Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 878 - 902 of 9585
The Wahkiakum County Commissioners met before the Thanksgiving holiday in a brief session. Work continues on the Hope Center as Health and Human Services settles into the building. Duncan Cruickshank asked the commissioners to authorize a request for bids to make the front entrance ADA compliant. Two offices will also be created at the center and the HVAC for the great room will be updated. Wahkiakum Health and Human and Human Services will renew their contract with RYC Analytics for data analysis services. Their fee for analyzing health data...
There was a lot to unpack at the nearly four hour Town of Cathlamet meeting on Monday including a preliminary discussion about a possible remediation of the existing town hall after an inspection found mold and a variety of problems in their current home. “My own view is that it would be an improvident use of town funds to try and rehabilitate that existing sick, toxic building,” Mayor David Olson said. “I think a better choice is to look at a new structure and not put good money after bad o...
Sunrise on the Cathlamet Channel. Photo by Ian Brandon...
Flu shots are now available at Wahkiakum Health and Human Services, but their regular vaccine clinic is still on hiatus. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 360-795-6207 or 360- 795-8630. The Cathlamet Pharmacy is offering flu shots, RSV shots, and the Moderna covid-19 vaccine. Please call to make an appointment. 360-795 3691. Appointments are usually between 2-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, though additional slots may be available in the morning....
Wahkiakum School District is improving their bus fleet one at a time thanks to a depreciation program, and it is paying off in surprising ways. “Our maintenance costs are down significantly,” Superintendent Brent Freeman said. “My first year here, we had 14 or 15 buses on hand. The lowest mileage bus we had was about 57,000- 58,000 miles and [mileage for] half of the fleet was over 200,000 miles. The first time I met Calvin he was under a bus repairing a transmission.” “We’re talking ten...
Steady rates at Wahkiakum County Public Utilites District was good news for the Board of Commissioners as they approved a nearly $8.5 million dollar budget for 2024 this week. Commissioner Dennis Reid said that like Wahkiakum, a few utilities around the state were not increasing rates, but others were raising their rates anywhere between three and 17 percent. “Anything double figures you want to avoid,” Reid said. “I just feel we are so fortunate that we’ve been able to present another budget...
Tis the season for the annual lighted Christmas Parade! The event is set to begin at 5 p.m. at the Elochoman Slough Marina on Saturday, Dec. 2. The parade planning committee is still looking for participants. Any and all are welcome. They suggest entering most anything, so long as lights are added, including “tractors, lawn mowers, cars, trucks, trailers, boats, floats, horses, dogs, people…you name it. How about a wagon of carolers or a lighted hayride?” They also hope boat owners will light...
Wahkiakum County Port 2 staff are gearing up for their annual Christmas light show, which will open Dec. 1 at Vista Park and continue through the end of the month. The theme this year is penguins, Port 2 Assistant Manager Terina Davis said at their Board ofCommissioners’ meeting Tuesday. “Staff has worked really hard on it,” she added. “We take a lot of pride in it.” Port 1 Manager Sam Shogren said he has been on the road a lot in the last month, continuing to seek funding for improveme...
Washington drivers could one day be carrying Smokey Bear's image and message on their license plates to help reduce the number of wildfires started by people. An effort launched Monday would create a specialty license plate featuring the iconic bear and its hallmark slogan: "Only you can prevent wildfires." Proceeds from sales of the plates would go to public education programs focused on wildfire prevention, administered through the state Department of Natural Resources. Commissioner of Public...
Wahkiakum firefighters, all volunteer and representing every department, showed up for some live fire training on Saturday, thanks to the donation of a mobile home on Puget Island. Photo by Ian Brandon....
The Wahkiakum County Auditor’s office has received 1,646 ballots so far from 3,490 voters registered in the county, and are waiting for any remaining ballots posted on or before Nov. 7 to trickle in. That’s an “impressive 47 percent turnout,” Election Coordinator Amanda Boehler said, “much higher than many of the larger counties in the state.” “[It] really goes to show that our community cares a lot about who they choose to put into local offices to make the choices that affect our day-to-da...
Some residents in east Cathlamet woke up to water issues Sunday morning. According to the Wahkiakum County Sheriff’s report, at 4:25 a.m., a resident on Irving Street was the first to call, reporting low water pressure and a massive leak from a neighbor’s house that was flooding their own carport. Later, a person on E Street would report they were without water. “Over the next couple hours several calls came in from nearby residents that either experienced problems or were concerned about poten...
Flooding has always been part of the landscape for Gary Burkhalter, who grew up dairy farming with his parents in Grays River. It’s work he continues to do with his wife Susan, along with their children, and includes their grown son, Austin. “Flooding has been here and always will be here,” Burkhalter said. While this natural occurrence really only causes problems once or twice a year, it can be disruptive to all who live and in the Burkhalters’ case, work, in the area. Burkhalter Dairy is locat...
