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Celebrate Earth Day this Saturday, April 20, by getting your hands dirty at the Seminary Hill Natural Area during a public work party, and add a free wildflower walk to your calendar for April 27.

This Saturday’s all-ages volunteer effort will offer opportunities to remove invasive ivy, maintain trails and work alongside other people who love nature and community service.

“There are several community events on Saturday to mark Earth Day. We’d love to have you join us at the Seminary Hill Natural Area, but if you find yourself working elsewhere, that’s great too,” said Brian Mittge, president of the Friends of the Seminary Hill Natural Area. “Our event is friendly and open to all ages. We love bringing together little kids, students, families and senior citizens to work side-by-side taking care of our shared forest jewel. Plus, free cookies!”

The event runs from 9 a.m. to noon at the Barner Drive entrance to the natural area just east of downtown Centralia. Credit for community service hours will be available for high school students in need before graduation.

Bring along gloves and sturdy shoes. Tools will be available, but you may also bring your own.

Free refreshments will be provided by local businesses and the Friends of the Seminary Hill Natural Area, which hosts this work party as well as free nature events throughout the year.

The following Saturday, April 27, at 10 a.m., former Centralia College botany professor Lisa Carlson will lead a wildflower walk. Again, all ages are invited and refreshments will be provided.

Learn more at www.facebook.com/SeminaryHill or by email at goseminaryhill@gmail.com. 

While the morning frost had yet to thaw on Wednesday, state Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, offered a wake-up call. As he spoke at the Boys & Girls Club of Lewis County’s Most Important Meal of the Year, Abbarno asked about half the room to stand up.

“I know it’s early in the morning,” Abbarno said. “Can you just humor me for a second?”

As half of the roughly 300 business, political and community leaders at Jester’s Auto Museum rose from their seats, Abbarno continued.

“This is the number of students who are entering the Chehalis School District who are not kindergarten-ready,” Abbarno said. “Look around. That’s half of this room. That’s half this room. Half of the students entering the school district, Centralia and Chehalis, are not kindergarten-ready and are falling further and further behind. That’s sad.”

The impact can compound, Abbarno said, with students falling “further and further and further,” behind as they advance through their education.

The visual continued. According to state data, roughly the same percentage of students in both Centralia and Chehalis qualify for free and reduced lunch.

“Because they are living in poverty,” Abbarno said. “And I bet that number’s low.”

An annual fundraiser, the Most Important Meal of the Year offered the Lewis County Boys and Girls Club a chance to show the difference that fundraising and volunteering can make in a child’s life.

“These students are falling further behind,” Abbarno said. “Not just because of before-school care, but after-school care, because they need a safe place to play, and learn, and grow. And that’s why the Lewis County Boys and Girls Club is so important for all of us to invest in.”

With help from the Boys and Girls Club, Abbarno said, Lewis County can continue to “change the narrative in our community, we can change the outcome of our students.”

The organization, he said, is essential to tackling long-term problems such as intergenerational poverty, while also working to attack issues that can serve as barriers to student success.

“We know that we live in a childcare desert. We know that we live in an early learning desert,” Abbarno said. “There are so many in our community who need, not just before-school care, they need after-school care.”

Abbarno highlighted the United Learning Center, a project that’s fully funded after an influx of nearly $6 million from the state and federal governments. It will be built in downtown Centralia.

“A quality early learning program, a quality childcare program, are all part of how we, we, the collective we, lift our community out of poverty and end intergenerational poverty,” Abbarno said.

Sarah Althauser, executive director of the Lewis County Boys and Girls Club, said the organization reaches “kids in our local communities, those that need us the most.”

“And we are speaking words of encouragement into their lives, we are walking alongside them when we are celebrating their victories, and we are helping them through some really tough seasons,” Althauser said.

The Boys and Girls Club, Althauser said, helps students provide positive life experiences as students prepare for their next phase of life.

“We’ve got the freedom and the power in Club to be there, and be alongside these kids, to walk through whatever they face, and just connect them with opportunities,” Althauser said. “And that is what we are doing, collectively, as a community. We are saying that we will be here for you.”

Althauser said the organization is partnering with Blue Zones of Lewis County for community gardens at their club sites in Chehalis and Centralia.

“Digging in the dirt, learning how to grow vegetables,” she said. “We’re really excited to be partnering with them.”

For more information on the Boys and Girls Club of Lewis County or to donate, visit https://www.bgcchehalis.org/. 

