News

The city of Washougal is boosting its park volunteer opportunities, creating one program while revamping another.

The City earlier this month introduced Park Pals, a program that invites residents to improve parks and green spaces during designated “clean-up” events. Volunteers “can make a meaningful contribution to our community while enjoying the great outdoors,” according to the City’s website.

“We have a lot of parks in Washougal and very few staff members,” said Rose Jewell, the City’s community engagement manager. “We’re getting into the growing season, and it’s all they can do to keep the grass mowed. (We noticed that) a lot of people use the parks and tend to be more engaged in the parks. We were like, ‘How can we use this energy for the good of the community?’ A lot of people came to us wanting to do something in the parks or noting a concern in a park and brought things to our attention. The City does need help, especially when parks are being utilized in the spring and summer and the grass is growing. I mean, it takes a lot of effort to keep the parks maintained.”

The program kicked off April 6, when 16 volunteers picked up litter and removed weeds from the pedestrian bridge by Pendleton Woolen Mills, Steamboat Landing and the Waterfront Trail.

“I love seeing people getting involved. This is what I really like about this (program),” Mayor David Stuebe, who participated in the event, said during the Washougal City Council’s meeting on April 8. “When I talk about ‘being a part of the solution,’ that’s part of the solution. Everybody that volunteers to help the city out, that’s the solution. I’m proud of all the volunteers.”

The next Park Pals event, which will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 4, will prepare the Washougal Cemetery for the City’s annual Memorial Day ceremony.

“That’s a big lift,” Jewell said. “(The event is) one time a year, yes, but we have to do the beautification (activities) to get it ready — mowing, laying down bark dust, planting flowers, doing some edging and stuff like that.”

The City has scheduled a third Parks Pals event for 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 7, at Kerr Park, which is overrun with ivy, according to Jewell.

Volunteers can use City-provided tools or bring their own.

The City created Parks Pals as a “test pilot” for its expanded volunteer program, which will be introduced in 2025.

“The benefit of running a pilot program is that it gives us a chance to learn the ins and outs,” she said.

The City is also updating its Adopt-A-Park program, transferring it from the Public Works department to the City Manager’s Office, which includes the Community Engagement department.

“With a new employee coming into Community Engagement (later this year), it was a good time to bring in some of these programming things that Public Works didn’t have the capacity to run,” Jewell said. “We’re trying to put the programming under one umbrella. Public Works will still maintain the facilities, but that’s their focus — maintenance and facilities, not programs and people, or engagement. That’s my business, so I will be doing it (going forward). It’ll be more focused, more well-rounded and more comprehensive, and that’s what we want.”

Five of the City’s 16 parks have been adopted, according to Jewell.

“Anyone who has adopted one, we’re having them reapply, and then we’re going to run (the adoptions) from June to June, because they weren’t on all the same cycle previously,” she said. “We are in the middle of (updating) everything on the website and identifying which parks are already adopted, so if you want to adopt a park, you could go see which ones are adopted, and then you could request the park that you want.”

The City asks park adopters to visit their park at least once per month to “help keep them safe and clean” through “individual park patrols, work parties, or large community events.”

Typical projects include litter pick-up, graffiti removal, flower planting, landscape bed maintenance, equipment washing, invasive plants removal and leaf raking.

“The value of having community members in the park, we’re hoping that not only will they love the parks, but the community is engaged in those parks,” Jewell said.

To apply for the Adopt-A-Park program, visit cityofwashougal.us/666/Adopt-a-Park. To apply for the Parks Pals program, visit cityofwashougal.us/779/Park-Pals-Program.

Voters in Camas and Washougal will soon decide the fate of fire-station replacements in their respective cities.

On Monday, April 15, Camas City Council members voted unanimously to place a proposition on the Aug. 6 primary election ballot asking voters if they will approve a $26.3 million bond to build a new Camas-Washougal Fire Department (CSFD) headquarters — a replacement for CVFD’s Station 41 in downtown Camas — and purchase a new fire engine.

