Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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To The Eagle, I am writing to let the citizens of Wahkiakum County know that I am running for the County Assessor position. It’s always better when we have more than one candidate running for an office since it gives voters a choice. Many people know me either from working in the Assessor’s office or when visiting your properties for state mandated inspections. I worked in the Assessor’s office for seven years, first as a residential appraiser, then as a residential and commercial appraiser. Prior to my time in Wahkiakum County, I was a resid...
To The Eagle, I will be filing my candidacy next week for the Office of Wahkiakum County Sheriff. I have dedicated my Law Enforcement career to the people of Wahkiakum County since 2013. Throughout these years I have put my leadership skills and ever-growing experience to good use as a community leader to the public and a team leader as Patrol Sergeant. For the last 10 months I have had the pleasure of serving as your appointed Sheriff. These months have been filled with such great opportunities to partner with community groups and other...
To The Eagle Candidate filing week is nearly here, and I want to be direct with the people of Wahkiakum County. I am running for County Assessor because I believe this job requires real experience, real commitment, and the ability to lead with fairness and competence. That’s exactly what I bring to the table — as a certified residential appraiser, as someone working inside the Assessor’s Office today, and as someone who understands the responsibility that comes with this role. This isn’t a learning opportunity. It’s not a place for guesswork...
To The Eagle, Last fall, I did a column lamenting the loss of local news coverage with the closure of the Columbia County Chronicle and Chief newspaper. As someone who spent over seven years working as a reporter, I’ve become all too familiar with the ups and downs of that industry. Almost every news outlet I ever worked for either changed owners or went out of business. Those unfortunate changes and realities eventually inspired me to seek a different career path, even though I absolutely loved what I was doing. I recently had the chance to s...
To The Eagle, St. James Family Center (SJFC) is more than the blue daycare on Columbia. It’s a source of education, physical and emotional nourishment, structure and fun for kids. For families, it represents peace of mind. Knowing children are in a safe, caring environment allows adults to focus on work or other daily obligations. As health care consultant for SJFC, I have the unique opportunity to interact with preschoolers. Being around a room full of three to five year olds is a hoot. The level of energy, conversation, movement, laughter a...
To The Eagle, My name is Justin Moriarty, and I am proud to announce my candidacy for Wahkiakum County Assessor. Since moving to Wahkiakum County in 2021, I have worked to promote fairness in the property tax system—first as Chair of the County’s Board of Equalization, where I helped lead quasi-judicial hearings, ensure compliance with Department of Revenue standards, and advocate for both taxpayer rights and legal consistency. In 2024, I joined the Assessor’s Office, where I continue to apply my commitment to public service and proce...
To The Eagle, Safety is are number one concern when operating a school bus. We (my drivers) transport the most precious commodity in the world (OUR KIDS AND OUR FUTURE). I would like to help take some of the guess work out of what a school bus does at each and every stop. We use a combination of lights on a school bus to make the stops safe. We have headlights, taillights, marker lights, turn signals, brake lights and yes, even backup lights. We also have the eight-way system, otherwise known as the school bus stop lights. These lights are...
To The Eagle, I have been much enjoying your recent content. I always take pleasure in Dan Turner's library column and M.D. Johnson's delightful "Eagle Outdoors," and in Kay and Lisa's neighborhood news. Your local and regional reportage is helpful, and I much appreciate your carrying on Rick's long tradition of running good photographs of local animals and plants. Thanks for including a smart crossword, and this week, even comic strips! Where will it all end? Really, you're doing a fine job of keeping this treasured newspaper going in both...
To The Eagle, I enjoy the always-articulate reporting of Nick Nikkila. However, I take issue with his article "West Wahkiakum residents oppose dike breaking" (March 27). Factual and well-written, the piece conveys the history and ins-and-outs of this issue. But its conclusion and headline were based on a fatally flawed survey with unreliable results. When Nick brought the questionnaire to Grays River Grange, I explained why it was not a valid poll. I later shared my further thoughts, along with my marked, but modified, ballot. He chose not to...
To The Eagle, It's before 8 am on a Saturday. I'm opening the post office to distribute the mail and packages for delivery by the mail carriers. The USPS truck driver left the distribution center about 4 am to bring the mail containers to the post offices on their assigned route. The distribution centers operate 24/7 every day of the year. This routine is being repeated all across America everyday. Some people are working six or seven days a week, many rising before the sun. I feel the camaraderie as we complete our tasks to keep the mail...
To The Eagle, That old bit of wisdom that "you don't know how much you will miss something until it's gone" will almost certainly be the case if current proposals for the United States Postal Service are carried to fruition. Privatization of the USPS is a very real possibility. The irony is that this will disproportionately hurt rural areas and small towns, the very places that have routinely voted overwhelmingly for conservative candidates whose mantra is to cut government spending and regulation power to nil in favor of business interests....
To The Eagle, As Wahkiakum High School’s head golf coach, it is an honor to announce that our back-to-back 2023-2024 state champion girls golf team and boys golf team are back in action this month for the start of another spring season. Each one of our student athletes have been working hard year round to keep their golf skills sharp and are now ready to secure another state title. But there is still work to be done. Every year, the Wahkiakum High School golf team asks its community for support to help supply rain gear, practice equipment, b...
To The Eagle, I am happy to respond to Mr. Keith Johnson’s letter about Town of Cathlamet finances published in the Feb. 27 edition of The Eagle. Regarding Town finances, I am proud to report that the Town of Cathlamet has a balanced budget and more than $3 million in the bank. Any other allegation about Town finances is likely a result of misunderstanding of information presented at Town Council meetings and/or misrepresentation on social media. However, the Town’s current financial health cannot continue and will be severely challenged if...
