Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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Wahkiakum High School senior Keisha Harris, freshman Paris Cothren and sophomore Brittaney Martin told the Cathlamet Blanche Bradley Public Library Board of Trustees that they liked having a teen library separated from the children’s and adult areas of the library. The group has been operating on a Wahkiakum Community Network grant to increase youth use of the library. They are creating a list of books they’d like to see the library provide and have visited local libraries to get ideas of best practices. The librarian at Longview Public Lib...
Superintendent Bob Garrett has issued reduction in force (RIF) notices to four teachers and has also notified teachers that he may not be able to offer the same contract terms in the coming school year. The RIF notices result in a decrease of 1.58 percent full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers, Garrett said last Thursday at the monthly meeting of the Wahkiakum School District board of directors. The letters to teachers was a formality, he said, based on whether the legislature enacts salary reductions. "These are standard, until we know more about...
Wahkiakum Public Utility District board of commissioners held its first evening workshop for long range planning, continued from its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday morning. Topics of concern included personnel evaluations for both non-union and union staff, a code of ethics for commissioners, and small-scale hydroelectric projects. Lee Tischer, who plans to run for PUD commissioner, and Pete Fleury, attended the meeting. Each commissioner brought items of concern. Commissioner Dennis Reid discussed the need for a mission statement and...
Wahkiakum PUD commissioners voted to accept the residential exchange agreement with Bonneville Power Administration at their regular meeting Tuesday, for the second time. On April 7, the commissioners voted to approve the agreement which changes the way investor owned utilities’ rates are calculated. When the settlement was not approved by 91 percent of BPA customers needed to pass, BPA moved the threshold to 75 percent and requested another vote. The Residential Exchange Program (REP) was Congress’ response to investor owned utility req...
At its regular meeting Thursday, Port District No. 1 commissioners Larry Bonds and Brett Deaton voted to borrow $275,000 from Wahkiakum County to replace the remaining portion of "F" Dock and rebuild "E" Dock. The port will pay .68 percent interest for the first year of the five year loan. “With that interest, we had to go ahead,” Commissioner Deaton said. "E" dock is used for temporary moorage and has deteriorated. “There’s liability if someone falls and we knew about it,” Bonds said. The commissioners voted to declare the needed repairs a...
Mary Vik has retired after working for Wahkiakum County residents off and on since the early 1990s. She’s worked fulltime as information and referral coordinator at Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services since 2000, connecting people with food, clothing banks and resources for emergency help with shelter, utilities, rent, and prescriptions. She’s helped children get school haircuts, winter coats and school supplies and has been a point of entry for state Department of Social and Health Services services such as food stamps, Temporary Aid...
Patrick Carrico starts his day writing, then works as a para-educator in special education classes in Cathlamet. He leads students in art and writing projects, completing the assignments himself, which he said, “give the children an example of what an adult male focused and finishing something looks like.” He paints at home in the evenings, using some of the sketches he started in class. Carrico’s paintings are being exhibited at Redmen Hall in Skamokawa through May 29. The works are colorful and vibrant, capturing the pain he sees aroun...
Wahkiakum Public Utility District board of commissioners voted Tuesday to fund a comprehensive plan for the Western Wahkiakum Water System as required by the state Department of Health. The board planned to meet in its first workshop session, to be continued from its second regular meeting of the month on May 17 in the PUD meeting room at 5:00 p.m. Commissioners want extra time to discuss general planning and future directions, said board member Bob Jungers. The board will not take public comment and they don’t expect staff to attend, but the w...
Twenty-five job-seekers were waiting for Worksource staff when they came to Cathlamet last Wednesday to host a job fair. Six staff from Worksource in Kelso, part of the state’s Employment Security Department (ESD), brought lists of available jobs, resources and provided assistance with resume writing to local job-seekers. Worksource, which connects employers with prospective employees set up at the Blanche Bradley Public Library, on their first trip to Cathlamet since last fall. ESD recorded Wahkiakum County’s unemployment at 13.9 in Mar...
Four Wahkiakum High students, with strong math and science skills learned about prospective employers in a program sponsored by Southwest Washington Workforce Development Council. The three-day program began in March, was interrupted by snow, and concludes April 30. Peter Weiler, Halee Budd, Eva Vik and Blayne Edwards were selected by their teachers to see what math and science-based skills employers are seeking. The sophomores traveled to Longview with principal Dan Casler to participate in High Tech U, a math and science-based career...
Many people don’t know there are homeless in Wahkiakum County, Mental Health Director Chris Holmes said. But in the year beginning in July 2009, Wahkiakum Health and Human Services sheltered 13 households, or 15 individuals--including two children--with a total of 964 bed-nights in a variety of units, Coordinator Mary Vik said. Dawn Hampton is one person who credits the shelter program for helping save her life. Hampton was someone who had never been homeless before she came to Cathlamet over seven years ago. The 51-year-old artist, who c...
Dale and Sylvia Costich went to the Wahkiakum County Commissioners on March 22, two weeks after a tsunami steaming toward the West Coast gave some Puget Islanders a sleepless night. The Costiches asked questions about the Sheriff’s ability to order and manage an orderly evacuation of the Island. Sylvia Costich said looking forward she is concerned that by not giving adequate warning, “we could be denied …a safe orderly evacuation.” Sylvia said she envisioned a huge traffic jam at the bridge. Information necessary to plan an order...
The last time Puget Island was evacuated in May, 1986, Gene Strong was sheriff, and the tidal wave warning system was new. Puget Island fire trucks drove around the Island with loudspeakers to alert residents. Eagle archives indicate that state police controlled traffic, and farmers brought livestock with them. Strong is now an emergency planner for Clatsop County, where he conducted a test of the tsunami alert system on April 6. The evacuation in 1986 went smoothly, Strong said, although not everyone left the Island. Vehicles drove from the...
