What's happening at the Fair?

Last year Paul and I held two fund raisers during October, the Haunted House and Oktoberfest. This year to help keep us sane we’ve decided to combine them and host a Harvest Celebration! Scheduled for October 31, bring your family and come on down to enjoy an afternoon of fun.

We have lots of great events planned including the first ever lawn mower race as well as a Mules vs. Comets Dodge Ball game. Great food, lots of games and the return of the pumpkin shot put contest; you’d be a fool to miss out.

One of the most important things about living in a small community is support. Without community support, businesses, non-profits and other public services slip through the cracks. The fairgrounds are county property and in my mind that equates to community property, so when I was first approached by Health & Human services about the Food Bank the answer was obvious.

What better way to support the local community than to open up the fair grounds and assist the Food Bank. In our current economy and with the holidays quickly approaching, there’s never been a better time to step up and lend support.

With the new arena construction almost completed the time is now upon us to show off our fantastic new venue. My goal is to utilize the fair grounds year round, taking advantage of the opportunity our new arena has created.

Once the construction is complete the arena will be open for use by the public. If you’d like to purchase a key to the Horse Gate so that you can access the new riding arena, please contact the fair office. The key costs $50 and is good for one year. This is an excellent bargain so reserve your key today.

I wish to say a big thank you to Norrie Wise for donating her fair check back to the fair. I really appreciate your generosity and hope you will join us again next year for our 102nd fair celebration.

Long term camping is now available at the fair campground. Space is limited so if you’re interested, contact the fair office today.

Now it may seem a long time away but I am happy to announce that the 2010 fair dates have now been agreed. Our 102nd fair will begin on August 19 running through to August 21. If you have an idea for next year’s theme contact the fair office, as I’d love to hear your ideas.

Would you like to become involved with the planning of our 102nd fair next summer? The fair board is looking for new volunteers and potential members to join one of the new fair committees. Whether it’s entertainment, the princess program or the fair book, this is your chance to help make a difference and let your voice be heard.

The Wahkiakum County Fair board meets every month on the second Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the 3rd floor meeting room of the courthouse. The next fair board meeting will take place next October 14. The public is always welcome to attend.

Do you have any spare flower bulbs in your garden? This year we created lots of new flower beds around the fairgrounds so are looking for any donations. If you have any spare call the fair office, we’ll even come and pick them up!

Calling all teenagers 14 and older! Do you want to go to college but need a little help getting there? Are you a teenager living in Wahkiakum County or Naselle? Why not join the 2010 fair royalty program? The King and/or Queen receives a $500 scholarship. It’s a great way to meet new people and gain experience for your resume. Call or email the fair office for more information.

In an effort to cut costs and stay within our budget the fair office will now be open by appointment only. If you need to gain access to the fairgrounds please contact the fair office or leave a message on my cell phone 360-355-7743.

By Undersheriff Jon L. Dearmore

In 2007, I started writing a monthly column in an attempt to keep you, our citizens, in touch with various avenues of information relating to the sheriff’s office. It was pretty well received, but within the last several years, the budget for our office was cut. Sheriff Bardsley has green-lighted me to write the “On Scene” column again, perhaps quarterly.

Just before the 2009 Wahkiakum County Fair, Stevan Morgain wrote a story for The Wahkiakum County Eagle about a program I was starting up using the Fatal Vision® goggles in conjunction with driving a go-cart to show people how easily you can be impaired by alcohol and or drugs. To recap, the go-cart and small trailer was purchased by the Wahkiakum Community Network in mid 2009, and I would like to thank Lia Sealund and Tammy Peterson for their forward thinking and help with this project. The design or focus was to travel to functions and do the impaired driving demonstration. This demonstration is designed for you people, 10 years of age and up. The course is designed by using orange traffic cones set up in a serpentine formation, a simulated left hand swooping turn, back through more serpentine cones, and finally stopping the go-cart between cones that would simulate a small garage. This course is very easy to do without the Fatal Vision® goggles. The engine on the go-cart has a remote shut off switch which I control in the event that a driver gets out of control, and I would simply shut down the engine. Helmets, eye protection, seatbelts had to be worn in order to participate, and drivers had to sign an injury waiver

On August 22, at the fair, I demonstrated the Fatal Vision® Driving Under the Influence (DUI) course for 35 young people and adults. I followed up the driving portion of the course with performing field sobriety tests (FST), and then determined, based on “bad” driving and “bad” field sobriety tests, if the driver was under the influence. This demonstration is a visual impairment only, goggles demo. This was the maiden voyage for this program. I’m happy to report that all 35 participates were considered DUI by myself and the audience. It was very apparent to all who observed the demo and tests that each driver was DUI. I only had to use the remote shut-off switch on a few drivers.

