Bulletin Column Jan. 12

Arctic swimmer

The ice-infringed Palouse River in the flood control provides a potential competitor with a practice area for up-coming polar bear swims.

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.

THORNTON FIRE DISPLACES FAMILY

Fire crews responded Jan. 3 at 9:48 p.m. to a report of a house fire on Old Thornton Road. The fire broke out in a laundry room in the residence, and family members exited the residence and suffered exposure. The exterior temperature is believed to have been in the zero to five-degree range.

Fire crews from Rosalia, Thornton, Colfax and Steptoe responded to the scene.

Rosalia Fire Chief Bill Tensfeld said four family members were exposed to the cold for approximately 20 minutes until fire crews could arrive at the house which is located just north of Thornton. The mother and three children were taken by ambulance to Whitman Hospital in Colfax and treated for exposure. They were released after treatment and are now staying with relatives in the Rosalia area. Chief Tensfeld said fire crews remained at the scene until 1 a.m. The fire damaged the garage part of the residence which contained the dryer.

The dryer in the laundry room is the suspected cause of the fire, he said.

MOOSE, CALF PUT DOWN

A female moose and young calf were euthanized by a firearm Saturday in the Klaveno Road area north of Steptoe. Madonna Luers, spokeswoman for the state Dept. of Game, said the cow moose had to be put down as a last resort after she became extremely agitated.

Luers said an extended effort was made by the game agent to get the moose away from the residence. Paint balls and rubber bullets were used in the attempt to get the animal to vacate the premises.

She said several residents had reported the moose and calf were in the area, and the animal did move in previous instances. The last episode involved a family with young children, and the moose was considered a threat.

Luers said the reaction of the moose was unusual for rural areas where animals will normally move on when confronted by officers. The calf, which was probably born last June, would have been unable to survive without the mother.

Meat from the animals has been donated to a food bank.

CITY TRUCK HIT

A mirror was knocked off the side of the city’s 2016 Ford truck when it was hit along Main Street at the Island Street intersection Monday at about 4 p.m. Crew members had parked the truck along Main to use as traffic control for a loader which was working to clear a street drain.

The northbound truck pulled toward the center of Main to pass, and its trailer edged up onto the center snow berm and then slid off and hit the side mirror of the parked city truck.

Another accident was logged on Main Street Monday when Officer Grant Silver was called at about 2:30 p.m. to investigate a pickup truck-car accident on S. Main near the Canyon Street intersection. A 17-year-old Colfax juvenile, driving a 2006 Ford pickup truck, clipped the front of a 2005 Chrysler Pacifica when she attempted to change lanes while driving southbound. The front headlight of the Chrysler was damaged in the collision.

DRUG SEARCH RULED ILLEGAL

A search of a vehicle which had been discovered parked in the dump bin shed at the Pacific Northwest Farmer station at Johnson last April was ruled illegal Friday by Judge David Frazier. The ruling on the motion to suppress drug evidence found in the search was made Friday on the judge’s last day on the bench before his retirement.

Charges of possession of methamphetamine and trespassing were filed Aug. 11 against Lanette Frei, 45, after a deputy in April received a call from a elevator employee that a car was parked in the dump shed.

According to the arrest report by Deputy Tyler Langerfeld, the car was starting to leave the dump shed at the time he arrived on the scene. The report said Frei told the deputy she had gone to Johnson in the early morning hours to visit her father and decided to park the car in the shed instead of waking him up. She said she had spent most of the early morning hours roller blading in Pullman after completing a shift as a janitor.

Judge Frazier Friday said he decided on his ruling after viewing a video of the arrest in which the deputy made continued requests to search the car without a warrant. Frei eventually allowed the deputy to reach into the car and remove a bag of cereal which was said to contain a baggie of methamphetamine, but the judge ruled too much pressure had been applied to get her consent.

DRUG ARREST IN COLFAX

Frank Jeffreys, 32, Clarkston, was booked into jail at 3:05 a.m.

Saturday morning after being arrested in Colfax for alleged possession of methamphetamine and driving with a suspended license.

