Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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To The Eagle: "The Eagle has landed." Words of Neil Armstrong landing the lunar module in 1969 or the title of a novel in 1975. Today, however, it has a less elegant connotation: it indicates that our newspaper, The Eagle, has landed clumsily, feathers flying, on one side of a local government problem that has degenerated into a political squabble. The Eagle received an e-mail from write-in candidate Dale Jacobson criticizing the mayor and incumbent councilor Steve McNicholas (Dale's target of opportunity) for their handling of the financial...
Last week we printed a photo of an owl perched on a fire hydrant on Puget Island. Reader sent that photo to us; we appreciate it. On Tuesday, we learned an update about that owl. Rob Stockhouse said the photo was taken near his farm on West Birnie Slough Road. He later found the owl with his chickens. It had killed two and was having a feast. When he approached, it tried to fly away, but it had been injured, Stockhouse observed, and it was trapped in the chicken yard. Stockhouse called a raptor rescue service, and a person from that firm caught...
To The Eagle: I kinda liked old Richard Nixon. He normalized relations with China and did much to tidy up the messy situation in Southeast Asia before his henchmen committed some minor felonious acts at the Watergate and he chose to stonewall and cover up. I had the solution to his problems: release the mysterious tapes, admit the foul-up and press on. But he didn't (son-of-a-gun didn't even call me) and the rest is history. We're at a similar tipping point right here in River City. Our world class Cathlamet Fire Department is required by law...
To The Eagle: I am writing to get ahead of a story that will son be coming out about Columbia View Care Center. Every year, each nursing home in the state has a review conducted by state surveyors. Columbia View just finished this review. Sadly we did not fare well in the eyes of the reviewers. It seemed like every time something could go wrong for us, it did. I could go on at length about the process and what was found during the investigation, but The Eagle (happily for the reader in this case,) has a policy about the maximum length of a lett...
To The Eagle: Citizens of Cathlamet should count themselves lucky: Two good men are seeking votes to fill seats on our Town Council. I am writing to endorse both of these individuals, based on their long records of laudable public service. Steve McNicholas, running as an incumbent in Position No. 1, works in the community’s interest in ways almost too numerous to list. He drives the trolley on market days and organizes volunteers to sweep streets, clean parks and help our elderly neighbors with simple home improvement. He supports our l...
To The Eagle: I was surprised but also pleased to find out that Dick Swart was prepared to re-enter town governance. The news cam in separate letters to both my wife and myself. I was, at the time, perplexed by the recommendation for a write-in candidate to oppose Steve McNicholas; the letter providing no information or justification. I don't know anything about Dale Jacobson except that he may have been associated with some controversy over propane purchases. Mr. Jacobson might be a fine candidate for all I know. What surprised me though was...
To The Eagle: Recently, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to represent cancer patients and survivors in the Third Congressional District and delivered their messages of hope for a future without cancer. I joined more than 600 American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) volunteers from across the nation to call on lawmakers to protect funding for cancer research and prevention programs. Thanks to continued breakthroughs in cancer research, millions of people with cancer have reached milestones that they may not have thought possible...
To The Eagle: I tried for two days to contact Pat Reese to tell her how much I enjoyed her response letter to The Eagle and how surprised I was that a nonresident of the town of Cathlamet felt that the town government was more important than the emergency medical services and fire department. Unless, of course, I misread her letter and/or she misread mine. Ms. Reese did raise an interesting point about the "county seat." Did she know that Cathlamet was the territorial (1870s) and state (1889) "county seat" of Wahkiakum County before it...
To The Eagle: Calculating the unsuitability of solar panels and wind generators for use in public utility grid power involved Boolean algebra and Aristotelian logic and runs something like this: solar panels don't work when the sun don't shine and wind generators don't gen when the wind don't blow and selling power from such a shaky setup is real risky--kinda like handing your teenager the car keys and a six pack. Billionaire T. Boone Pickens invested a few million in wind before he figured this out, but he managed to sell out. The Obama...
Vote-by-mail ballots will soon arrive in the mailboxes of Washington's registered voters. With the presidential election out of the way two years ago, there's not much on the ballot. Voters living in the confines of Port District 2 have the only contested race on the ballot. Lori Scott is challenging incumbent Carlton Appelo for the position that represents western Wahkiakum County. Appelo is over 90 years old but his mind is still sharp. He was one of the founding commissioners of the district back in 1966 and feels he brings a wealth of...
To The Eagle: I wish to thank Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler for co-sponsoring the endangered salmon predation prevention act (H.R. 946). On October 5, the House Resources Committee voted 29-13 to send this bill to the full house for passage. One can only hope the full House of Representatives and the US Senate will finally act on this long overdue problem of seal and sea lion predation of salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and smelt runs which are in fact being decimated by these predators. These predators have become way over-populated since being list...
To The Eagle: Where is the public safety war with the mayor going? The only certain outcome of the mayor's attempted power grab is a drastic weakening of the Cathlamet fire and ambulance service. For no real reason other than a power grab by the mayor putting public safety at risk. So far it has benefited Fire District 4, which has received many new applications from volunteers, which is good for the areas served by District 4, but bad for residents of Cathlamet who are served by the Cathlamet volunteer fire department. This raises the...
