Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 1532 - 1556 of 9449
There were few surprises from candidates for 2022 elections when the filing period ended last week. With county Assessor Bill Coons having announced his retirement; Deputy Assessor Falon Hoven filed for the office as an Independent. Cathlamet native Holly McKeen, a deputy prosecuting attorney for Cowlitz County, is challenging incumbent Wahkiakum County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow. Other incumbent county officials filed for re-election without any opposition. Across the state and region, however, there will be races for all offices. US...
Because of an editing error in last week's edition, the last paragraph or Richard Erickson's letter to the editor was corrupted. It should have read: "I support our constitutional republic and the Electoral College, which I believe should be in our state so each of our county’s votes can have meaning instead of just three counties deciding what the rest of the state does; that is called democracy....
Facilities and funding continued to be hot topics for the Wahkiakum School District Board of Directors, but the board's May meeting on Tuesday started with a presentation from teachers Audrey Petterson and Tina Merz on the high school and middle school English Language Arts programs, a new bus, and a tour of students’ artistic endeavors. The writing process was the focus of Petterson and Merz’s presentation. The teachers talked about the skills the students were learning, and the strategies the...
Pelicans paraded along Birnie Slough this past week. Photo by Ian Brandon....
THURSDAY Cathlamet Fire Department, 7 p.m. District No. 4 Fire Department, drill night, 7 p.m. Grays River Fire Department, fire/ambulance, 7 p.m. Skamokawa Fire Department, 7 p.m. Wahkiakum Planning Commission, Courthouse, 6 p.m. Wahkiakum Commissioners, Courthouse, 9:30 p.m. Walking Group, Community Center, Cathlamet, 9 a.m. Eastside Play & Learn Group, St. James Family Center, 10-11:30 a.m. West End Food Pantry, GRVC at Johnson Park, 1-5 p.m. Wahkiakum Food Bank, 42 Elochoman Valley Rd., 3-5 p.m. Sewing Room, GRVC at Johnson Park, 11 a.m....
On May 17 the Naselle/Grays River Valley School Board held their monthly meeting. All board members were present, except Amy Chadwick. Five community members were present for the meeting. The meeting was called to order with the Pledge of Allegiance and consent agenda. Personnel was next on the agenda with: 1) approval of summer school contracts for Moten, Baker, Flood, Rudolph, King and Teubner; 2) approval to hire Marie Green as head girls’ basketball coach; 3) acknowledge resignation from Jessica Mason, Naselle Youth Camp paraeducator. D...
Wahkiakum County Sheriff’s Department have investigated an unattended death at a residence on Bradley Mountain and determined the victim died of a massive heart attack, Sheriff Mark Howie reported Friday. Robert Conner's wife told officers that she found him unresponsive in his recliner chair Wednesday morning. She called the sheriff’s office dispatch center and officers responded. A large amount of blood was observed at the scene and was later determined to have been caused by a wound on the Conner's leg. Howie said a state crime scene inv...
Shoppers who use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)/EBT benefits can receive up to $40 in matching SNAP Market Match dollars to purchase fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs, mushrooms, and seeds and plants that produce food at certified farmers markets throughout the state of Washington. “It’s an amazing program,” Heather Odom, a Healthy Community Specialist for Wahkiakum Health and Human Services said last week. The closest certified market to use the benefit is the Cowlitz Commu...
On May 19, Dr. Amber Itle, a veterinarian for the Washington State Department of Agriculture, advised against live market poultry sales for the next 30 days following the confirmation of nine cases of a highly pathogenic avian influenza in backyard flocks in the state. Closing markets is not mandatory at this time, but markets risk transmission of the disease, and possible animal tracing and extensive cleaning and disinfection if avian influenza is detected. So far no commercial flocks have...
Shoppers turned out for the first Wednesday Community Garden plant sale last week to pick from a variety of seedlings available for their home gardens. The sale continues every Wednesday in May from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Photos by Diana Zimmerman....
Wahkiakum County Sheriff’s Department have investigated an unaccompanied death at a residence on Bradley Mountain and determined the victim died of a massive heart attack, Sheriff Mark Howie reported Friday. Robert Conner's wife told officers that she found him unresponsive in his recliner chair Wednesday morning. She called the sheriff’s office dispatch center and officers responded. A large amount of blood was observed at the scene and was later determined to have been caused by a wound on the Conner's leg. Howie said a state crime scene inv...
Wahkiakum County officials find themselves dealing with the good, the bad and the ugly. The good is an increase in revenue from rising investment interest rates and state timber excise tax revenue; the bad is a cooling of timber markets that is chipping away at revenue from logging on county trust timber lands, and the ugly is the inflationary impact on fuel used to power modes of transportation. The increases in interest rates since the beginning of 2022 is good news, Treasurer Tammy Peterson told the county board of commissioners on Tuesday....
Cathlamet town officials are getting closer to revising rates for sewer and water service, but fine tuning continues. The town's utility rates contain inequalities, with some customers subsidizing others, and out of town customers paying higher rates than those inside the town boundaries. The council is trying to develop a schedule that combines basic rates and usage fees for consumption of water above a basic quantity. Clerk/Treasurer Sarah Clark reported that she and Council Members Laurel Waller and Jeanne Hendrickson had spent hours working...