Two more applicants appeared at Wahkiakum Public Utility District’s board meeting Tuesday. Former Cathlamet Mayor Richard Swart and Mike Lewis attended along with applicants Loren Jennings, Lee Tischer and Gene Healy. The board hopes to conduct interviews and appoint a successor to former Commissioner Larry Reese on April 19. Commissioners earn $1300 per month including full medical benefits for themselves and family. Commissioners Dennis Reid and Bob Jungers planned to begin interviewing yesterday (Wednesday) in public meetings, which will c...
Wahkiakum High School students learned about the dangers of playing a choking game they call “tap out” last Wednesday, in an assembly prompted when a student playing the game was injured the previous week. High School Principal Dan Casler and Superintendent Bob Garrett briefed the school board at its meeting on March 23. On March 18, two male students were playing the choking game in the locker room after school. One student put the other in a headlock. When the student didn’t signal before losing consciousness, the other dropped him. The f...
The Columbia River Compact agencies of Oregon and Washington on Monday set a four-hour opening later that day for commercial non-Indian fishing. Local commercial fishermen Kent Martin, Brian Stanley, Martin Kuller, Jon McKinley, Terry Ostling and Randy Evans testified via teleconference before the Compact, which reviewed test-fishing results and took testimony from sports and non-Indian commercial fishing interests before setting the opening. Stanley, Kuller and McKinley met at Martin’s home to testify in support of the proposed four-hour o...
The Wahkiakum School Board met last Wednesday and reviewed the latest version of a Drug Testing Policy, which allows testing of students suspected of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs at school. Superintendent Bob Garrett prepared a new version of the policy with input from school attorney Dan Bigelow that stresses the optional nature of the test. A student who declines the test is assumed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and is subject to the penalties described in the Student Handbook. Those who take the urine test...
Ken Morrison is going to be 100 soon, but he’s not one to make a fuss about it. “It’s kind of strange,” he said. It’s not something he’s spent a lot of time thinking about and his family isn’t particularly long-lived. Morrison said, “One day is pretty much like another.” There’s a pack of playing cards crisscrossed with rubber bands on Morrison’s dining table by the deck overlooking Deep River. That’s where Morrison was sitting when a bear walked by one day, “and he wasn’t in much of a hurry,” Morrison said, giving a glimmer of a smile....
After several weeks of raising funds for Doernbecher’s Children Hospital in Portland, Wahkiakum High School Key Club President Ashley Silva said she’s excited that Wahkiakum students and community raised $3569.81, almost double last year’s total of $1800. Silva told elementary and middle school students at the closing assembly Monday that students should aim at surpassing that next year. The effort is part of a Doernbecher’s program that involves school youth raising money for the hospital in association with the Kiwanis Clubs. Silva, a junio...
At its meeting Tuesday, the Wahkiakum Public Utility District board of commissioners reviewed Residential Exchange Settlement details from Bonneville Power Administration and entertained questions about its emergency plan from potential candidates for commissioner. General Manager Tramblie reported that a new contract from BPA for the next two years gives the district 5.08 megawatts, which is close to current average annual use. The Residential Exchange Settlement that will change how BPA shares energy between public utility districts and...
In a quick meeting Thursday night, commissioners for Port District No. 1 signed vouchers and heard about two projects in the works that could piggy-back upon Town of Cathlamet grants. Commissioner Brett Deaton was not present. Port Manager Jackie Lea said the spring salmon season was slow, “the cold is hurting us.” Lea told the board that the town has received an enhancement grant for upgrading lighting in the downtown area. The grant would include new lights around the sewer lagoon across the parking area to the boat ramp. Lea said she met...
Sassy Chocolates had a vision for Cathlamet’s Main Street, and when Sinful Sweets heard about it, they wanted in too. The two businesses, each run by couples with school age children, decided to share space at 90 Main Street, when it became available recently. Janelle West and Sara Robinson are co-owners of Sassy Chocolates, and with their husbands, are opening a chocolate shop on Cathlamet’s Main Street. Like the candy shops in Long Beach, passers-by and customers will be able to see them making chocolates. When the women decided to open a sho...
Wahkiakum School District Board briefly reviewed the nuts and bolts of a proposed Drug Testing Policy at its regular meeting February 22. The policy directs Superintendent Bob Garrett to enact a drug testing program, with the goal that students “remain free from the effects of alcohol and/or controlled substances while at school and school events, in order to ensure their maximum learning and appropriate participation.” The district would test students suspected of being under the influence to help parents recognize a student’s drug or alcoh...
Students from the Wahkiakum Community Network (WCN) asked individual school board members to sign a pledge to “draw the line between youth and alcohol” at the Wahkiakum School District’s board meeting February 22. Students Abby Buenagel and Kaisha Harris accompanied Tammy Peterson, Public Relations Coordinator for the Network, wearing Let’s Draw the Line t-shirts and passed out the commitment cards and wrist bands. Lisa Frink of the WSU Cooperative Extension has partnered with the network to make videos of signature-gathering events. The net...
In a busy session February 22, the Wahkiakum School District Board of Directors continued to develop its drug testing program, voted to log four acres of the school forest, supported an improvement to telecommunications equipment to be funded by Homeland Security and supported a Wahkiakum Community Network project to reduce student alcohol use. The board agreed to log four acres of the school forest and encouraged Future Farmers of America Adviser Kyle Hurley to manage proactively the property. “I don’t actually know how many acres are up there...