To The Eagle: The letter to The Eagle by attorney George Hanigan has raised some serious questions about the direction of the conflict between the fire department and the Town of Cathlamet. The first concern is the actual disagreement between the requirements of the state auditors and the fire districts, in which the auditors apparently were not able to get access to all the required records of the fire districts. Conflict between the state auditors and any government or private entity is not a good scenario. Transparency and open accounting...
To The Eagle: We are almost halfway through October and The Charlotte House continues to sponsor activities that will hopefully bring awareness to domestic violence and get people thinking about how they can be a part of the solution to put an end to the violence. On Tuesday, October 4, I met with our county commissioners where they read and signed a Proclamation declaring October 2011 Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This can be viewed elsewhere in this issue of The Eagle. Thank you to our Commissioners for once again showing your support....
To The Eagle: Through this letter, I want to thank and recognize the work of The Charlotte House. Thanks for the opportunity of being admitted to the program and to those directly responsible, I want to congratulate the result and thank the efforts and dedication invested in me, in my process. As a consequence, I am on the verge of getting my permanent residence in the United States of America. Likewise, I want to emphasize the team spirit and fellowship observed during my stay in the months that I was living in the institution. I hope I can...
To The Eagle: I have blissfully sat by and been an armchair critic too long. As a tax-paying voting citizen of our community, I cannot be indifferent to either the mayor or the volunteer firemen's criticism. One must know that the mayor is essentially a full-time volunteer position receiving a paltry salary of $250 a month to supervise about seven full-time employees. As a volunteer, I believe the requirements are to serve your community or organization to the best of your ability with no expectation of compensation. One may learn more about...
To The Eagle: Every year in September the staff of The Charlotte House prepares for October and Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). We begin by looking at slogans of years past and brainstorm new ones all in an effort to draw attention to our hope of ending violence against women. It seems like when we want to grab people’s attention, we try to come up with the one phrase or image that will draw people in and spark them on to action. There have been many compelling anti-domestic violence messages over the years – slogans like, “Love...
To The Eagle, The Washington State Redistricting Commission has released the preliminary maps for new electoral district boundaries. There are five commissioners: two picked by Democratic state legislators, two picked by Republican state legislators and a non-voting independent chair. The Grays River Grange has examined the four maps regarding the proposed boundaries for the 19th Legislative District. We considered geography and also applied results from various elections in 2008 and 2010 to obtain a picture of partisan composition. The two...
To The Eagle: Sometimes a little story in The Eagle tickles your memory in a startling way. It's like yesterday. But it really was the doo-dah days, my junior year in high school when our football team went scoreless for the entire season. I am not making this up. Toward the season-end, one of our guys "scored" but it was the wrong goal post. We thought he had a slight concussion and was confused running those 98 yards. Your good story "Football season starts Friday" (The Eagle, 9/1/11) quotes coach Eric Hansen on summer camp saying "by the...
To The Eagle: The Town versus Fire Department squabble seems convoluted viewed through the prism of several lengthy articles in The Eagle plus a couple of high pressure meetings, but the source of the contention, the State of Washington Accountability Audit of the Town of Cathlamet is concise, straightforward and eminently readable, even to us primitives out here in the wilds of Puget Island. It clearly states that the fire department has four undeclared checking/savings accounts under the town's tax ID number, plus a petty cash account that...
To The Eagle: When George Wehrfritz ran for mayor of the Town of Cathlamet, I was impressed because I perceived him as being intelligent. After observing his actions and public statements, although I do not know him personally and don't always agree with his positions, I still believe he is intelligent. Wehrfritz, by his actions and public statements, has taught me many things, the most important of which is that the volunteer fire and emergency medical services are far more important to our town than having a town government. If our community...
To The Eagle: Very interesting! The current fire house flap certainly has raised the local blood pressure in a lot of directions. It seems that there is a lynch mob forming to dump the Mayor. Why fire the guy for standing up for the locals whose public contributions are funding this enterprise? Seems to me he's doing what previous mayors chose to ignore! Why kill the messenger? Unfortunately this has all occurred in a volunteer organization which is vital to all in the area. It appears that there should have been sufficient legal expertise...
To The Eagle: It happened again. We were driving down the road, where cars are supposed to be, when I noticed a movement on the pavement, a small dog. It had a collar, so it belonged to somebody, but unfortunately, that owner did not care enough about their pet to keep it at home, safe and secure, in their own yard and off the road! No matter at what speed I was going, when you talk car or truck versus critter, well, the vehicle wins just about every time. Fortunately for this pup, swift reflexes and a lot of luck kept it from becoming another...
To The Eagle: I want to say thanks, Wahkiakum, for a great fair. Sorry I'm a little late with this but better late than never. The whole fair looked wonderful. The fairgrounds are the best I've ever seen them; as always, the T-building and the Youth building had beautiful displays. It was such a fun time seeing old friends like Patty and Gordon, Lore and Sharon and my old 4-H leader Veryl Chamberlain. It was also fun to make new friends, such as Phil and Ivy Lou Vik. I would like to thank Kay and Daria for helping out with open horses at the...
To The Eagle: I love reading The Wahkiakum County Eagle. However, I dislike reading about the Mayor's personal attack on an upstanding citizen like Jerry DeBriae. Jerry has spent his adult life devoted to the Fire Dept. and the town of Cathlamet. I think the answer is for the Mayor to resign. Paul Bjornsgard Naselle...