I want to thank the Wahkiakum Community Network for sponsoring, supporting and purchasing the go-cart and all of the necessary equipment. The Network also purchased the original Fatal Vision® goggles in 1996. I would also like to thank Correction Officer Vernon Barton for putting the go-cart together in short order and thank County Mechanic Mike Carroll for installing the remote shut-off switch system and getting the go-cart completely operational before the Fair started.

This week, October 4-10 is National 4-H Week, a week-long celebration of 4-H across the country. Today’s 4-H is a community of more than six million young people who participate in projects that enhance their leadership, citizenship and life skills, 540,000 volunteers and 3,500 Professionals.

4-H is the youth education program of Washington State University Extension. It’s for boys and girls who are ages eight to 18 by September 1 of the current year. 4-H even offers the Primary program for youth ages five to seven.

4-H is for kids in the country, kids in the city and kids everywhere in between to learn to ride a horse, bake a loaf of bread, or grow vegetables to train a dog, take photos, raise a rabbit, work with wood, or be a babysitter.

4-H welcomes both boys and girls of all races and religions. More boys and girls belong to 4-H than to any other youth group. It's the biggest youth group in the nation. At least 80 other countries also have 4-H.

4-H gives kids a chance to learn new things, develop new skills, travel to new places, make new friends and best of all have lots of fun.

4-H Clubs in Wahkiakum County are already having lots of fun. Join one of these clubs today and get into the 4-H action: Halters & Hands, KnK Kaualry, Sugar & Spice 4-H Club, The Farmers, The Ditzy Chicks, Sunny Sands Cowboys, Whiskers & Tails, Adventure Kids, Wahkiakum Critters,Twisted Whiskers, Clan Patterson, Moon Valley Rider and After School Tech Club.

Find out how you can join one of these 4-H clubs or start a new club in your community. Contact WSU Extension in Wahkiakum County: 25 River Street Suite E, Cathlamet, WA; phone: 360-795-3278, E-mail: cakennedy@wsu.edu.

Redmen Hall on SR-4 in Skamokawa will be presenting an exhibit of Skamokawa artists titled 'Smoke on the Waters' - Artists of Skamokawa. The exhibit will run from October 17 to November 22, with some of the exhibitors continuing until December 20 for the Redmen Hall Holiday Bazaar.

The Skamokawa Artists' exhibit will be an introduction for several people who will be displaying their work for the first time. It will also include several people who are well known artists in the community.

The exhibitors include Jolan Durrah showing peacock feathers, hand-spun mohair and alpaca hats, and her book on Borneo; Keith Hoofnagle with prints commemorating the National Parks commissioned by the National Park Service; Becky Ledtke with a selection of her popular jewelry; Mike Linn, an artist new to Skamokawa working in metal using blacksmithing techniques; Audrey Peterson with silk screen prayer flags and wildlife cards; Ray Pfenniger working in wood and metal; Kitty Speranza showing her rug hooking with demonstrations and completed items; Ginger and Sharon Schmitz with their handmade wooden utensils; Brenda Van Kanegan, another artist new to Skamokawa with her own designs of handmade dolls; and Teresa Videan, showing five of her stained glass pieces. Also two of Dori Hicks' new paintings of Skamokawa houses will be available for this exhibit .

Andrew Emlen and Sunrise Fletcher will be providing music for the opening and each will have some of their CD's for sale.

Any other Skamokawa artists who would like to be included in the exhibit, would be welcomed.

For more information, contact Jill Hatier of the exhibit committee for Redmen Hall at 795-8675.