Bulletin Column July 28

City gets Governor’s “Smart” trophy

A delegation from the Department of Commerce presented a Governor's Smart Communities Award to Colfax at the July 18 city council session.

Colfax was named to receive the award for the work which went into a rewrite of the Colfax comprehensive plan.

Dave Anderson, a member of the delegation, said one of the outstanding features of on the plan was the number of people who participated.

Also presenting the award were Dee Caputo, Julie Knacksted and Deanah Watson from the Growth Management Service Division of the department.

Watson was a graduate student at Eastern Washington University when she worked on the project.

From the left are Waston, Anderson, Caputo, City Administrator Mike Rizzitiello with the trophy and Mayor Todd Vanek.

Certificates were presented to members of the planning commission and park board.

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.

TASER USED ON PRISONER

A taser gun was discharged Monday night at the county jail to control a prisoner who refused to follow orders. According to the report, the prisoner, Shad M. Slater, 18, Spokane, began to act up in a common holding area and began throwing things.

Slater was ordered to leave the common area and go back into an individual cell to be locked down, but he refused to follow the order. Deputy Vince Waltz discharged the taser after Slater continued to ignore orders.

Slater had been arrested Saturday, July 23, on a charge of reckless driving.

Colfax EMTs were called out at 11:07 Monday night to check on the prisoner after he was downed by the taser.

CITY SEEKS SIPHON STUDY GRANT

Colfax is applying for a Community Economic Revitalization Board grant for an engineering study involving six sewer siphons which go under the flood channels in Colfax. The siphons were installed more than 50 years ago for the city’s sewer collection system when the Army Corps of Engineers installed the flood channels.

The key part of the engineering study would involve determining costs of alternative means for the lines in the event of a failure in the present system, according to Matt Hammer, Colfax public works director.

Colfax actually has eight different siphons in its sewer collection system with two crossing beneath Spring Flat Creek on the north end, five going under the channel for the South Fork of the Palouse River and one going under the North Fork of the Palouse River to link the North Flat area with the sewer treatment plant which is on the south side.

Hammer said the grant application includes just six of the siphons because the one under Spring Flat and the one under the North Fork are outside of the area where a CERB grant would apply.

One alternative to the siphons would involve spanning the channels with the sewer pipes. That would require lift stations to move the sewer flow up to surface level and across the pipe spans. City council members at their last meeting approved expanding the grant application from three to six of the siphons.

DRUG COURT REMOVAL

Andrew Michael Arland, 30, Garfield, was ordered removed from Whitman County drug court Friday after participating in the program since December of 2014. Arland was taken into custody last week after a July 15 drug test came back positive.

Arland Friday waived a formal hearing on the state’s petition to remove him from the drug court program. Under terms of removal he will now face a hearing on the original charges which had been suspended on the condition he complete the two-year drug court program.

Arland was granted a request to be released from jail to help with his family’s harvest operation. His hearing on the original charges of drug possession was set for Aug. 19. He was arrested after Pullman Police reported they found illegal drugs in a car Arland had been driving June 6, 2014. The case started when police responded to a report of a possible drug overdose on SW Cedar Street, and Arland was transported by ambulance to Pullman Regional Hospital. He was admitted to the drug court in December of 2014.

SEATTLE

DRIVER HURT

Carmina Ibanez, Seattle, sustained minor injuries Sunday when she lost control of a 2007 Toyota Corolla on Highway 195 five miles north of Colfax. According to the Washington State Patrol report, she was driving southbound at 1:45 p.m. when the Corolla went onto the shoulder of the highway. She over-corrected and the car went across the highway and into the ditch on the northbound side. A Colfax ambulance crew was called to the scene but did not transport the driver.

REMODELING WORK

UNDERWAY

AT ROSAUERS

The remodeling project underway at Rosauers has led to a detour structure around the front entrance of the building. Two square pits have been excavated in the front of the building for support pillars for a new sign on the store. The Rosauers letters from the front of the structure have been removed and will be part of the new sign, according to Shawn McAdams, store manager.

Another part of the upgrade to the store is new display cases in the deli section which have already been installed.

The major part of the project will be addition of an exterior freezer storage unit on the north side of the store.

Overall cost of the remodeling is $92,000, according to the city building permit.

McAdams said the front sign project is expected to be finished by the second week of August and the overall project is scheduled to be finished by the end of next month.

WSU GRIDDERS SUSPECTED

Pullman Police have identified more than six suspects and have so far interviewed one suspect involved in an alleged fight early Saturday morning at a party on College Hill in which four people were injured. Pullman Police Commander Chris Tennant Monday morning reported WSU football players were at the party and are believed to be possible suspects in the assault investigation.

Tennant said officers arrived at the scene, a private residence on Oak Street, at 1:27 a.m. Saturday. He said all suspects were gone at that time, but they were provided with names of WSU football players who had been present. He added other football players who were not at the party provided additional information.

Private vehicles were used to transport the injured to Pullman Regional Hospital.

