Bulletin column - March 18, 2010

Mayor breaks seat deadlock

Al Vorderbrueggen was selected Monday to fill the Colfax city council seat vacated by the resignation of Kathy Wride. Mayor Norma Becker voted for Vorderbrueggen after a ballot round of the six council members ended in a 3-3 deadlock between Vorderbrueggen and Todd Vanek.

Vorderbrueggen, now an employee with the City of Spokane Parks department, has lived in Colfax for 15 years. He has served on the city’s park board and has been active in youth sports organizations.

Mayor Becker said she hoped Vanek would consider taking a seat on the Colfax Planning Commission. A 15-year Navy veteran, Vanek attended graduate school and worked for the WSU assessment and evaluation center. He is now a customer support manager for Decagon in Pullman.

Councilman Jeremiah Roberts nominated Vorderbrueggen, and Councilman Earl Leland nominated Vanek.

MUMS short of helpers

Members of MUMS, the group responsible for planting and maintaining flower baskets in Colfax during the summer months for the past seven years, is still considering whether or not to continue this summer. Cherry Alice Van Tine, one of the MUMS members at Monday night’s city council session, said their ranks have declined to the point where they are uncertain they can continue maintaining the plants for another season.

She said the MUMS group, which last year presented the city with a collection of photos of places in the city where they thought appearances could be improved, wanted to check on progress the city has made.

She added McGregor Co. has volunteered to rebuild two slides which were removed from Schmuck Park after they relayed complaints of slivers contracted by slide users.

City Council members at their last session discussed using part of the 200 hours of volunteer work pledged by the Assembly of God Church for rehabilitating the slides.

Also Monday, Chamber of Commerce President Kim DeHart reviewed chamber policies and projects. DeHart said one of the problems with keeping the downtown area looking nice was absentee ownership of buildings. Keeping windows and sidewalks clean and weed control are problems. She noted the chamber is a volunteer group and lacks any enforcement power.

Census station in Colfax

Pam Eskridge of Colfax is now on duty as a US Census Bureau language assistant for people to fill out census forms. She has moved to the hallway at the Public Service Building from the temporary Whitman County Library headquarters behind US Bank where space is limited.

She will be on duty Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 to 3 until April 19.

Eskridge said general census forms are scheduled to be mailed out this week and residents can expect to receive them by Friday. Census “Be Counted” forms remain available at the library.

Pullman duo assigned rehab

Michael Schaub, 38, and Pamela Rogers, 37, Pullman residents who were arrested Jan. 3 on charges of possession of property stolen from residences at Pullman, were each ordered to report Monday to a drug rehab center in the Spokane Valley under a drug offender alternative sentence assigned to each of them Friday afternoon in superior court.

Each was placed on 24 months of community supervision which will be in effect after they complete the residential drug treatment. Both entered guilty pleas earlier.

Schaub, formerly of Colfax, was charged with five counts of possession of stolen property and possession of methamphetamine. He was ordered to pay fines and fees of $3,300.

Rogers was convicted of six counts of possession of stolen property and possession of methamphetamine. She was ordered to pay $3,700 in fines and fees, including $400 in restitution. Pullman Police reported most of the stolen property, recovered in a warrant search of a residence on Elm Street, came from student residences which were unoccupied during the WSU holiday break.

Under the custody provisions, they were banned from associating with other felons, including each other.

Moore bond set at $25,000

Bond amount for pre-trial release of Amber Moore, the Clarkston woman who was booked back into the jail Friday night after being released earlier that day for entering a house in St. John and then allegedly catching a cab ride back to the house to make another entry, was set at $25,000 Monday in court. She had been released on her own recognizance after her first arrest Friday.

Two sets of formal charges were filed against Moore by Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Jackson. She was formally charged Friday with possession of methamphetamine and marijuana and criminal trespass. She was charged Monday with residential burglary, theft, possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

The St. John episode began early Friday when Moore, 21, and Skyler C. Sullivan were arrested for trespassing at the unoccupied house. The report said Sullivan’s mother resides at the house. She had called the sheriff’s office and told them she did not want her son and Moore in the house and believed they were taking items. The report said the duo had made entry through a front window.

Moore was arrested at the St. John city limits Friday night as she attempted to leave. The report said she told them she went back to the house in an attempt to get the keys to her truck which had been left parked there. The cab driver allegedly told deputies he waited for payment of his fair outside for approximately 25 minutes after Moore went into the house.

Blown tire stops trucker

David L. Nuxoll, 49, Greencreek, Idaho, was unhurt when he lost control of a tractor/trailer on Highway 195 south of Pullman early Friday morning, March 12. According to the state patrol report, Nuxoll was driving north at 6:50 a.m. when a tire blew out and the truck went across the highway and into the ditch on the opposite side of the road.