Cheers: Nan Henriksen received plenty of cheers this week when she was honored as Clark County’s First Citizen, but there really is no limit to the applause she deserves. Henriksen, former mayor of Camas and Board of Freeholders chair, was lauded by former county commissioner Betty Sue Morris for being “bold but not reckless, confident but not arrogant, strong but not brittle, and tender but no pushover.”
As Camas mayor from 1983-92, Henriksen helped the city transform from a mill town to a high-tech hub. More recently, her steady leadership helped guide a group of diverse personalities in creating a county charter that was approved by voters. Through it all, Henriksen has demonstrated the highest ideals of leadership, making it easy to understand why the buttons and signs at the First Citizen ceremony read, “I’m a Nan fan.”
Jeers: Just when we start to wonder whether there are enough jeers to go around in a given week, “Bertha” solves our problems. Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine, once again is being derelict in its duties under the streets of Seattle.
Commissioned to dig a tunnel to replace the city’s Alaskan Way Viaduct, Bertha got about 1,000 feet into the 9,000-foot project before breaking down. That was in December 2013. The $3.1 billion project has been on hold since then, with a newly revised schedule pushing it back an additional month. The four-lane tunnel, once expected to open by the end of this year, now is scheduled to open in April 2018. The taxpayer-funded hole in the ground is growing into a bottomless money pit.
Cheers: The wonders of nature never cease to amaze, so it is that we offer up huzzahs for the trissolcus japonicas — a tiny wasp with a rare talent for killing the brown marmorated stink bug.
The invasive fruit-eating stink bugs have become an epidemic in Clark County in recent years, causing problems for farmers and being a nuisance for homeowners. The discovery of its tiny wasp enemy was unexpected, with Washington State University professor Elizabeth Beers saying, “This a 3,000-mile extension of its known range.” The wasps lay eggs inside clusters of stink bug eggs, and its larva eat stink bug eggs from the inside out. As horticulturist Charles Brun said, “It potentially means that we’ll have some way to keep the population in check to a certain extent.”
Jeers: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied a request from the state of Washington for aid to individuals affected by this summer’s wildfires. That might well be the proper decision, but it points out the need for the federal government to adjust how it prepares for and deals with wildfires.
Fires destroyed 146 homes and damaged another 476 this year in Washington, and all indications are that the intensity of wildfires will increase in coming years. The federal government must recognize this and increase funding for wildfire prevention, suppression, and recovery in future budgets. Planning ahead will prove less costly than reacting after the fact.
Cheers: We have not even gotten past the 2015 election, and already the 2016 races are shaping up locally. State Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, has announced that he will vacate his seat to run for lieutenant governor. That led Vancouver City Council member Alishia Topper and former state representative Monica Stonier to quickly announce they would seek to replace Moeller in the Legislature.
Some people — admittedly, many people — might not cheer these developments 13 months before the election. But good candidates make for good elections, and Moeller, Topper, and Stonier get the 2016 campaign off to a strong start.
