Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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Snowy roads kept students from visiting Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland on Kiwanis Day this February, but students at Wahkiakum district schools are in full swing with fund-raising efforts to help the children there. Junior Ashley Silva, Key Club president, is coordinating efforts with help from Angie Pugh, who brought the program to Wahkiakum schools last year, when her son, Bradlee Pugh was a senior, and Jeff Rooklidge, Key Club adviser, and about 20 students. The Key Club is a student affiliate of the Kiwanis Club of Cathlamet. T...
The Wahkiakum Public Utility District board of commissioners met briefly Tuesday and adopted standards for a new donation program. The PUD is accepting resumes for the vacant commissioner position through March 18 and has received two applications for the vacant commissioner position, General Manager Tramblie said. Tramblie told the board workers will start preparing the site on Jacobson Road for the new substation in mid-March, if weather conditions permit the power load to be served by one circuit. As of April 1, community members may donate...
Ebbie Hantke started to manufacture his one-of-a-kind sports car 12 years ago in Kurt Nielsen’s shop on Puget Island. Nielsen died before the car was finished, but his contributions to the car extend beyond the space to work. In addition to encouragement, Nielsen provided mahogany for the “Kurt Nielsen Memorial Dashboard” and gave Hantke the Boyce Motor Meter that graces the sleek hood. The car is like that. Every part has a story. Hantke said, “I’ve made an exotic car out of mundane parts. These are readily available materials.” “The car st...
The foreclosures that hit the county’s real estate market in 2009 continue to depress the local housing market, and local realtors fear more are on the way. A review of Wahkiakum County Property Sales spreadsheet indicated nine foreclosures countywide in 2008, 14 in 2009 and only one 2010. The sales of foreclosed properties, from banks to individuals climbed proportionately, from two in 2008, seven in 2009 and 21 in 2010. Wahkiakum County Assessor’s Chief Deputy/Appraiser Denny Bryant has been working his way through home assessments for dis...
Dixie Kolditz was born in South Africa, moved to the US for college, and is now getting adjusted to rural life. She’s relishing the feeling of small town life she finds in Cathlamet. Kolditz owns Open Box Creations, a wholesale décor business selling floral arrangements. As a business it’s young, like “a toddler” she said. The show room on Main Street is full of cartons, wooden vases and flower arrangements. Kolditz recently purchased varied vases, so she says opening each box is a surprise. She currently has three helpers, and hopes t...
The foreclosures that hit the county’s real estate market in 2009 continue to depress the local housing market, and local realtors fear more are on the way. A review of Wahkiakum County Property Sales spreadsheet indicated nine foreclosures countywide in 2008, 14 in 2009 and only one 2010. The sales of foreclosed properties, from banks to individuals climbed proportionately, from two in 2008, seven in 2009 and 21 in 2010. Wahkiakum County Assessor’s Chief Deputy/Appraiser Denny Bryant has been working his way through home assessments for dis...
Dory Hicks knew she was an artist when she was five years old, and she’s been painting life around her since. While her images are entwined with community life in Skamokawa, Hicks has also painted moments in the world history that spoke to her, such as the joy she saw when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. “I was intrigued by the energy at Mandela’s release,” she said of her painting as she gave a tour through a retrospective exhibit at Redmen Hall in Skamokawa. Community members loaned work for the exhibit since a fire about five ye...
Wahkiakum Public Utility District Commissioners Dennis Reid and Bob Jungers voted Tuesday to broaden the search for a Position One commissioner to fill the position vacated by Larry Reese, who was not present at the meeting. Commissioners accepted Reese’s resignation which is effective March 31. The district will enlarge ads and advertise in The Longview Daily News as well as The Wahkiakum Eagle and accept resumes through March 18 at 4 p.m. “I want to do this thoroughly,” Jungers said. “It’s an important position.” The commissione...
The brush cutting visible on some slopes of Puget Island dikes is intended to meet US Corps of Engineer standards for vegetation on dike slopes. The Wahkiakum Consolidated Diking Improvement District Number 1 has cut brush on Puget Island, and will continue around the Little Island, when the brush-cutting machine it bought from Wahkiakum County has been repaired, Gordon Oman, district chairman said. Oman said the district will begin to remove trees next. Corps standards state slopes should be clear of brush and trees over 2 inches in diameter...
Larry Reese has submitted his resignation as Wahkiakum PUD commissioner effective at the end of February for medical reasons, though he says the decision was based on more than health concerns. Reese, representative for District 1, was elected to a second term in 2008. Reese said he and his wife, Pat will be dividing their time between Cathlamet and Rockport, TX, a climate that agrees with his wife’s health. Reese said, “My blood pressure has dropped 30 points since I made the decision.” Reese said his 31 years at GE immersed him in corpo...
Willapa Hills recently released its second CD, A Portrait of Place, celebrating life on the Lower Columbia River with a mix of new and traditional songs. Band members Andrew Emlen, Sunrise and Jessica Fletcher, Kerrie McNally, Fern Fey and Jennifer Hanigan have all moved to the area. “Not one of us has been born in the county. There’s something to be said for that. We chose it with our eyes open,” said Emlen, who formed the band with musicians he’d performed with in the Skamokawa review after he moved to the area in 1999. Band members are poe...
PUD commissioners Bob Jungers and Dennis Reid met briefly for a regular board meeting Tuesday. Larry Reese was absent. The board discussed criteria for a new program to distribute donations to low income neighbors and discussed proposed changes to its contract with the Bonneville Power Administration. PUD auditor Erin Wilson requested the board set criteria for the funds the ratepayers may donate to low income neighbors. The PUD is still implementing the program. In December, 2009 the PUD received $4400 of Enron Settlement funds to be used for...
