Bulletin Column - 11/29/12

These reports are from the previous two 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.

Eddy’s restoration job begins

A crew from Joe Rake Masonry in Lewiston Tuesday began work on restoring the lower walls on the front and north sides of Eddy’s Restaurant. The work was the start of an overall repair project for the restaurant which was damaged when it was struck by a truck and car that were involved in a Main Street accident Nov. 8. Estimated cost of the repairs was placed at $22,000. Steve’s Glass of Colfax will install the window. Proprietor Eddy Ng re-opened the business a week after the accident after temporary panels were installed over the opening. The “closed” sign in the photo is normally posted before they start the business day.

STOLEN CAR FOUND HERE

Colfax Police Sunday located a 2002 Ford Explorer which had been reported stolen at Pullman on Saturday. The Explorer had been left parked in a driveway on Orchard Street on the west hill of Colfax.

The Explorer had been reported stolen about 7 a.m. Saturday from NW Turner Drive in Pullman. Keys had been left in the vehicle.

Residents on Orchard in Colfax spotted the car earlier this weekend, but assumed it belonged to a neighbor who has a car similar in appearance, according to Colfax Chief McNannay.

BOND SET AT $10,000

Bond for pre-trial release of Autumn E. White, 31, Moscow, was set at $10,000 Monday in superior court on a first appearance after she was arrested late Friday as a suspect in an alleged theft attempt at the Pullman Wal-Mart. According to the arrest report, White ran when she was confronted by the store’s loss prevention officer while she was attempting to load the items in a vehicle. She was apprehended at the Zeppoz parking lot across Bishop Blvd. from the Wal-Mart store, the report said.

The police report alleges the loss prevention officer saw White load a car stereo unit and two laptop computers in a shopping cart. He told police she rolled the cart to the grocery section of the store and appeared to attempt to put the items in another box before rolling the cart out of the store.

LEWISTON DRIVER HURT

Darreld Rasmussen, 46, Lewiston, sustained head, neck and shoulder injuries early Monday morning on Highway 195 about 3.9 miles south of Uniontown. He was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston.

According to the Washington State Patrol report, he was driving a 1998 Ford Ranger pickup truck northbound at 3:45 a.m. when it went out of control on the frost-covered highway. The pickup crossed the oncoming lane and rolled into the ditch. It came to a stop on its wheels. The accident was two tenths of a mile east of the one-mile marker of Highway 195.

Sean Staley, 26, Palouse, was unhurt last Thursday when he lost control of the 2002 Subaru Legacy he was driving on Highway 271 two miles south of Rosalia. He was driving southbound at 6:20 p.m. when the Legacy drifted off the right side of the roadway. The driver over-corrected and the Legacy went into the ditch on the opposite side of the highway.

ST. JOHN CASE EXPANDS TO FOUR SITES

Michael E. McCarthy, 47, the St. John man deputies found zip-tied in the garage of a St. John residence he was suspected of burglarizing, has been linked to three other burglaries in the town, according to an updated report issued by Sheriff Brett Myers.

McCarthy was initially arrested when deputies responded to a 911 call at 6 a.m. Wednesda, Nov. 21. The homeowner said her husband was fighting with a man he discovered burglarizing their home. She later told dispatchers the suspect had been secured, and when deputies arrived they found McCarthy zip-tied on the floor of the garage. St. John EMTs, who also responded to the scene, were at the residence when the deputy arrived.

Bond for pre-trial release was set at $5,000 when McCarthy made a first appearance in court. A formal charge had not been filed as of that time.

According to the sheriff’s arrest report, McCarthy said he had decided to take an early morning bicycle ride and spotted a cat who was outside in the rain. He said he followed the cat to the garage.

Sheriff Myers later reported McCarthy has become a suspect in a shop burglary where tools were taken four days earlier and a vehicle prowl on South Street in St. John in which a .22 rifle, CDs and $32 in cash were taken. A fourth burglary was at a residence on Brights Street. Among items missing from a garage at that residence was a fire department radio.

The sheriff said all items which were reported stolen have been recovered.

ELECTION TALLY AT 17,323

Total ballots for the Nov. 6 election returns moved to 17,323 Wednesday, Nov. 21 after members of the elections staff counted another 1,322 ballots.

The county’s election canvass board convened Monday to review challenged ballots before the election certification deadline. Ballots approved by the board will be added to the final count.

The election tally after last Wednesday meant 6,960 votes were added to the returns which were reported at 10,363 on election night.

One election night result which changed with the late counts was outcome of the Referendum 74, the same sex marriage proposal. It had 48.6 approval in the election night returns, passed the 50 percent mark after the Nov. 15 count and now has a 50.56 approval rate, 8,485 to 8,300 in the latest returns.

The slim edge held by the marijuana initiative on election night held up on the latest count, now at 51.91 percent with 8,777 in favor.

WREATH PROJECT UNDERWAY

Sixteen Christmas wreaths will be placed on downtown streetlight poles this week. Chamber of Commerce Secretary Kathy Clark told the city council last Monday volunteers are assembling the wreaths. She said the new decorations for this year will be installed along two blocks of downtown Colfax.

Cost of the project has been estimated at $3,000 with approximately the same expenditure slated for next year to extend the decorations another two blocks in the downtown area, she reported at the city council session.

The chamber secretary requested city assistance in mounting the large wreaths on the light standards. She said the chamber plans to recruit volunteers to wrap lights on the standards.

The wreaths are expected to be in place before the Dec. 6 Christmas parade which will officially open the holiday season.

Clark also reported the chamber is attempting to locate a larger storage space to store the large wreaths and other chamber possessions.

COUGAR FLAGS UP FOR APPLE CUP

Football fans who rolled through Colfax Friday were greeted by WSU Cougar flags which were mounted on streetlight standards. Volunteers made the flag switch after a posting of flags for the UCLA game was foiled by rainy conditions.

Volunteers discovered the wood flagstaffs on U.S. flags could not be removed from their tube mounts because they had expanded. The plan that weekend called for switching out U.S. flags for Cougar flags and then returning the U.S. flags to the standards in time for Veterans Day Nov. 11.

Steve Larkin, city parks superintendent, said he and three other volunteers completed the flag switch Thanksgiving night. He said the procedure, which normally takes about 45 minutes, lasted more than three hours. In many cases volunteers switched the flags on the wooden standards which could not be pulled out of the tubular mounts. Mayor Todd Vanek, Jenny Jordan, Rob Rowland and Larkin worked on the project from about 7 to 10:30 p.m. The project was undertaken during heavy traffic flow as football fans rolled to Pullman Thanksgiving night to be on scene for Friday’s 12:30 kickoff.

Larkin added the upset win by the Cougars with a field goal in overtime Friday made the extended flag change the night before worthwhile.