Morning Press: Drug raid, I-5 Bridge funding, Sausage Fest

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

Drug investigation at Vancouver-area house nets 12 arrests

Clark-Vancouver Regional Drug Task Force members arrested a dozen people after serving a search warrant at a Sifton-area home Thursday morning.

The search warrant was executed around 6 a.m. at 7120 N.E. 131st Ave. near Heritage High School. The Southwest Washington Regional SWAT team assisted due to the high number of people believed to be living there. Northeast 131st Avenue was closed for more than an hour between Northeast 76th Street and Fourth Plain Road.

Within the first two hours of law enforcement being on scene, 19 people were located in the residence.

Twelve of those people were taken to jail on miscellaneous charges, including arrest warrants and probation violations. Charges related to Thursday’s search warrant are expected to come later, said Cmdr. Mike Cooke, who heads the drug task force.

A federal highway representative couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.

Read the full story here.

Vancouver eatery On the Border closes

On the Border, a Texas-based Mexican restaurant chain, has abruptly closed its single Vancouver location amid a swirl of legal claims against the restaurant’s franchise owners over unpaid rent and taxes.

The closure of the restaurant at 1505 S.E. 164th Ave. apparently was sparked by a three-day eviction notice served to restaurant operators Sept. 15 for unpaid rent and taxes. The notice was included in a lawsuit filed Sept. 23 in Clark County Superior Court seeking $12,666 in overdue rent payment and $33,092 in unpaid taxes.

The restaurant closed after the eviction notice was served and before the court filing, said Josephine Townsend, a Vancouver attorney representing property owner Vancouver Border LLC, a Washington-based corporation affiliated with Farmers & Merchants Bank. The Long Beach, Calif.-based bank acquired the property through a foreclosure in 2009, according to court documents. The bank had no comment.

Read the full story here.

Sausage Fest will be reborn as International Food Festival

Dry your fat-spattered eyes, sausage lovers.

The Vancouver Sausage Fest may be finished, but the event’s meat-loving legacy will live on.

Parishioners and parents from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and School are building a new international festival to replace the 43-year-old Sausage Fest — and it will absolutely include the humble sausage, said Shelton Louie, a school parent and parishioner who’s leading the relaunch effort.

“The community side of it, and that three generations of the community have gone to the Sausage Fest, I just didn’t want to see it end,” Louie said. “Especially not with my little ones at the school.”

The Sausage Fest came to an end after a long period of decline and dwindling revenues. But many in the community who grew up with it were sad to see it go.

Read the full story here.

Mold makes Vancouver house uninhabitable

Craig and Shelly Johnson bought their Andresen neighborhood home 24 years ago. To the high school sweethearts, it was the perfect place to raise their kids and enjoy their future grandkids.

This summer, the Johnsons learned their dream home was poisoning them.

After a decade of unexplained chronic pain, fatigue, respiratory infections and debilitating headaches, Craig, 54, and Shelly, 50, learned the attic of their home was full of various varieties of black and white mold.

Because of the level of toxins, their home is uninhabitable. The roof must be completely removed, and the insulation, sheetrock and wood inside replaced. Anything that isn’t glass or metal must be thrown away, including furniture, appliances, clothes, linens and even the family photos hanging on the walls.

Devastated, the couple contacted their insurance company only to learn their policy — like most homeowner policies — has a mold exclusion. Nothing is covered.

Read the full story here.

Columbian’s Weekend magazine gets an update

If you pick up the print edition of Friday’s Columbian, you’ll see from the four-page promotional wrap announcing our debut of a new Weekend section. It has been many years since the section has been redesigned and we hope that our new format and content will be a much better fit with our readers’ Internet-era needs.

The new section includes expanded local restaurant and food news, six pages of TV content, and reorganized entertainment listings so that readers can tell at a glance what is happening on any given day of the coming week.

Please take a look through the section and let us know what you like, and, more importantly, what you think is missing or could be improved. Contact Metro Editor Craig Brown, 360-735-4514, craig.brown@columbian.com; or Assistant Metro Editor Mark Bowder, 360-735-4512, mark.bowder@columbian.com. Or leave your comments below.

For our online readers, updates have been made to our events calendar page and Life homepage with all of the new additions from the print edition and information on entertainment events coming up. We hope this will make it easier for our readers to plan their leisure time and enjoy the gatherings that make Clark County such a great community to live in.