“We are in dire need of a new station that can carry us through the next decades as our area grows and our station (exceeds) its lifespan,” CWFD Fire Chief Cliff Free told the Council Monday.

Councilman John Nohr, who works as a fire chief in north Clark County, thanked Free for his work on the proposed station build.

“The fire station here at City Hall has been out of date for many, many years,” Nohr said Monday. “These stations have to meet critical infrastructure standards to withstand earthquakes and other (natural disasters). When that happens, we want to know that our firefighters and paramedics will … be able to get out and help those in need. Bonds are the way you pay for major purchases like this, and it looks like staff has done a good job putting together this package.”

If approved, the new CWFD headquarters would be built on the former Bank of America site located along Northeast Fourth Avenue in downtown Camas. The City purchased the site for $1.6 million in December 2018 to house its Camas City Hall Annex building.

Free told Council members in January that the City’s consultant team from the Battle Ground-based Johansson Wing Architects had initially found five possible sites for the Station 41 replacement that would accommodate the CWFD headquarters, vehicles and personnel and serve the greater downtown Camas area, then whittled those options down to the best three sites.

Unfortunately, Free said, the City had to go back to the drawing board when those three preferred sites had issues with land owners who either didn’t want to sell or were hoping to get more money for their property than the City could afford.

Free and the consultants returned to the original list of possible sites and realized the former Bank of America site at 528 N.E. Fourth Ave. near Camas City Hall could, with a little tweaking and a partial road vacation on Northeast Everett Street between Third and Fourth avenues, meet the fire department’s headquarters needs.

“We went back to the list and said, ‘What can we do to make it work for us?’” Free told Council members in January during their annual two-day planning conference. “If we vacate the north half of Everett Street, we could create the space we need.”

Plans for the new headquarters station include public spaces along Northeast Fourth Avenue, including a “pocket park,” a community meeting room and an outdoor seating area to accommodate downtown visitors passing by the new fire station on their way to or from downtown shops, restaurants, the Camas library, Camas City Hall or the weekly Camas Farmer’s Market.

The plans also call for the purchase of a new fire engine to replace a vehicle that has come to the end of its usable lifespan.

Free told Council members in March that, if at least 60% of the voters approve the bond measure this summer, the City would finish designing the new CWFD headquarters station and “hopefully break ground” in 2025.

Washougal unveils fire station designs; eyes August ballot

The city of Washougal and Portland-based MacKenzie Architecture firm unveiled the design concept and site/floor plans for the City’s fire station/police station upgrade project at an open-house event on April 11 at Camas-Washougal Fire Station 43.

“The design team has done a great job with this,” Washougal City Manager David Scott said during the Washougal City Council’s April 8 workshop. “There was a lot of feedback from the community from the previous open house and the online open house, and the best features that were most desired by or liked by the community were incorporated here.The council (was presented) a couple different versions, and there was unanimity in the council about this particular scheme, so that’s what’s become the concept. This is based on community and council feedback and sign-off.”

MacKenzie senior project manager Brian Hjelte told the Council during the workshop that the existing fire station will be demolished; the station’s cell tower will be relocated; an adjacent building, which formerly housed the Silver Star Search and Rescue organization, will be used as a temporary fire station during the demolition/construction period, which will last about 12 months; and that the City’s police station will retain its existing parking lot and water quality swale, but won’t undergo any exterior improvements. “I would like to give our design team a lot of kudos. They’ve done a terrific job,” Hjelte said. “We’ve been meeting over the last three months, and within a short period of time, they’ve done a phenomenal job of helping us to convey the information that we need (to convey) to put together a project that we believe the community would be very proud of if they stepped forward and funded this project.”

The new fire station will include a pull-through apparatus bay, according to Hjelte.

