Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 1426 - 1450 of 2280
Normally under state law, when a candidate for superior court judge receives over 50 percent of the vote in the primary, that candidate advances unopposed to the general election ballot. However, rules are different when write in candidates are involved, and incumbent Judge Mike Sullivan faces a challenge from write in candidate Dennis Gordon. In the Wahkiakum County primary, Gordon drew 70 votes, while Sullivan drew 897. Under state law, Gordon had drawn enough votes to get on the general election ballot. Gordon, a retired professor of...
Commissioners of Port District No. 2 of Wahkiakum County took another step toward updating their comprehensive plan when they met September 18. Karen Bertroch, chair of the Columbia Pacific Resource Conservation and Economic Development District (RC&ED) and a former port employee, discussed the process her group would use for updating the plan. "It's a park and recreation plan," Bertroch said, not a comprehensive plan for port development. The board needs to develop public input; the RC&ED would develop that into a plan, and the draft plan...
Wahkiakum County commissioners handled varied business when they met Tuesday, with issues ranging from fair premiums to ferry channel shoaling. County fair officials have delayed mailing premium checks for the board of commissioners to discuss premium payments, said Commissioner Lisa Marsyla. Last year, as a cost cutting measure, commissioner agreed to end funding for premium payments for adults but not for youth. Because of the reduction in premium funding and an increase in the number of youth entries, the premium dropped from 32 cents per...
Wahkiakum County Commissioners and the Columbia Land Trust agreed on terms Tuesday for current and future projects. Commissioners approved a resolution closing Kandoll Road this week for paving and armoring of the road's shoulders. Grays River freshets have eroded the road, which crosses an old farm which the land trust is returning to wetland habitat. Public Works Director Pete Ringen said the land trust could meet the conditions he would place on the road work. Their engineer needed to put his professional stamp on both specifications and a...
The highlights came early and often last Friday as the Wahkiakum Mules beat the visiting Adna Pirates 54-20 in Central League football. The win boosted the Mules' record to 3-0; Adna fell to 0-3 for the first time in years and years. The Pirates opened the scoring, however, taking the opening kick off and marching 75-yards for a two-yard touchdown by David Young. The conversion try failed, leaving the Pirates ahead 6-0 at 8:40 of the first quarter. The Mules responded with their own scoring drive. Lars Blix completed passes to Austin Good and...
Business concerning construction of Cathlamet's new waste water treatment plant kept members of the Cathlamet Town Council busy on Monday. The council started off its meeting with a tour of the plant site. Engineer Ken Alexander of Gray and Osborne, Inc. explained the process the new plant will use to treat sewage. The plant is scheduled to come on line in December 2013 at a cost estimated around $7.4 million. The plant will be controlled from an onsite office; operations will be highly automated. Alexander presented a proposed contract for...
Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday agreed unanimously to use the latest design for a new county ferry. Commissioners have been studying whether to use the new, updated design capable of handling large trucks or go back to an original design that is less expensive but wouldn't handle the larger vehicles. Commissioners have been concerned that the extra cost of the new design, which includes modifications to the shape of the ferry's hull and loading ramps, would severely limit County Road Department funds for regular or emergency...
A balanced attack paved the way for the Wahkiakum Mules to overwhelm the host Winlock Cardinals 40-8 in a Central League football game last Friday. The Mules led 20-0 after one quarter, 27-0 at halftime, and the first string added two more touchdowns in the third quarter before giving way to the reserves. Winlock put its eight points on the board in the fourth quarter. Lars Blix completed eight of 10 passes for three touchdowns and 172 yards; he threw one interception. Steven Doumit caught four passes for 68 yards and two touchdowns; Kohl Bergs...
The sounds of concrete pumper trucks, cranes, excavators and trucks hangs in the air about SR 4 at Cathlamet. Pacific Crest Construction and its subcontractors are hard at work building a new waste water treatment plant for the town of Cathlamet. The $8 million plant will replace Cathlamet's sewer lagoon sewage treatment. The project is scheduled to be complted around the end of 2014. Sewage will flow down to pump stations near the present plant and be pumped uphill to the new plant. There the wastewater will work its way through an oxidation d...
What would her father say now? A child of a US serviceman, Carol Peacock spent her childhood in Germany where, in a region saturated with museums, ancient architecture and artists at work on street corners, she developed an interest in art. Her father didn't encourage that interest, telling her that art was only a hobby and to take up something that would make money. "I kept playing at it," she recalled in an interview Tuesday. "I was precocious and got sent to my room a lot, and I would draw. I liked it." Peacock returned to the US as a...
The Wahkiakum Mule football team opened their 2012 campaign with a 34-14 victory over the visiting Mossyrock Vikings last Friday. The Mules showed they could run the ball and pass it as well as they piled up a 21-0 halftime lead. The Vikings twice failed to convert fourth down plays in the fourth quarter and gave possession to the Mules in Viking territory. The Mules took advantage of the good field position. Steven Doumit scored on a five-yard run at 8:54 and Peter Weiler kicked the conversion for a 7-0 lead. The second drive featured some...
The constitution of the state of Washington states that to be a superior court judge, one must be admitted to practice law in the courts of record of the state. Puget Island resident Dennis Gordon is a retired college professor and still works as a consultant in his field, nutritional biochemistry. He is not a lawyer. So why is he mounting a write-in campaign for election as Superior Court judge of Pacific and Wahkiakum counties? The answer to that question, Gordon said this week, is that he had a bad experience with a divorce case in...
