Morning Press: Drought, fires, election, kickball, family business

If you were away for the weekend, catch up with these stories.

Tired yet of cool and cloudy? We may see sun this week, but not much over 80?. Check our local weather coverage.

Dry year worries a range of people

In May, Gov. Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency.

At the time, he warned that Washington’s rivers had dwindled, snowpack was nearly nonexistent and some irrigation districts were rationing water.

On the Olympic Peninsula, where normally 80 inches of snow would blanket the ground, glacier lilies bloomed.

Then the governor uttered what has now become a familiar refrain: “We’re seeing things happen this time of year we have just never seen before.”

Officials predicted that rivers and streams would run at their lowest levels in at least 64 years. Firefighters braced for an earlier and more intense wildfire season. The state Department of Agriculture predicted $1.2 billion in crop losses due to drought.

And, Inslee warned, “We have some even tougher, more challenging months ahead of us.”

Those months are now upon us.

The drought’s impacts are far-reaching and have reached Clark County. Here are seven on-the-ground perspectives of people who are affected in different ways.

• Concerns mount as drought worsens.
• Are conditions making another Yacolt Burn more likely?

Candidates promote themselves (or not) for Vancouver council

Judging from their websites, campaign signs and fundraising efforts, two of the three candidates running for departing Councilor Larry Smith’s seat on the Vancouver City Council seem to be in it to win it.

Ty Stober has raised $19,700. Linda Glover has raised $9,000. They’ve been attending City Council meetings, doorbelling and holding fundraisers.

But the third candidate, Kathy Metzger, who filed two minutes before the deadline May 15, triggering an Aug. 4 primary race for council Position 5, doesn’t have any campaign donations listed with the state Public Disclosure Commission.

Metzger, a former Republican precinct committee officer for Precinct 150 and legislative district chair for the 49th District, doesn’t have a website. She declined to take part in The Columbian’s editorial board meeting June 1 with the candidates. She hasn’t accepted the League of Women Voters’ invitation to attend a July 16 candidate forum. On May 15, she told a reporter she hadn’t developed a campaign platform yet.

In response to The Columbian’s request for information for this story, Metzger stated by email Tuesday: “I appreciate the opportunity, but I am not going to participate. I do, indeed, have an active campaign, but I am choosing other avenues to get my message out.”

Stober first announced in March he was running against first-term Councilor Bill Turlay. Following Councilor Larry Smith announcement in April that he wouldn’t run for a fourth term, Stober, who had lost a council bid two years ago, decided to run for Smith’s seat instead.

In May, Glover filed for Smith’s seat, followed by Metzger.

Stober said he’s running out of a passion and a love for the city. He understands “the broad spectrum of the economy” and how the city’s decisions affect the city’s business environment, he said. He also touts the personal relationships he’s built over the last 10 years with elected leaders in both Washington and Oregon.

Glover said her experience as a business person, teacher and school administrator makes her the most qualified candidate. Running a business on Main Street for 10 years staffed by volunteers demonstrates her skills at bringing people together, she said. The nonprofit organization she heads, Gifts for Our Community, has helped more than 200 other nonprofits “fulfill their dreams,” she said. As an elementary school principal, she worked with a board and a budget, she said.

When it comes to city issues, Stober and Glover don’t differ much. During their July 1 meeting with The Columbian’s editorial board, it became evident that they share the same views on road funding, the proposed Tesoro-Savage oil terminal, property taxes, public salaries, fireworks, relations with the county and C-Tran.

• See details on the candidates’ views.

Fires set for fun cause problems

An illegal bottle rocket sparked a fire that did about $85,000 worth of damage Friday to a house in east Vancouver.

Investigators are looking for a white teenage boy in a white T-shirt who was seen setting off the firework.

The fire was reported about 7:50 p.m. in the Ellsworth Springs neighborhood.

“A neighbor was looking out a front window and noticed a 14-year-old white male walk into the middle of the street. He lit a bottle rocket and shot it off,” Heidi Scarpelli, Vancouver fire marshal, said Saturday afternoon.

