Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 2432 - 2456 of 2591
To The Eagle: I don't think our nation disciplines terrorists in cells in such a manner for being non-compliant. What happened to plain old isolation? Looks like I need to clarify a couple items about the jail beating incident July 16, 2010. When I wrote my initial writings back in July trying to get the word out about this incident. I thought our son was cuffed in his cell. I had since learned that he was not cuffed, but was in his cell. Undersheriff Jon Dearmore said at the forum in Skamokawa that my letters were placed in mailboxes. The few...
To The Eagle: One would expect that getting information from a public office would not be difficult or next to impossible. After one month of persistence I have had the official Wahkiakum County sales study used to compute the Puget Island R4 valuations forwarded to me and it wasn’t by the Assessor’s Office. Although the Assessor’s office has “one in the mail” it has not yet arrived. There are errors in this study. Even though the new appraiser is moving swiftly to correct valuations as property owners speak up, there are a lot of people wh...
To The Eagle: Wahkiakum County needs a Sheriff who is action oriented and ready to make real changes. The alleged assault in the Wahkiakum County jail happened on July 16 and the inmate was not given medical care until four days later, on the 20th. Further, the public was not notified of this incident until the September, 25, 2010 article in The Daily News. Jon Dearmore has the word accountability listed as part of his platform on his website, and yet he failed to be accountable to the citizens when this incident occurred. What else are they...
To The Eagle: Recently, my husband Dick Watts and I spent a week and a half in Cathlamet, finalizing the purchase of our new home. During that period of time, we met dozens of people. Warm, friendly, easy to talk to, and eager to make our acquaintance. In fact, Dick and I marvel to ourselves that we have already made more friends in Cathlamet than we made during 28 years in our current neighborhood in Southern California! Now we'd like to take a moment to publicly thank all of you for welcoming us into your community. All of you, but...
Next Wednesday, St. James Family Center will celebrate its 25th anniversary, and we join those who salute the center and its programs. The center fulfills a valuable role in our community. It started as a preschool education program. It expanded to offer a place to provide child care for working families.. It tied into networks that provide a variety of social programs and services--youth activities, family support and education, family entertainment opportunities and so on. The center became the local agency operating a domestic violence...
To The Eagle: The Skamokawa Grange hosting the candidate’s forum for the upcoming November election was a huge success. Chuck Parker is a true “Master of Ceremonies,” and Chuck and the grange members deserve our thanks for organizing and hosting this event. It is estimated that about 100 people were in attendance. There were good presentations by all the candidates and the questions and answers by candidates were lively and informative. However, there was one outstanding exception to have a complete program. Our District Court Judge Bill Faubi...
To The Eagle: After several years of non-productive discussion with the Columbia Land Trust, Ducks Unlimited and Wahkiakum County regarding the Kandoll Farm project, the Grays River Habitat Enhancement District (a flood control and diking district), with the support of the affected landowners, has published an order of work to take corrective action to try and relieve some of the excessive, ongoing flooding and continuing damage to these people. In response to that publication, an impromptu meeting was called by WDFW last Friday afternoon at...
To The Eagle: Nelson Creek project is yet another debacle produced by Columbia Land Trust, without proper notification of affected land owners, entities affected and people responsible for the land in question. Pete Ringen fortunately is on the board and hopefully aware of consequences, as he has been dealing with the Columbia Land Trust, on the Kandoll Farm debacle. Friday there was a ‘meeting’ to try to get some of the Kandoll farm problems fixed. Unfortunately it proved to more about the salmon, than the problems to the resident people, as p...
To The Eagle: Many people find great joy in volunteering for the greater good of the community and find it very rewarding to lend a helping hand where one is needed. Just yesterday as I was checking my mail at the local post office an elderly woman was struggling as she was exiting with a large box in her hands. It was very refreshing to see that another patron politely asked if she needed help and then, proceeded to help her. I frequently see examples like this everyday in our wonderful community and would like to see more of this as I begin...
To The Eagle: I would like to clarify the issue brought up by Ms. Grasseth in her letter to The Eagle (9/16/10). The only qualification you must have to run for Sheriff is to be a registered voter. Washington State law (RCW 36.28.025) states that to hold the office of county Sheriff you must, within 12 months of assuming office, have a certificate of completion of a basic law enforcement training program. This is an approximately 16 week course, put on by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. It is funded by the Washington...
To The Eagle: This letter is a follow-up to one published in the September 16, 2010 Eagle "Writer urges property value research." I had a pleasant and informative meeting on September 20, 2010 with Denny Bryant the new Chief Deputy / Appraiser in our county Assessor's office My purpose for this meeting was to learn what property sales data was used to justify the $1,407.00 per frontage foot value used in the 2010 re-evaluation for our property on Welcome Slough. Denny printed from the computer the results of a front foot rate study evidently...
To The Eagle: The Assessor's office can assist each property owner by providing concise statistical data, but we've found we must be specific as we ask for copies of their forms. 1) 510 sales from May 2006 through November 2009--This is not to be confused with the "Welcome to Wahkiakum Property Sales" which includes the 371 sales from January 2007 through July 2010 that is readily available at the Assessor's office by the door. The 510 sales is a three page statistical study the Assessor has compiled to make the Puget Island assessments. 2)...
To The Eagle: As a Puget Island property owner I now have a (once every four years) "Notice of Value" for our property on Welcome Slough (Assessment Year 2010/Tax Year 2011). The notice on the lower left reads: "If you believe that the new value is substantially incorrect compared to your estimate of market value, please call the Assessors Office for information...." That notice sounds simple enough, but what is behind the "new value" for each of our properties? State statutes, regulations and guidelines define the "playing field" for...
