how to prevent the crimes. In this case, I thought...
Wahkiakum County's Health and Human Services Department (H&HS) has withdrawn its proposal for an affordable housing project on a site in Rosedale. An environmental consultant reported last week that approximately three quarters of the parcel would be classified as a Class II wetland. To develop the site, the county and its partners would have to create two or three acres of new wetland for each acre that is developed, said project leader Chris Holmes. The site would also need additional construction techniques to accommodate the high water...
Wahkiakum County commissioners opened bids for construction of a new ferry on Tuesday, with the bids coming in over the design engineer's estimate. Nichols Brothers Boatbuilders bid $5.68 million, and Diversified Marine bid $7.15 million. Wahkiakum County Public Works Director Pete Ringen said the county's consulting design engineer had estimated the cost at $4.5 million. Ringen will analyze the bids and possible new funding to develop a recommendation for the board of commissioners. Overall, he said, the county has $5.1 million committed to...
Officials from Wahkiakum County and the US Army Corps of Engineers have resolved concerns that could have delayed construction of a setback dike along the eroding Steamboat Slough shoreline. The Columbia River is eroding the dike that protects the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge for the Columbian White-tailed Deer; the county's Steamboat Slough Road is also atop the dike. Because no local, state or federal agency has funds to repair the dike, the Corps has proposed building a new dike set back from the shoreline and turning the...
Concern is mounting among Wahkiakum County officials that county roads may be damaged in the planned construction of a setback dike on the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge. County commissioners on Tuesday said they would raise those concerns with project managers and also look at what options the county had to protect the roads. The Columbia River is eroding the dike along Steamboat Slough Road, and state and federal agencies worked through the winter to find a way to find money to address the threat to the dike. They settled on...
Wahkiakum County officials are planning to amend and supplement their 2013 budgets. The county will receive this year an estimated $763,000 in unanticipated revenue from harvest of timber off state managed trust timber land, and officials need to find uses for that revenue, or it will go to the state. Department heads on Tuesday reviewed their needs and requests for budget supplements. They included: --Sheriff's office: $15,600 for a new four-wheel drive patrol pickup and $49,000 to cover the salary of a deputy for the end of 2013. The...
Cowlitz County is trying to divest itself of county parks that don't produce revenue, and officials there have talked of shedding County Line Park. Commissioners of Port District 2 of Wahkiakum County, who operate Skamokawa Vista and Svensen parks, met Tuesday and said they are interested in the possibility of taking over County Line. However, there are a lot of hoops to jump through. County Line Park is located in Wahkiakum County on land claimed by the state Department of Natural Resources. Cowlitz operates the park through a memorandum of...
Three young ladies are campaigning as Wahkiakum County Fair princesses to raise funds for the county fair. They are Cheyenne Barton, Mya Kirzy and Aaliyah Montgomery. Cheyenne is the daughter of Natalie and Charles Barton of Puget Island. She will be a freshman at Wahkiakum High School this fall. "I've never really been involved in the fair," she said, "and I want to be involved in the fair and the community." Mya also will be a freshman at WHS this fall. She is the daughter of Amy Lomax and Dan Kirzy of Cathlamet. "I'm looking to try new...
A King County Superior Court judge ruled July 11 that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) must produce full environmental impact statements (EIS) before starting thinning logging near marbled murrelet habitat. The agency had hoped to undertake the thinning logging on approximately 12,120 acres, including 3,000 in Wahkiakum County, and had issued a declaration of non-significance for the work after consulting with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and reviewing provisions of a habitat conservation plan (HCP) established to protect...
The Cathlamet Town Council acted on fireworks complaints, sewer rates, and a variety of other issues when it met Monday for its monthly meeting. Mayor George Wehrfritz reported he had received an unusually high number of complaints from Cathlamet residents about July 4 fireworks that were unusually loud and lasted very late at night. People said there was an abundance of illegal fireworks with many launched over houses. People reported having terrified animals, he said. "I hadn't received this kind of feedback before," he said. Council members...
Wahkiakum County commissioners handled a variety of business when they met Tuesday, including several requests from department heads for budget amendments. Commissioners said they would hold a workshop next week to discuss the requests and how they could be funded and act on the requests at their August 6 meeting. Sheriff Mark Howie asked the board to authorize him to replace a pickup used as a patrol vehicle with another pickup. The vehicle in question came to the county through a seizure, and it hasn't been in use long enough to build up...
