is wild weather on the way for the weekend? Check our local weather coverage.
In case you missed it, here are some of the top stories of the week:
The Council for the Homeless and a local pastor are leading an effort to build a temporary, emergency village of 40 tiny houses for 50 homeless people this winter at a church next to Garrison Square shopping center.
Forty 8-by-10-foot insulated garden sheds with windows and locking doors will be erected on a fenced, 1.5-acre empty field just north of Safe Harbor Church of the Nazarene’s parking lot at 8100 E. Mill Plain Blvd. Aimed at housing the most vulnerable of the homeless, the village will accommodate single women, adults with no minor children and elderly single men. It will have six portable toilets and two large, heated trailers for eating, computing, meeting with caseworkers and hanging out. Tenants won’t be allowed to have visitors, but pets will be permitted.
The village will remain on the site for 12 months, said Andy Silver, executive director of the Council for the Homeless.
Learn more about the tiny houses village.
Five-year estimates released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau show how things have changed since the Great Recession, and reveal some of the factors driving Clark County’s saturated housing market.
Here are six takeaways from the newly released data.
As early as two weeks ago, before the Clark County council adopted the preferred alternative to its 20-year growth plan, Councilor David Madore already was looking for a new consultant to do the environmental review.
Emails obtained through a public records request show the Republican councilor communicating late last month with Robert W. Thorpe, president of planning firm R.W. Thorpe and Associates, about developing a final environmental impact statement for Clark County’s Comprehensive Growth Management Plan update.
Read about the latest step in process of adopting a county growth plan.
Christmas tree farmers around the county have spent all year preparing — and bracing — for the next few weekends.
“In our first two weekends of December, it’s just nonstop here,” said Neil Schill, who owns Glenwood Tree Farm near Brush Prairie.
Heidi Farrell at Farrell Farms opened the day after Thanksgiving.
Learn more about tree farmers’ hopes for the season.
ONtheGO Platforms, a local innovator in software development for smart glasses, has been acquired by a Silicon Valley company that also is working on smart glasses technology, the two companies announced Wednesday.
The financial terms of the company’s acquisition by Atheer, of Mountain View, Calif., were not disclosed. Ryan Fink, co-founder and chief executive officer of ONtheGO Platforms, now becomes vice president of market development at Atheer. Co-founder Ty Frackiewicz becomes the company’s director of projects.
Learn more about the company’s plans.
In Case you missed it …
We met Akhil and Laura Jhaveri on a Friday afternoon in early April.
We were interested in doing a project about hospice care, and the folks at Hospice Southwest connected us with the Jhaveris. Just a few months earlier, Akhil, who has ALS, enrolled in the hospice program after complications from a cold nearly took his life.
The Jhaveris agreed to let us spend some time with them to understand the role of hospice care in their lives and to learn more about Akhil’s disease.
Our three-day report, “A Strong Man,” is told in words, video and photography.
We hope our effort shows, to borrow Akhil’s words, how a loving family triumphs over tragedy.
