What will will the weather throw at us this week? Find out with our local weather coverage.
Here are some of the stories that grabbed readers’ attention this weekend.
Lincoln Horn didn’t want to be late.
The 5-year-old Vancouver boy and his family were hustling along the sidewalk Friday evening toward Esther Short Park. That’s where Santa Claus was scheduled to flip the switch at 6 p.m., turning on thousands of lights draped over Vancouver’s Christmas tree.
His mom, Katy Belokonny, said that Lincoln started to worry when they were driving downtown. He noticed that a light in mid-air seemed to be over Vancouver, and it was at the end of its journey.
Why did he think that it might be Santa?
“Because it was coming down from the sky,” Lincoln said.
No worries. A few minutes after Lincoln and 2-year-old brother Preston arrived, Santa showed up.
After stepping up to the microphone, the guest of honor led the Propstra Square crowd in a countdown. Then the echoes of 5-4-3-2-1 were drowned out by exclamations of “Ooooh!” as red, green and blue bulbs popped to life on the 100-foot-tall Douglas fir.
A search team on Friday found the body of a Vancouver elk hunter who went missing earlier this month.
A team with Silver Star Search and Rescue notified the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office on Friday afternoon that they had located items related to the search for 37-year-old Joel Presler, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the area on Forest Road 6035 in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest where Presler’s vehicle was found on Nov. 15. Presler’s body was discovered after a short search of the area near where the items were found Friday, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Little Conejo opened approximately three months ago in downtown Vancouver. This is the first restaurant for owners Mychal Dynes and Mark Wooten, who have both been in the industry for many years. The menu reflects a taco shop with several different taco options and a small offering of additional items. A fine selection of mezcal liquor is also part of the focus at Little Conejo.
A slide in sales has sealed the fate of Amnesia Brewing, which moved from Northeast Portland to grow its brewery in Washougal.
The brewery will cease operations Friday. Meanwhile, the kitchen and taproom will remain open. The building owner, who will retain the brewing equipment there, expects to have a new brewery announced in January.
Amnesia Brewing hoped to thrive on the growing Clark County scene when it moved here in 2013, but distribution sales for the brewery stayed flat or declined. Guy Nunez, Amnesia’s general manager, chalked it up to growing competition, both from local breweries and national brands.
“There’s certainly a lot more competition for the taps,” Nunez said.
Meanwhile, sales at its taproom have never really been strong enough to buoy the brewing operations. He said Washougal offered considerably less foot traffic for pint sales than Northeast Portland, where the business operated from 2003 to 2013.
Three fugitives were arrested on warrants and on suspicion of new felony charges after an early Wednesday raid conducted in east Vancouver by the Vancouver Police Safe Street Task Force, the Neighborhood Response Team and Southwest Washington SWAT.
A news release from the Vancouver Police Department said that officers served a Clark County District Court search warrant at 4:40 a.m. Wednesday at a home at 12814 N.E. 34th St.
The search warrant was related to allegations of distribution of methamphetamine, unlawful possession of firearms and wanted fugitives, according to Vancouver police. The news release said nine people were found inside the home, and three were arrested.