The U.S. House took a broadly bipartisan vote Tuesday to fund the government into the new year, though the measure must pass the Senate by the end of the week if Congress is going to avoid a partial government shutdown. The 336-95 House vote was the first major legislative test for Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who took on the role after the former speaker was ousted after passing a similar bipartisan short-term funding bill in late September. A total of 93 House Republicans...
The Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments (CWCOG) recently finalized a three-year contract with the Washington Transportation Safety Commission to operate the Target Zero program for Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, and Lewis Counties. The federal government requires each state to have a Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP); Target Zero is Washington’s plan. The Washington State Target Zero vision is “zero deaths and serious injuries by 2030 from traffic involved accidents.” Target Zero was created to “guide the community toward the vision of zero de...
THURSDAY Westside Play & Learn Group, Valley Bible Church, 9:30-11 a.m. Eastside play and learn group, St James family center 1:30-3 p.m. Johnson Park Board 10 a.m. West End Food Pantry, Johnson Park, 1- 5 p.m. Johnson Park Community Center Library & Computer Center noon—5 p.m. Senior Citizen Luncheon, Hope Center, Noon. Senior Citizen Luncheon, Rosburg Hall, Noon. Cathlamet Fire Department, 7 p.m. Skamokawa Fire Department, 7 p.m. Grays River Fire Department, fire/ambulance, 7:30 p.m. Puget Island Fire Department, drill night, 7 p.m. D...
Following three days of outages, many of the Washington State Department of Transportation public web services are restored, the agency reported Friday. A cyberattack hit the department starting Tuesday, cutting online access to statewide traffic cameras, ferry trackers and oversized freight permitting. As of Friday morning, ferry schedules, some ferry tracking on the mobile app, mountain pass conditions, the agency’s real-time travel map, traffic cameras, and online commercial vehicle permits had been restored, according to the department. M...
A Longview man died last Friday while hunting with his son in the woods above Skamokawa. The Wahkiakum County Sheriff’s Department received a call at 4:48 p.m. from the son who became concerned when his father did not return to their vehicle. His father was last seen around 7 a.m.; he was 81 and had a heart condition. A search began at 8 p.m. on state land at the end of Middle Valley Road and the man was found less than two hours later, about a quarter mile from the truck, according to U...
Rosburg resident Darrel Trotter was honored by the Marine Corps League Daniel E Crockett Detachment 1228 at their annual ball in Astoria this weekend when he was named Gene Bolstad Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. The award is named for a Washington State Patrol Trooper who died on duty in 1957 while trying to rescue a teenager caught in a strong rip current at Long Beach. Each year it is awarded to an outstanding law enforcement officer in Pacific or Wahkiakum County. "The local veterans...
It seems Cathlamet is becoming a destination for sailing clubs. “We got some good news on another regatta through the Willamette Sailing Club,” Wahkiakum County Port 1 Manager Todd Souvenir told the Port 1 Board of Commissioners last Thursday. If it works out, there could be three regattas this summer, with one in July, one in August, and another one, potentially in early May. Organizers are expected to visit in January to consider logistics. Mackenzie Jones, the administrative assistant for...
Elk enjoying a rest near Skamokawa. Photo by Ian Brandon....
Eagle photographer Ian Brandon hit the road during this weekend’s high water event. Clockwise from bottom left: drenched eagles along Altoona Pillar Rock Rd; Grays River highwater and fall colors at Rosburg Hall; the historic Grays River covered bridge was under flood watch conditions; a misty view of Pillar rock along the Columbia River....
The results are coming in. Officials counted 1,337 votes on Tuesday night. The next count was scheduled for Wednesday at 5 p.m., after the Eagle went to press. At that time, there were 150 more ballots left to count, and more were likely to arrive in the mail. With 3,490 registered voters in Wahkiakum County, the turnout stood at 38.31 percent on Tuesday. In contested races, incumbent Patty Anderson leads challenger Kandice Merz 783-334 in a bid to hold onto her seat with the Wahkiakum School...
The acquisition, the state's largest in more than a decade, would bring more than 9,000 acres in Wahkiakum County into public ownership The Washington State Board of Natural Resources approved the $55 million purchase of more than 9,000 acres of forestland in Wahkiakum County during its meeting Tuesday at the Natural Resources Building. Each of the four properties is adjacent to lands already sustainably managed by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to generate revenue for...
The Town of Cathlamet coffers could receive a big boost by year’s end. Following an executive session at the end of their meeting on Monday, the town council gave a green light to the lease of the town’s cell tower site in Rosedale to a telecommunications company for a period of 50 years, for no less than $500,000, to be paid in full prior to December 31, 2023. Parameters have been approved for the lease, but documents are not yet finalized. “It is my hope that this will help with the many...
