Bulletin column - Oct. 29 2009

Fairview park gets drain

Parks Superintendent Steve Larkin has installed a surface drain for runoff at the small park along Fairview Street on the south hill of Colfax. The drain was needed because water from springs at the small park has been moving across the grassed area and spilling onto Fairview on the grade going up the hospital hill.

The new drain system at the park was connected to a street storm drain which will carry the runoff water down to the S. Fork of the Palouse River.

Finish work and the excavation and planting will probably be done next spring, according to Andy Rogers, public works director.

Inmate’s term cut

The 11-year-old sentence of a former Uniontown man was modified Friday in superior court and puts the inmate, Jeffrey Salmon, closer to the end of serving his lengthy prison term. Salmon was brought here from McNeill Island for the modification hearing.

Salmon, now 46, was originally sentenced in 1998 by Judge Wallis Friel for second-degree rape, burglary and other charges connected to a break-in of his wife’s residence on Esser Road outside of Uniontown. He was also charged with escape for bailing out of a squad car when he was being arrested in early January of 1998. The Salmons were in the process of getting a divorce at the time of the break-in and rape.

Judge Friel sentenced Salmon to 185 months on the second degree rape charge, the longest of the sentences. Some of the terms on the original eight counts were not assigned on the original sentence and added in early 2001 by Judge Friel after an appeals court ruling.

Friday, the 185-month sentence, one of three terms modified, was shortened to 146 months.

Salmon, filing his own petition from McNeill Island, contended the sentence should be shortened because of incorrect compilation by the state of his offender’s score at the time of the sentencing. The state compiles offender scores to determine a defendant’s record before setting prison terms. Salmon’s petition contended prior concurrent sentences should have been combined in the score instead of added separately. He also contended a prior conviction for a non-violent crime was scored as a violent crime.

Salmon has also been ordered to pay $5,310 in fines and fees and ordered to report his whereabouts to the court clerk’s office within five days after his release.

Heather Harder places third

Colfax senior Heather Harder finished third in the national FFA job interview competition after Thursday’s final rounds at the national convention in Indianapolis. She will receive a plaque and a $1,000 scholarship.

Winner of the event was from Oklahoma.

The competition requires entrants to submit a resume and then go through a telephone interview, preliminary and final interviews. Heather’s simulated application was for a receptionist position at the Growers Guide in Colfax.

This is the second third place honor she has won during her FFA career. As a sophomore she placed third in the national creed competition. Both national entries followed wins in state competition.

Another deer accident

Kathy M Riener, 53, Ferdinand, Idaho, was unhurt at 6:15 p.m. Thursday evening when the car she was driving collided with a deer on Highway 195 south of Colfax. According to the Washington State Patrol report, she was driving a 2009 Honda CRV northbound when a deer ran into the northbound lane, 2.3 miles south of Colfax.

Suspect found in phone booth

Roy A. Wolfe, 46, former Endicott resident, was arrested for violating a no contact order last Wednesday after he was located in the telephone booth in the lower entrance to the courthouse. Police were searching for Wolfe after he was allegedly spotted Wednesday morning in the parking lot of the Public Service Building, according to an arrest report by Deputy Sgt. J.L. Hamilton.

Wolfe was under a court order to not go within 500 feet of his ex-wife’s residence or work places. He was reportedly seen around the back lot entrance of the Public Service Building in Colfax. His ex-wife is employed in the building.

The arrest report said Wolfe has been convicted of four no-contact violations. He was sentenced to a year in jail last March after contacting his ex-wife in Endicott last January. The police report from that incident said Wolfe approached his ex-wife’s car at a fueling station in Endicott and attempted to give her what was described as a whirlygig.

The permanent 500 foot restriction was placed on Wolfe by Judge William Acey after a Sept. 25 court hearing prior to Wolfe’s release from jail two weeks ago.

At that time his ex-wife had petitioned the court to order him to stay out of Endicott and places where she works. Judge Acey instead set the 500 feet limit after noting blanket “stay out of town” court orders have been ruled unconstitutional in supreme court decisions.

Bond for pre-trial release was set at $50,000. Judge Richard Miller of Adams county Friday ordered Wolfe to undergo an examination at Eastern State Hospital to determine whether he is fit for trial.