“That’s something that (Camas-Washougal Fire Department) Chief (Cliff) Free and his crew does not currently have,” Hjelte said. “That’s actually one of the problems with the existing station. When you have a pull-through apparatus bay, you’ve got a lot better ventilation. The current station doesn’t have that, so as a vehicle backs into the apparatus bay, it puts off a lot of exhaust. That’s just the nature of having either a gas- or a diesel-powered vehicle. And right now, that exhaust is going right back into the facility. When you have a pull-through, you can open up the doors from both sides, and you can have a lot better ventilation. The ventilation is very important to keep out and to keep the contaminants out of the living spaces within the facility itself.”

The facility will be built with ribbed metal panels and concrete metal units, according to Hjelte.

“I really like a lot of visibility — a lot of glass, a lot of windows,” Washougal councilmember Molly Coston said. “It kind of goes in line with the police station, (which features) some of the angles. It looks like it fits here. And it’s in the same vein with some of the materials as some of the homes around it. Even though the homes are smaller, it doesn’t really stand out. I mean, (the area doesn’t) have columns or pillars, and there were a couple (of options) that had some of that stuff. It’s a modern design, contemporary, but yet I don’t think it will go out of style.”

Washougal Mayor David Stuebe said the new station will serve as a “cornerstone” of the city.

“I think it’s something for the next 50 years,” he said. “If we’re going to build Washougal right, we want to be proud of our city. We don’t want some dilapidated (building). That’s why I don’t want to go too cheap with this thing. We’re a growing city. People are proud to live here. I think the whole community will be proud to say, ‘That’s our firehouse. We were responsible for building this thing.’”

City leaders announced their intention to construct a new facility in December 2023, stating that the current fire station needs “immediate and total replacement.”

According to the City, the current building:

• Frequently floods with stormwater, causing structural damage and the use of sandbags as a preventative measure;

• Intermittently has sewage backups;

• Does not have a dedicated space for decontaminating clothing and gear after responding to a fire, risking firefighters’ health and safety due to exposure to carcinogens;

• Lacks an exhaust system for fire engines to maintain healthy air quality;

• Would not withstand a significant earthquake;

• Lacks space for additional firefighters/emergency medical services personnel to meet growing demands;

• Lacks mandated safety clearances around equipment;

• Lacks facilities that fully comply with diversity, equity and inclusion guidelines;

• Lacks private medical screening and treatment area;

• Does not meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards for public access; and

• Lacks a public restroom.

“I mean, it was really basically built as a pole barn 50 years ago,” Coston said. “They’ve sort of done a little bit of insulation, but not a lot. The sleeping quarters and kitchen are functional, but just barely. (The department) has three stations in Camas and Washougal, and the firefighters could be assigned to any one of them. Grass Valley is new, and the downtown Camas station is in nice shape. They’re like, ‘Yeah, we don’t want to go to Washougal.’ I want to change that perception.”

The new fire station would be located adjacent to and adjoining the Washougal Police Department (WPD) station to allow for shared use of break rooms, fitness facilities and a training/community room, according to the City.

“I’m excited about (the fact that) it’s a campus. I like that ‘one team, one fight’ concept,” Stuebe said. “I want the police in the fire to be one team and share some stuff. These are our first responders, and I didn’t want to have them separated.”

The Council will vote next week on a proposal to place a $15.7 million bond ordinance for the project on the Aug. 6 primary election ballot.

“We’re looking at a term of 25 years,” Scott said during the April 8 workshop. “The all-in financing cost is right around 4.5%, and that equates to an excess levy rate of 19 cents per $1,000. About 7% of this cost is attributable to the police station — about 1.34 cents per $1,000. The lion’s share of it, 93% of it, would be attributable to fire — 17.6 cents. The monthly cost to the median home in Washougal is $9.23 a month. That’s the investment that voters would be considering for our public safety future.”

Coston said that the bond numbers “look really good.”

“As a matter of fact, when I saw them and compared them to the first numbers that we got, I was like, ‘I can’t believe we got (it down to 19 cents),’” she said. “Originally it was 26 cents. We went back to our professional services team and said, ‘Where can we cut some costs that won’t impact the dynamics of this project?’, and they came through for us. We did make some changes, nothing that was going to impair the efficiency and functionality of the building.”

