As Clark County’s governing body convened for the first time in 2015 on Tuesday, it didn’t take long for county Councilor Tom Mielke to recognize the significance of an otherwise routine meeting.
“Tonight we’re going to make history,” Mielke said.
Tuesday marked the first official meeting for the group as the Board of County Councilors, which assumed new roles and titles as a result of a home-rule charter voters approved in November. The three served as county commissioners until Jan. 1, when the new form of government began to take effect.
That’s not the only change. Two additional councilors will be elected this year to complete the transition from three commissioners to five councilors. County Administrator Mark McCauley also became acting county manager, a position that carries new power under the charter. The manager has executive authority over county departments, while the council sets policy. Previously, county commissioners held both executive and legislative powers.
Three environmental groups that accuse the Port of Vancouver of violating Washington’s open public meetings law in approving a lease for an oil-by-rail terminal now allege port commissioners used not just one but multiple closed-door meetings to illegally exclude the public from their discussions of the project.
Meanwhile, attorneys for the port are pushing back. They deny the new allegations contained in the expanded lawsuit. And they’re asking Clark County Superior Court Judge David Gregerson to limit the questions attorneys for the three environmental groups may ask commissioners during the case’s pretrial discovery phase.
The three environmental groups — Columbia Riverkeeper, Sierra Club and Northwest Environmental Defense Center — are expected to file arguments against placing limits on their ongoing efforts to gather information about how commissioners decided on the lease.
Gregerson is slated to hear from both parties on the matter at 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 16.
The owner of Sunrise Bagels wasn’t aware he was about to run afoul of city rules when he hired an arborist to top trees outside his downtown Vancouver store and bakery.
Years ago, Don Kosterow bought the six European hornbeam trees and paid to have them planted next to the sidewalk outside his business, 808 Harney St. They grew so tall that they were obscuring the name of his business on his building, and he had the trees topped.
Then came a warning letter from the city: Replace the damaged trees or be fined. Failure to pay the fine would be punishable by jail.
In a Dec. 9 response to Charles Ray, the city’s urban forester, Kosterow wrote that his trees were well-groomed and healthy.
“Customers can now see our sign from the street and the trees can be easily decorated,” Kosterow wrote. “We do not need a lecture regarding the value of a city canopy. We bought, planted and cared for the trees … the city did not.”
When Albertsons closed its grocery store on Vancouver’s Fourth Plain Boulevard in February, analysts expected the space to stay vacant for a long time.
Nearly a year later, those predictions appear to have proven accurate. Even as other stores in the same shopping plaza have opened since then, the 52,600-square-foot anchor space remains hollow, its windows covered. Remnants of the Albertsons logo have been scrubbed from the front of the building in the city’s Bagley Downs neighborhood.
Like many major departures, the grocery store’s closure spurred a ripple effect that neighboring businesses are still feeling. Among them is ReTails, a full-service thrift store that opened there in September.
“We run our business as we planned,” said Linda Meyers, a manager at the store, which is owned by the Humane Society for Southwest Washington. “We were just hoping for a larger growth in a shorter amount of time.”
If you flew in or out of the Portland airport this holiday season, you were ensured at least one celebrity sighting: the PDX carpet.
Ever since word got out that 13 acres of the teal carpet would be replaced starting this month, the carpet has achieved celebrity status.
There was a New York Times article titled “In Portland, It’s Curtains for an Airport Carpet,” an airline trade publication featured it in a spread titled “Cult Carpet,” and Portland Monthly magazine wrote a T.S. Eliot-inspired poem, “Ode on a Carpet, by T.S.A. Eliot.”
“Enthusiasm about carpet was probably not something we expected,” said Kama Simonds, spokeswoman with the Port of Portland.
RENTON — There was never any explanation given for why the action took place. And considering Marshawn Lynch is at the center of the topic, that’s not much of a surprise.
The handshake. The universal symbol of the business deal. And for the past year — with few exceptions — it’s the way the Seattle Seahawks’ standout running back has celebrated getting into the end zone.
“He’s business. It’s all business for him,” Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman said. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen him celebrate — maybe once or twice he celebrates a touchdown.”
Some players have well-choreographed TD celebrations. Others take the opportunity for self-promotion when they score a touchdown.
