This was not a team happy just to get here, to the final game of the 2013 Washington high school football season.
So when it all came crashing down, when they had the ultimate prize ripped away from them on the last play, well, the Camas Papermakers were simply in a state of shock.
They quietly accepted the second-place trophy, then found friends, family, and of course, each other, looking for support.
There really was nothing else to do.
The Chiawana Riverhawks scored two touchdowns in the final minute to stun the Papermakers 27-26 in the Class 4A state high school football championship game Saturday night in the Tacoma Dome.
A morning shot of snowfall snarled traffic, caused dozens of crashes and closed some schools around Clark County on Friday.
With an Arctic air mass already parked over the region, the wintry conditions made things particularly dicey for commuters on the county’s major roadways.
How slick was it? At one point, Washington State Patrol responded to 25 vehicles sliding off the roadway — on a single freeway ramp.
“It was just extremely icy through there this morning,” WSP Trooper Will Finn said Friday. “That was an extremely bad situation for motorists.”
That trouble spot was the off-ramp connecting northbound Interstate 205 to Northeast 134th Street in Salmon Creek, which closed for two hours while crews cleared the area and helped stranded drivers get on their way. But it wasn’t the only spot, as about the same number of vehicles slid on another ramp on the other side of the freeway, Finn said.
Wayne Garlington is the kind of guy who comes to mind when you think of a nonprofit executive.
He runs Open House Ministries, which operates a downtown Vancouver homeless shelter with $2.3 million in revenue and a full-time staff of 16. He works for a stipend of $1,000 a month.
PeaceHealth’s Alan Yordy is also a nonprofit executive. He runs a hospital system that took in $1.6 billion in 2011 and employs some 4,300 in Clark County. Even if you don’t count deferred compensation, his paycheck topped $1 million in 2011.
Nonprofits vary widely, and so does the pay of their leaders. Organizations beyond charities qualify for nonprofit status, including such business-like enterprises as hospitals and credit unions. All nonprofits, however, receive a public subsidy in the form of tax-exempt status. Many rely on donations from people who expect that the money will be spent wisely. With that comes public scrutiny of executives’ pay.
The Columbian analyzed 2011 Internal Revenue Service filings for Clark County-based nonprofit organizations with annual income greater than $500,000. Of those 120 nonprofits, 76 reported executive compensation. Hospitals and credit unions pay their leaders the most. Yordy tops the list with total compensation of $1.3 million. Foundations, national trade groups, mental health providers, unions, private schools and children’s organizations round out the list of 36 local organizations that paid top executives more than $100,000 that year. We analyzed 2011 returns because that was the latest year records are available for all local organizations.
Friday morning, Sgt. Jason Cuthbert responded to one traffic collision after the next and pushed cars that got stuck on snowy Clark County roadways. By night, he searched for drunken drivers as part of the annual Night of 1,000 Stars.
“We get a lot of DUIs in this time period,” he said. Holiday parties bump up the numbers he sees.
“It’s kind of sad, because you have so many families driving this time of year,” said Cuthbert.
A local trooper can process anywhere from 75 to 200 DUIs each year. The problem with drinking and driving, he says, is that you can’t divide your attention. An impaired motorist can’t do all the multitasking required to drive.
The Washington State Patrol processed its first DUI suspect, a 24-year-old man, just before 10 p.m. Friday in the Mobile Impaired Driving Unit.
The WSP’s MIDU is a 38-foot converted Winnebago recreational vehicle with three DataMaster alcohol breath testers, computers for typing reports and two small holding cells. The vehicle allows patrol offices to drop off suspects and get back on the road.
Starting the week of Thanksgiving through mid-January, Clark County residents generate more than 500 additional tons of garbage compared to other 10-week stretches of the year, said Josy Wright, waste reduction manager for Waste Connections.
But there are simple ways to cut down on how much ends up in landfills.
Loretta Callahan, spokeswoman for the city of Vancouver’s public works department, said last year’s post-holiday block foam/electronics collection at the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center netted 2,305 pounds of electronic waste for recycling.
About 1,000 pounds of block foam was dropped off at the Fisher’s Landing event, while another 2,424 pounds of block foam was taken to Empower Up, a nonprofit organization.
Callahan can’t say conclusively all of that foam came from the holidays, as some people may collect it through the year and do one drop-off, but said it’s a popular time to purchase big items that frequently are packaged with block foam.
The next electronics and block foam collection event will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 4 at the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center, 3510 S.E. 164th Ave.
James Dean Lucas is truly ready to launch at his second Christmas Ship Parade — but he’s not talking about his 24-foot Bayliner, Cuddy.
This year, he plans to launch the merry old elf, Santa Claus.
Into the air. Over his boat. On a Harley.
“Last year, we had so much fun,” The 45-year-old Vancouver native said. “We had friends and clients out there with us. It was a great time. So I want to ramp it up this year.”
That said, there’s no real danger to Kris Kringle.
Lucas’ Santa is a big inflatable replica that will decorate his boat, “Aquahaulic.”
For the 2012 parade, Lucas, a realtor and motorcycle enthusiast, created a display with Santa riding a Harley-Davidson on the deck of his boat. This year, Santa gets some Evel Knievel treatment.
Read the full story and learn more about routes and dates here.
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