Bulletin column - Feb. 4, 2010

More Fairview stimulus money?

Paving on the top section of Fairview, a project which was originally set to be accomplished with federal stimulus funds last year, could get accomplished this year with additional stimulus funds. City Administrator Carl Thompson told the city council Feb. 1 that the unfinished segment of Fairview would probably be the city’s nominee for a share of funding which could be allowed to the county.

A total of $1.4 million has been anticipated for projects in the county, but funding has not yet been made. Last year stimulus funds assigned here were awarded to projects in Colfax, Pullman and the county. Last year’s stimulus funding for the county was $1.46 million. The Colfax slice for the south end streets was $142,000.

Colfax originally had planned to redo the length of South Main and Fairview, but when the project qualified for stimulus money added requirements for engineering and other factors, including handicapped ramps, pushed up the project cost, and the city had to eliminate the section above Meadow Street.

Thompson anticipates the county, Pullman and possibly other towns will compete for shares of the $1.4 million if it eventually lands in county coffers.

Cost of the Fairview project would probably be in the range of a portion of the funds that could be allowed to Colfax. The city also has plans ready for the redo of Mill Street from Island to Canyon, but that price tag would consume too much of the overall anticipated county amount.

The north end of Mill Street was done under a state Transportation Improvement Board funding. State funds for the TIB have now been suspended.

Plan smoke drain tests

Colfax City crews in the coming weeks plan to conduct smoke tests on storm drains as a follow up of the S. Palouse River contamination study, Public Works Director Andy Rogers told the City Council Feb. 1. A state DOE study of the high contamination level of the final segment of the S. Palouse River has determined droppings from pigeons which roost under the bridges along Spring Flat Creek is the main cause of the contamination.

However, the city has also been asked to run smoke tests on storm drains in that part of town. Rogers explained smoke is injected into the storm drains as a method for determining whether sewer outlets are hooked into the storm drain system instead of the town’s sewer collection system. Any smoke which makes it way up the storm drain system and escapes through household drains is an indication of an improper connection.

California suspects arrested

Two Spokane residents who are alleged to be wanted on warrants out of Fresno, Calif., were arrested in Colfax and taken to the county jail Feb. 1. They were passengers in a car driven by Thomas Mulloy, 25, Spokane, who was also booked into the jail on a misdemeanor drug charge for possession of marijuana. Colfax Officer Robert Wride and Deputy Robert Goldsby made the arrest on Main Street. The car was initially stopped for making an illegal U turn on Main Street.

Officers respond to gun report

Colfax police, state troopers and sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a man displaying a pistol in the parking lot between Rosauers and Taco Time Jan. 31 at 5 p.m. The Moses Lake man was found to be in possession of a pistol which he had just acquired from his grandfather’s estate in Potlatch.

Assistant Chief David Szambelan checked out papers on the pistol on the front of the man’s pickup which was parked in the lane which exits to Harrison on the north end of the parking lot. Other police blocked off the lane to other shoppers.

Police received a report that the man had a pistol after another motorist in the lot honked at him for blocking the lane. The man told police he had just stopped to take another look at the pistol which he had just picked up in Potlatch.

Ag plane crash at Pullman

Ag pilot Michael R. McDonald, 41, Pocatello, was unhurt the morning of Jan. 30, after the 1979 Grumman Ag Cat he was flying crashed east of the Moscow-Pullman Airport. McDonald said the plane lost power after taking off at the airport. He attempted an emergency landing and the airplane flipped on its top.

Other Colfax in deep

Hal (Babe) Lyons, Colfax Codger Pole grad who resides at La Quinta, Calif., mailed up a photo of Colfax, Calif., which is covered in snow. The photo of the Amtrak station at the California Colfax shows the sign almost buried.

Colfax, Calif., is located along I-80 between Sacramento and Reno. The railroad station sign designates San Francisco 144 miles to the west. The caption on the photo notes the last storms which swept through the Sierra Nevada nearly doubled the water content of the snow pack.

WASHING MOTOR CAUSES ALARM

A Colfax fire crew was called out to a report of smoke in an apartment building in the S. 1000 block of Mill Street this morning. The smoke came from a washing machine in the laundry room of the apartment.

The motor apparently overheated in the washing machine when the washer was overloaded.

JEEP WRECK NOT FOUND

A deputy was dispatched at 8:15 a.m. last Thursday by the report of a jeep which was in the ditch near the intersection of the Wawawai Road and Highway 194 west of Pullman. The deputy reported he was unable to find the vehicle after checking the area.

Overdue crime bills: $133,041

An order extending judgment for another 10 years was added in each of the 41 files of criminal defendants who have not paid off fines or fees as required by the court. State law allows the court to extend judgments beyond 10 years when payments which are normally included in sentences remain due.

The court here extends the judgments after nine years as a precaution. Defendants in the 41 cases from 2001 have $133,041 due on payments ordered by the court.

Lewiston driver rolls car

Coeleen Coe, 28, Lewiston, was unhurt in a one-car accident on Highway 195 early last Tuesday, Jan 26, seven miles north of Colfax. According to the Washington State Patrol report, she was driving a 2000 Hyundai Tiburon northbound at 1:50 a.m., hit a patch of black ice, overcorrected and slid off the east side of the highway and rolled.

Hospital security call

A police officer was dispatched to the emergency room at Whitman Hospital at 11:40 a.m. last Wednesday after a patient in the emergency room became verbally abusive to hospital staffers. Chief Bill Hickman said the patient had been referred for treatment at Pullman Regional Hospital and apparently became upset by the time required to prepare orders for the transfer.