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.

BALLOT LAG UNDER REVIEW

County Auditor Eunice Coker said Tuesday the Secretary of State’s office has started an effort to check on the reported lag in the mail return of primary election ballots from the post office. Coker said she and auditors in approximately five other counties around the state noticed a slow return of ballots from the primary election.

She said on last week’s Tuesday deadline day for the primary election, the office here received just eight ballots in the mail. That compares with a normal mail tub of ballots which usually arrives on election day. She added she did get a tub of ballots in the Wednesday mail.

Coker said a conference call was conducted by the Secretary of State’s office to compare experiences with election officials around the state.

She said in Franklin County, where they use a different system for tagging ballots, the auditor reported they found just one ballot which had been mailed by Saturday in the Tuesday mail. Other Saturday, Monday and Tuesday ballots arrived later in the week.

Coker said the late delivery of the mail leads to a delay in processing. One operation requires auditors to “cure” ballots which have signatures that don’t match the signatures on registration cards. Election staffers are required to mail a notice to voters who need to “cure” their signature by sending in another signature or coming to the elections office and providing a signature for comparison.

Delays in ballot delivery lead to late discovery of the faulty signatures, mailing notices to the voters and then mailing of a response by the voters back to the elections office before the Aug. 18 certification of the ballot.

Coker said the first step being undertaken by the secretary of state’s office will be a survey of election officials around the state to get an idea of exactly how many have been hit by the ballot lag.

PULLMAN IT

TRIAL SET

An Oct. 12 trial date was set Friday in superior court after Jacob Bergman, 30, pleaded not guilty to a charge involving alleged theft of two video cards from the Pullman School District. A charge of second degree theft was filed July 10 in superior court by Dan Le Beau, senior deputy prosecutor.

According to the Pullman Police arrest report, Bergman is suspected of taking two video cards which are used for servers which had been donated to the Pullman School District. The report said Bergman had been let go from the office because of integrity problems Oct. 6 and the cards, which had been on his desk, weren’t discovered missing until about a month later when the district found a use for the cards.

The report said officers determined the value of the two cards was more than $6,100 and found evidence that they were sold by Bergman for $1,589. The report said the seller of the cards was listed on eBay as bigpappaj.

Also, the report said Bergman has sent replacement cards to the district.

Tekoa DRIVER HURT ON 27

Vincente Ponce Rodriguez, 58, Tekoa, was taken by helicopter to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center for treatment of injuries sustained Saturday in a one-vehicle accident on Highway 27 about a mile north of Fairfield.

According to the Washington State Patrol report, Rodriguez was driving southbound approaching mile marker 65 when the 2000 Ford Ranger he was driving failed to negotiate a curve. The pickup truck went off the right side of the highway and came to a halt 50 feet from the roadway.

CHAMBER CHARTS EVENTS

Coming events posted for the Colfax Chamber of Commerce will be a booth at the Palouse Empire Fair, Sept. 10-15, helping with the PAC-12 cross country races at the Colfax Golf Course Oct. 28-30, holiday shopping and customer appreciation day Nov. 4, and the Winterfest celebration Dec. 3.

LEAK STALLS FOUNTAIN REVIVAL

A project to restore the fountain at Eells Park in Colfax has been delayed by a suspected leak in the water lines connected to the fountain, according to Matt Hammer, city public works director.

Hammer and city summer intern Tim Cornelius, Colfax High School senior, have been working to restore the fountain’s operation.

One of the problems with the fountain was the loss of water because it formerly operated off city pressure. Water which spilled out of the bowl of the fountain to the basin below departed down a drain.

Hammer Monday said they have installed a circulation pump next to the fountain with the idea of re-circulating water and reducing the loss.

He said when the pump was activated, they quickly realized there is a leak in the fountain’s lines because water did not return to the collection tank for the pump. The next step will be to locate the source of the leak and determine whether or not it can be repaired.

The fountain revival has been included in the projects undertaken with proceeds from the state’s extra lodging tax on motels with more than 30 units. Another project undertaken was removal of about 60 feet of railroad siding track from behind the Warwick Building across from Eells Park. The city intends to develop a walkway next to the park. The former UP mainline and another segment of railroad siding remains in the corridor.

Eells fountain was donated to the city in 1916 by Mr. and Mrs. Julius Lippett as a memorial to their daughter, Clara Francis. It was dormant for several years and restored as part of the state’s bicentennial observance in 1976.

A recirculating pump fountain was installed in front of Colfax city hall in 2008.

Colfax IRS OFFICE?

Colfax Police Chief Rick McNannay said the department has received about a dozen telephone calls from would-be scam victims around the county wanting to know if an IRS office is located in Colfax. They said they had been contacted by people who said they were stationed with the IRS office in Colfax, Wash. The chief said the would-be victims called here to ascertain whether or not an IRS office was really located here.