Associated Student Body leader Shelby Felton asked fellow students, “Do you know why we celebrate Martin Luther King Day?” The third-period world history class was quiet but then, with prompting, a few details of King’s life emerged. The sophomores, born years after King was assassinated, worked to find relevance of his life and teaching to their school community. Felton was one of six ASB leaders who researched King’s life and led discussions in World History classes at the high school Thursday. Students identified some of the words or teas...
The Wahkiakum School Board again took public testimony on its proposed drug testing policy at its regular meeting January 19 and will review procedures to implement the policy at its meeting in February. The board heard results of a December survey in which the majority of students denied ever trying marijuana, and learned a community member had contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. The district is considering offering drug testing to students suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol at school, with the hope that...
Dr. Rick Still has expanded his Longview chiropractic practice to Cathlamet one day a week. “If Thursday fills up, I’d probably add Tuesday morning,” said Still, who shares space with Stephanie Crouse’s Simply Massage at 94 Main Street. Patients call Still’s Longview office to make appointments and can be referred there if they need x-rays before he can treat them. Still said he was en route to becoming an MD when he had an accident while wrestling. A chiropractor fixed his knee, and Still changed course. The Calgary, Alberta, native moved to...
High school math teacher John Hannah presented findings of the Vertical Math Team to the Wahkiakum School District Board at its January 19 meeting. The team, composed of math teachers for each grade, has been meeting to strategize about how to prepare students to pass math tests needed for graduation. At present, statewide proficiency levels for math hover around 50 percent on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning or WASL, high school Principal Dan Casler said. In comparison, 28 percent of Wahkiakum high school 10th graders met...
Wahkiakum PUD is moving to build a new substation beside its Cathlamet substation for greater capacity and to minimize power outages. The board of commissioners discussed the project at its regular board meeting Tuesday. The project’s cost of $2.9 million would include construction and a new transformer for $600,000, said PUD manager Dave Tramblie. The board is strategizing lowest cost financing, and working with engineers to design the station. The costs of financing to ratepayers could be as low as $5 per month, based on the terms the distric...
Port District 1 hopes to replace a section of the F-dock, but it needs a permit from the US Corps of Engineers for in-stream work. The district board strategized how to get the letter of permission it needs at its regular meeting on January 13. The dock is scheduled to be delivered on February 15th. “If we don’t get permission, it sits in the parking lot ‘til next fall,” said port manager Jackie Lea. The US Corps of Engineers and Washington Fish and Wildlife set the in-water-work window for the port between January 11th and February 28. The...
A variety of improvements to the Westport area between Highway 30 and the ferry landing will be presented at a public meeting tonight (Thursday). Public input on the projects Lower Columbia Engineering, LLC, of St. Helens has developed for Clatsop County and the Clatsop Economic Development Resources using funds from a tax penalty from Georgia-Pacific will be taken from 7:30 until 9 p.m. on January 20 at the Westport Community Church (the Old Grade School) on Highway 30. Projects under consideration include new access off Highway 30 to...
A variety of improvements to the Westport area between Highway 30 and the ferry landing will be presented at a public meeting next Thursday. Public input on the projects Lower Columbia Engineering, LLC, of St. Helens has developed for Clatsop County and the Clatsop Economic Development Resources using funds from a tax penalty from Georgia-Pacific will be taken from 7:30 until 9:00 on January 20th at the Westport Community Church (the Old Grade School) on Highway 30. Projects under consideration include new access off Highway 30 to Westport...
Kuldip Vaid calls Skyline Golf Course and Driving Range the emerald jewel of Cathlamet. The course’s new operator says he fell in love with it when he first saw it last March. “It clicked the first time,” said Vaid, who was living in Beaverton when he learned about it on Craig’s List. Vaid’s enthusiasm for the course is palpable. “There’s a different view from each of the holes,” he said. The view from the club house across Puget Island to the ridges in Oregon is stellar. Vaid has a 25-year lease and has learned the daily maintenance the course...
The Skamokawa Town Center, whose existence has been up and down since it was extensively remodeled in 1994, has sold. Wahkiakum County records indicate that Don Jester of Rochester bought the property in a cash sale for $575,000 in December. The property had been part of bankruptcy proceedings in 2009. The new owner plans to rehabilitate the buildings, and has hired a professional to survey the area and re-stock the store, said David Nelson of Cathlamet Realty West, who handled the sale. Nelson said Jester planned to have family members live...
Local realtors are looking for the bottom of the housing boom-to-bust cycle that grips the nation. Foreclosures are driving down the price of homes in Wahkiakum County and financing is unpredictable. “Seems like we’re waiting for what we hope is going to be the bottom,” said Stephanie Prestegard of Lower Columbia Realty. Newly elected Wahkiakum County Assessor Bill Coons said the real estate market is still declining. “Foreclosures are putting a lot of pressure on private sales,” he said Monday, his first day as county assessor. “Some peo...
Dennis Reid of Skamokawa attended his first meeting representing District 3 on the Wahkiakum PUD board of commissioners Tuesday. PUD General Manager Dave Tramblie advised the board that Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services Community Outreach Coordinator Mary Vik is pledging funds to help ratepayers avoid shut-offs. Customers need a disconnect notice to access Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds, but the shut-off date may be earlier than an appointment in Longview with Lower Columbia Community Action Council (CAP)...
When photographer Judy VanderMaten of the Broadway Gallery saw Becky Ledtke’s jewelry, she arranged for Ledtke to be featured at the gallery in Longview in January. Ledtke’s gemstone necklaces are substantial and dramatic with origins across the globe. The owner of Heavy Stone Jewelry, Ledtke raised cattle for 25 years in Skamokawa. “I wanted to do something to make staying home more fun, since beef cattle ranchers don’t get vacations too much,” she said. She started by buying beads and stones and she “figured out what people like to wear.” Led...