Colfax Officer Steven Perez stopped Jeffreys after spotting the car in the alley behind Cougar Food Mart and later observing a traffic violation.

After the suspect said he did not have a driver license, Perez determined Jeffreys’ driver license had been suspended.

A baggie with white powder was found on Jeffreys as part of a search following his arrest.

The arrest report said when Jeffreys was asked what the white powder was he replied “probably meth.” Bond for pre-trial release was set at $5,000 in a first appearance.

ANOTHER

HIGHWAY 26 FATALITY

Washington State troopers were called to the scene of another fatality collision on Highway 26. The accident at 4:31 p.m. Sunday was on the section of highway between Washtucna and the Highway 395 intersection 13 miles west of Washtucna.

Killed in the accident was Rachel A. Pomeroy, 20, Snohomish. According to the Washington State Patrol report, she was driving a 2003 Acura eastbound and collided head-on with a 2016 Ford Explorer being driven westbound by Donald R. Graham of Bothell. Graham was uninjured in the collision.

The WSP report late Sunday night said the accident was still under investigation and did not list a cause.

Pomeroy was the second WSU student killed in a collision on Highway 26 during the holiday break. Jessica Brooks, 26, a graduate student in veterinary medicine, was killed in a collision with a semi-truck Dec. 26 eight miles west of Colfax near the Filan Road intersection.

Sunday’s accident closed the highway for three hours. It was re-opened at 9 p.m. that night.

Another WSU student, Dashiell Mortell, 19, Bainbridge Island, died at the scene of a multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 90 near Cle Elum Saturday afternoon. Four other WSU students in that accident were injured in the accident

PURSE

GRABBING CONVICTION

Simon Watters, 20, was sentenced to a year in jail Friday after pleading guilty to a second-degree robbery charge. The charge stems from a May 23 incident in which Watters was charged with grabbing purses from the carts of shoppers who were leaving Safeway in Pullman.

Watters and a co-defendant allegedly exited the Safeway parking lot and were later arrested in Moscow. The Pullman Police report alleged evidence of drug use was found in the Dodge Neon during the investigation.

Watters will be allowed to serve the prison time concurrently with a prison term he is serving on a conviction for grand theft in Nez Perce County in Idaho.

He was also ordered to pay fines and fees totaling $800 and not have contact with the two women who were victims in the purse grabbing case.

PARKED PICKUP DAMAGED

The left side of a 2009 Honda crew cab pickup sustained extensive damage Jan. 3 when it was struck by a semi-truck trailer north of the intersection of Main and Canyon streets. Colfax Police Chief Rick McNannay said Nolan Dillard, 24, Clarkston, was driving the semi southbound on Main, and when he stopped at the intersection the brakes on the empty truck trailer locked up and it slid sideways toward the curb and hit the left side of the parked Honda Ridgeline.

Dillard was driving the 2013 Kenworth for DeAtley Construction.

The Honda was unoccupied at the time of the accident.

SECOND CASE NETS JAIL

Colleen Rhuby, 56, Colfax, was ordered held in jail Friday after she made a first appearance in court for allegedly attempting to forge a stolen check in Colfax. Judge David Frazier ordered Rhuby to be confined in jail because the new allegation involving a stolen check violated terms of pre-trial release on pending theft charges dating back to September.

Rhuby was charged with taking credit cards from the purse of a co-worker at Whitman Health and Rehab Sept. 3 and making purchases with the cards. She had been allowed pre-trial release on the pending theft charge, but that was revoked Friday when she made a first appearance on the charge of taking a check and attempting to cash it Jan. 5 at Columbia Bank.

Rhuby had been scheduled to enter a plea on the two September theft charges in court last week, but the arraignment date was delayed at that time.

A formal charge on the Jan. 5 arrest has not been filed.

WARRANT HERE FOLLOWS CAL INFANT DEATH

A warrant for the arrest of Tobin Phillips, 20, former Albion resident, was issued by the court here Jan. 4 with bail set at $500,000. Phillips, who had been scheduled for trial here Jan. 23 on a charge of second degree child assault, was arrested early Jan. 3 in Kern County, Calif., on allegations he killed an eight-month-old boy in Tehachapi, Calif. He is being held without bail in the Kern County Jail in Bakersfield, Calif.

