Clark Asks December voting round ends Tuesday

Time is running out to make your voice heard in Clark Asks, The Columbian’s reader-guided reporting project.

Our December voting round will end Tuesday, with one of these three reader-submitted questions coming out on top:

“What is up with those hideous new garbage cans all over Mill Plain near Chkalov? Advertising for advertising? Who authorized this bad idea?” was submitted by Darcy Hoffman of Vancouver.

“What is the oldest restaurant in Clark County?” was submitted by Zeed Meyer of Vancouver.

“Why do helicopters fly around the Fairgrounds Neighborhood creating obnoxious sound levels almost daily? Is it a flight school?” was submitted by Greg Olsen of Salmon Creek.

The story with the most votes from readers will get top priority for our reporting team, but coming in second or even third doesn’t mean the story has been spiked. Runners-up often end up in future voting rounds or reported on anyway.

That happened with a recent story by Anthony Macuk exploring the fate of two creepy looking buildings near the historic Providence Academy building in Vancouver.

In other recent Clark Asks stories, Jeffrey Mize explained the complexities of why there isn’t regular Amtrak commuter rail service between Vancouver and Portland, Calley Hair tracked down two of the four totem poles — and a piece of other artwork — that once graced the Totem Pole restaurant in Hazel Dell and we revisited a popular early Clark Asks story by Tom Vogt that explained why we have so many streets with “Plain” in their names.

Each one of these stories started with a question from readers to our Clark Asks page. Do you have an answer to a question that’s been intriguing you? Some weird thing you can’t explain? Give us a try to see if we can help you find out.