The Bulletin Column

These reports are from the previous four issues of the Daily Bulletin in Colfax. They are reprinted here for the benefit of Gazette readers who reside outside of Colfax. Some accounts have been updated.

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TOY BOX RESTOCKS AFTER FIRST DAY

After being swamped on the first day of operation Monday, the Firemen’s Toy box needed to restock. City Administrator Carl Thompson reported to council members that the inventory ran low in two or three different departments and organizers made a trip to restock the shelves. Another $500 in toys for younger children was purchased late Monday at Wal-Mart.

A total of 237 youngsters were served by the toy box Monday. The toy box continued operations Tuesday until 3 p.m. and as needed later in the week.

More than 300 youngsters from around the county were registered for the toybox. Jane Roberts, DSHS staffer, is credited with doing the bookwork for the operation. Families in need are notified of the toybox service and if they respond are provided with an admittance form which allows them to pick out two of the toys for each youngster in their family.

More than $7,000 in toys were purchased by the volunteer firemen in a shopping trip earlier this month to Lewiston.

NEW ACCOUNT NUMBERS ON BILLS

The revised city water/sewer bills which are scheduled to hit the mail Monday carry new account numbers for all city accounts. Colfax residents who pay bills on-line are asked to look for the new city account number on the bills before making electronic payment.

The city mails out more than 1,200 utility bills a month and approximately 40 percent of the recipients pay on line.

Other changes on the bill include an individual listing of six percent utility taxes for water, sewer and storm drains. All three have been previously listed as a single utilities tax. The individual listings do not represent new taxes.

The new look is part of a computer program changeover which was installed last week by Vision Municipal Solutions.

The new program replaces one which has been in the city’s system since 1990. It was five years old when it was installed and has since had one upgrade.

The city mails out approximately 1,200 of the water and sewer bills each month. City Clerk Connie Ellis noted the new mailing will include a $20 late charge for residents who fail to pay the bill by the 15th of each month. The fee was bumped from $10 to $20 by the city council last month after they learned $20 was the actual amount placed in the city ordinance years ago for the late fee.

ORDERED BACK

TO JAIL

Joo Hyung Ock, 23, WSU student who was initially charged with arson after he ignited socks in a holding cell at the Pullman Police station last Feb. 20, was ordered back to jail Friday to serve 13 days because he failed to complete community service days. Ock was sentenced May 6 to reduced charges of reckless burning and disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to a year in jail with all but 30 days suspended. The court allowed him the option of working off the remaining 28 days of jail time.

At a follow-up hearing Friday, the court determined Ock was 108 hours short of the required jail time. Judge David Frazier noted Ock had seven months to work off the jail time and didn’t get it completed.

Prior to the hearing, Ock paid off $1,650 which had also been ordered as part of the judgment.

Pullman officer Ryan McNannay discovered flames at least a foot high were coming from the burning material in cell B of the holding facility in the jail last February when he responded to a report of smoke.

WILCOX GRANGE

HALL 103 YEARS OLD

Wilcox Grange Hall, site of a full scale Christmas dinner and party for members and guests Saturday afternoon, actually dates back to 1908. Plans for the party, which included a visit from Santa, were reported in the Bulletin Tuesday and a Gazette feature story last Thursday.

Grange Master Cindy Ziegler reported Wilcox Grange was organized in 1903 with 39 members and five years later they sold $10 stock shares to finance building the hall. Members built the Grange on the John Major property where it stands today.

The Grange became inactive in 1918 but reorganized in 1930. Members marked 40-year and 50-year observances based on the 1930 reorganization date.

Women of the Grange first prepared Christmas dinners and other meals in an upstairs segment of the original building. A cast iron stove remains in that part of the building. In 1952 a kitchen and dining hall was added to the back of the building. A well was dug on the site a year later and bathrooms were added.

Ziegler noted one reason the Wilcox Grange has survived in its present mode is the lack of a legal bind with the state Grange organization because the building dates back to 1908.

Other Granges in the area have had to deal with State Grange ownership claims on their buildings as members became inactive.

REID SEEKS

CONTEMPT ORDERS

Christopher Jack Reid, who was sentenced here in December of 2008 after a jury convicted him on charges of rape and burglary, has filed a motion in court to have the county prosecutor and a state community corrections officer found in contempt of court. Reid filed the motion from Stafford Creek Corrections Center at Aberdeen.

Reid’s motion contends the prosecutor and/or corrections officer failed to follow a July 6 court order to amend a pre-sentence report which is on his record. He noted at the time the pre-sentence report can be reviewed by an indeterminate sentencing review board.

Reid is the former porn star who was charged after he and a co-defendant, Kyle Schott, entered sororities on the WSU campus. The rape victim was a woman who was sleeping in one of the sororities.

Reid’s petition contends the court order has been on record for 156 days since it was issued by the court here. He said inquiries made by his mother and a computer search done at the corrections center indicate the pre-sentence report has not been changed since the order was issued last July.

The court at that time found the report was flawed because conduct admitted by Schott was mistakenly attributed to Reid in the report. It states Schott was describing acts done by Reid when Schott was actually describing his own acts. The mistake was noted and corrected during Reid’s trial, but corrections were never made to the pre-sentence report.

Schott pleaded guilty to reduced charges under a plea bargain agreement which included a requirement that he testify at Reid’s trial. The two had met earlier on the night of the crimes. Testimony at trial indicated Reid had boasted about his career as a porn star, and they later embarked on the criminal tour of the sororities.