Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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Town of Cathlamet officials may well wonder when work on their new waste water treatment plant will be completed. On Monday, they voted to declare the project contract completed and release the contractor retainage bond. However, the plant's drying beds are overflowing, forcing the town to contract with the City of Aberdeen to process incompletely processed biosolids. Basically, the long wet winter prevented the drying beds from working as intended, Jon Hinton of the consulting engineering firm Gray and Osborne explained to the council....
The Cathlamet Fire Department wants to buy a new fire truck, but when presented with a financing plan, members of the town council put on the brakes at their monthly meeting on Monday. Fire Chief Vernon Barton has proposed buying a demonstration model at a price of $412,015. With a $100,000 down payment from existing funds, the town would need to finance $344,564.18. The vendor, True North Emergency Equipment of Hillsboro, Ore., has proposed a lease-to-purchase financing plan with options to pay off in either seven, eight, nine or 10 years. Ann...
Why has it taken so long to set up beach nourishment projects at Cape Horn and on Puget Island? Mike Ott, the Columbia district project manager for the US Army Corps of Engineers, attempted to answer those and other questions Tuesday at the meeting of the county board of commissioners. Residents of Cape Horn and East Sunny Sands/Pancake Point areas have been pressing county commissioners for three years to set projects to replenish their eroding beaches. Commissioners have established flood...
The passage of a state capital budget may lie in the legislature overriding Governor Jay Inslee's veto of a tax break in the overall state budget, Senator Dean Takko (D-Dist. 19) said Tuesday. The vetoed section of the new budget would have given large manufacturers the same business and occupation (B&O) tax break that the Boeing Company receives. Inslee said the break was bad legislation that won't have any economic benefit. The legislature's third special session ends July 20, and Takko said both houses may address the veto before then. "A...
Wahkiakum County commissioners on Wednesday conditionally approved an application for a shoreline management substantial development permit to allow the Port of Longview and other upriver ports to begin disposing dredged sand inside Puget Island dikes. The permit appeared on the board's agenda just in May, but commissioners sent it back to the county planning commission, at that board's request, to seek further information. As a final part of the US Army Corps of Engineers' channel deepening project, upriver ports, represented by the Port of...
Critics of Wahkiakum County's proposed update of the Wahkiakum County shoreline management program (SMP) had their chance Tuesday to voice objections to the county board of commissioners. In a public hearing for comment on the proposed program, citizens said the loosely written document was too open to interpretation; that the requirements of wetland buffers would most likely prevent any new use of the land, and that is essentially a taking of private property. Some speakers urged the board to...
Members of the Cathlamet Town Council approved proposed updates to the town's shoreline management program (SMP) and acted on other business at their monthly meeting Monday. The town and Wahkiakum County have been working for four years in a joint project to update their SMP. County commissioners will hold a public hearing on the SMP next Tuesday, but they've said they have many concerns and will just gather public comments and act later this year. Council members, however, were happy with the update. "It's pretty good," said Council Member...
The Wahkiakum County ferry Oscar B. will cease service 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Tuesday for some mechanical work. Public Works Director Chuck Beyer said a technician will update an alarm system and move coolant tanks from engine walls to a bulkhead in order to reduce noise. "We've been trying to schedule this technician for about a year," he said. Beyer added he feels some of the work will come under warranty. The ferry will make its last run at 8 a.m. before shutting down for the work, he added....
Wahkiakum County commissioners covered business ranging from dredging progress to the county fair's bull riding program when they met Tuesday. In response to a question from the audience, Commissioner Dan Cothren reported that county officials haven't yet been able to schedule a meeting with the US Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the scope of a required Section 408 Review. Officials learned two weeks ago the Corps wanted extensive review of how spoils deposits on three of the county's four flood control zone districts (FCZD) will impact the...
The Port District 2 board of commissioners breezed through their monthly meeting on June 20. Manager Janet Bryan reported that Skamokawa Vista Park will host a kite festival on September 23. A Seattle group will host the festival. Bryan also reported the architect designing a new building to house a laundromat and office hasn't yet completed the plans. Bryan said she'll take them to the county public works office as soon as she receives them so the district can call for bids this year....
County elections officials last week held a special filing period for positions on the 2017 election ballots which drew no candidates in the regular May filing period, and candidates came forward for some of the positions. All positions are non-partisan. No one filed for Port District 2, Commissioner 1 Incumbent Lori Scott had previously announced she wouldn't seek re-election for another six-year term, The filing fee is $13.68. The position represents the Deep River and Rosburg/Altoona precincts. Positions that drew candidates include: --Fire...
County Commissioner Mike Backman dropped a bomb at the end of Tuesday's meeting of the county board of commissioners when he asked colleague Dan Cothren to pass a motion ordering county fair personnel to stop raising funds for a planned bull riding program. Fund raising hasn't reached goal, Backman said, and even though the county fair board voted to suspend fund raising and cancel the program for this year, some fair personnel, who are continuing fund raising efforts, are still planning to put on the program. With the fund raising not reaching...
By Rick Nelson Just like the river that's eroding beaches and threatening property on Cape Horn and Puget Island shorelines, the requirement for permits to address the situation just keeps flowing. Wahkiakum County's board of commissioners, acting as commissioners for four flood control zone districts (FCZD), have been working for two years to set up beach nourishment programs that replenish eroded beaches with sand dredged from shoals in the Columbia River navigation channel. With biological studies and engineering nearing completion this...