To The Eagle, Our beautiful beloved Columbia River is dying.While politicians push mythical "green energy" projects producing millions of gallons of highly hazardous and toxic chemicals like so-called bio-fuels proposed by not N-X-T. Bureaucrats at Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality, Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife have approved permits against protests and testimonies of hundreds of residents from Oregon and Washington. Why are we the people allowing a handful of idiots sitting on computers in offices looking at computer screens of...
To The Eagle, I recently sent emails to elected officials of the City of Cathlamet and none of them bothered to respond. It was a simple question regarding recents news that the town of Cathlamet is facing serious financial problems. We have elected officials serving in a place of leadership who are unable or unwilling to respond to its constituents, or even tackle problems head on. The question I pose is what are they doing in office? I thinks it’s time we set a new direction for Cathlamet and gets these officials out. Keith Johnson C...
To The Eagle, The MOST important issue, left unmentioned, is DEQ, despite its promise to uphold the Clean Water Act, has permitted NEXT to release toxic discharge that would “degrade” (a nice word for destroy) fish habitat and pollute tidal waters used for irrigating food crops, fishing, and recreation. This major hit to tribal resources, which DEQ is ignoring, and disregard for the farming and fishing communities that feed us, is just one major flaw DEQ is sidestepping. NEXT’s permit flies in the face of what Betsy Johnson calls, “the cleaner...
To The Eagle, Does our Library just kinda happen each week? Does anyone really have to do much to make it work? Silly thoughts! Here are some people and groups who have recently helped to keep the library working: Cheryl, who made pillow covers for the library teen section. She also donated craft supplies, Christmas lights, and a lot of time. Heather; who donated puzzles, craft supplies, a brochure holder and her time during the holiday season. Robin; who donated a live tree, decorations, books, and a lot of her time during the holiday season....
I’d like to share a heartwarming experience I had with a fellow stranger on the Puget Island Bridge on Jan. 5 at 7:09 a.m. A gentle run in the early morning light across the bridge and back. It’s only two miles and it must be done nearly every morning as the river beckons me from the middle, “Come see how beautiful I am today.” Halfway through the return mile, I hear a car approaching from behind me, now slowing as I jog along. Headlights reflected in the water collected on the road, interrupting my enjoyment of the early sky in them. I’m thi...
To The Eagle, On page 4 of the December 27th issue of The Eagle, the bovine pictured in the flooded field is none other than Hornet, the popular attraction at the Wahkiakum County Fair. Hornet made his debut at the fair in 2017 as a young calf. To his good fortune he was able to remain unnoticed on the Burkhalter Family Farm, grazing happily beside all his bovine sisters. Since he can't contribute to the dairy's bottom line he has to make his money with his fair premium points. I thought some...
To The Eagle, I must comment on the article reprinted 12/27/24 from the Idaho Sun entitled “Officials fall short of salmon return goals in Columbia River Basin but see signs of progress.” The “progress” from very low returns in the 1990s involves the Northwest Power and Conservation Council only because they were forced to pass water past mainstem dams to move migrating juveniles out through the system by a federal court order. Having attended countless meetings on salmon recovery over the past five decades I can witness that hydro, irrigat...
My letter of last week was ill-advised and mis-informed. My sincere apologies for that; I should have at least gone down and looked at the tree before my pontification. Having done so now, I judge the tree to be about 80 years old and in poor health to the point of perhaps being a danger tree. The top has been blown out maybe 40 years ago which usually results in killing a tree over a period of years. I’ve seen monster spruce that looked perfectly healthy collapse in a pile of rotted rubble in an instant. If it were up to me, I would have t...
The mighty Columbia River and its estuary are at risk of destruction for generations to come. A major water permit stands in the way of NEXT Renewable’s approval to construct one of the world’s largest non-conventional diesel refineries at Port Westward, a swift and dangerous dock that recently dodged a massive spill from a tugboat collision. Many flaws in the proposal remain ignored by state permitting agencies. Community and expert concerns are routinely silenced. On more levels than can be discussed here, this project is greenwashing, mis...
To The Eagle, It is my observation that the two factions at opposition to the fate of the tree at Strong Park might be operating under faulty assumptions or coming to poor conclusions. Faulty assumption #1: The age of a tree is a lineal function of its diameter. With Doug Fir this is absolutely wrong. I have milled a few pieces of Doug Fir in the last 50 years. I probably have 20,000 board feet of it in inventory right now. When the tree is young it might put on two or three rings an inch. As the tree ages, these rings (annual, one ring a...
To The Eagle, Thank you for devoting space to the piece that outlined the history of discussion and public input into town’s decision regarding the tree in Strong Park. I wrote Town and Council members in August after the County cut down trees on courthouse property in regard to conversation about the Strong Park fir at that time. Since then members of the public have appeared at the Town Council meetings trying to have input and understand Town’s decision making process, which has been rather opaque. The specific age of the tree is less import...
To The Eagle, After reading the great write-up on the history of the Wahkiakum Community Garden, “Garden-to-pantry partnership yields fresh crops for all,” on Nov. 2. We realized our genuine gratitude for the Wahkiakum volunteers wasn’t expressed as much as we would have preferred. My name is Suzanne, and I am the SNAP-Ed Coordinator for Wahkiakum County HHS. Julie Johnston, Community Services Manager, and I would like to thank all involved in making this multi-entity partnership work and flow smoothly. The SNAP-Ed program began coord...