A 23-year-old Centralia man was arrested Monday after allegedly crashing into a woman who was on an electric handicap cart and then leaving the scene, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

Gabriel A. Smith was charged Tuesday in Lewis County Superior Court with three counts of second-degree assault, one count of reckless driving and three counts of hit-and-run.

Despite having no convictions on his adult record, family support in the courtroom and strong local ties, the state asked Judge James Lawler to set Smith’s bail at $50,000.

“He is a danger to society in general,” Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said of Smith during a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.

“$50,000 is more than reasonable. I’m surprised that’s all that was requested,” Lawler said Tuesday, granting the bail request.

Officers were dispatched to a parking lot in the 1600 block of Louisiana Avenue in Chehalis at about 7:10 p.m. Monday to a report of a hit-and-run involving a woman on a handicap cart being struck by a vehicle, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

As officers arrived, they found a 79-year-old Chehalis woman being treated for injuries.

“Witnesses reported the vehicle was traveling northbound in a shopping center parking lot near the front of the store at a fast rate of speed when it struck an elderly woman who was in the middle of the crosswalk driving an electric scooter,” the Chehalis Police Department stated in a news release. “Another witness stated she was crossing in the crosswalk with her two children when one of them was almost hit, and a male stated he was crossing in the crosswalk when he was struck by the vehicle. He declined aid for his injuries. It was also discovered the driver struck a parked vehicle, causing damage.”

The man reportedly told responding officers “the only thing that prevented him from being run over was everyone yelling about the vehicle,” according to court documents. He reported he was struck in the back of the leg and hit the vehicle’s windshield with his arm as he tried to avoid the vehicle.

Staff at a nearby business identified the driver of the vehicle as Smith, who the staff member said was a former employee. Smith’s driver’s license photo reportedly matched witness descriptions of the driver.

Surveillance footage from the business shows a woman and her children crossing the street and shows the woman “push one of the children out of the way as the vehicle appeared,” according to court documents. Another vehicle then reportedly swerves to the left to avoid Smith’s vehicle, causing a second vehicle to swerve to avoid a collision.

With assistance from the Centralia Police Department, Smith was located and arrested at his residence without incident, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

When questioned, Smith allegedly said, “I know I hit something or someone’ and ‘I know I took off,’” according to court documents. He also allegedly “further advised that ‘it was me.’”

The 79-year-old woman was transported to a hospital for treatment but did not appear to have life-threatening injuries, according to Chehalis police.

“The state has not yet been able to contact (the woman) to verify her injuries,” the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office stated in charging documents filed Tuesday afternoon. “The charging information will be updated once her injuries have been ascertained.”

Smith’s arraignment hearing was scheduled for Thursday, April 18.

CENTRALIA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Dispute

• A verbal dispute was reported in the 2500 block of Sharon Street at 2 p.m. on April 15.

• A dispute was reported in the 900 block of Eckerson Road just after 12:30 p.m. on April 16. Officers were unable to locate the involved parties.

Drug violation

• A 29-year-old Lacey man was arrested on outstanding warrants following a traffic stop in the 100 block of West High Street at approximately 2:05 p.m. on April 15. The vehicle’s passenger, a 30-year-old Kelso woman, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance.

Animal negligence/abuse

• An officer responded to the report of an abandoned vehicle with three dogs inside in the 1500 block of Lewis Street just after 5:40 p.m. on April 15.  The vehicle had reportedly been there for about a week. All three dogs appeared malnourished and were left in the vehicle without food or water. The dogs were relocated to the city kennels and the vehicle was towed from the roadway. If you know who these dogs belong to, contact the Centralia Police Department at 360-330-7680 or www.cityofcentralia.com/crimetips. 

Welfare check

• Railroad police asked officers for help checking on a person lying near the railroad tracks at the intersection of East Chestnut Street and South Tower Avenue just before 6:55 a.m. on April 16. The person got up and walked away before officers arrived.

Hit-and-run

• A gray Mustang with blue stripes reportedly fled the scene of a vehicle accident at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Caveness Drive at approximately 11:20 a.m. on April 16.

Fraud

• Fake currency was reportedly passed at an outlet store in the 1400 block of Lum Road just after 2:50 p.m. on April 16.

Criminal trespass

• A homeless Winlock resident was trespassed from a business in the 800 block of Harrison Avenue just before 10:45 a.m. on April 15 for disorderly conduct.

• A homeless Centralia resident was trespassed from a business in the 1000 block of Eckerson Road just before 1:35 p.m. on April 15.

• Six homeless people were trespassed from a business in the 600 block of North Tower Avenue at approximately 4:55 p.m. on April 15.

