Clark County is facing a deadline if it wants to limit the sale and use of fireworks within unincorporated land.
Commissioners have until the end of the month to decide whether to restrict the sale and discharge of fireworks in order to have the code changes in place by the 2015 Fourth of July. State law says a jurisdiction must set limitations on fireworks a year ahead of when they’d take effect.
There will be no new restrictions for the upcoming fireworks season. County residents passed a nonbinding advisory vote in favor of tightened restrictions on fireworks in November, so it’s up to commissioners to implement the actual change in code. Commissioners say they are behind schedule in potentially drafting a new ordinance to do that.
With the clock ticking for next year, the commissioners haven’t shown signs of urgency in drafting any code changes, saying instead that they need more information about what specific limitations they should enact — if any.
Washington’s legalized marijuana industry may quickly become a cash cow for many of its first-generation entrepreneurs. But those fledgling business owners face a unique challenge: when the cash starts flowing, they’ll have no place to put it.
In one of the most tangled conflicts between state and federal laws over marijuana, the federal government’s rules intended to ban banking by the illegal drug industry are trumping voter-approved legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado. So far, no Washington bank is willing to navigate through a gray area of federal policies and laws to offer banking services to marijuana growers, distributors, and retailers. Just two credit unions, Numerica in Spokane and Salal in Seattle, say they’ll take marijuana business operators as members. But both of those credit unions say they’ll serve only growers and distributors, avoiding retailers whose sales to minors or to out-of-state residents could put the credit unions at risk.
“Retailers are in a difficult situation,” said Russ Rosendal, Salal’s president and chief executive officer. “Hopefully someone will take those retailers on.”
Vancouver Fire Capt. Gregg Roberts, 52, has died from injuries he sustained in a car crash on Friday afternoon.
His 1997 Jeep Wrangler rolled several times after heading northbound in the 10100 block of Northeast Ward Road.
“He was the driver, and he was ejected,” Fire Chief Joe Molina said.
He died at about 10:30 p.m. Friday night from his injuries, Molina said.
The passenger, Roberts’ 14-year-old son, was also sent to the hospital with less-serious injuries, Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Randon Walker said.
“To the best of my knowledge he had no serious injuries,” Walker said of Roberts’ son. “He was contacted standing at the scene for details related to the accident.”
Witnesses to the crash said speed and alcohol were not factors in the rollover, Walker said.
On a Monday night, just after sunset, streetlights cast West 13th Street in yellow. There are no cars, no people coming and going from the Clark County jail nearby, save for the occasional cop. Televisions are on inside the Dragonfly Cafe at the Clark County Public Service Center, but no one’s around to watch them.
Out here, the loudest sound is the hum of a building that never goes quiet — the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency.
The lights are dim inside the dispatch center as operator Cassandra Deering settles into her chair for her late-night shift.
The 36-year-old clips on her headset and adjusts her six computer monitors, the glow from the screens reflecting off her glasses. Colored numbers on the digital wall clock read 21:00:00 in military time. It’s 9 p.m. As most of Clark County winds down for the night, she’s gearing up for the calls that come into 911 after dark.
The phone line rings and lights up, signaling her first call of the night.
Anyone with time, patience and a sharp enough eye to make out the number 1267 on a small placard can spot a crude oil train rolling through town.
“It’s not hard to miss,” said Matt Landon, a 35-year-old community organizer who co-founded Vancouver Action Network to monitor oil shipments. “You just look for the mile-long oil train.”
It’s tougher, though, to establish a pattern for oil train movements through the state. That information might someday be vital to emergency service providers in the event of a spill or, worse yet, an explosion of the highly volatile crude oil coming out of North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation. But BNSF Railway, which is transporting most of that oil in Washington, doesn’t think it should have to tell the public the routes, numbers of trains and quantities of the shipments moving through their communities.
The railroad’s position is backed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which recently ordered railroads to share information with states about the movement of Bakken crude, but with the understanding that the data would go only to emergency responders.
Ryan Erlandsen didn’t have to go far to become a filmmaker.
The Vancouver 43-year-old practically stumbled onto it, just by looking through his camera.
“I’m a (professional) photographer normally, and they put a video feature on cameras a few years back,” Erlandsen said. “And so I decided I wanted to explore that.”
It took him three years to learn the ropes, but he just finished his first 30-minute short film and is releasing it through his company, Marble Mountain Films.
It’s an eerie suspense story called “Unmarked,” shot entirely in Clark County. It will premiere at 7 p.m. June 26 at Kiggins Theatre in Vancouver.
