Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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As Wahkiakum County commissioners try to set up a long-term dredge disposal program to nourish eroding beaches at Cape Horn and on Puget Island, they've encountered a concern from the US Army Corps of Engineers. The county has set up four flood control zone districts (FCZD) for beach nourishment, and commissioners are trying to obtain easements from property owners in the districts to allow dredging crews to work along the shoreline. All property owners in a district must sign the easements, for the Corps has said it won't deposit sand in a...
Wahkiakum County's board of commissioners this week started their formal review of a proposed update of the county's shoreline management plan (SMP). The board held a workshop with members of the county planning commission, their planning consultant, and a representative of the state Department of Ecology to hear a summary of the plan and ask questions about it. Commissioners received the plan last Friday and studied it over the weekend to varying extents. Their questions and comments showed muc...
Washington State Department of Transportation has updated its schedule for its Puget Island bridge project. The contract for the project will be put out for bids at the end of June and should be awarded in August or September, WSDOT communications officer Tamara Greenwell said late last week. "Once a contractor is on board, we are planning a follow up meeting with the community," Greenwell said. The contract will involve replacing the asphalt deck on the steel portion of the bridge and painting the structure. Department engineers outlined the p...
A small group of local residents gathered Saturday in Cathlamet to join in the nationwide marches in support of climate science. Members of the group also held a march the previous Saturday in support of the nationwide marches for science. Photo by Rick Nelson....
Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday voted to send shoreline management permit for a coalition of upriver ports back to the county planning commission. The permit would allow the ports' dredging crews to cross the East Sunny Sands beach and dike road to access a dredge disposal site on Island farmland. The planning commission had sent the permit to the board of commissioners for final action, but after weeks of discussion before the board on the merits of interior disposal site, planners asked that the board return the permit for further...
The Eagle and TEAM Electronics are pleased to announce the ninth annual photo contest, A Day in The Life of Wahkiakum County and Naselle. We invite Wahkiakum County and Naselle residents to shoot a photo on Saturday, May 6, 2017, in the Wahkiakum County and Naselle areas and enter on or before May 12, 2017, to participate. Three division winners will be selected and earn $50 prizes. Winners and honorable mention photos will be published in The Wahkiakum County Eagle’s special edition, The Focus on Wahkiakum, on May 25. Divisions will be: 1. C...
Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday voted to send shoreline management permit for a coalition of upriver ports back to the county planning commission. The permit would allow the ports' dredging crews to cross the East Sunny Sands beach and dike road to access a dredge disposal site on Island farmland. The planning commission had sent the permit to the board of commissioners for final action, but after weeks of discussion before the board on the merits of interior disposal site, planners asked that the board return the permit for further...
Wahkiakum County officials continue to wrestle with issues surrounding their effort to set up a long term dredge spoils disposal program for eroding beaches. Acting as commissioners for flood zone control districts (FZCD), commissioners are applying to the US Army Corps of Engineers for permits to set a 10-year beach nourishment program. As part of the program, commissioners need each property owner in a district to sign a right-of-entry easment to allow dredging crews to work on their shoreline property, and there are some property owners who...
The success of Wahkiakum County's effort to replenish sand on eroding beaches at Cape Horn and Puget Island depends, in large part, on obtaining permits to do the work and easements from landowners so dredging crews can work along their waterfronts. On Tuesday, county commissioners said the permitting process is nearing completion, but they still don't have all the needed right-of-entry easements. Commissioners have set up four flood control zone districts, one at Cape Horn and three on Puget Island. For a district to be authorized as a dredge...
The Cathlamet town council dealt with a construction setback dilemma when it met Monday. Linda Barth asked the council to change an ordinance setting for parameters for rebuilding when a building is partially destroyed. She explained that her family is trying to sell a small house sitting on a small lot on Maple Street. Years ago, a neighbor constructed a garage and put the back wall three feet from their building, which is closer than the town's building ordinance allows. A sale is pending but being held up when the lending bank learned that...
Trust. There doesn't seem to be a lot of trust going around when it comes to proposals to deposit dredge spoils on eroding Wahkiakum County shorelines. Nearly 50 residents of the county's four flood control zone districts (FCZD), most from Puget Island, gathered Tuesday for a town hall meeting hosted by county commissioners Dan Cothren and Mike Backman (Commissioner Blair Brady was on the road to another meeting). Commissioners had called the meeting to review dredge deposit proposals and answer questions from FCZD residents. Commissioners are...
The Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Office this week is installing a box in the courthouse to collect old, unused prescription drugs. County staff will also hold a public event to collect old drugs on April 29, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the lobby of the courthouse in Cathlamet. The installation of the box will allow people to dispose of unused prescriptions without waiting for annual events which the county has held. "We have been working cooperatively with Health and Human services on getting our drug take back set up on a permanent basis,"...
Wahkiakum County commissioners will host a town hall meeting next Tuesday, 6 p.m., in their meeting room to discuss issues relating to their efforts to establish a beach nourishment process eroding shorelines. Erosion is threatening private property at Cape Horn and East Sunny Sands on Puget Island. They are in the midst of finishing the permitting process for their proposed 10-year program; they're negotiating with the last of property owners who are reluctant to sign easements allowing dredging crews to work along their shorelines, and they'r...