A special filing period started yesterday (Wednesday) for positions on the 2017 election ballots which drew no candidates in the regular May filing period. The positions include: Fire District 2, Commissioner 2, Oliver Van Den Berghe, incumbent; six-year term, $10 filing fee. Fire District 3, Commissioner 1, Linda Strong, incumbent; six-year term; no filing fee. Cemetery District 1, Commissioner 2, Crystal Stanley, incumbent; six-year term; no filing fee. Cemetery District 1, Commissioner 2, Theresa Kuljis, incumbent; six-year term; no filing...
Eroding shorelines on Puget Island's East Sunny Sands won't receive any dredge sand this year, the US Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday. And neither will the site inside the East Sunny Sands dike road on the Philip Vik Farm. In a June 5 letter to the Wahkiakum County Board of Commissioners, Kevin Brice, deputy district engineer for project management, explained that county delays in permitting and obtaining right-of-entry easements from landowners along the beach pushed the projects beyond the window for organizing them for this year....
There will be several changes in health and county personnel in coming months. At Tuesday's meeting of the board of county commissioners, Sue Cameron, director of county Health and Human Services, announced she is advertising for a new deputy director to replace Brent Freeman, who is leaving soon to take an administrative position in the Wahkiakum School District. Further, Cameron said she wants to retire. "I'm having second thoughts about my retirement date," she said. "I don't have a good feeling about leaving the department in an unstable...
The Wahkiakum County Auditor's Office will hold a special filing period June 14-16 for 2017 elections which drew no candidates in the regular May filing period. The positions include: Fire District 2, Commissioner 2, Oliver Van Den Berghe, incumbent; six-year term, $10 filing fee. Fire District 3, Commissioner 1, Linda Strong, incumbent; six-year term; no filing fee. Cemetery District 1, Commissioner 2, Crystal Stanley, incumbent; six-year term; no filing fee. Cemetery District 1, Commissioner 2, Theresa Kuljis, incumbent; six-year term; no...
The start of a three-day opening for a sport sturgeon fishery resulted in traffic chaos on Oneida Road, area residents told the county board of commissioners Tuesday. Anglers flocked to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) boat launch Monday morning and overwhelmed the site, said Oneida Road resident Corbett McMasters. McMasters said vehicles and trailers were parked along the narrow road, partially blocking the lane of travel and making it difficult if not impossible for residents or emergency vehicles to pass through. "The boat la...
The failure of an electrical panel controlling a steering mechanism forced the ferry Oscar B. to cease service last Thursday. Wahkiakum County Public Works Director Chuck Beyer said a replacement part was expected last Saturday, but it was not shipped because of unforeseen circumstances. Instead, a ferry crew member journeyed to Woodinville north of Seattle to deliver the part to the ferry on Tuesday. "At this time," Beyer said Tuesday afternoon," "once new parts are installed this afternoon...
There's good news and not so good news for the Wahkiakum County board of commissioners efforts to set up a beach nourishment program for eroding shorelines at Cape Horn and on Puget Island. Acting as commissioners for the area's four flood control zone districts (FCZD), commissioners have been trying to collect right-of-entry easements from property owners that give dredging crews permission to work along their shorelines. The US Army Corps of Engineers, which engineers the dredging programs and spoils sites, wants to have entry easements for a...
A group of citizens hopes to pressure the Wahkiakum County board of commissioners to fight state mandates before adopting an update to the county's shoreline management program (SMP). The Wahkiakum Real Property Rights Advisory Board has sent a mailer across the county asking residents to return a portion which tells the board the senders "support their efforts to protect our property rights and say no to the SMP." Shoreline programs are required by state law. The county's was last updated in 1992, and this proposed update has been in the...
Filing for positions on the 2017 election ballots with candidates filing for some offices but not for others. County election officers will schedule a special filing period, probably in June, for offices which had no filings, Auditor Diane Tischer said Tuesday. As of Friday afternoon, candidates who filed included: --Port District No. 1, commission position 2, Bruce M. Holland and Scott Anderson. --Mayor, Town of Cathlamet, Dale Jacobson, incumbent. --Cathlamet Town Council, position 3, Sue Cameron. --Cathlamet Town Council, position 4, two...
Wahkiakum County commissioners continue to deal with beach nourishment issues while attending to other business. On Tuesday, commissioners and residents living along eroding Columbia River shorelines discussed hurdles in the way of setting up a program to deposit dredge spoils on those beaches. The county is working to set up a long-term beach nourishment program under the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps has said it needs a long, unbroken stretch of beach to make beach nourishment economical, and the county is working to obtain...
The Cathlamet Town Council reviewed a proposed update for their Shoreline Management Program (SMP) when they met Monday. The council also wrestled with biosolids issues, heard an appeal about water billing, approved exploration of using a town administrator, approved an ordinance for building requirements for a subdivision, set new rates for the municipal pool, and okayed a purchase plan for a fire engine. In a workshop before the start of the council’s regular monthly meeting, the council and town planning heard a presentation about the propos...
Filing for positions on the 2017 election ballots started Monday and runs this week. As of Wednesday morning, candidates who filed include: --Wahkiakum School District, director position 3, Susan O'Connor, incumbent. --Mayor, Town of Cathlamet, Dale Jacobson, incumbent. --Port District No. 1, commission position 2, Bruce M. Holland. --Cathlamet Town Council, position 5, Laurel Ann Waller. --Wahkiakum School District, director position 1, Kurt Shawn Mace. The filing period runs May 15-19 in the office of the Wahkiakum County Auditor, 8 a.m. to...
