Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 1526 - 1550 of 2280
Wahkiakum County elk are in poor health, and citizens want something done about it. Residents and county commissioners discussed the situation Tuesday, and commissioners said they would invite officials from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to visit and discuss the hoof rot syndrome seen in local elk. Commissioner Dan Cothren, who travels the region in his logging industry employment and who is also a long-time hunter, said he has seen sick, dying and dead elk in most of the county's valleys. "It's pretty severe," Cothren...
Wahkiakum County commissioners interviewed three candidates nominated to step in as county treasurer with the pending retirement of incumbent Paula Holloway, who announced in early Feburary that she would retire at the end of the month. Nominated by the Wahkiakum County Democratic Central Committee, the three candidates displayed different backgrounds in interviews on Tuesday. After the interviews, the commissioners recessed into executive session to discuss the candidates. The commissioners adjourned without taking action; they have said they...
Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday agreed to consider a resolution calling for the county to participate in the federal E-Verify program. Under the program, the county will require citizenship or legal residency for its employees and employees of any contractors working for the county. E-Verify compares information from Employment Eligibility Verification forms against federal government databases to verify workers' employment eligibility. The program is free. A group of people from Lewis and Clark counties appeared before the county...
The Wahkiakum Lady Mules trip to the SW 2B District basketball tournament came to an end February 15 with a 57-53 loss to South Bend. The Mules opened with an overtime win over the Willapa Valley Vikings on February 9. The Mules had an eight point lead going into the fourth quarter, but the Vikings rallied to tie the game and send it into overtime. The Mules then outscored the Vikings 11-6 for the win. "We had a let down in the fourth quarter and let them sneak back in," said Mule Coach Tiffany Niemeyer. "The girls kept their composure,...
Cathlamet will soon be a busy place with the start of three or four construction projects scheduled for this year. Town officials and engineers will meet with their contractor today (Thursday) to go over the plans for the start of the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant. Engineer Thomas Zerkel of Gray and Osborne, Inc., said the contractor will start with installation of a main from the existing treatment plant up 2nd Street and across to the new plant site. The contractor should be clear of the lower section of the street around...
Commissioners of Port District No. 2 of Wahkiakum County adopted two resolutions and discussed other business when they met Tuesday in Skamokawa. One resolution amends the compensation paid to port commissioners. State law allows compensation other than money, and at the suggestion of commission Chair Brian O'Connor, the board voted to allow port commissioners five nights of free camping at Skamokawa Vista Park on days when the park isn't full. Commissioners have traditionally waived compensation. A second resolution fixed a $1,500 maximum...
Members of the Cathlamet Town Council on Tuesday gave first approval to an ordinance to put the direction of the Cathlamet Fire Department under control of town officials. The department has been operating under an ordinance adopted in 1932 which put control under the Cathlamet Commercial Club, which no longer exists. The latest audit of the town by the Washington State Auditor's office said the arrangement doesn't meet state law and needed to be changed. The ordinance entirely repeals the previous ordinance and provides standards for...
Wahkiakum County commissioners grudgingly authorized Tuesday the payment of a $100 voucher for a representative of the county treasurer's office to attend a computer training program. Treasurer Paula Holloway had submitted the voucher claim for participation in a training program on the new computer software the county is installing which links the offices of the treasurer, auditor and assessor. Last week, however, commissioners declined to approve the voucher, saying they had questions about who would attend the training. Holloway, who is...
Wahkiakum County commissioners handled a variety of business when they met Tuesday. Issues ranged from repairing a slide on Loop Road to a recommendation to join a national program to check residency of employees. The board approved a request from Public Works Director Pete Ringen to hire a consulting engineer to evaluate a sliding area on Loop Road. Ringen said his inititial approach would be to develop a project that would stabilize the slope without going into the Grays River, which lies at the foot of the sliding slope. Tying the work to a...
Wahkiakum Mule senior Blayne Edwards won the 113 lb. weight class in the state Mat Classic wrestling tournament, and the Mule boys basketball team clinched a berth in the regional tournament with an 82-53 over Raymond on Saturday. Edwards won the 103 lb. title last year. This year, he swept through the 113 lb. bracket. He won the semifinal 6-4 over Brandon Medina of Brewster; Medina later placed third. In the finals, Edwards dominated Kain Feltwell of Liberty/Spangle in a 12-1 decision. In the boys 2B SW District basketball tournament, the...
Wahkiakum Mule Blayne Edwards will wrestle for the championship in the 113 lb. class this evening at the 2012 State Mat Classic Wrestling Tournament today in Tacoma. After winning his opening round match, Edwards, a senior, defeated sophomore Brandon Medina of Brewster in the second round by a score of 6-4. Edwards will face freshman Kain Feltwell of Liberty/Spangle in the championship this evening. Edwards won the 103 lb. class championship last year. Mason Mackey and Nate Cothren advanced to the consolation bracket semifinal matches in their...
Senior Blayne Edwards was the only Wahkiakum Mule wrestler to win his first round match at the 2012 State Mat Classic Wrestling Tournament today in Tacoma. Edwards won a 16-0 decision over Warden's Rodolfo Gonzales in the 113 lb. weight class. Edwards will face sophomore Brandon Medina of Brewster in the second round. The winner wrestles for the championship; the loser moves to the semifinals of the consolation bracket. In the 120 lb. class Mule freshman Luke Stacey lost by fall to junior Tyler...
Members of the Cathlamet Town Council may consider a proposed ordinance to govern the Cathlamet Fire Department when the council meets next Tuesday. The fire department is operating under an ordinance from the 1930's which puts it under control of the now defunct Cathlamet Commercial Club. The Washington State Auditor's office completed an audit of the town and fire department last year and recommended updating the ordinance to clarify command and financial control structures. One major change in the proposed ordinance is to make the...