FIRE AT PULLMAN DUPLEX UNIT

Pullman fire crews responded to a report of a house fire at a two-story duplex in the 300 block of North Street Saturday afternoon. Neighbors of the residence were credited with dousing the fire on the deck of the unit and siding. The fire was believed to have been caused by a cigarette which had been thrown in a plastic container on the deck in back of the apartment. The resident of the apartment reportedly threw the cigarette in the container before going back into the unit to take a nap and awoke to the sound of his neighbors dousing the fire.

DANAHER STUMP REKINDLES

A Colfax fire crew responded Sunday to a report that a stump had re-ignited at the scene of the Danaher Road fire at 12:40 p.m. The Danaher Road fire started in brush and timber July 31.

ALLEGE Rosalia POOL BREAK-IN

A 14-year old Malden boy and a 13-year-old Rosalia girl have been summoned to juvenile court Aug. 20 after being charged with breaking into the office area of the Rosalia swim pool. The arrest report said security glass on the door to the office had been discovered broken July 19 and a chunk of concrete was found inside the office. The report said a long blond hair was found snagged along the frame of the broken window.

According to the report, the girl told deputies they had entered the office to take candy.

The Malden youth charged in the case was placed on one year supervision in February in a case involving theft of an iPhone from another student on a school bus. He has since been charged with violating terms in the disposition of that case and has been summoned to court Sept. 3 for a hearing on the violations. The alleged violations include failing to attend school, violating an order to not associate with others and using marijuana.

WATER LOSS A TARGET

Colfax plans to develop a plan to reduce water loss from the city’s water system, Matt Hammer, public works director, reported at the Aug. 3 city council meeting. Hammer said the state in 2007 adopted a new rule to limit water loss to 10 percent for cities around the state.

Colfax at one time had been within the 10 percent range, but a new computation shows the city’s water loss was just more than 20 percent.

Hammer said he believes the goal of cutting the loss to 10 percent was realistic for Colfax.

Councilwoman Jeannette Solimine noted one big gain for the city this year was the caulking operation which reduced water loss at the Colfax swim pool. Vertical gaps between the concrete panels of the pool were re-caulked before the start of the swim season, and the city plans to re-caulk the horizontal gaps between the bottom panels of the pool in the off season.

TEKOAN NOW BACK IN JAIL

Richard Cross, Jr., 44, the Tekoa resident who was allowed pre-trial release last week after being charged with burglary and car theft, was returned to jail after violating a court order to have no contact with the victim. The motion to revoke his release said Cross was discovered late the night of Aug. 1 standing outside of the residence of the alleged victim in the case.

He had been ordered to have no contact with the victim as a condition of his release the previous morning in court.

Cross was charged after he reportedly took the victim’s car out of her garage and drove a short distance to his house in Tekoa. The arrest report noted a bicycle left in the garage was later traced to him.

The deputy who responded to the report of Cross being outside the residence of the victim noted he was able to identify Cross at the scene because he had transported him home to Tekoa the previous night. He said Colfax police had found Cross intoxicated in public July 31 after he was allowed release on his own recognizance.

Court Commissioner Gary Libey Aug. 7 ruled that Cross had violated terms of his release and set a $5,000 bail figure for pre-trial release.

Trial date for Cross has been scheduled for Oct. 12.

DRIVER HITS

2 HORSES

Larry J. Kennedy, Colfax, was unhurt late Aug. 3 when the 2000 Ford pickup truck he was driving struck two horses on Highway 26 east of Dusty. According to the Washington State Patrol report, Kennedy was driving eastbound at 11:32 p.m. when several horses went onto the roadway 13 miles west of Colfax. He attempted to avoid hitting the horses but collided with two of them.

WAIVES

EXTRADITION

TO IDAHO

Shon Drea C. Sims, 20, a resident of Kent who was sentenced to five months in jail here May 8 waived extradition to Idaho July 31 on a warrant issued by Latah County Magistrate John Judge.

Sims was sentenced here to amended charges of unlawful issuance of bank checks, criminal impersonation and forgery which dated back to last August. Those charges evolved from a Pullman Police investigation that began with the allegation that Sims had purchased a laptop computer with an invalid check.

In addition to the five months in jail, he was ordered to pay $1,530 in fines and fees with a total of $730 in restitution.

The extradition warrant, dated Jan. 21, said Sims is wanted in Latah County on two charges of writing invalid checks.

Palouse FALLS RESCUE

A report of the rescue of a Walla Walla girl who fell a short distance and injured an ankle July 28 at Palouse Falls was featured in the July 29 edition of the Dayton Chronicle. She was airlifted by helicopter from the bottom of the Palouse River Canyon to the hospital in Walla Walla.

Maddie Koby was one of three 18-year-olds from Walla Walla who were hiking the trail to the bottom of the falls. At one point the trail crosses a rock slide and she slipped near the bottom. She only fell about five feet, but she sustained extreme pain from what was believed at the time to be a fractured ankle.

One of the other two girls hiked back up the trail to notify the park ranger. Columbia County District 3 volunteers responded to the call. Three hiked down the trail and two rappelled over the edge to carry Koby to the landing zone for the Lifeflight helicopter.