Cheers: To bridge talk. A 16-member committee made up of legislators from Washington and Oregon took the first step toward devising plans for a replacement Interstate 5 Bridge on Friday. Committee members — including six lawmakers from Clark County — met at Vancouver City Hall for the start of what undoubtedly will be lengthy and complex discussions about how to serve the region’s transportation needs.
As talks progress through additional meetings, committee members must address the issues that led to the demise of the most recent effort to build a bridge. Questions about light rail, the height of the bridge and I-5 bottlenecks will be among the priorities. Along the way, adequate public input will be essential to eventually generating support from taxpayers. All of that is down the road, so to speak. But for now we cheer the first step in what promises to be a long journey.
Jeers: To excessive rent increases. The Columbian this week detailed the plight of residents at Cascade Park Estates, a manufactured home community in Vancouver. A rent increase scheduled for January — residents own the homes but rent the land — will mean that rents have increased 70 percent in five years under the ownership of Denise and Michael Werner and their daughter, Brooke Torres.
Government should be cautious about implementing rent control, but this situation — which is repeated throughout the state — requires a look from the Legislature. Residents should have some recourse against rent increases other than moving to another facility and risking sharp increases in a new locale. Lawmakers should work to help keep vulnerable residents in their homes.
Cheers: To oyster growers. It took longer than it should have, but the Willapa Grays Harbor Growers Association has abandoned plans to use a controversial insecticide. The group had proposed the use of imidacloprid to combat burrowing shrimp, a creature that can make tidelands unfit for shellfish farming.
Oyster growers wanted to spray 500 acres of tidelands in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. That proposal was rejected by state officials, and growers now have reached a settlement and dropped their appeal of that decision. The plan to use imidacloprid was misguided from the start, particularly because the neurotoxic pesticide has a warning right on the bottle: “Do not apply directly to water.”
Jeers: To a literal logjam. Heavy rain near Everett this week caused a backup of logs, branches and debris under a bridge that carries Highway 2 over the Snohomish River. Officials say the pileup has stretched more than 100 yards upriver, making for a visual spectacle and threatening the integrity of the bridge.
Workers have spent much of the week using a crane and excavator perched on the roadway, reaching down to the river and trying to clear the jam. That has created minor delays for motorists. Meanwhile, workers and officials have found that clearing the jam is not quite as easy as falling off a … oh, never mind.
Cheers: To spunk. A 75-year-old Vancouver woman recently survived three days in the wilderness of Skamania County after sliding down a ravine and getting lost while picking mushrooms. Saying that she slept little and kept moving throughout the ordeal, Jung VanAtta eventually was found by searchers. The rescue came on her 75th birthday.
Cheers go to VanAtta and to the searchers who found her. Sue Wong, VanAtta’s daughter, said: “She’s doing great. She’s got a lot of spunk. She just has a can-do attitude, which helps.”