• Two homeless Sequim residents were trespassed from a restaurant in the 1200 block of Harrison Avenue at approximately 4:20 p.m. on April 16 for “being unruly.”

• A homeless Montesano man was trespassed from a business in the 100 block of North Gold Street just after 6:10 p.m. on April 16 for “refusing to leave.”

Theft

• Items were reported stolen from a business in the 500 block of North Tower Avenue just before 6:10 p.m. on April 16.

CHEHALIS POLICE DEPARTMENT

Criminal trespass

• A male subject who was “zapped out” and sleeping at the back door of a business in the 10 block of Southwest 11th Street was trespassed from the business.

• A homeless camp was reported in the 10 block of Southwest Chehalis Avenue just before 11:25 a.m. on April 16.

Harassment

• Just after 9:05 a.m. on April 15, a citizen in the 300 block of Northwest North Street reported someone made a threat to their friend on April 12 that “she would kill (the reporting party) someday.” She was advised to get a civil anti-harassment order.

• An employee at a business in the 1700 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue reported someone had “made threats ‘to come in and kill all the staff’” just after 5:15 p.m. on April 16. The employee asked officers to walk employees out to their cars when the building closed for the night.

Disputes

• Just after 10:25 a.m. on April 15, a physical dispute that occurred in the 500 block of Southeast Washington Avenue the day prior was reported.

• A physical dispute was reported in the 300 block of Southwest Third Street at 1:05 p.m. on April 16.

Suspicious circumstances

• Just before 4:05 p.m. on April 15, a citizen reported “four males and one elderly female (were) smoking crack” in the 10 block of Southwest Chehalis Avenue.

• A citizen reported a “tweaker (was) going through a car” in the 1600 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue at 7:30 p.m. on April 16. An officer confirmed “two parties (were) meeting up to sell a sewer camera” and “nobody appeared to be ‘tweaking.’”

• Just before 8:25 p.m. on April 16, a citizen reported one of two Army helicopters that landed at the Centralia Airport in the 900 block of Northwest Airport Road was making a “squawking noise” and “flew about 500 feet above his head.” The reporting party advised he “worked with helicopters in Vietnam and that is not the way it is supposed to sound.”

Hit-and-run

• A hit-and-run that occurred in the 1700 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue on April 13 was reported just after 4:25 p.m. on April 15.

Burglary

• Just after 4:25 p.m. on April 15, a citizen reported his neighbor’s vehicle was possibly stolen from the 1100 block of South Market Boulevard the day prior.

Sexual misconduct

• A report of sexual misconduct made in the 300 block of Southwest Third Street just after 8:30 a.m. on April 16 is under investigation.

Disorderly conduct

• Just after 12:10 p.m. on April 16, a staff member at a behavioral health facility in the 500 block of Southeast Washington Avenue reported a client was refusing to leave on transport to Mason County.

• A woman was reportedly “throwing stuff from (a) vehicle and yelling at passersby” at the intersection of Northwest Center Street and Northwest Chehalis Avenue just before 4:50 p.m. on April 16.

Malicious mischief

• A third-degree malicious mischief reported in the 400 block of Southwest 16th Street just before 1:30 p.m. on April 16 is under investigation.

FIRE AND EMS CALLS

• Between Monday morning and Wednesday morning, Lewis County 911 Communications logged approximately 35 illness-related calls, nine injury-related calls, four fire-related calls, six non-emergency service calls, one vehicle accident, two overdoses, one hazardous conditions report, two 911 hangup calls, one minor rescue, one ambulance request and three other calls.

JAIL STATISTICS

• As of Wednesday morning, the Lewis County Jail had a total system population of 154 inmates, including 142 in the general population and 12 in the Work Ethic and Restitution Center (WERC). Of general population inmates, 115 were reported male and 27 were reported female. Of the WERC inmates, 10 were reported male and two were reported female.

• As of Wednesday morning, the Chehalis Tribal Jail had a total system population of 19 inmates, including five booked by the Centralia Police Department, nine booked by the state Department of Corrections, one booked by the Lummi Nation, one booked by the Tenino Police Department and three booked by Chehalis Tribal Court.

•••

Sirens are compiled by assistant editor Emily Fitzgerald, who can be reached at emily@chronline.com. The Centralia Police Department can be reached at 360-330-7680, the Chehalis Police Department can be reached at 360-748-8605. If you were a victim of physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence or sexual assault, call Hope Alliance at 360-748-6601 or the Youth Advocacy Center of Lewis County at 360-623-1990.