Wahkiakum County officials are still evaluating their choice of design for a new county ferry. The problem revolves around how much work they want to do and how much they want to spend to match the new ferry with the new ramp built two years ago at the Puget Island landing. In other business Tuesday, commissioners dealt with a variety of issues relating to county Health and Human Services Department (H&HS). With the imminent hiring of a new full-time director of H&HS, they voted to terminate the consulting contract with interim Director Sherri...
In a special meeting last Friday, members of the Cathlamet Town Council voted 4-1 to affirm overtures to Wahkiakum PUD to discuss combining water system billing. Mayor George Wehrfritz approached the PUD in August to ask if that agency would be interested in investigating the feasibility of joint meter reading, billing and posting of water system accounts. Wehrfritz said the concept had come from discussions he had had with the council's two-person utilities committee. PUD commissioners responded they were interested, but they asked that the...
This week, I announce some changes in staff. Reporter Melissa Linquist is leaving us, more or less. When we hired her last spring, she was completing her student teaching. It looked like none of the local school districts would be hiring a full-time elementary school teacher, and she would be a substitute teacher. That would have allowed her to continue as our part-time reporter. Alas, the Ocean Beach School District experienced some staff changes in August, and when an elementary position came open, they snapped up our enterprising reporter....
The Wahkiakum Mules and other high school football teams start their seasons this Friday Night. The Mules will jump right into Central League play and host the Mossyrock Vikings. Mule Coach Eric Hansen expects a hard fought game. "They have the same staff as last year, and they only graduated five players," he said. "They'll be improved. "Our league is tough. It will be a war every Friday night." Hansen thinks Adna, Napavine and Morton/White Pass are the three favorites for the top spots in the league. Napavine returns their big offiensive...
In its fourth year, the Cathlamet Downhill Corral longboard festival continues to become more refined. Race organizers increased the number and difficulty of events. More racers and fans came to town, and for the most part, everyone seemed to enjoy the competition. "Cathlamet has become a major stop for downhill racing," said Rob McKendry, III, who announces the races and provides commentary based on 20 some years of skateboarding. Organizers limited the Sunday Downhill Race to 96 racers, and they enjoyed shooting down the Cathlamet Hill,...
Wahkiakum County commissioners hope they have a new administrator for the Department of Health and Human Services (H&HS). Three candidates for the job visited the courthouse last Thursday for interviews with commissioners, department staff, and representatives of community health providers. On Tuesday, Commmissioners Dan Cothren, Blair Brady and Lisa Marsyla met in executive session with interim H&HS Director Sherri McDonald to evaluate the candidates. After the session, McDonald recommended hiring Sue Cameron of Lake Oswego, Ore., and the...
Wahkiakum County Election officials completed counting votes from the primary election on Tuesday. The final counts didn't change outcomes from the initial tallies. In the race for county commissioner, District 1, Greg Prestegard tallied 183 votes, Mike Backman 153, Stephanie Prestegard 133, and Bill Wilkins 44. The top two candidates advance. In the race for commissioner, District 2, Dan Cothren tallied 338 votes, and Joan Harvey-Chester had 178. In the race for county treasurer, Tammy Peterson led with 579; Marlena Silva had 470, and Susan...
Commissioners of Port District No. 2 of Wahkiakum County reviewed and acted on a variety of issues at their meeting Tuesday. Commissioners decided to wait until 2013 before contracting to expand wireless internet service in Skamokawa Vista Park. The park's current service provider offered a proposal that would expand present limited coverage to cover one third to one half of the park. However, Commissioners Kayrene Gilbertsen and Lori Scott--commission Chair Brian O'Connor was ill and didn't attend--acknowledged that other providers might be...
The Cathlamet town council authorized on Monday a call for bids for remodeling the town hall building and also passed resolutions closing streets and curtailing parking in this weekend's Cathlamet Downhill Corral longboard festival. With the council's approval, Mayor George Wehrfritz said the town would call for bids as soon as possible for the town hall project. He hopes to be able to open bids in mid-September, award the contract by the end of the month and have construction going by early October. If all goes well, the work could be done by...
Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday handled a light agenda in quick fashion. The commission approved an updated contract with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The agency will provide $34,871 for the county Marine Resources Committee. Committee chair Carrie Backman said the committee has earmarked a number of uses for the money in 2012-13. These include $20,000 for the director, $500 for advisory council representation, $1,050 for a Cathlamet Waterfront Visioning Conference, $1,828 for the Columbia River Citizen Science...
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber's proposal last week to address salmon allocation and related issues created some surprise and dismay on the Washington side of the Columbia River. Briefly, Kitzhaber proposed moving gillnetting into the select fishing areas such as Deep River and Young's Bay, giving recreational anglers a majority of run harvest allocations, and allowing the developing alternative gear fisheries on the mainstem of the river (see adjacent story for more detail). Local fishers fear the plan, if implemented, would have an adverse...
The board voted to notify its liability and property insurer, the Washington Rural Counties Insurance Pool, on its intent to withdraw from the pool on August 31, 2013. The notice is required by the county's membership in the pool. The move allows the board to contact other carriers, such as the Washington Association of Counties (WASC), to compare rates and coverage. If the board finds no benefit to switching carriers, it can rescind the notice and maintain membership in the rural counties' pool. Commissioner Blair Brady supported the move and...
Wahkiakum County Assessor Bill Coons has good news and bad news for property owners. The good news is that property valuations are going down to reflect trends in the real estate market. The bad news is that property tax rates may go up to meet the amounts already set for collection in tax levies. "Given our system of taxation, just because values go down doesn't mean taxes will go down commensurately," Coons said Tuesday. On Tuesday, Coons informed the board of county commissioners that after the valuation of property in eastern Wahkiakum...
