Cheers: To Community Mediation Services, a group that solves neighborhood disputes. Formerly a service of the City of Vancouver, it was spun off as a nonprofit organization last year as the city looked to shed costs. Now relocated to leased space furnished with City Hall castoffs, the mediation is mostly handled by a corps of trained volunteers, rather than employees. The city still kicks in a little funding, and the county contributes a fraction of the filings fee from small-claims court. It hasn’t been easy, but the core service remains intact.
Jeers: To illegal dumping on state lands, including the Yacolt Burn State Forest. The Department of Natural Resources recently reported finding at least 11 illegal dump sites of household waste and two abandoned cars in our region. Statewide, more than 200 state-protected sites experienced illegal dumping last year, straining state resources to clean them up at a time when they are cutting regular trash dumping and restroom cleaning at recreational sites. According to DNR officials, there are probably at least two or three more illegal dumps for each one cataloged. It’s hard to catch the perpetrators, though the state has been setting up some hidden cameras and paying for extra patrols at likely dump sites. An interactive map showing the 200 dumps is on the DNR’s website, http://dnr.wa.gov.
Cheers: To proposed regulations that would set a framework for Vancouver residents to contribute to park maintenance, or even to adopt a park. It’s a shame, but until the Great Recession eases, parks are going to go brown in the summer and look less well-kept all year. Where there were once 30 parks maintenance employees, there are now 14. Private effort could help keep green spaces mowed, watered, weeded and litter-free under two policies being established by the Vancouver-Clark Parks Department. Public comment is being taken, and the rules could be approved on April 16. To learn more: http://cityofvancouver.us/parks-recreation/whoweare/policy.asp.
Jeers: To the slow pace and duplicate investigations surrounding health care workers. A Vancouver certified nursing assistant was accused of rubbing a soiled diaper in a disabled elderly patient’s face in February 2009. It took the Department of Social and Health Services, which handles elder abuse allegations, until May 2010 to investigate and issue its final findings. Then it took six more months for the Department of Health to launch its own investigation into whether the woman’s credentials should be suspended. Finally a hearing was scheduled for this August. That’s 30 months after the alleged diaper incident that she will have been eligible to continue to care for patients without her license being temporarily suspended.