To The Eagle: A month from now, I will be running my second Portland Marathon on 10 October 2010 (10/10/10! The date alone was a huge incentive!). I am excited to participate; it’s such a rush to plod through my natal city for hours with thousands of other runners and walkers. However, I think that running a marathon is a pretty selfish endeavor. Training takes many miles and hours, mostly dedicated to oneself. In all those miles and hours, I’ve been thinking of a way to make my run a little less selfish, and maybe a little more fun. “Hi...
To The Eagle: Current Undersheriff Jon Dearmore's qualifications include graduation from Washington's Basic Law Enforcement Academy. Could Troy Norris tell us if he has ever attended this academy and what the outcome was? Current Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow's qualifications include being, in fact, an attorney. Could Dennis Gordon please tell us if he has graduated from law school and if he has passed the Washington State Bar Exam? It is my understanding that the state law does not disqualify unqualified candidates until they actually win....
There's nothing like property assessments to pique people's interest in local government. The Wahkiakum County Assessor's office recently mailed property owners their revaluation notices. One person from western Wahkiakum County commented his property value went down. However, the value of our property on Puget Island went up. As Island property owners, we weren't alone. Several have told of increases of 8.5 percent, 11.8 percent and 22.5 percent. Meanwhile, local real estate agents have wondered how property values have gone up. One pointed...
Depending on your point-of-view, we are faced with another important public official running unopposed for the forthcoming November election in Wahkiakum County. Public records indicate the incumbent District Court Judge has been in public service for 22-years! This would appear to indicate: 1) voter’s commitment and acceptance of the public service-vote of confidence; 2) another example of once-in-office, the person stays in office and or 3; a combination of once-in-office and complete ignorance of a candidate’s actions and capabilities and...
To The Eagle: I woke up to a rainy Tuesday morning and needed an inside activity for a while. I had read and heard that Wahkiakum County now has real property data "on-line." I tried it for a while. A lot of other folks need try it and provide feedback to the county so the system can mature and become a user friendly resource. This data base is available from the "Wahkiakum County Government Website" with a "click" on "Property Search" in the upper right of the screen. Be prepared for some changes from what you are used to reading on your...
To The Eagle: The rainy season has barely begun, and we are already drowning -- in bureaucracy. All floods, real or allegorical, start with trickles. A friend of ours desires to develop waterfront property in Cathlamet and is told by Fish and Wildlife that he can't let workers make footprints in the sand or in any other way dislodge any sediment. No permit forthcoming until he can find workers who can walk on water. Another acquaintance on Puget Island took a 30 percent loss on the sale of his house while the local tax bureaucrats are actually...
It's going to be a busy fall. Our county board of commissioners will act on an ordinance to regulate the application of biosolids--treated human waste--this month. If they adopt it, and I'll bet they will, it could send the county into court with the state Department of Ecology. Officials and citizens are looking for some way to control or restrict the application of biosolids. A Seaview firm wants to spread them on a Grays River farm, and Westend residents are leery of the prospect, fearing the biosolids will adversely impact wildlife and...
To The Eagle: As local boaters we want to thank the many last minute volunteers who last Saturday pulled off a great function at the marina featuring several events and a chili cook off. It makes us feel good when boaters and land yachters (RV’ers) from other areas look favorably on Cathlamet, which in turn makes us more welcome when we visit their marinas. David Goodroe was like the Dutch boy who found a hole in the dike and rallied the town’s people to save the day. Several hundred people had a great time enjoying chili, racing rubber duc...
To The Eagle: In the phrase, the man who cried wolf, changing “man” to “boy” is also known at the “The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf,” a fable attributed to Aesop. It was not until the mid-sixth decade of my life that I cried wolf. Crying wolf is different than asking for and receiving help from family, friends, neighbors, and teachers, and best of all the few great “mentors” we gain in our lives. But my periods of crying wolf were probably perceived by many as constant complaining. I will be forever remorseful if all I did was complain. Since...
To The Eagle: Let me introduce to you three retired fellas, their names are Dick, Joe and Norm. For many years they have been fishing spring chinook and summer steelhead off of Coffee Pot Island in the middle of the Columbia River. What a wonderful pastime to enjoy right off Puget Island. We met them several years ago and have become good fishing buddies. Dick, Joe and Norm built a tree-room cabin to stay in while fishing season was on. They stayed weeks at a time. It took a lot of hard work and money to build. They just completed an outside ro...
To The Eagle: This is a note about Sheriff's Candidate Jon Dearmore. I was stopped by this deputy (for speeding, no less) some four years ago. We met and he made an impression on me. I was stopped again by this deputy (again, for speeding) a year after that! Many years have gone by. No election, no race and nothing to write or complain about, just Jon Dearmore. Needless to say I was not proud or happy about the events but Deputy Dearmore made such a positive impression on me that now four years later, I remember him quite distinctly still. I...
To The Eagle: Yesterday while attending the Grays River Methodist Church listening to our Pastor Richenda Fairhurst giving us the message entitled "What's Right For You?" couldn't have been more correct because just a few minutes later, one of our members announced that the Rosburg Store was going to reopen in September. Ever since the Bolton family moved into our community, they have been active in many ways and now with the purchase of the store, they are filling the void that has existed since the store closed. It has been many years since...
