Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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Recently I interviewed Paula Marx Rush of Cathlamet for our second installment of Reader's Fave. Reader's Fave is simply a short interview each week with someone in our community sharing their favorite book. Even though the discussion was quite personal and serious, the interview was wonderful, positive, and very uplifting. Paula was quite clear and to the point. Her favorite book is "A Human Being Died That Night" by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. This is a non-fiction book about a South African...
The Wahkiakum County PUD Commissioners met on Tuesday, Feb. 18, for their regularly scheduled meeting. The Commissioners passed a motion to change the job position title from auditor to director of finance. This new title describes the job’s duties in a more encompassing way and will better assist in acquiring a replacement for the position. The commissioners then held a workshop on the Town of Cathlamet Utilities Consolidation. Commissioner Eugene Healy drafted an opening statement that broke down the conversation surrounding the water s...
Recently, a young lady asked me a very good question, one I don’t think about often, due mainly to our rural location here in eastern Wahkiakum County. She wrote, “Where can a person still drive in the county and walk or hike for free?” As a hunter, I walk all over this county and into Pacific and Cowlitz counties as well. A wanderer, if you will. The ground I wander? Some of it’s private - whether in the traditional, Mr. Jones landowner sense - or the much larger timber-company-holding type of...
FROM SNOWSCAPE TO SOGFEST. Well, we had a nasty bit of snow last week and it sure did disrupt a whole lot of events and our daily routines. Slipping and sliding seemed to be all too common and it was advised for those who didn’t have to be out and about to stay home; it was treacherous out there. Snow was falling rapidly out here in West Valley for a while, and I was afraid we would repeat the 1990 snowstorm when we went from six inches of the white stuff to about two feet overnight. Thankfully, we didn’t have a repeat of that, and people got...
February 10 1:01 p.m. The Cathlamet Ambulance responded to help an elderly Cathlamet resident who was having leg pain. February 11 1:07 p.m. Cathlamet Emergency Services assisted an elderly resident who had fallen. 1:11 p.m. A concerned resident reported a suspicious phone call in which they were asked to purchase gift cards but did not. 2:35 p.m. Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of an assault west of Cathlamet. 2:56 p.m. A driver on Greenwood Rd. called to report that a dump truck lost rocks while driving up a hill. 2:57 p.m. A C...
Each year, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) of the United States selects an emergency medical technician, law enforcement officer, firefighter, and 911 dispatcher/telecommunicator to receive Public Servant Awards. Local VFW Posts submit a winner from each category to their State VFW Department Headquarters. The department then selects a single winner for each of the four awards and submits those to the VFW National Headquarters. The VFW National Emergency Medical Technician Public Servant Award...
Recently, I took my wife and granddaughter to the movie theater. The movie itself isn’t important. What was important, at least to me, was the price of admission. True, thanks to Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, ad nauseam, I haven’t been to the theater for many a moon; however, what I found there shocked me. First, there was no ticket counter; no human being with whom to interact. The tickets were purchased and our seats chosen at a kiosk opposite the concession stand. Three seats? Forty-seven dol...
Career Connected Learning was at the heart of the 4-H Robo Rascals' field trip to St. John's Medical Center. This young group of students were eager to play the role of the nurse or the patient, as they learned how to operate many pieces of equipment from the surgical floor. Medical staff came in on their day off to teach these students how they prep someone for surgery. Actions like taking blood pressure, using the vein finder, and hearing heartbeats with a stethoscope were some highlights. Eve...
Friday, Feb. 14 from 2 – 5 p.m. is Free Cookie Time! Just show up at your library and receive a free cookie. Enjoy a cookie while reading in a quiet space, talking lightly with our wonderful volunteers, or just enjoy the cookie. We look forward to seeing you this Friday. Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 10:30 – 11 a.m. is Story Time! This is a special 30 minutes. A time for young ones to enjoy a time of reading aloud. We’ve had recent strong interest with many enjoying this time. Story Time is held in the Pioneer Community Association (PCA) lower room....
After a fun and successful sophomore year, Wahkiakum Youth Mentoring continues to look for opportunities to grow. Throughout the National Mentoring Month of January and into February, team coordinators have visited public meetings and other gatherings to promote the program and recruit more mentors and youth. Next week, they will be hosting a Wahkiakum Youth Mentoring Q&A for anyone interested in participating. Potential mentors, parents and youth are welcome to attend. Coordinators and some...
COLD AND COLDER? Last week was plenty cold, with temperatures down to 23 degrees here in the west valley, which allowed the fallen snow from earlier in the week to linger. Thankfully, as I begin this column at the start of a new week, it’s about gone. This week is looking to be just as frigid, and I hope you all survive with no frozen pipes. My weather app is showing temperatures down in the teens... burr! We’ll be warming up for the weekend and getting some rain, which isn’t great, but it beats many other options. I wonder if the rain might...
February 3 10:56 a.m. A driver on Greenwood Rd. in Cathlamet called to report an erratic driver going at a high rate of speed. 12:47 p.m. The Cathlamet Emergency Services responded to an elderly Puget Island resident who was experiencing dizziness and vomiting. 9:25 p.m. A Deep River resident called to report black ice and a couple of inches of snow on the roadway of SR4 between Flandersville and the county line. 21:47 p.m. A caller on Salmon Creek Rd. reported that they heard someone screaming and that a car was in the ditch. February 4 12:20...
The first round of the boys and girls District 1B basketball tournaments has been set, and for Wahkiakum and Naselle, the games are another chapter in the rivalry; only with a little more on the line than just the KM Trophy. Both the boys and girls teams faced off against each other on Feb. 12 at Wahkiakum High School in Cathlamet. The results of the games were not available at the time of press. As the games usally promice to bring out a good crowd, these contests also brought with them a shot...
