Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 951 - 975 of 2280
With Mayor Dale Jacobson providing the deciding vote, the Cathlamet Town Council adopted an ordinance to vacate a portion of Beal Street to Port District 1. Port officials requested the vacation of the undeveloped street last winter, saying they would use the property for economic development purposes. The vacation involves half of the street right-of-way between 2nd and 3rd streets, specifically, the half next to the River Mile 38 Brewery. In consideration, the port will allow the town to use a lot across from town hall on 2nd Street unless...
Commissioners of Port District 2 discussed plans for a boat ramp and had a resignation when they met Tuesday. Commissioner Kayrene Gilbertsen announced her resignation effective August 31. She plans to marry soon and move to Clark County. Gilbertsen's term of office ends this year, and she isn't seeking re-election. Puget Island residents John Nelson and Lee Tischer filed for the office, and the winner of the election will take office as soon as the general election results are certified in November. Commissioners said they would advertise for...
The ferry Oscar B. will be out of service next week as Legacy Conracting, Inc., finishes improvements to the Puget Island ramp. The ferry will go out of service Monday; the closure could last into Friday. The new nosing assembly will fit the new ferry and distribute weight better than the present ramp, which was designed to fit the old ferry, the Wahkiakum. County commissioners have approved Legacy's request to use the ferry as a work area for the project. "This would allow us to make sure the new nosing and the ferry have a good match and that...
Detour on State Route 4 north of Cathlamet begins Monday, August 17. Here's the latest (Friday morning) word from the Washington State Department of Transportation. Culvert replacement work will result in highway traffic being detoured onto Elochoman Valley, Foster and Risk roads. Here's the department's statement: "Drivers and bicyclists who use State Route 4 west of Cathlamet should plan for an eight-week detour this summer. "Contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation will temporarily close both directions...
Wahkiakum County officials and the US Army Corps of Engineers moved closer Tuesday to starting a project to place Columbia River Dredge spoils on Puget Island's East Sunny Sands eroding beach. Corps representative Karla Ellis, chief of the waterway maintenance division, reported the Corps solicitors had completed the memorandum of agreement for the county and Corps, and once it was signed, the parties could proceed with placing sand on the shoreline. Ellis said it will be the county's responsibility to obtain the environmental permits. She...
Wahkiakum County commissioners acted on issues ranging from road repairs to personnel evaluations at their meeting Tuesday. Commissioners approved two engineering agreements for replacing a failing culvert at Clear Creek on the Elochoman Valley Road. The agreements are for services with consultants, Sargent Engineers, with funds coming from different sources for the two parts of the project. One part is the design of a bridge to replace the culvert. The second is to design the new road alignment to connect with the bridge. With Commissioner...
Senator Maria Cantwell will hold a roundtable discussion with the Wahkiakum County Board of Commissioners at 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. The meeting will be in the River Street Meeting Room instead of the commissioners' meeting room in the courthouse. SPECIAL MEETING BOARD OF WAHKIAKUM COUNTY COMMISSIONERS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Special Meeting of the Wahkiakum County Board of Commissioners will be held commencing at 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 12, 2015. Said Special Meeting shall take place at the River Street Meeting Room, located at...
Two new surveys will guide services for local adults. The Southwest Washington Area Agency on Aging surveyed 900 people across the region to identify priorities for its 2016-2019 operating plan. Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services conducted its own survey over the past year and collected responses from 46 persons, and those responses mirrored the aging agency's results. The agency's survey came back with four main themes, representative Mike Reardan said Tuesday in reporting to the Wahkiakum County board of commissioners. Those themes we...
Starting next week, travelers on SR will detour down county roads while the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) replaces culverts near the Elochoman River bridge. The department has been planning to replace two large culverts for over a year. On Tuesday, the department announced a contractor will close the highway to motor vehicles and bicycles between Risk Road and Elochoman Valley Road from Monday, Aug. 10 to Friday, Oct. 2. Traffic will use the Elochoman Valley, Foster and Risk roads as a detour route. The announcement came...
Wahkiakum County commissioners handled a variety of business at their meeting Tuesday, including: --Commissioners met with Cathlamet Mayor Dale Jacobson and Building and Planning Director Chuck Beyer to discuss issues in the update of the shoreline management program. Because of updates to state regulations, the town and county Critical Area Ordinances are out of date, Beyer said. The consultant working on the update, the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce (CREST) had anticipated being able to do the work without also updating that...
Commissioner Mike Backman has withdrawn his proposal to fund various community programs with county levy funds. Backman announced at Tuesday's meeting of the board of commissioners that he wanted to wait till 2016 to send the proposal to the voters. That will allow more time for proponents to explain the proposal to the public, and it will also allow officials to make sure legal details were correct. Otherwise, the board would have had to approve the ballot language next week in order to make the election ballot this November. "We'll give it a...
Wahkiakum County commissioners and US Fish and Wildlife Service managers are working to clear up a misunderstanding of angler access to closed portions of Steamboat Slough Road. Fish and Wildlife completed this year the construction of a new dike setback from the original dike. The shoreline was eroding under the original dike, and a geotechnical engineer warned the area could suddenly slide into the river, thereby breaching the dike and flooding the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refute. The US Army Corps of Engineers designed the...