Can Wahkiakum County and the coalition of upriver ports join forces for the benefit of both in their efforts to conduct dredging projects? The two groups will hold a town hall meeting April 18 in Cathlamet to discuss their goals and the possibility of combining their separate projects. County commissioners hosted representatives of Ports of Kalama, Woodland and Longview in a workshop Tuesday to begin a group discussion. Commissioner Dan Cothren, who had set up the meeting, started by explaining that he had invited the port officials so citizens...
Washington's sheriffs met in late March, and according to Wahkiakum County Sheriff Mark Howie, much of the discussion concerned "the topic of immigration enforcement as well as our response to the new ‘shaming' list the federal administration has sent out." US Attorney General Jeff Sessions had issued a statement saying the Trump Administration would consider withholding federal grants and other funding from cities and states that declared themselves sanctuary cities and which would refuse to hold people charged with misdemeanors or even no c...
Wahkiakum County commissioners continued discussions about a dredging program and gave mixed approval to two notices of proposed medical/recreational marijuana retail stores when they met Tuesday. County commissioners also serve as the board of commissioners for four flood control zone districts, and they discussed with constituents the latest developments in their efforts to establish a 10-year dredging program that would place sand on eroding beaches. The US Army Corps of Engineers recently required the county to conduct an archeological surv...
The Cathlamet Town Council voted Monday to lift a moratorium on new development in the Columbia Ridge Estates subdivision, subject to street improvements by the homeowners association. Among other business at the council's monthly meeting on Monday members also barely passed the first reading of a deferred compensation ordinance, planned a revision of its water bill adjustment policy, held a workshop on water and sewer rate analysis, and heard Council Member Andy Lea announce he won't run for re-election to the council this year. Several years...
Naselle Timberland Library has planned a variety of events ranging from children's programs to movie matinees for the months of April and May. Family Movie Matinees are scheduled April 1 and 22 and May 6, all 1-3 p.m. The library will show new releases and provide popcorn; viewers should bring a pillow for seating. Friends of the Naselle Timberland Library meet April 4 and May 2, 6 p.m., to plan library activities, and all participants are welcome. The Books into Movies movie night for teens and adults is held 6-8 p.m. on Tuesdays. Films may...
Wahkiakum County commissioners have given guarded support to a bill in the legislature to expand a study of elk hoof root disease. Several years ago, elk with deformed hooves began appearing in southwest Washington herds. Commissioners have pressed the state Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) to identify and eradicate the disease. The department has formed a public interest working group, and its biologists have said the cause is treponema bacteria. However, commissioners, relying on input from Skamokawa resident Boone Mora, a retired docto...
Challenges remain for Wahkiakum County commissioners' plan for a 10-year program to turn four flood control zone districts (FCZD) into dredge spoils sites. Landowners in the zones need to grant right-of-entry easements so that dredging crews can work along their shorelines. After months of wrangling by attorneys, the easements are ready for property owners, but hurdles remain for the program. One hurdle is that not all land owners in a zone may want to grant the easements. Commissioners heard from one of these persons on Tuesday. North Welcome...
Wahkiakum County commissioners are ready to address one of the major remaining hurdles to establishing a 10-year program for replenishing sand on eroding beaches. The US Army Corps of Engineers Seattle office counsel has approved the long-awaited final wording to right-of-entry easements that landowners need to sign to allow dredge crews to work on their shorelines. In the dredging operation, the dredge pumps sand and water through a pipeline to the beach, where bulldozers spread the sand along the shoreline. Acting as the board of...
Donald Trump to the rescue? Frustrated by the slow pace of bureaucracy, local residents and officials are looking for help in all places in their quest to establish a beach nourishment program at Cape Horn and on Puget Island. The permitting process has made some progress; last week the county planning department recommended approval of the county's own shoreline management conditional use permit for the project, and on Tuesday, the board of commissioners quickly gave their approval. However, Commissioner Dan Cothren could report no progress...
Wahkiakum county commissioners voted 2-1 Tuesday to proceed with the purchase of land for affordable housing and office development. The county's Department of Health and Human Services has been working for nearly two years to purchase the property from the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle. The purchase price is $123,353.08, plus closing costs, and will be paid from county funds raised specifically for housing assistance. The parcel of land is located adjacent to the new Town of Cathlamet wastewater treatment plant on SR 4. Chris Holmes,...
Members of the Cathlamet Town Council addressed issues ranging from sewer and water rates to park safety when they met Tuesday for their February meeting. Laurel Waller, proprietor of the Hotel Cathlamet, asked the council to include add water rates in a study of sewer rates now underway by a consulting firm; the council took no action on the request. Waller presented 11 pages of data and analysis of hotel occupancy and water use to back up her recommendation that the council establish a rate that is more reflective of actual water usage,...
Wahkiakum County officials continue to wrestle with an effort to implement a program of beach nourishment on eroding shorelines, and they face permitting and timing challenges on a culvert replacement project on the Elochoman Valley Road. As usual, the beach nourishment program is progressing slowly with new hurdles showing up from time to time. On Tuesday, Commissioner Dan Cothren said Deena Horton, a regional staff representative of US Senator Maria Cantwell, had spoken with US Army Corps of Engineers personnel on the county's behalf in an...