The project is estimated to cost about $17.5 million but could come down to the “mid-to-upper $16 million range” after subtracting value engineering realization costs, according to Scott, who added that the City will use buyer impact fees and real estate excise tax to make up the difference.

“That 19 cents per $1,000, that’s kind of the magic number when we talk to people about getting bonds — they say, ‘Keep it below 20,’” Stuebe said. “If we can come in at 19, that is a responsible number. Working with the architects, we don’t want to have any ‘unforeseen expenses’ or things like that. I really want to hold them to the fire on this. We have to be responsible to our community. But I don’t want to go cheap, either. I don’t want the roof to leak after one year because we didn’t put enough into it. It’s a balance.”

The city of Washougal last issued a general obligation bond in 2002 for the construction of a police station. The bond, which was approved by voters at a rate of 20 cents per $1,000, was retired in 2022.

“We just paid that off, so now it’s like, ‘Let’s invest in a fire station.’ The timing is right to do that,” Stuebe said. “One (payment) dropped off, so now we’re (asking) for a new one. That’s being responsible to keep the city going. We don’t want to overtax anybody, but we want to keep this place going to meet our needs, because we are growing.

“And the longer we wait, the more it’s going to cost. It’s like the I-5 bridge, right? Same thing. We need this. It’s important for this community. I don’t want to depend on Camas. We’re trying to play nice, but if it doesn’t go nice, I don’t want to be like, ‘We’re in trouble now because we can’t provide all these resources.’ This is an investment for the future.”

If the bond passes, design work would begin immediately with construction to follow, according to the City. If the bond fails, City leaders said they will “use what we have as best we can, but eventually, we’ll have trouble responding to emergencies, including longer response times, and we’ll have more trouble recruiting new firefighters to replace those who retire.”

For more information and to provide feedback, visit cityofwashougal.us/774/Fire-Station-43-Re place ment-and-Police-S.

Money Magazine has named the city of Camas “one of the 50 best places to live in 2024.”

Camas was one of two cities in the Pacific Northwest — Camas and Eugene, Oregon — to make this year’s “best places” list, and accompanied a wide variety of small cities across the United States, including Portland, Maine; La Crosse, Wisconsin; Thomasville, Georgia; Brevard, North Carolina; Fruita, Colorado; Milford, Connecticut; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Media, Pennsylvania.

Of Camas, the Money Magazine writers noted that the city — “built largely around a paper mill that dates back to 1883 — works hard to honor its history.”

“Camas may be on the small side — it has a population of just over 27,000 — but it’s made a big commitment to revitalize its downtown while paying homage to its historic past,” the magazine noted. “Today, the tree-lined streets of downtown Camas form a vibrant, walkable community that’s teeming with life. You can find locals dining outdoors at Natalia’s Cafe, an old school diner famous for its home-cooked breakfast, sipping merlot at Camas Cellars and perusing the ever-changing art at the Attic Gallery.”

For more, visit money.com/best-places-to-live.

The city of Washougal will host its annual Hello Spring! Community Fair from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at Hathaway Park.

“The city of Washougal is very excited to host Hello Spring for the third year,” said Rose Jewell, the City’s community engagement manager. “This event provides a wonderful opportunity for everyone to get outside and experience Washougal parks after the long, dark winter. (We hope people will) come and enjoy the afternoon.”

The event will include a free hot dog lunch, prepared by the Washougal School District’s Shoug Shack; giveaways; and educational activities, according to the City.

Hathaway Park is located at 732 25 St., Washougal. For more information, visit cityofwashougal.us/HelloSpring.

Camas Mayor Steve Hogan this week proclaimed April 15-20 “Camas High School Girls Basketball 4A State Championship Team Week.”