Long time Port 1 Manager Jackie Lea retired on April 25 but plans to remain available to staff and commissioners until June 30 as they transition to new management. “She gave a lot of time to this place,” Commissioner Scott Anderson said. “She will be missed.” “We thank her for her many years of service,” Counsel Tim Hanigan said, “and wish her the best in her retirement.” Maintenance Manager Todd Souvenir will step in as interim manager as the port begins its search for Lea’s replacement. Cath...
The Wahkiakum PUD Board of Commissioners met Tuesday and talked about supply chain issues, weather, and projects in the county. General Manager Dan Kay said that he and Auditor Erin Wilson were collecting information for long term planning, which he hoped would be a collaborative project. “This could take a good solid year,” he said. “I don’t want to rush it.” Commissioner Gene Healy suggested posting the graphic for long range planning created by the PUD on their website in order to stimulate...
Stephanie Vossen, owner of The Spar, a restaurant on Main Street in Cathlamet, has purchased and is currently renovating the River Rat Tap, a historic bar on Broadway Street. There will be a much needed laundromat and event space on the first floor, with a private residence upstairs. The event space includes a deck space. Vossen plans to provide office space rental during the day, with wi-fi and a printer/copier available. Vossen hopes to have the laundromat and event space ready for business...
THURSDAY Walking Group, Community Center, Cathlamet, 9 a.m. Senior Citizen Luncheon, Rosburg Hall, Noon. Fire Protection District No. 1 Commissioners, Fire Hall, 5:30 p.m. Fire District No. 4, 7 p.m. Cathlamet First Aid Division, Fire Hall, 7 p.m. Skamokawa Fire Department, First Aid Division, 7 p.m. Grays River Fire Department, ambulance training, 7 p.m. Food Addicts Meeting, The Hope Center, 3rd & Maple, Cathlamet, 6-7 p.m. Rosburg Community Club, 7 p.m. Eastside Play & Learn Group, St. James Family Center, 10-11:30 a.m. Community Library &...
Dental records were used to identify Delmar Dixon, 61, of Rainier, Ore., whose body was found by a walker on Little Cape Horn beach on May 7. Dixon was last seen on December 26, 2021. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Department was contacted for information, but no details were provided. Cause of death is undetermined. The family has been notified....
Above: A family of geese cruise along Birnie slough. Right: A goldfinch perches in a Puget Island tree. Photos by Ian Brandon...
As the environment of the lower Columbia River region evolves, Wahkiakum County's Noxious Weed Control Program is trying to keep up. Originally created years ago to control poisonous and similar weeds on agricultural land, the program is now having to focus more and more on aquatic weeds. On Tuesday, members of the weed board of supervisors and the county board of commissioners heard pleas from Puget Island residents to expand this year's planned herbicide application in Birnie Slough to include Jackson Inlet and small sloughs at the head of th...
It likely will take an act of Congress to get the US Army Corps of Engineers to dredge sediment in Gray's Bay. Residents of the Grays River and Deep River valleys have been pressing the Corps for years to clear sediment from the rivers' channels across the bay. They contend that Corps activities to manage the Columbia River shipping channel have plugged the tributary channels' outlets, and this has resulted in increasingly adverse flooding in the valleys. In discussion Tuesday sponsored by the county board of commissioners, Corps officials...
An outbreak of avian flu has been affecting poultry in North America since sometime last fall or early winter, but it wasn’t until the first week of May that it began to show up a little closer to home, in backyard flocks in Pacific County, in Linn County, Ore., and now in Spokane County. H5N1 is a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, Bryan Richards, the Emerging Disease Coordinator for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center said, explaining that highly p...
Last Tuesday, the VFW Post 5297 raised a new flag at the Cathlamet Fire Hall after presenting it to the Cathlamet Fire Chief Vernon Barton. The flag previously hung on the catwalk of a C-17 that evacuated a Marine to Germany after he was injured by an IED (improvised explosive device) in Iraq. The local post's quartermaster, Justin Tawater, was a staff sergeant in the Air Force at the time and the flying crew chief responsible for all the maintenance of that C-17. Tawater is now a reserve in...
Part of my family's lore is that a young Ronald Reagan, during his days on the radio, would come in to my maternal grandfather's restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa, where surely he must have enjoyed slices of my Grandma Clarissa's pie with his cuppa Joe. Like many women of that era, my grandmother was a talented gardener, canner, cook, and baker. She'd made her children's clothes, played the piano, and was well read. She was the first person to suggest I should write. I had the opportunity to cook...
THURSDAY Walking Group, Community Center, Cathlamet, 9 a.m. Food Addicts, Hope Center, 3rd & Maple, Cathlamet, 6-7 p.m. Cathlamet Fire Department, 7 p.m. Senior Citizen Luncheon, Rosburg Hall, Noon. Puget Island Fire Department, drill night, 7 p.m. Port District No. 1, 500 2nd St., 5 p.m. District No. 4 Fire Department, 7 p.m. Grays River Fire District No. 3 Commissioners, 7:30 p.m. Grays River Fire Department, fire training, 7 p.m. Skamokawa Fire Department, 7 p.m. Westside Play & Learn Group, Valley Bible Church, 9-11:30 a.m. Eastside Play &...
