The Columbia River Crossing’s downtown project office is approaching its final moving day, and it looks the part.
A recent afternoon saw boxes sitting in hallways. Maps and other documents lay stacked against walls. Other areas were simply empty, as they have been for months.
But CRC Project Director Kris Strickler’s corner office looked as if it hadn’t been touched. The space was still orderly and tidy. Pictures and other decorations still hung neatly on the wall.
In other words, Strickler hasn’t started packing just yet.
“I’ve really been focusing my time and energy on making sure we get a proper closeout,” Strickler said. “I don’t know whether that’s nostalgia after years of work, trying to maintain some semblance of that, or just the right thing to do.”
That doesn’t mean the proposed Interstate 5 Bridge replacement will again come back from the grave, Strickler said. He insists this is a “hard shutdown” as workers close down the project for good. Officials have said the process will wrap up completely by May 31.
Workers began shutting down the $2.9 billion project this month after the Oregon Legislature adjourned without authorizing funding for the CRC. Leaders had been pursuing an Oregon-led version of the project since Washington walked away in 2013.
A recommendation of the people in charge of drafting a new county government calls for Clark County commissioners’ pay to be sliced in half.
The county’s freeholders Saturday reached a consensus that under the proposal, elected policymakers would see their salaries cut from roughly $106,000 a year to $53,000 a year. The drop in pay would correspond to a general dip in the board’s authority. The majority of freeholders, tasked with writing a new county charter, have sided with the notion of stripping commissioners of their administrative duties, such as hiring department heads, and handing those to a county manager.
The direction in which the freeholders are heading would bring the county’s form of government in line with most local city jurisdictions, which govern using a board of part-time elected officials and a full-time manager hired to oversee day-to-day operations.
Nan Henricksen, chairwoman of the freeholder board, said the changes would be similar to the kind of citizen governance practiced by legislators in Olympia.
“Their jobs (on the board) should be compatible with having a full-time job elsewhere,” Henricksen said.
Retailers across the state continue to illegally sell tobacco to minors at higher rates than much of the past decade.
An annual report that tracks the illegal sales shows nearly 15 percent of tobacco retailers sold to minors in 2013 — a rate similar to that in 2012. The lowest rate in the past decade was in 2006 when about 5 percent of retailers sold tobacco to minors.
In Clark County, the rate for 2013 was lower than the state rate. About 9 percent of local retailers sold tobacco to people younger than 18. The prior year, nearly 19 percent of retailers made illegal sales, according to data provided by the Washington State Department of Health.
While the local rate dropped in 2013, it hasn’t changed dramatically in the past decade, said Theresa Cross, a health educator for Clark County Public Health. Since 2003, an average of nearly 11 percent of retailers have sold tobacco to minors, according to the data.
“It’s troubling the rate hasn’t really changed,” Cross said. “Youth continue to be able to illegally purchase tobacco from stores.”
The annual Synar Report tracks the results of tobacco compliance checks across the country. In Washington, the report uses figures from checks performed by the Washington State Liquor Control Board.
Retired labor leader Ed Barnes said Monday that he is joining the race to be appointed to the county commissioners’ seat being vacated by Steve Stuart, the board’s lone Democrat.
He’ll join announced candidates Temple Lentz, a blogger and liberal activist; Kelly Love Parker, president of the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce; and Craig Pridemore, a former county commissioner and state senator.
“I think what has to happen (on the board) is for someone to bring some common sense, and bring parties together,” Barnes said. Detractors have characterized the current board as dysfunctional and prone to infighting.
The Clark County Democrats are expected to vote on a list of three appointment candidates at a meeting Friday. Party leaders will also rank the candidates from top to bottom. The list will then go to the board’s remaining two commissioners, Republicans Tom Mielke and David Madore, who will have 60 days from Stuart’s departure to make the appointment.
Stuart has butted heads with Mielke and Madore for the past year-and-a-half on a number of issues, most prominently their appointment of state Sen. Don Benton, a fellow Republican, to be the director of environmental services. Stuart vehemently opposed the appointment, citing Benton’s lack of credentials.
Workers from the Larch Corrections Center lumbered out of the underbrush Wednesday near Northeast Highway 99, dragging tarps overflowing with debris.
Tromping down muddy stairs, away from the makeshift shantytown just a stone’s throw from Interstate 5, the workers lugged the garbage to the railroad bridge above Highway 99 — the one emblazoned with the words “Hazel Dell” — and dropped items into a dump truck below. All the while, some workers grumbled about how the sheriff’s office was displacing homeless people.
But, from Clark County’s perspective, the homeless camp near the county-owned railroad tracks had become a huge dump. And while it was well hidden, numerous complaints made authorities feel they had to act. They said they try to clear homeless camps promptly by giving the residents notice they’ll be rousted before eventually swooping in and doing so.
Wednesday’s efforts were among the largest in recent memory, officials said, in terms of debris collected. Multiple trucks were called in to whisk material to the dump.
“It’s happened before, where (transients) have gotten under the rail bridge,” said Will Cahill, a railroad consultant working for the county who was at the camp Wednesday. “Tent city here was one of the bigger ones.”
State wildlife managers say they suspect the treponeme bacteria — linked to hoof disease in cows and sheep in many parts of the world — is the cause of deformed and missing hooves in elk in Southwest Washington.
“It’s premature to announce a final diagnosis, but tests from three independent diagnostic labs appear to show an association between the diseased hooves and the presence of treponeme bacteria,” said Sandra Jonker, regional wildlife program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “That’s a real concern, because the options for treating the disease are extremely limited.”’
A public meeting will begin at 6 p.m. April 15 at the Clark Public Utilities community room, 1200 Fort Vancouver Way, to share results and answer questions.
Kristin Mansfield, department epidemiologist, said treponemes have been linked to an increasing incidence of hoof disease in livestock for two decades, but have never been documented in elk or other wildlife.
There is no evidence these bacteria are harmful to humans, she said, noting that tests indicate the disease is limited to hooves and does not affect the animals’ meat or organs.