“To get into the state playoffs is a privilege, and it’s high pressure. It’s kind of like climbing mountains — the higher you get, the higher the pressure, and there’s only room for one the top,” Hogan said during the Camas City Council’s meeting on Monday, April 15. “In 2022, they came in fourth place. In 2023, they came in second place. And in 2024, they are the state champions. … It is so impressive for me, personally, to see that this team made the state championship playoffs three times and improved each time they were there.”

Speaking to The Post-Record before the meeting, Papermakers coach Scott Thompson said the City’s recognition is a “reflection” of the community support the team received throughout the season.

“I mean, we’ve been so well supported at every step,” he said. “And even if you just look at some of the games that we played, all of our home games were packed every night. Even going to the Tacoma Dome, that championship game, I don’t know if there was a crowd there that had more people than us in all of the championship games at all the levels. It just feels like we get so much support from our community. This is a great city, and these kids have all been raised in this city, and have been supported and given so many great opportunities. And here we are, still getting supported.”

Camas City Administrator Doug Quinn passed out copies of the proclamation, enclosed in blue folders, to Camas High players and coaches while senior guard Riley Sanz spoke to the Council about the community support the team received during its state championship run. Hogan then read the proclamation, and the players and coaches posed for photographs with City leaders and the state championship trophy.

“I think it’s just such a cool experience for us to be the state champions from our small town,” Sanz said. “All of us pretty much have grown up here since elementary school, and we just want to say ‘Thanks’ to our community and everyone here for supporting us. The love has been felt throughout the season and my four years here. I feel like our fans and supporters have grown tremendously. We always had a full crowd. I’m always being stopped at the gym or a local store by people who I’ve never met before who congratulate me on our state championship or just recognize me. It’s really cool to have that sense of community here in Camas.”

Camas posted a 22-6 record during the 2023-24 season, winning the 4A Greater St. Helens League title before claiming all six of its postseason games, including the 4A championship contest, 57-41 over Gonzaga Prep on March 2 at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington.

“It was really fun,” Sophie Buzzard, a junior guard, told The Post-Record before the Council meeting. “(Winning the state title) meant so much because of how hard we worked throughout the whole season. It was our main goal from the beginning of the season … and our hard work paid off.”

In 2022, a young Papermakers squad placed fourth at the 4A Hardwood Classic for the program’s first state trophy. Last season, a Camas team that featured just one senior fell short in the 4A title game, losing to Eastlake.

“I think everyone’s mindset (heading into this season) was the state championship, so we didn’t even really need to talk about it,” Sanz told The Post-Record before the meeting. “I mean, obviously, it was our goal. We all talked about it being our goal. But I think instead of totally emphasizing it, we emphasized the little things, like having fun and creating great relationships with each other. Having fun was a big thing, but obviously the state championship was the biggest thing.”

After finishing so close to its ultimate goal the year before, the team didn’t shy away from embracing lofty expectations this season, according to Thompson.

“The year is long, and you’re trying to improve the whole season, but being able to keep that up in our locker room all year was a massive motivating factor for us,” he said. The Papermakers prepared themselves for the state tournament by facing off against some of the nation’s top teams in non-league play. Camas played Etiwanda, California, and Archbishop Mitty, California, which finished Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the final SBLive/SI Power 25 rankings for the 2023-24 season; Mater Dei (California), which began the season in the rankings; Maret (Washington, D.C.), which advanced to the semifinals of its state tournament in 2024; Garfield (Washington), which won the 3A Hardwood Classic in 2024; and Clackamas (Oregon), which won the 6A state championship in 2023 and took third place at the state tournament in 2024.

“Being able to experience that, what that felt like, the size, the strength, trying to find ways to be successful against such talented players, we were just hoping that we could learn and grow from it, and then become it,” Thompson said.

The team was led by a trio of seniors: Addison Harris, the 6-foot-2 forward who will graduate as the program’s career leader in scoring (1,411 points), rebounds (852) and blocks (94) after averaging 15.8 points and nearly eight rebounds per game in 2023-24; Reagan Jamison, a Penn commit and 4A all-state tournament team selection; and Sanz, who averaged 9.5 points and 3.1 assists in addition to being one of the team’s best defenders.

