Will the sun break through today? Check out the forecast at our weather page.
Here are a few stories that you might have missed over the weekend.
Jonathan Sincock begins his commute to work at precisely 6:22 a.m. each morning.
It’s a longer trip than most Clark County workers navigate. Sincock doesn’t reach his destination until close to 8 a.m., more than an hour and a half later. He makes the same trip in reverse in the afternoon.
The daily trek puts Sincock in rare company: He’s one of the few people who regularly rides C-Tran’s No. 47 bus route all the way into Vancouver from Yacolt. He also catches a second bus on the way to his job as a delivery driver.
Sincock, who lives two blocks from the Yacolt bus stop, rides the bus by choice. He could drive himself, but has calculated the financial benefit of leaving the car at home.
“Basically I could tell you (it’s) about $350 savings,” Sincock said. “My job pays what it does, but this makes it pay a little more.”
Judy Tiffany always keeps a bus schedule close by. The Vancouver resident uses C-Tran for “everything” from her home near Fourth Plain Boulevard and C-Tran’s busiest route, the No. 4. Tiffany is also a caretaker for her 85-year-old mother, Dorris Cotten.
Tiffany rides the bus out of necessity. She used to have a car, but that’s no longer an option.
“It died, and I can’t afford a new one,” Tiffany said. “I can’t afford a used one, either.”
The routes used by Sincock and Tiffany represent two extremes of the C-Tran system. The No. 47 Battle Ground Limited route is one of the transit agency’s least-used, with slightly more than 6,000 boardings in 2014. The No. 4 on Fourth Plain, by contrast, carried more than 1.6 million boardings last year, by far the most of any route.
Read the complete story.
Woodland city leaders are stepping up efforts to replace the community’s small, aging library.
Since the mid-1920s, a 2,376-square-foot white building at 770 Park St. has been home to the Woodland Community Library. The building is even older, built near the turn of the 20th century, and every day librarian Justin Keeler feels its age and limitations.
The library serves hundreds of customers a day, but it could do much more for Woodland’s growing population with a modern building more than four times the size, Keeler said. As it stands, the library has little room for computers and class programs, and the second-floor young readers section is inaccessible to many visitors with disabilities.
“The size of the facility is far outstripped by the size of the community that we’re trying to serve,” he said. “And if we have patrons come in with special needs — especially if they’re kids and teens — they can’t access the part of the library that’s designated for them.”
Read the complete story.
A couple of years ago, if Gov. Jay Inslee was visiting Vancouver and standing on the Evergreen Boulevard overpass, he most likely would have been looking south toward the Interstate 5 Bridge.
On Friday, he looked north, toward the interchange at Interstate 5 and Mill Plain Boulevard.
Replacing that interchange has become a priority for the region, with officials hoping that a transportation package passes this legislative session and includes $82.8 million for the Clark County project.
Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt spoke with the governor on the overpass, highlighting the interchange project as a key priority for the region.
It’s key to the area’s push for urbanization and sustainability, Leavitt said.
“We’re fortunate to have a governor interested in Southwest Washington,” the mayor said.
Read the complete story.
Adopted from South Korea into the United States at age 3, Adam Crapser of Vancouver is now facing possible deportation to a country he can’t remember.
Because he was forced to protect himself in one abusive situation after another, he says, and survive against all odds as he grew up — and because that led him to commit crimes along the way, he admits — Crapser is a convicted felon. Because both families that legally adopted him failed to pursue citizenship for him, Crapser never became a naturalized citizen.
Now, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is looking to return Crapser to South Korea — a place he has no connection with beyond his birth name, Song Hyuk Shin, and a few childhood photographs. He has no family in South Korea. He doesn’t speak the language.
Read the complete story.
Standing at 6-feet 7-inches, most would pinpoint him as a basketball player.
Although true, Clark College sophomore Hayden Hall’s first love was for another form of athleticism — Dancing, of all types.
Hall’s favorite form of dance is hip hop, but he has been involved in ballet, tap, jazz, salsa, contemporary and ballroom. He started taking classes in the second grade, but Hall says he’s been dancing ever since he was a tot.
“It’s really the music that I love. It’s almost always upbeat,” Hall said of hip hop. “There really aren’t any rules to it, you don’t have to wear a certain outfit, just show up in your street clothes. Plus there’s always a new hip hop move that sweeps the nation every three to four months.”
Read the complete story.