By a 2-1 vote, Wahkiakum County commissioners approved measures to restore the position of commercial appraiser in the county assessor's office. Assessor Bill Coons has been seeking the move for several months, and commissioners had so far rejected the request, saying they would consider it for the 2016 budget. The department's deputy appraiser resigned last spring and moved away from the county.Coons, a certified residential appraiser, has hired Michael Daley, a former Department of Revenue appraiser who is certified as a commercial...
Members of the Cathlamet Town Council sparred over vacation of a street and worked on other issues during the monthly meeting on Monday. Councilmembers have been ready to act on a request from Port District 1 to vacate a portion of Beal Street which runs through port district property at the Elochoman Slough Marina. Port spokespersons have said they would like ownership of the land to accommodate economic development activity. On Monday, former mayor and now planning commission member Richard Swart urged the council to wait till the planning...
Wahkiakum County commissioners are split over a proposal to increase the county's tax levy to help fund five community endeavors. After debating the issue Tuesday, they agreed to research several issues and discuss it again soon. Commissioner Mike Backman is championing the effort, called a levy lift, to help the organizations who are struggling to find sufficient revenues for their programs. Backman's proposal would increase the levy by 35 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. Beneficiaries would include: --Cathlamet library and...
Commissioners of Port District 2 on Tuesday reviewed plans for new services at Skamokawa Vista Park. Commissioner Kayrene Gilbertsen reviewed potential projects the port will help coordinate with funding from the Wahkiakum Marine Resource Committee. As part of a region wide appropriation, the committee has received approximately $300,000 for projects that enhance or expand the commercial fishing industry. The port district will administer the funds, and some projects may be on port property. One priority for commercial fishers is a facility...
Reacting to an article which appeared last week in a daily newspaper, Wahkiakum County officials this week said dredgers won't soon be dumping spoils inside the dike on East Sunny Sand Road. The article quoted Port of Kalama officials who said sand will be deposited on the Philip Vik farm as part of the Columbia River Channel Deepening Project. The project would involve modifications to the county road and water lines so a pipe line could be erected to transport the sand to the farmland disposal site. However, the association of upriver ports...
One of the final actions of the 2015 Washington state legislative session has left Wahkiakum County commissioners fuming. Commissioners expected Wahkiakum to share an appropriation of $3 millon with Pacific and Skamania counties. The funds were appropriated to compensate the three counties who have trust timber land tied up for environmental habitat conservation areas. But hours before the budget was approved on Friday, commissioners learned that all the funds would go to Skamania County. After...
On Tuesday, the Columbia River Compact approved two 12-hour openings for commercial fishers on the Columbia River. The first ran from last night to today (Wednesday and Thursday). The second will start at 7 p.m. July 14 and close at 7 a.m. July 15. An eight-hour non-Indian commercial fishing period occurred on June 17. Catch included 2,101 Chinook and 243 sockeye. Total catch currently represents 70 percent of the 2,996 adult Chinook allocated. A balance of 895 fish remains available for...
Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday cancelled the eight-ton weight limit for the ferry Oscar B. Construction of a new loading ramp has been completed at the Westport ramp, so Wahkiakum County Public Works Director Pete Ringen recommended the commissioners remove the eight-ton limit, which was established to accommodate the temporary dock which the ferry used while the new ramp was constructed. After discussion, the board voted to remove the eight-ton limit but limit loads to the maximum allowed for the old ferry, the Wahkiakum, while the...
The Washington legislature has budgeted $835,000 for habitat restoration and fisher development in Wahkiakum County. The funding is part of $11.7 million in projects allocated for marine resource committees, nonprofit organizations, tribes and agencies for restoration and habitat work. Locally, Wahkiakum Marine Resource Committee (MRC) handled the application for the funding. Wahkiakum County's Road Department will benefit with $535,000 for restoration projects, including a culvert replacement at Clear Creek and another small tributary in the...
Wahkiakum County commissioners acted on varied business, honored employees for years of service, and prepared a letter to Governor Jay Inslee seeking help in restoring the county authority over application of biosolids. The Department of Health and Human Services is searching for a new environmental health specialist. Department Director Sue Cameron announced that recent specialist Leonard Taylor had resigned. Taylor has a sideline septic system design business in Pacific County and wanted to spend more time on it, Cameron said. An...
by Rick Nelson In my youth, newspaper persons used to tell of the publisher of a major weekly newspaper in Skamania County. They said he had been a press agent for Marilyn Monroe and that he was accustomed to shooting from the hip. So when a man was arrested for murder, the publisher printed a story about the arrest with a headline saying something like this, "Hang the SOB!" Prosecuting attorneys and other officers of the court frown on newspapers printing such material that might prejudice a jury, so they confronted the publisher, who repented...
Wahkiakum County and the Washington Department of Natural Resources on Monday announced bans on outdoor burning on areas in their jurisdictions. Effective Monday, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) expanded last week’s burn ban from DNR-protected lands in eastern Washington to include those west of the Cascades. The statewide burn ban will run from June 22 through September 30, 2015. The agency cited dry weather conditions and mounting fire danger. “Westside forests are drying out and the outlook is for continued war...
Former Cathlamet resident Jacob Nelson received his Doctorate in Philosophy, Computer Science and Engineering, degree June 12 at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the son of Rick and Mary Ann Nelson of Cathlamet. He graduated from Wahkiakum High School in 1996 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma. He earned a masters degree at the UW, where he is doing post doctorate research....
