Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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Crews have been working in the Cathlamet area to improve safety for pedestrians crossing in at least three locations on SR 4, at Boege Road, Jacobson Road, and at the School Access Road, where students cross over to the Farm Forest for outdoor learning. There will be high visibility crosswalks with rapid flashing beacons to alert drivers as well as new speed feedback signs. The speed limit has already officially been lowered to 35 mph in the area. Photo by Diana Zimmerman....
The Wahkiakum School District's four-year, $997,000 program and operations levy was passing when votes were counted Tuesday evening. The margin was close, 610 yes, 575 no, an approval rate of 51.48 percent. Wahkiakum County elections officials said 100 late arriving votes remained to be counted, and more could arrive by mail this week before the second count, which will be Friday at 11 a.m. As described on the ballot, the proposed four-year replacement levy would authorize collection of taxes to provide up to $997,000 in 2023, $997,000 in...
There were five new reported cases of covid-19 in Wahkiakum County on Monday and two more on Wednesday after The Eagle had gone to press, bringing the cumulative total to 299, with 19 considered potentially active. That may not be all the cases of covid-19 in the county with the availability of at-home tests. "Many people who are using home tests don't report on them and don't follow positives up with PCR tests," Wahkiakum Health and Human Services Director Chris Bischoff said. "So we're...
Wahkiakum County officials discussed further response to flood damage in East Valley and addressed other topics when the board of commissioners met Tuesday. In early January, heavy rain and melting snow sent a deluge down a Wilson Creek tributary, with logs and woody debris forming a jam that diverted the creek along, over and through the road and cutting a new channel very close to the residence of Marshall and Martin Snow. Since then, the county and a contractor have restored the stream to its original channel, but the streambed created by...
CETA, or the Clean Energy Transformation Act, has become a hot topic of conversation, General Manager Dan Kay told the Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners on Tuesday. “It has two components,” Kay said. “It has a power supply side that the governor signed into law where we are transitioning into 100 percent renewable or non-carbon emitting energy by 2045. The second component, which will probably impact us the most, is the low income assistance component.” Low income assistance, or ener...
A $165,000 grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce in 2019 allowed the Pioneer Community Association to begin tackling some much needed repairs to the Pioneer Community Center. “It is good to remember how excited, relieved, and to some degree, flat out amazed we were to receive the grant award,” Suzanne Holmes wrote in a missive describing the activity that followed. It started with a roof replacement. Weatherguard, Inc., arrived in September of 2020 and removed the old shingles and rotting decking, replacing them with new plywoo...
To The Eagle Do you ever wonder what our education system would look like without the support from levy funds? Imagine this: You are a parent of two children so you must pack food, snacks, supplies, personal hygiene products, and drive your children to school. When you arrive, the grass is overgrown, the playground is fenced off and the gate is locked. Nobody greets your children at the door. You glance in the office and wave into the darkness. You escort your children to their classroom where you find the teacher. She/he is waiting for their...
To The Eagle: Amongst the letters a few weeks back was a tutorial on constitutions. Comprehensive as it was, it omitted the crucial fact, the singular feature, that makes the U.S. Constitution absolutely unique among similar documents, both now and historically: It confers sovereignty upon the individual citizen; not a king or governor or politburo, but We the People, you and me. From this basic concept comes the passel of freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights. For over two hundred years we’ve pretty much stuck to those rules (with a few m...
To The Eagle: Looking back 25 years, in 1977 the levy request put before Wahkiakum voters was $375,000 ($6.19 per thousand) and it was easily approved by 80% of the voters. Every levy request since then has been approved, even in 2010 after the recession hit. That’s important to note, because Wahkiakum County had the largest percentage drop in employment of any county in the state during the 2008-2009 recession. But the levy passed. Generations of Wahkiakum County voters have recognized that voting to support school levies is a vote for the f...
To The Eagle: We recently voted by mail on the school levy and did so with complete confidence in the integrity of Washington’s postal voting system. Folks using the ballot drop box didn’t have to worry about it being suddenly moved to a distant inconvenient location the day before the polls opened, as has happened in several “red” states. Washington voters don’t have to worry about craftily biased voter I.D. requirements as in Texas, where state issued student ID’s are not accepted at the polls, but a handgun license is. This is to disenfra...
Last weekend we completed another test of our county's ability to communicate during severe emergency conditions. This nation-wide activity is called Winter Field Day: Amateur radio stations from all over the country attempt to contact as many other stations as they can in the 24 hours from 11 a.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday. With support from Wahkiakum school district our three-member team operated using an 1100' wire loop wire antenna strung between light posts surrounding a baseball field....
Crystal Ann Clark died January 5, 2022, in Longview. She was born at Cowlitz General Hospital in Longview on October 26, 1969, to Robert and Linda Clark. She grew up in Cathlamet, spending her time at Marie’s where her Grandma Wendell cooked, at her grandparents house by the marina, on the island at the beach, and hanging out with her friends. She enjoyed spending summers at the county fair, the coast, camping with her family, and holidays in Toledo with her Grandma Rosalie and extended family. She graduated from Wahkiakum High School in 1...