“The neighbor was going to tell the kid to clean up the mess,” Scarpelli said.

The juvenile was gone by the time the neighbor got outside and saw that bushes next to the house at 307 S.E. 105th Ave. were on fire. The flames quickly advanced, spread into the attic and ignited the roof of the 1,000-square-foot, ranch-style house.

All occupants were safely out of the house when Vancouver Fire Department crews arrived.

“The firefighters had to pull down two-thirds of the ceiling in the interior,” Scarpelli said.

Damages were estimated at about $60,000 to the three-bedroom house and $25,000 to its contents. The occupants did have renter’s insurance and the owners have full fire coverage, Scarpelli said.

The house is not habitable; the Red Cross is helping the occupants.

Someone who sets off that sort of firework is subject to a $500 fine, Scarpelli noted. And the property owner could pursue a civil action in court.

• Read what’s known about the alleged firebug.
• Neighbors, firefighters respond in Rose Village.
• Recreational fires banned in increasing part of county.

Adult leagues kick up a fuss about kickball

The big secret — the open secret — is not taking adult kickball too seriously. You get a sense of that from local team names such as Fun Police and Ump Yours. And you get a sense of that from rules that aim to keep things friendly. The team at the plate also provides the first- and third-base coaches who call safes and outs according to the honor system. Pitches are supposed to be “like rolling a ball to a teammate,” the rules say.

In other words, it’s all as friendly as can be — or aims to be.

“OK, some players are a little full of themselves,” admitted one player who asked not to be named. “The sooner you nix that, the sooner you have a good time.”

Kickball is traceable to a 1917 book called Playground Games, which described it as a kinder, gentler cousin to baseball — played along the same lines but with kicking feet instead of a swinging bat. That made it easier and safer for young children.

Fast forward a century to find us living in a culture in which the line between childhood and adulthood has blurred. Even as we encourage our kids to get serious about ambition and achievement, the adult good life — especially here in the recreation-happy Pacific Northwest — seems to require hefty helpings of play.

And there’s nothing wrong with that, according to experts such as Stuart Brown, psychiatrist, researcher and the author of “Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates The Soul.” That title summarizes what you probably already sense in your bones, but the specific benefits of play for adults as well as children, according to Brown, are both physical and mental:

o Strength and fitness, weight maintenance, coordination and balance.

o Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

o Emotional regulation and refreshment, counteracting depression.

o Greater creativity and imagination.

• Find out how to join in the kickball fun.

Joe’s farm sprouts a second family business

A picture of a little Lauren Shumaker as a child asleep in her grandfather’s lap hangs in the newly renovated restaurant at Joe’s Place Farms, a farm within the city limits of Vancouver.

The walls of The Farm Kitchen and Taproom are filled with memorabilia that tell a story of long tradition, family and farming. Adjacent to the small dining room is the produce store, filled with seasonal vegetables and fruit — from cherries and peaches to cucumbers, onions and corn — grown right there on the farm. A large chalkboard next to the small kitchen lists the day’s menu over four taps that rotate local beers and ciders.

This mix of tradition with a modern taproom twist is Shumaker’s way of bringing new clients to the longtime community staple while honoring the reliable customers who have come to weekly brunch or bought boxes of produce for years.

“We’re trying to find ways we can keep a presence in the community and make sure there’s still a piece of nature for people to come and enjoy,” Shumaker, who manages the restaurant, said.

In addition to adding beer and wine, the restaurant has expanded its hours from just Saturday brunch to Fridays for lunch and dinner and Saturdays and Sundays for brunch and dinner.

Amid the dining and drinking, the farm continues to produce crops that change with the seasons. This week, it’s blueberries and Marionberries, as well as freshly picked peaches and Lodi apples. Gravensteins will be ripe soon, and the farm is preparing to offer U-pick peaches when the fruit hits its peak.

Charles Brun, horticulture adviser for Washington State University Clark County Extension, said Joe’s Place is unique in that it not only grows the food but processes it and sells it straight to the customer.

“It is everything we like in not having to see transport of food from California,” he said.

• Learn the plans for the Farm Kitchen and Taproom.