A copy of the Kern County officer’s report was filed here Jan. 4 with the prosecutor’s motion for the Whitman County arrest warrant. Prosecutor Denis Tracy said Phillips had violated terms of his pre-trial release here by committing another crime and leaving the state of Washington in violation of a Nov. 18 court order.

According to a report from Ray Pruitt, public information officer for Kern County, Phillips was arrested at a convenience store in Tehachapi, Calif., Jan. 3 morning after officers there found the eight-month-old infant boy dead at an apartment. Phillips had reportedly been caring for the infant boy while the child’s mother was at work.

The Kern County arrest report filed in court here by Tracy alleged Phillips, who had been caring for the infant in Tehachapi, had suffocated the infant boy by placing a pillow over the boy’s head and sitting on it.

Phillips was charged here Nov. 8 with second degree child assault after Pullman Police received a report from Pullman Regional Hospital that an infant girl was under treatment there for possible trauma injury.

Phillips, the girl’s father, was subsequently charged with second degree assault of the girl. He was allowed release on his own recognizance and scheduled for the Jan. 23 trial after he pleaded not guilty Nov. 18.

According the sheriff’s investigation report, Phillips told officers his daughter was injured when her head hit a door knob while he was walking her around the residence in an effort to get her to stop crying.

When he was allowed pre-trial release here, Phillip was ordered to have no contact with his daughter.

Colfax CREWS CLEAR MAIN

A Colfax public works crew worked shifts for Saturday and Sunday nights to clear snow and ice which had built up along Main Street. The two-man crew worked with a loader and truck from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m to clear the ice and snow.

Matt Hammer, Colfax public works director, said traffic begins to pick up on Main Street at about 5 a.m. and the operation has to shut down.

A lot of the Main Street snow and ice has been hauled to an area along Cooper Street next to the flood channel along the South Fork of the Palouse River.

Jan. 5 the city day crew worked to clear and haul snow from the S. Mill Street hill, and Friday they worked on the S. East Street hill. Both streets had become congested with snow and ice piles which impeded traffic.

Hammer said the city night crew was expected to finish clearing the Main Street area Friday night.

CODE CITY APPROVAL

Colfax City Council Jan. 3 approved an ordinance to make Colfax a non-charter code city. The motion was approved on a 6-0 vote. No public comment was made during the first part of the public hearing process.

Councilman Jim Kackman said the change from a second-class city designation makes Colfax a home rule community. The city can undertake projects which are not specifically prohibited under state law. Under the second-class city classification, the city was limited to undertake projects which were specifically authorized by state law.

The ordinance was put up for a hearing approximately 90 days after the city adopted a resolution to undertake the conversion. Colfax was believed to be among seven cities around the state which had remained in the state’s second-class city designation while all others had converted to the non-charter class.

The ordinance number was designated 1701 as the first passed for the new year.

FIRE CHIEF CAPWELL RETIRES

Clark Capwell, who has served as chief of the Colfax Volunteer Firefighters for the past six-and-one-half years, has retired. Capwell has served as a volunteer firefighter for more than 38 years. He began as volunteer at Uniontown and later with Fire District 14 which is based in Colton. He then served as a volunteer in Pomeroy before coming to Colfax in 1995.

Capwell served as chief of the volunteers and for Rural Fire District 11. For the past three years he was also the chief of the Colfax Fire Department.

Capwell, who is in charge of safety and environmental programs at McGregor Co., served at Uniontown, Colton and Pomeroy while working for McGregor at those locations and continued to do so here.

CORBEILL WILL BE NEW VFI CHIEF

Craig Corbeill of Colfax will be the new chief for the Colfax Volunteer Firefighters Inc., Mayor Todd Vanek announced at the Jan. 3 city council session. Corbeill has been serving as assistant chief of the volunteer organization.

Corbeill is proprietor of Bruning Funeral Home in Colfax. Steven Thime, who was hired Dec. 5 to be the new Colfax City Fire Chief, has been scheduled to begin duty here Monday.