Morning Press: Commissioners’ pay, property taxes, salmon cannon

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Here’s a look at some of this week’s top stories:

Commissioners, other officials spar over pay

Three Clark County officials Tuesday balked at the county commissioners’ proposal to lower pay for the District 3 commissioner seat, saying it would also reduce their salaries.

The District 3 position, currently filled by appointed Commissioner Ed Barnes, is the highest paid of the three seats, receiving an annual salary of $106,224. Under the new proposal, pay for the position would drop to $102,224 next year, the same amount as the other two positions, and possibly stay there until 2018. The move is expected to save the county $46,400 during the next biennium.

At the same time, the commissioners approved bumping their per-month vehicle allowance by $100 starting next year. They’ll receive $700 a month, resulting in $25,200 a year dedicated to the commissioners’ cars.

The proposed increases were reported in June following City Manager Eric Holmes’ first workshop with the city council about setting the framework for the 2015-16 budget.

During that June 16 workshop, Holmes said inflation and population growth have been driving Vancouver’s costs up by about 4 percent a year, outpacing 2.4 percent revenue growth.

Even if the council enacts levy and utility rate increases every year, the city still has a forecasted deficit of $10.2 million by 2020, Holmes said.

Read more about proposed increase.

Interchange project a beginning and end

State and local leaders on Tuesday kicked off a project that will add a new interchange to the Interstate 205 corridor at Northeast 18th Street.

A rainy ground-breaking ceremony near the freeway represented a beginning and an end of sorts. Construction on the new interchange, which aims to improve safety and travel times in the area, will start in earnest next month, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. But the $40.6 million effort is the final project in Clark County funded by a pair of gas tax increases passed in 2003 and 2005.

“After this, there are no more big projects” without a new state transportation funding package, said Bart Gernhart, an assistant regional administrator with WSDOT. And several speakers, including a few state lawmakers, went out of their way Tuesday to suggest they hope something materializes in the near future.

“Hopefully, we can come up with a transportation package that we can all get behind,” said Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver.

Attempts to pass a funding package in Olympia have come up short two years in a row. Whether the idea gains any traction in 2015 remains to be seen.

Learn more about interchange.

Not a typical elk season

Elk hunting is pretty predictable in Southwest Washington — at least the modern firearms season.

About 15,000 hunters go afield and about 5 to 7 percent harvest a bull.

The vast majority of the bulls are killed in the initial three days. It might snow at higher elevations, but probably not.

This season is different though.

Weyerhaeuser, a giant private timber land owner, has switched from allowing free access to its lands to a new $150 permit. Permits provide access to 325,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser land, although 52,000 acres of the company’s land remain accessible without a permit.

Rayonier has expanded its permit system for access and no longer offers free access to its property in the fall. Rayonier owns about 380,000 acres in Western Washington, some of which is in Wahkiakum and Pacific counties.

Read more about this years’ elk hunting season.

Off Beat: Salmon cannon generates interest all around the globe

After years of working in relative obscurity, Vince Bryan admits even he’s been surprised by the attention his company is now getting.

Bryan is CEO of Bellevue-based Whooshh Innovations, which developed the “salmon cannon” now being used to transport migratory fish in Washington. Interest in the device has also put the spotlight on Clark County, where one of the few such systems in existence was used this year on the Washougal River.

The salmon cannon was the subject of a Columbian article in September. But this newspaper is among “hundreds” of media outlets that made inquiries in recent months, Bryan said.

Among the dozens of others who have featured the device are The Times of London, Time magazine, The Huffington Post, ABC News, CBS News and Fox News. Many of those pieces focused on the Washougal River, where the Department of Fish and Wildlife used the device to load fish into trucks for its hatchery program.

Learn more about the salmon cannon buzz.

Election Day is Tuesday

Need information to fill out your ballot? Let The Columbian’s election page help you out.