Clark County plans to have its own legal staff review what some perceive as ambiguities in the home-rule charter voters approved last year, officials said Friday.
During its annual retreat meeting, county councilors discussed the ongoing transition to the new form of government spelled out in the charter. Acting County Manager Mark McCauley handed out copies of the charter with certain sections highlighted to show areas he believes are unclear or need further interpretation. McCauley and county councilors have raised charter-related questions in recent weeks, and now it appears the task of answering them will fall to the county’s Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Those opinions will be made publicly available as the county works through the process, McCauley said. And the county knows that many people are watching closely, he said.
“We’re acutely aware that if we interpret language a certain way, some people are going to agree with us and some people are not,” McCauley said. “We’re just going to do the best we can, and do what we believe is right.”
BATTLE GROUND — Last month, Clark County posted a “do not occupy” notice on the exterior of Rusty Grape Vineyard’s entrance door. If this sounds like déjà vu, it’s because several North County wineries received similar notices around the Christmas holiday in 2013.
Jeremy Brown, owner of Rusty Grape Vineyard, discovered first-hand the power of the Internet when he posted a photo of the notice to his Facebook page. It was quickly visible on the timelines of 40,000 social media fans, leading people to believe that the winery, which opened in 2006, was closed for business.
It turns out, however, that Rusty Grape never closed.
According to Marty Snell, director of Clark County Community Development, a letter was sent to Rusty Grape and two other area wineries on Oct. 15 requesting that work for which permits had been issued be completed by Nov. 14. By the time the county reviewed whether work had been completed, the popular Thanksgiving wine tour weekend was looming and the county decided to wait until after the event to post the “do not occupy” notice.
The notice was posted Dec. 8. Brown contacted the county with updated information, and it was determined that Rusty Grape had a permit with an expiration date of “Dec. 15-ish, so we pulled the ‘do not occupy’ because he said he’d do the work and he did,” Snell said said.
The situation highlights growing pains in Clark County’s budding wine industry, tasking winery owners, neighbors and community development to come together to formulate a comprehensive wineries and tasting room plan based on a unique set of business practices.
When Harris Dusenbery fought for the cause of freedom during World War II, he wanted to remain as free as possible. So he volunteered for the ski troops.
“The lowest-ranking person in the 10th Mountain Division had more freedom and less regimentation” than any other soldier, the 100-year-old Vancouver veteran said. “I figured I was going to be drafted within a year, and I heard (the 10th Mountain Division) was going to stop taking volunteers.”
To ensure he got his preferred slot, Dusenbery enlisted.
He certainly had other options. Born in 1914, Dusenbery graduated from Reed College in 1936 with a degree in political science. He went to work as a Social Security official in 1940 in Portland, where Harris and wife Evelyn started their family. Their son David was already on the way when the U.S. entered the war.
“They were famously called ‘pre-Pearl Harbor babies,'” Dusenbery said.
All the Super Bowl talk this week has been about deflated footballs. But there’s still plenty to be pumped up about.
Hyperbole and sports go hand-in-hand like Marshawn Lynch and his nether regions.
It was a boxer who we still call the “Greatest.” Make enough baskets and we’ll anoint you King. Let a baseball roll between your legs and you’re a bum.
It’s a little over-the-top. Unless you’re talking about the Super Bowl.
Careers are defined by them. Sports legends are penned on a 120-by-53 1/2 -yard gridrion canvas.
One week from today, the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots will play a Super Bowl that will cement the winner’s legacy.
If Seattle wins, the Seahawks can lay claim to having the best defense in a generation. In back-to-back years, they will have beaten arguably the two best quarterbacks in NFL history. In an era when rules have changed to enhance offense, they will have imposed their will in a way no team has since Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain of the 1970s or the ’85 Chicago Bears.
Sports Editor Micah Rice will be in Phoenix all week reporting on the run-up to the Super Bowl. Follow the Seahawks coverage and read the rest of his column.
One of America’s wealthiest men brought a dry sense of humor and a deep appreciation for Clark County’s rural and suburban communities to The Columbian’s 2015 Economist Forecast Breakfast on Thursday.