The fight broke out after fireworks were reportedly discharged in the yard of the residence and some of the people were asked to leave the party. Cell phone videos were actually recorded during the fight and were included in evening television news broadcasts. Tennant said officers have been reviewing the videos in the investigation, and he has issued a call for anyone else who was at the party and recorded videos to contact the department.

One of the residents at the house, WSU student Alex Rodriguez from Medical Lake, sustained a fractured jaw as a result of being kicked during the brawl. Another victim, who is not a resident of the house, reportedly sustained a face laceration.

Rodriguez reported to the Bulletin Monday morning via text that he asked people to leave the party after the fireworks were discharged. He said some of the people began to argue and the fight followed. A least one person was believed to have been hit by the fireworks and a girl reported her hair was singed.

Rodriguez reported by text that football players were not personally invited by him to attend the party, but it was posted on a public Facebook page as an open party.

A GoFundMe account posted on Facebook was created for Rodriguez, whose jaw was reportedly fractured in three places. The account had reportedly raised $2,080 from 56 donors as of about 9:52 Monday morning.

Commander Tennant Monday morning said he anticipates a lengthy investigation will be required to determine what transpired at the party.

PARKS PANEL ACCEPTS JW TRAIL PLAN

Members of the Washington State Parks commission Thursday unanimously accepted a report by the John Wayne Trail Advisory Committee for the future of the John Wayne Trail. The proposal affirms the state’s commitment to develop the full length of the 285-mile trail, from North Bend to the Idaho border at Tekoa.

The 12-member advisory committee, which conducted a series of meetings at Moses Lake, was created out of the controversy which began after supporters of the trail learned of an ill-fated move via a legislative budget bill to shut down the John Wayne Trail from the Columbia River to Malden.

Ted Blaszak of the Tekoa Trail and Trestle Association was a member of the advisory committee, along with Jay Allert and Allen Widman of Rosalia and Brandon Spencer of Ritzville, all owners of property adjoining the trail.

Avista’s Paul Kimmel also sat on the advisory committee as a representative of a utility provider.

THREE TRACK PROJECT

PERMITS

Three permits were issued Monday as part of the Schmuck Park rehabilitation project which is now underway. The City of Colfax applied for a permit for placing the pre-fabricated combination buildings to house restrooms and concession space. Purchase of the three-unit installation was approved at the July 18 city council session. The city also received a permit for installing service lines to the concrete pad which is to be the support for the building.

Motley & Motley of Pullman received a permit for 62,000 square feet of asphalt paving at the site. The actual track surface will require approximately 45,000 square feet of base layer asphalt surfacing, and the rest of the permit will be for other paved areas of the project.

SIX MONTH SENTENCE

Rodgerick Klockeman, 21, former WSU student from Spanaway, was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay $1,800 in fines and fees Friday after pleading guilty to three charges of delivery of marijuana in Pullman in February of 2015. Klockeman appeared in court here after serving a sentence on a Pierce County conviction. Klockeman was assigned an offender score of two for determination of his sentencing range.

He was arrested here after the Quad Cities Drug Task Force conducted a controlled drug purchase operation. The task force learned from an informant that marijuana could be purchased from an apartment at Campus Commons North. The informant purchased marijuana Feb. 3, Feb. 5 and Feb. 8, 2015, under a controlled buy operation.

Pullman Attorney John Hart, who was appointed to represent Klockeman, said he considered the former WSU student as one of the brightest people he has every represented.

Klockeman was reported to have been placed on five years of probation from his conviction in Pierce County.

Charges were filed here against him June 9 of this year, and a warrant was issued after he failed to respond to a summons to appear June 24.

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY COST: $59,139

Whitman County’s cost for the May 24 Presidential Primary election was $59,139, according to Debbie Hooper, head of the auditor’s election office. Each county around the state has been required to compile a record of the costs of the primary and submit it to the state by Aug. 9 for reimbursement.

Hooper explained the state will foot the bill for the presidential primary because the election was essentially a state election. The county mailed out 21,565 ballots for the presidential primary which put the cost at $2.74 per ballot. The presidential primary for the county finished with 7,986 tabulated votes for a per-vote cost of $7.40.

The state presidential primary election May 24 has been criticized because of its late date and party declarations which were required on the ballot. Voters had to declare a party and then restrict their vote to the party they designated.

Hooper noted much of the extra cost of the presidential primary involved follow-up procedures after the ballots were cast. One of the extras involved sending out approximately 500 letters after the election to inform voters who had not declared a political party on the ballot that they would have to do so for their ballot to be tabulated. Those notice letters required a postage stamp to send and another stamp on an envelope for voters to respond if they chose to do so.

Hooper noted 336 of the notice letters never came back. Another criticism of the primary was its late date which actually made the Washington vote meaningless because most of the state primary elections had been completed.

The GOP side of the ballot listed four candidates, but by the time of the primary Donald Trump had wrapped up the race and the other three had suspended their campaigns.

The Democratic party in Washington opted to nominate its top candidate through the caucus process and did not adhere to the results of the state primary. Sen. Bernie Sanders won the nomination round in the caucuses in Washington.