BULLETIN COLUMN May 4

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.

Courthouse phones

knocked out

Whitman County courthouse officials and staff members discovered Monday when they arrived for work that the telephone system was out of order. Chris Nelson, director of the county's IT staff, said the telephone outage has been caused by some type of failure with Century Link equipment. She said they have been working on the outage and at times, when it seems like they have a solution, something else fails and the connection remains out.

Nelson said most of the county's computer systems are still in operation and the 911 Whitcom radio service for the sheriff's office is not impacted by the Century Link outage.

Callers to courthouse telephones get a busy signal, and people in the courthouse cannot call out.

Nelson said the problem is believed to have started sometime after midnight Monday morning, and employees discovered the problem as they started work Monday.

Also, a cable cut on the west side of the state has left some offices which require state access via cable without service.

Former Gov. Lowry

was Endicott grad

Former Washington Gov. Mike Lowry, who died Monday in Seattle from complications of a stroke at the age of 78, was a native of St. John and a graduate of Endicott High School.

Lowry, who also served 10 years in Congress, served one term as governor beginning in 1993. Although he was from conservative Whitman County, Lowry was a Seattle liberal from Renton and a Democrat.

Lowry was born in St. John in 1939 to Bob and Helen (White) Lowry and graduated at Endicott with the class of 1957 and from Washington State University. His father was a long-time manager of the Dusty Farm Co-op.

He often returned to this area to visit family, friends and attend Endicott reunions.

Former Colfax Mayor, Carol Stueckle, recalls telling Lowry one of her claims to fame was attending school with the former governor of the State of Washington. She noted Lowry's response was that his claim to fame was attending school with the former mayor of Colfax. Stueckle graduated at Endicott with the class of 1956.

Diane Repp, Lowry's first cousin, noted he was very active during his high school years and served as student body president and was a boys state delegate.

The daughter of Alex and Jean Repp, Diane was in the same 1957 Endicott class with Lowry. She noted he was emcee of an Endicott all-school reunion six months ago and had been in the planning for a reunion this year.

Jean White Repp, now 99, resides in Spokane. She is the last of nine White children who are descended from early settlers in the St. John area.

She noted her sister and brother-in-law, Lowry's parents, were Democrats who had lived through the Depression years.

Lowry was elected to the Metropolitan King County Council in 1975 and to the House of Representatives in 1978 for the Seventh Congressional District.

Lowry was a critic of the Reagan Administration and ran unsuccessfully on the Democratic ticket for the U.S. Senate in 1983 and 1988. He was elected governor in November 1992 and served as the 20th governor of Washington. He did not seek re-election.

Surviving are his wife, Mary; a daughter, Diane Lowry (Scott) Oakes; a sister, Suellen Lowry, and two grandsons.

City working

on nuisance properties

With the return of warmer weather, the city has been working on enforcing city code on nuisance properties. Irving Trejo, Colfax Building and Community Development Associate, has sent out letters to property owners who are in violation of the city's new nuisance ordinance. Trejo has been working with property owners on code compliance.

Trejo's report was relayed to the city council Monday night by Chris Mathis, city finance director who has assumed some of the city administration tasks while the city searches for a new city administrator.

Golfers name tourney

after Ed Johnson

Colfax Men's Golf Club has named its largest tournament after the late Ed Johnson of Colfax. It will now be known as the Edwin Johnson Two-man Invitational.

Proceeds from the May 20-21 tournament will be placed in a fund in memory of Johnson, and the fund will be used for equipment and course improvements.

Johnson, who died last year, spent the last several years of his life donating time to the course. He did everything from grounds maintenance to parking cars.

A special event for the tournament this year will be a get-together and steak dinner for family and friends of Johnson on May 20. Non-golfers are encouraged to attend. Dinner reservations can be made by calling the golf course, 397-2122.

Imperial Restaurant

closes

The Imperial Restaurant and Lounge has closed after more than 20 years of operation. Proprietors Ping Li and Chen Liu marked their last day of business here Sunday. They plan to eventually move back to Seattle.

The family came here from Seattle to operate the Imperial. Their two sons, Kevin and Alvin, both attended school here and graduated from Colfax High School.

Kevin is now employed at Les Schwab, and Alvin is attending Eastern Washington University.

The Li family purchased the restaurant and lounge from the Linn family who operated it for a short time.

For many years it was the Colfax Coffee Shop & Pheasant Room, operated by the late Peter Eng.

The Imperial has been listed for sale for many months.

Ping and Chen expressed appreciation for their many customers who supported the business over the years.

Charges filed after

car chase

Richard A. Glenn, 39, one of two suspects arrested after a police chase April 20 through Palouse and northwest of Palouse, pleaded not guilty in superior court Friday to charges of taking a motor vehicle and possession of methamphetamine. Glenn, who was reported to be homeless at the time of his arrest, told the court he would reside with his parents in the event he was allowed pre-trial release.

Glenn was reported to be a passenger in a car which was reported taken from the employees' parking lot at J.E. Love in Garfield and driven south on Highway 27 where it was intercepted by Palouse officers and chased through Palouse streets.

Glenn was scheduled for a June 12 trial. He was ordered held on $10,000 bail after his arrest, and that condition was left in place after the court learned Glenn had prior failure-to-appear warrants issued in misdemeanor cases.

Benjamin E. Garfield, 29, Quincy, alleged driver of the stolen car, was charged April 24 with theft of a motor vehicle, described as a blue Buick, and attempting to elude officers. The Palouse Police report said Garfield drove the car through Palouse city streets and out into a field and later at high speed on Stan Willcox Road.

Garfield, who was ordered held on $100,000 bond after his arrest, has been scheduled for arraignment in court Friday, May 5.

April rain just

tops average

Precipitation for April finished just more than average with a 1.58 inch total for the month, according to the report from the NRCS office in Colfax. Average precipitation for April is 1.56 inches.

The normal run for April follows a March rainfall total with 4.68 inches of rain which was 2.65 inches more than the normal for that month.

Largest precipitation readings were .40 of an inch recorded on the morning of March 10 and .28 for March 13.

Other readings for the month were .02 April 6, .26 March 7, .01 March 11 and March 12, .05 March 17, .04 March 18, .02 March 19, .11 March 20, .10 March 24, .05 March 25, .21 March 26, and .02 March 27.

WSU shirts

sentence

Jeffrey Wigen, 35, Rockford, was fined $1,000 Friday morning in superior court after pleading guilty to a charge of counterfeiting WSU fan shirts. He was also sentenced to 364 days in jail with all of it suspended. Wigen pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge of counterfeiting. The charge was reduced from a felony under a plea bargain agreement.

Wigen was arrested Oct. 12 for selling WSU shirts without obtaining trademark licensing from the university.

Deputy Prosecutor Merritt Decker said the state agreed to reduce the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor because there was some dispute about the value of shirts which were confiscated from Wigen, who was reportedly selling them prior to a WSU game.

Initial value of the shirts was placed at $15,520.

Defense attorney Robert Rembert said the shirt episode evolved after Wigen received requests from friends to turn out shirts with weird sayings that would not normally be found on a conventional WSU booster shirt. He said Wigen had no prior criminal history.

Wigen apologized to the court and said he was embarrassed to be in front of the court.