News / Clark County News

Top Stories: Concert hall plans; VSAA limits cellphones in class; police fatally shoot Vancouver man

By Amy Libby, Columbian Web Editor

Published: June 22, 2024, 6:10am

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Here are some of the top stories of the week on columbian.com. Wondering what else was popular this week with readers? Check out our Trending Stories page.

After years looking at downtown, the dream of a Clark County performing arts center moves to east Vancouver

After many years — make that decades — of unsuccessful attempts to bring a concert hall and performing arts center to downtown Vancouver, project boosters are looking east.

A mixed-use development called Columbia Palisades under construction on the easternmost edge of Vancouver is now the target location for a performing arts facility intended to be Clark County’s largest, said Kathy McDonald, executive director of the nonprofit Southwest Washington Center for the Arts.

Nonprofit Southwest Washington Center for the Arts signs letter of intent to purchase Columbia Palisades site

Vancouver Schools of Arts and Academics will limit cellphones in classrooms; district could follow suit

The Vancouver School of Arts and Academics sent out a notice to families last week that it will adopt a new policy to limit classroom cellphone use next school year.

The sixth- through 12th-grade magnet school set its own policy, which will require students to place their powered-down phones in hanging pouches as they enter their classrooms. Vancouver Public Schools has yet to develop a districtwide policy, but officials expect to do so sometime later this summer.

Vancouver Public Schools considers districtwide policy

Ridgefield man dies after motorcycle crash on I-205 in Vancouver

A motorcyclist who crashed on the morning of June 12 on Interstate 205 in Vancouver has died.

Ridgefield resident Jason T. Gromlovits, 42, was driving north on I-205, just south of Mill Plain Boulevard, around 5 a.m. when his motorcycle left the roadway and struck a guardrail, according to a Washington State Patrol crash memo.

Motorcycle left roadway and hit guardrail in June 12 crash

Vancouver police fatally shoot man after reports of gun wielding along Andresen Road

Vancouver police fatally shot a man early Monday after responding to reports that he brandished a gun in central Vancouver.

An officer was driving just before 1 a.m. in the 2800 block of Northeast Andresen Road when several people flagged down the officer to report a man had pointed a gun at them near the parking lot of McDonald’s, according to a news release from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the shooting investigation.

7 stellar spots to get ice cream this summer around Clark County

Salt & Straw’s arrival at the Vancouver waterfront was cool, but competition for the best ice cream in Clark County is just beginning to heat up as new spots open for tasty licks.

From Salt & Straw at the Waterfront Vancouver to Eight Cow Creamery in Ridgefield, we can all scream for ice cream