“When we go around the state, everybody talks about our offense, everybody talks about our passing, how connected we were offensively … how hard we were to defend,” Thompson said. “But ultimately, it was our defense … that made us special. When we went through our playoff run, we were consistently holding every team we played to their lowest points of the year. These girls were so connected defensively, they were so tough defensively, that we could survive bad shooting nights, we could survive bad moments offensively.”

While wind and solar farms generate “greenhouse-gas-free” electricity, there are ongoing concerns over their impacts on our environment, especially as a rapidly growing number of worn-out blades and panels are landing in landfills.

Those blades, housed on giant wind towers reaching over 250 feet in the sky, are starting to reach the end of their useful, 15- to 20-year lifespan and are being taken down, cut up and hauled to burial sites.

Even though over 90% of the decommissioned wind towers and generating apparatus are recycled, the specialized fiberglass and composite blades are mostly entombed.

It is the same for spent solar panels. Only 10 percent are recycled. Grist noted recycling is called “wish-cycling” because the market drives the cheapest option, which is dumping them in landfills.

Harvard Business Review (HBR) published a report, “The Dark Side of Solar Power.” It concluded that “solar energy is a rapidly growing market, which should be good news for the environment. Unfortunately, there is a catch. The replacement rate of solar panels is faster than expected and given the current recycling costs, there is a real danger all used panels will go straight to landfills,” HBR noted.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) anticipates enormous amounts of annual solar panel waste which could reach 78 million tons by 2050 and recycling technology is woefully behind. Those totals could increase if solar panels and wind blades are destroyed while generating electricity.

For example, in March a pounding hailstorm destroyed substantial portions of the mammoth 3,300-acre Fighting Jays Solar Project located south of Houston, which had produced enough electricity for 62,000 homes. It highlighted the perils of trading traditional power sources for vulnerable “green” alternatives and sparking concern about the potential for chemical leaks from the broken panels, FOX News reported.

“Events like this underscore the importance of having an all-of-the-above energy approach to meet our energy needs and showcase how our country cannot solely rely on or fully transition to renewable energy sources like this,” Emily Matthews, a Fighting Jays neighbor, told FOX.

Toxins are also released during mining minerals to produce silicon and solar panel manufacturing; Renewable Energy’s Jane Marsh wrote last year. “Mining produces countless pollutants, and noticing this is critical for understanding the whole picture. The mined product needs refinement, and furnaces reshaping these minerals create waste and harm the air, affecting workers who inhale these toxins.”

In Odessa, Texas, a startup recycler, SolarCycle, processes end-of-life photovoltaic panels from commercial solar farms. After stripping aluminum frames and electrical boxes, panels are ground, shredded and subjected to a patented process that extracts the valuable materials — mostly silver, copper, and crystalline silicon. Those components will be sold, as will the lower-value aluminum and glass.

“The wind turbine blades are a toxic amalgam of unique composites, fiberglass, epoxy, polyvinyl chloride foam, polyethylene terephthalate foam, balsa wood, and polyurethane coatings,” Principia Scientific International, a London-based group of scientists, stated. “Basically, there is just too much plastic-composite-epoxy crapola that isn’t worth recycling.”

“The bottom line is no technology is ideal, especially up-and-coming environmental assets,” Marsh added. “Electric vehicle manufacturers must determine how to construct and recycle lithium-ion batteries, despite decreasing the world’s reliance on fossil fuels…solar panels are no exception.”

“For solar to maintain installation momentum, the sector must find a way to eliminate harmful materials before its potential is tarnished. Industries that ignore the adverse side effects of solar panel creation diminish humanity’s efforts to heal the planet,” Marsh concluded.

Roger that! Our nation needs an all-inclusive energy strategy which focuses on meeting power demand, eliminating toxins and recycling.

Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s oldest and largest business organization and now lives in Vancouver. He can be contacted at theBrunells@msn.com.