The Lower Columbia College Fighting Smelt Speech & Debate Team earned multiple team and individual honors at the Fred Scheller Invitational tournament hosted by Pacific University – the final Northwest Forensics Conference (NFC) Designated Tournament of the season. The team won first place in their division of the tournament and was also honored as a Division III Gold Program in the conference, which represents schools in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Alaska. This marks the t...
The new Beanstack reading challenges for children, adults, and teens are currently active through March 31 at . It is easy to register, then log book titles as you read them and win prizes. There is also a Beanstack mobile app. Meanwhile the following winners of the adult winter reading challenge are enjoying their prizes: Jessica Vik - Julie's Java gift certificate, Darren Plank - Tales and Tails T-shirt, Marilyn Gatens - Kindle, Naomi Schultz - Patty Cakes gift card, and not pictured: Crystal...
Wahkiakum County 4-H will host a morning of free youth activities Saturday, February 12, 9 a.m. to noon, at Johnson Park in Rosburg. Wahkiakum County 4-H volunteers will host a variety of projects for youth ages 5 and up. All are welcome, no need to be a current member of 4-H to attend. Parent or guardian participation is appreciated. Some projects scheduled include hand sewing, scribble bot robotics, pearl bead crafts, and more. Handwashing, masks and social distancing required. RSVP to lfrink@wsu.edu so that enough materials are available....
Macie Elliott and Jessica Yurosko of Cathlamet were named to the Dean’s List at Eastern Oregon University for the 2021 fall term. They join 563 other students at the college who were able to achieve and maintain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale while attending classes full time....
CLOUDY START--As I begin this column, it's pretty cloudy with just a smattering of raindrops, but it appears we'll be seeing some more "real rain" a little later on, so I hope you've kept the boots and umbrellas by the door! For now, the snowflake that had appeared in the forecast on my weather app has disappeared and I sure hope it stays gone. Considering there is a blizzard going on back east with tens of thousands without power and feet of snow on the ground, I'm quite happy to put up with the rain! Let's just hope February is nicer to us...
THURSDAY Cathlamet Fire Department, 7 p.m. Senior Citizen Luncheon, Rosburg Hall, Noon. Skamokawa Fire Department, 7 p.m. Grays River Fire Department, work night, 7:30 p.m. Puget Island Fire Department, drill night, 7 p.m. District No. 4 Fire Department, 7 p.m. Wahkiakum Fire District 2 Commissioners, Skamokawa Fire Hall, 7 p.m. Food Addicts Meeting, Hope Center, 3rd & Maple, Cathlamet, 6-7 p.m. Westside Play & Learn Group, Valley Bible Church, 9:30-11 a.m. Cathlamet Public Library Board of Trustees, 12:45 p.m. West End Food Pantry, Johnson Par...
Apology: I need to correct a misunderstanding on my part about the Alpha Theta hanging baskets project. The baskets will be delivered at the high school the week of Finn Fest, not before. If you leave yours to hang at Finn Fest, you can pick them up after the festival ends so you will have them for the rest of summer and fall. I mistakenly thought we'd get them earlier. It's a great idea to share them at Finn Fest when they are in their earlier days. Contact Loretta Smalley at (360) 520-2071 to...
Wahkiakum County law enforcement officers and emergency response personnel handled a variety of reports during the past week, including: January 23 —1:12 p.m. The Grays River ambulance aided a person who may have broken an ankle after falling off a log truck in the Grays River area. 3:06 p.m. A caller said that a power line on Jacobson Road was hanging low enough for someone to grab. The District 4 Fire Department and the PUD were notified. At 7:27 p.m., the person called back to say no one had come out to fix the line. 7 p.m. The Cathlamet a...
In last week's report about the January meeting of the board of directors of the Naselle/Grays River Valley School District, The Eagle incorrectly reported that board Chair Chuck Hendrickson referred to a previous letter signed by all board members and stating that the board had decided to comply with CDC recommendations regarding the use of masks at sports events and covid testing of winter sports’ athletes. Hendrickson was referring to State of Washington health recommendations, not recommendations from the federal Center for Disease C...
Washington’s highly-touted and highly controversial long-term care program will be delayed by 18 months, as lawmakers work to correct flaws in the program. Gov. Jay Inslee signed bills Jan. 27 to delay the WA Cares payroll tax on Washington workers just days after the Senate voted 46-3 in favor of delaying both the collection of premiums and WA Cares Fund’s implementation. The House of Representatives voted 91-6 in favor of the same bill. Inslee’s action pauses on the collection of premiums. The collection is scheduled to begin July 1, 2023,...
Some lucky Wahkiakum High School students in Don Cox's classroom participated in a mock trial recently with two lawyers from the Wahkiakum Prosecuting Attorney's office and a District Court Judge from Longview presiding as U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Half of the class took the role of appellants and the other half were respondents, arguing a case that made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857: Dred Scott vs. Sanford. "This was a big court case," Cox said. "It was a test case. It...
Above: A pair of bald eagles take a break in a fir tree on Puget Island. Below: A peregrine falcon keeps watch on Puget Island. Photos courtesy of Sarah Lawrence....
The Naselle Comet girls basketball team played aggressively on both offense and defense but couldn't quite pull out a win Monday, losing 44-41 to the highly ranked Ilwaco Lady Fishermen. Photos by Robert Hilson....
