Cheers: To Evaine Josephina Purviance. The 7-pound, 13-ounce girl is the first baby born in Clark County this decade. Arriving two weeks early, she entered the world at 4:41 a.m. New Year’s Day at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, providing a bouncing start to the year for her three siblings and parents Tia and Kyle, who live in Washougal.
The start of the year is a time for beginnings, and a new baby reminds us all of the possibilities that lie ahead. Judging from recent years, about 5,500 babies will be born in Clark County during 2020, but Evaine will always be the oldest. Cheers and best wishes go to Clark County’s new resident and her family.
Jeers: To tree thieves. Portland’s Mill Ends Park has earned a measure of fame that overshadows its diminutive size. Deemed the world’s smallest part by Guinness World Records, the 452-square-inch park rests on the median of a downtown thoroughfare.
Now, the park has achieved new notoriety. Sometime in recent weeks, a cad chopped down the pint-sized park’s only tree, which had been decorated with garland and ornaments. Christmas spirit prevailed, however, as the tree was replaced within hours by an anonymous Samaritan. Cheers are warranted for the park’s benefactor, but jeers go to the pine purloiner. As Mark Ross of Portland Parks and Recreation told OregonLive.com: “We’ll all continue to enjoy the park and the whimsical nature of it, but when something like this happens it makes you think, ‘Why would someone do that?’ ”
Cheers: To bus wraps. C-Tran is nearing completion of a project to better connect the transit agency with residents. Six buses have been outfitted with wraps depicting the charm and history of cities in the region, and two more are expected early this year. “I think as a public agency, we have a responsibility to be really a bigger part of the community than just transit,” CEO Shawn Donaghy said.
Eye-catching designs have been created to celebrate Vancouver, Camas, Ridgefield, La Center, Battle Ground and Washougal; designs for Yacolt and Clark County in general are on the way. Each vinyl wrap costs $9,400 and is expected to last about five years, a worthwhile investment for the high-quality transformation of the buses.
Jeers: To traffic-halting tumbleweeds. Drivers were advised to avoid Highway 240 near West Richland on New Year’s Eve after several cars became trapped in a pile of tumbleweeds that stood up to 15 feet high.
Officials said five cars and one 18-wheel truck were lost in the mountain of tumbleweeds, which took 10 hours to clear. “People were still stuck at midnight and rang in the new year trapped under the weeds,” a Washington State Patrol trooper said. For some Washington residents, “Tumbling Tumbleweed” is likely to replace “Auld Lang Syne” as the song they most associate with New Year’s Eve.
Cheers: To Pooh the Chihuahua. It is a not-so-secret axiom in the newspaper business that you can never have enough stories about dogs. And so we bring you the tale of Pooh, a Longview pooch who went missing in the chaos of a kitchen fire at her humans’ home.
About a week after the fire, which caused $40,000 in damage and displaced Roxanne Ponn and her husband, Pooh showed up at a business more than a mile from home. A joyous reunion ensued, making for a happier New Year for Ponn. “I just wish she could tell us all of her stories,” Ponn told The (Longview) Daily News. “She found her angels today that brought her back.”
