Morning Press: County government, I-205, memorable mothers

Rumor has it we’ll flirt with a 90-degree high this week. Check out the local weather forecast here.

Catch up on some of the weekend’s top stories:

Clark County political puzzle waiting for pieces to connect

In a community where for decades political leadership was predictable, county commissioners have entered a puzzling time.

And as the filing period for local candidates approaches this week, extending from Monday through Friday, there comes the promise that, perhaps, some of the political pieces will fit together.

When Democrat Steve Stuart announced in January he wouldn’t seek re-election, it signaled the next big shift for the three-member board. Stuart, after all, had served for a decade, the longest tenure among the commissioners. Only six months ago, the question wasn’t when he would step down. Instead, it was a milder variation: Would he seek re-election?

The seat became vacant in April when former Commissioner Steve Stuart resigned to become Ridgefield’s city manager. He announced in January he did not intend to seek re-election.

Rumors of a possible Stewart campaign for the District 3 seat began in February, political insiders say. In recent weeks, though, county Republicans said they were uncertain who would vie for the seat.

Read the complete story here.

I-205 may need small fixes until money’s available for bigger projects

Regional transportation planners are eyeing a series of small changes they hope will alleviate congestion along the Interstate 205 corridor in the coming years — without the money for big-ticket projects they say will be needed someday.

Those larger efforts remain in long-term plans. But an ongoing study of the I-205 corridor aims to identify some ways to buy time and improve conditions until more funding becomes available.

“The goal is to complete the study with some recommendations for some short-term, operational fixes,” said Matt Ransom, executive director of the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council.

Those might include ramp meters to stagger traffic entering the freeway at certain spots. New striping, lane reconfiguration and lengthening merge lanes are also possibilities, Ransom said.

At the RTC’s monthly board meeting this week, ramp meters dominated much of the discussion. The devices, which use alternating signals to control the flow of vehicles through an onramp, are common on Portland-area freeways. The Washington State Department of Transportation operates a meter at the ramp funneling traffic from state Highway 14 and downtown Vancouver onto southbound Interstate 5. The meters operate only at certain times of day.

Congestion trouble spots along the I-205 corridor include the interchanges at Padden Parkway, state Highway 500 and Mill Plain Boulevard. But improving traffic flow isn’t as simple as slapping a ramp meter at any of those locations. A change helping the freeway might back up the arterial connecting to it, said WSDOT regional administrator and RTC board member Don Wagner.

Read the complete story here.

Can rail cars be made safe for oil transport?

For the oil transport industry, disasters keep getting in the way of their reassuring messages about the safety of shipping crude by rail.

At the forefront of a forest of concerns is the safety of tank cars carrying volatile crude oil through cities large and small. Oil and transportation industries, their critics and government regulators all agree that safety improvements need to be ramped up. But they part ways on the scope and timing of certain efforts, and on the effectiveness of particular safety measures.

U.S. officials have recommended shippers not use older, puncture-prone tank cars and have ordered railroads to inform state emergency management officials about the movement of large amounts of crude through their states. But their Canadian counterparts have gone further, initiating a series of safety actions, including phasing out by May 2017 the older, soda can-shaped DOT-111 tank cars — long cited for their deficiencies in exacerbating accidents.

Some companies, including Tesoro Corp. — part of a joint venture to build an oil-train facility at the Port of Vancouver — and Global Partners, owner of an oil-train terminal in Clatskanie, Ore., already are adopting more rugged, industry-endorsed tank cars ahead of anticipated new federal regulations.

Yet, national transportation experts say even the upgraded tank cars adopted by Tesoro, Global Partners and others don’t offer significant safety improvements. And critics, including Seattle-based Sightline Institute — a nonprofit that focuses on sustainability issues — say more than 25,000 of the DOT-111 tank cars will remain in service through at least the end of 2015, despite the shift toward safer cars. By law, railroads cannot refuse shippers that want to put the older tank cars on their rails.

Aiming to accelerate the transition to sturdier tank cars, BNSF Railway seeks to purchase its own fleet of 5,000 tank cars that will exceed the safety standards set for the post-October 2011 cars. It’s an unusual move: Most rail cars are owned by companies that lease them to shippers, or by shippers themselves.

BNSF’s next-generation tank cars would feature 9/16-inch shell and head thickness; steel jackets; full-height, 1/2 -inch-thick head shields; a thermal protection system that incorporates ceramic thermal blanketing; an appropriately sized pressure relief device capable of surviving an ethanol-based pool fire; and a bottom outlet valve handle that can be disengaged to prevent unintentional opening.

Currently, no such next-generation tank car exists.

Courtney Wallace, a spokeswoman for BNSF, said the company has requested bids to build the vehicles, a process that hasn’t wrapped up yet. She said it’s still too early to say when the next-generation tank cars will be put into service.

As BNSF moves to equip itself with next-generation tank cars, The Greenbrier Companies girds to become a supplier of such vehicles.

Jack Isselmann, a spokesman for the company, said customers face a five-figure investment for each retrofit and a six-figure outlay per next-generation car.

“I’ve grown into a leader I never thought I would be,” said Winters, who was a peer mentor in the Office of Student Diversity, director of the Student Activities Board and an intern on the Diversity Council. She also worked at a movie theater, all while accumulating enough credits to earn a degree in public affairs with minors in business administration, Spanish and sociology.

“Overcoming challenges to get to today is something we all share,” Winters said, telling stories of fellow graduates. She spoke of an immigrant who worked three jobs while taking classes, determined to show his younger brothers that a college degree was possible. She also described a veteran who served two tours in Iraq, whose goal in earning a degree was not a “fancy job” but rather to “empower people with knowledge.”

Some graduates are worried about the future, including the uncertainty of the job market, she said.

“I’m not here to say there will not be challenges,” Winters said. “I’m here to say to those challenges, ‘Bring it on!’?”