The Town Council met Monday to discuss a range of topics including financial matters and potential utility consolidation. The meeting began with the approval of the agenda, omitting an executive session based on legal advice. The council addressed public inquiries about water line responsibilities, clarifying that while the town installs lines from the main to the meter, customers bear associated labor costs. In financial matters, the council unanimously approved an ordinance adjusting employee salaries in the 2025 budget to align with the...
Washington District Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez visited Wahkiakum County on January 29 to meet with PUD leaders and be updated on the progress of the Puget Island well-drilling, which went underway in December 2024. Drilling this well is among the PUD’s final steps in meeting requirements for a Washington State Department of Health-approved Water System Plan for the Puget Island Water System. Congresswoman Gluesenkamp Perez helped to secure funding for the project through her C...
Shawn Mace, 59, died at his home in Cathlamet on January 17th. Shawn was born in Longview on June 26,1965 to Glenn and Helen (Mecham) Mace and was the youngest of seven children. He grew up in Cathlamet, graduating from Wahkiakum High School in 1984. He worked at the family owned business, Mace’s Drive Inn from 1986 - 2015. He worked in law enforcement in Wahkiakum County before his job as deckhand and skipper on the Ferry Wahkiakum. He was a member of River of Life Assembly Church. Shawn was preceded by his wife of 32 years, Sheila on Oct 1...
The Wahkiakum PUD Commissioners held their regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 4 where they discussed the recently submitted PUD/Town of Cathlamet consolidation study submitted by Grant and Osborne. Commissioner Gene Healy suggested scheduling a workshop where the three commissioners could reassess both the positive and negative implications, address any misinformation that has been circling, and answer the public’s questions. “Put notes on the whiteboard, everybody participates, and we have a workshop that allows the public and anybody els...
Ah, smelt. Despite the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW) best intentions to provide us with smelt dipping opportunities, the first two days were not approved. Fishery managers evaluate weekly commercial test fishery landings, or catch reports, to determine if the smelt run size is large enough to support a recreational harvest. This week’s catch reports did not provide enough information to confirm whether the run is large enough to open a recreational fishery in the Cowlitz Ri...
January 27 11:23 a.m. A caller in Cathlamet reported seeing an erratic person talking to themselves on Elm St. 11:27 a.m. Sheriff’s deputies performed a property check after a resident on Risk Rd. received a call that their shop door was open after they knew it was closed when they left. 11:34 a.m. Cathlamet Emergency Services assisted an elderly Cathlamet resident who had fallen down. 2:46 p.m. Deputies assisted with the removal of a junk vehicle in Cathlamet. 3:49 p.m. A driver on SR-4 called for assistance after locking their keys in t...
We’ve all heard the saying, “Change is hard!” Surely, that is why so many of us make New Year’s resolutions only to forget about them after a few short weeks into January. The self-discipline necessary to make changes in our lives to improve add and subtract from our lives to improve is much harder than simply writing resolutions on a piece of paper! Instead, we find ourselves waving a white flag of surrender, retreating to our comfort zones for another year. That is not the case for a handful...
Did you know there is Board of Trustees which oversees and governs the Cathlamet Public Library? And as you know, the library serves all of Wahkiakum County. Anyone in our county can get a library card for free. Well, I’m one of the library trustees, and a recent one at that. And I thought, “Hey, if we are a library for the whole county, we should have voices from the whole county on the board.” I knew about the Johnson Park Library but had never stopped by to check it out, so a few weeks ago I stopped in and met Carillon Nicol who is the l...
January 20 6:26 a.m. Cathlamet Ambulance responded to a Puget Island resident who was having a nosebleed. 10:26 a.m. A Grays River resident called to report that they found a dead bull elk on their neighbor’s property. 2:47 p.m. Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a drug kit found in Cathlamet. 5:08 p.m. Cathlamet Fire Department responded to complaints of a toxic, burning smell on Beaver Creek Rd. firefighters found the fire and extinguished it. January 21 10:01 a.m. Sheriff’s deputies responded to a burglary report on Rosburg Schoo...
COLD ENOUGH? Well, as I begin this column, it is dropping in the lower twenties, and I must tell you, I’m not a fan of that kind of cold... brr! As a matter of fact, it dropped 20 degrees in only 90 minutes here in West Valley earlier. The decent temperatures we saw earlier in the day were gone in a flash as the temperatures plummeted. From the sound of it, many folks were having plumbing problems, which I’m guessing were related to the extreme cold and resulted in frozen and broken pipes. I do hope you’re all doing better in that regard by no...
We have read your letters in the Grays River Builder, acknowledging the letters written by Mr. Meserve, and have enjoyed them immensely, so I thought I would write to you and tell you about the conditions in these vicinities. Like you folks, we are also strong and settled in two small communities (Frankfort and Sisson Creek), which are situated along the north shore of the Columbia River. Some of the settlers have made their homes here for the past fifty years; buying lots, erecting beautiful...
Gilbert E. Charles Jr. 29, died on Friday, December 27, 2024. Gilbert was born December 30, 1994, in Lakewood, Washington to Gilbert, Sr. and Janiece (Franks) Blum. Gilbert graduated from Rochester High School, Rochester, Washington in 2013. He attended Glendale Community College in Glendale, Arizona and studied Geology. In 2014 he came home to the Elochoman Valley to assist with caring for his grandparents Fredrick and Jane Charles, and to start his career in Natural Resources Management. We...