Wahkiakum County's board of commissioners handled a variety of business during their meeting Tuesday, including: --Sergeant Brad Moon, commander of the Washington State Patrol Detachment in Naselle, reported his patrolmen had been close to their target, or anticipated, number of contacts and arrests in 2011. Officers investigated 163 driving while intoxicated cases in 2011, five less than expected. They stopped 5,979 motorists for speeding, 501 under target, and wrote 4,458 citations. They contacted 827 drivers for seat belt violations, 107...
Wahkiakum County commissioners showed on Tuesday that they plan to watch very carefully the expenses needed to bring a new ferry to the Puget Island-Westport run. Public Works Director Pete Ringen requested and eventually received approval to obtain design updates for the Puget Island ramp. The county completed an update of the Puget Island ramp in 2010, However, the county has embarked on a project to replace the aging ferry Wahkiakum, and the new vessel will be larger, so docks at Wesport and Puget Island will need modification. Clatsop...
From the Revised Code of Washington, RCW 26.04.010: (1) Marriage is a civil contract between ((a male and a female)) two persons who have each attained the age of eighteen years, and who are otherwise capable. On Monday, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law a bill that gave same gender couples the right to marry. The language in the bill changed "one man and one woman" to "two persons" and spent a lot of time outlining protections for churches and religious organizations to refuse to conduct marriages for same gender couples. People supporting...
The Wahkiakum Lady Mule basketball team ended the 2011-12 regular season with two losses that left them in a sixth place finish in Central League standings. Last Friday, the visiting Pe Ell Trojans handed the Mules a 59-36 loss. The Trojans jumped ahead early in the first quarter, but the Mules bounced back to trail only 17-13 at the end of the first quarter. TheTrojans took control in the second quarter and led 33-22 at halftime and 36-28 after three quarters. The game was the final home appearance for the Lady Mule seniors--Brieanna Olsen,...
Wanted: A temporary home for Cathlamet's Bradley Memorial Library. Town officials plan to have the town hall building remodeled this year, and they want to move the library to temporary quarters while the work goes on. "We want to keep the library open and intact the entire time of construction," Mayor George Wehrfritz said Monday. "We will have to move." Wehrfritz, Librarian Connie Christopher and members of the Cathlamet Library Advisory Board are searching the Cathlamet area for temporary quarters. The library collection totals about 15,000...
Wahkiakum County Treasurer Paula Holloway resigned her position effective the end of February. Holloway has been county treasurer for 22 years. In a Tuesday interview, she said she is ready to move on with her life. "I'm ready to retire," she said. She said she and her husband, Wayne, have always like eastern Washington, and they plan to move to Dayton. "We'll keep our property on East Sunny Sands where I was raised, so we'll keep coming back," she said. Local officials have begun the process of filling her elected position. She is a member of...
Matt Beaulaurier has resigned from the Cathlamet Fire Department's First Aid Division, leaving local ambulance service without a paramedic. Beaulaurier told The Eagle on Tuesday that he is resigning for personal reasons. He works full-time as a firefighter/paramedic for Pacific County District 4 First Aid and has volunteered with the Cathlamet ambulance, which serves all eastern Wahkiakum. "It was getting hard to do both," he said. "I want to spend more time at home. "I hope I can come back in the future." First Aid Division officers say the...
Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday adopted an ordinance setting tax levies for 2012 and worked on other items business with Assessor Bill Coons. Coons said that because of several factors, the chief of which is a reduction in the state levy, that the county's overall levy will be down about $39,000 this year. Overall, however, the county's real property ratio is at 111 percent, which means some property is over valued. "That's because we aren't on an annual valuation," he said. "If we had annual valuation, we could adjust to the...
This week, we bid adieu to Reporter Ruby Murray. She joined our staff a little over a year ago and has produced some outstanding work. Reporting was to be a part-time job for her, allowing her to work on her creative writing endeavors. She's enjoyed success with her creative writing, and has been pressed to balance both careers, so it was time for a choice, and the creative writing became her top goal. We'll miss her, and we wish her good luck. Following is her farewell: On becoming a novelist by Ruby Murray A year ago I stopped fulltime work...
The Wahkiakum Lady Mule basketball team came up short last weekend in games with two Central League basketball teams. On Friday, the Mules kept up with the second ranked Napavine Tigers for the first half, trailing only 28-23 at halftime. The Tigers took control in the third quarter, scoring on offense and forcing Mule turnovers that led to more baskets. The visitors led 41-31 after three quarters and outscored the Mules 19-8 down the stretch. Maya Stanley led the Mule scoring with 10 points. Brieanna Olsen had eight, Sam Boyce seven, Brianne...
Voters in the Naselle/Grays River Valley School District this week received ballots for a special school levy election. The district board of directors has asked voters to renew a three-year special levy to help the district pay maintenance and operation costs not covered by state or federal funding. The levy would raise $695,000 for 2013, 2014 and 2015. The assessment, as stated on the ballot, would be $3.24 per $1,000 of assessed property value. According to the district's website, the levy rate has fluctuated since the board voted in...
Members of Cathlamet's town council discussed the need to replace intake pumps at the town's water treatment plant when the council convened January 25 to hold a meeting postponed from January 17 because of bad weather. In other business, council members approved a three year lease for new quarters for the town clerks' office. Public Works Superintendent David Vik asked the council to consider amending the 2013 budget to permit replacement of pumps at the town water plant. The project should cost no more than $16,000, he said. Councilmember...