We mourn the death of Cathlamet resident George Hanigan. A fourth generation Wahkiakum County resident, George holds a place in the county's history. I was a kid back in 1966 when my father came home and told us about the new attorney who had grown up in Cathlamet, gone to college in Spokane and moved back to Cathlamet, to a house just down the street from us. My father had made a new friend, a friendship that lasted to his death. George soon won election as prosecuting attorney and began playing a guiding role in county government. In the...
Wahkiakum County officials got some good financial news Tuesday. Treasurer Tammy Peterson reported that the Department of Natural Resources has estimated the county will receive an extra $763,000 this year in revenue from the harvest of timber off state managed county trust timberland. The timber market has gone up significantly in the past year, she said; log buyers are paying much more for logs. The DNR has revised estimated revenue for 2013 from $1.26 million to $2.024 million, Peterson said. Auditor Diane Tischer has recommended that the...
Representatives of regional public housing agencies gave support Tuesday to Wahkiakum County's proposed public housing project. The county Department of Health and Human Services (H&HS) and its Housing Advisory Committee have proposed construction of a mix of houses and apartments on a land parcel off Jacobson Road in Cathlamet. The project is aimed at low income individuals and families, proponents have said. "It's aimed at keeping our residents here," (H&HS) project coordinator Chris Holmes said Tuesday. "It's needed to replace housing that...
Wahkiakum County commissioners decided Tuesday to try a two-pronged approach to updating ordinances to address junk vehicles, boats, RV's, appliances and other items that become public nuisances. Commissioners began considering a junk vehicle ordinance in the spring after receiving complaints about problem spots around the county. As Commission Chair Blair Brady commented, it started with vehicles and expanded to include other "crap" that has collected on certain properties. The board held public meetings, and citizens attending those...
The Columbia Land Trust will start work this month to re-align drainage of its Kandoll Farm property on Kandoll Road near Rosburg. The project is designed to improve habitat for juvenile salmonids, but a major benefit will be to reduce erosion of land on Seal River Slough. As part of another habitat enhancement project several years ago, engineers from Ducks Unlimited helped the land trust replace tidegates on a channel leading into the slough with two large culverts. That resulted in increased flow in Seal Slough which is now eroding dikes...
Wahkiakum County's Board of Commissioners on Monday approved a new call for bids to build a new county ferry. Bids will be opened August 6. Public Works Director Pete Ringen said bonding requirements had been changed for the second call for bids. The board rejected the only bid it received in its first round of bidding; it was over twice the estimated construction costs. "I've had a learning curve on bonding," Ringen said. Ringen said he investigated and learned that state law allows a less costly form of bonding for marine construction project...
I pause this week of Independence Day to remember the sacrifices that have been made and that continue to be made for the benefit of our country. This week especially we mourn the loss of 19 firefighters in Arizona. They're not the only ones who've given their lives for our country. We've lost soldiers in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, good people who dared greatly and put their lives on the line for the interests of our country. This is a tradition that goes back to the days of the revolution. Of course, there are wounded survivors of our...
The potential of a shutdown of governmental services and employee layoffs because of the state legislature's failure to pass a budget for the biennium beginning July 1 is affecting county services as well. On Tuesday, Wahkiakum County commissioners agreed to suspend state contracts if there's no budget bill by July 1. A suspension of the contracts allows them to restart once there is a state funding appropriation. Department of Health and Human Services (H&HS)programs will be curtailed, Director Sue Cameron said Tuesday. In a background report...
Commissioners of Port District No. 2 of Wahkiakum County turned down a CenturyLink telephone company request for a new land lease agreement and acted on other business in a brief meeting June 18. CenturyLink leases a small parcel of port district land at the intersection of SR4 and Vista Park Road for an equipment cabinet and vault. The firm, said Port Attorney Tim Hanigan, renewed in 2012 a long term lease with an annual payment of $283.90. Now, Hanigan said, the firm asked that the port consider taking a lump sum payment for use of the...
The Cathlamet Town Council is offering Port District 1 the opportunity to take the lead in redeveloping its sewer lagoons adjacent to the Elochoman Slough Marina. The town is nearing the end of construction of a new treatment plant, and the town's current treatment site will become surplus property. Council members voted to offer the lead role to Port 1 after an executive session at the end of their meeting Monday. The council also voted after executive session to create a new line item with $5,000 in their budget to cover professional...
