The Reflector

08/07/2025

Shawn Gano, 58, of Battle Ground, died July 14. Arrangements are under the care of All County Cremation and Burial Services, 360-718-7948. Terry Bradley Jr., 56, of Woodland,  died July 17. …

08/07/2025

Two oil refinery operators in northwest Washington, HF Sinclair and Tesoro, have been hit with fines for improper management of oily sludge and acid waste at their facilities.

Washington’s Department of Ecology said Tuesday that HF Sinclair would be penalized $1,303,000 and Tesoro $1,397,000 for violations of dangerous waste laws. Both companies run refineries located in Anacortes.

Each of them has 30 days to pay the penalties or appeal to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board.

The penalty against HF Sinclair stems from a September 2023 incident where oily process wastewater overflowed into a spill containment area at the company’s refinery.

The containment area is intended to capture spills of non-hazardous wastewater and was not designed to be a dangerous waste storage area, according to the Department of Ecology.

Hazardous sludge settled out of the untreated wastewater and remained for 11 months before HF Sinclair removed and disposed of it in nine 20-yard containers.

After removing the sludge, the single liner for the containment area was found to be ripped.

“The lengthy delay in cleaning up the spill unacceptably increased risks that the material could have escaped into the environment,” the Department of Ecology said in a news release.

Two oil refinery operators in northwest Washington, HF Sinclair and Tesoro, have been hit with fines for improper management of oily sludge and acid waste at their facilities. Washington’s …

08/07/2025

The Clark County Republican Party (CCRP) has brought partisanship into a non-partisan race as the CCRP central committee voted unanimously to oppose Philip Johnson’s candidacy for Battle Ground City Council on Tuesday, July 29.

“Following a formal vote of the CCRP Central Committee and after gathering feedback

from precinct committee officers and grassroots members, the Party has concluded that

Mr. Johnson’s actions are incompatible with the values and unity expected of

Republican-affiliated leaders in Clark County,” a news release from CCRP stated.

Johnson served on the Battle Ground City Council from 2012 to 2023, with terms as mayor from 2016-17 and 2022-23. After more than a decade of public service, he opted not to seek reelection.

Johnson will face incumbent City Councilor Jeanie Kuypers. Kuypers was appointed to the Battle Ground City Council in February, filling the remainder of former council member Adrian Cortes’ seat after he narrowly won the 18th Legislative District Washington state Senate seat as a Democrat.

The Clark County Republican Party (CCRP) has brought partisanship into a non-partisan race as the CCRP central committee voted unanimously to oppose Philip Johnson’s candidacy for Battle Ground …

08/06/2025

The Hockinson School District faces a $1.2 million budget deficit due to a projected dip in student enrollment, a key driver of state funding for public schools.

The Hockinson School District Board of Directors unanimously approved a $36.39 million general fund budget for the 2025-26 school year during a regular meeting on Monday, July 28. State funding, which makes up 76% of the district’s budget, will decline due to an anticipated decline in enrollment.

“We generate a majority of our revenue from enrollment,” Aaron Villanueva, the district’s director of business services, explained during the presentation to the board. “So we looked at enrollment to budget conservatively rather than to overassume how much (full-time equivalents) we’re gonna have for next year.”

Villanueva said the district adopted a cautious approach, expecting actual enrollment to exceed projections, which could generate more funding later on, but not counting on it for the budget’s approval.

To close the budget shortfall, the district will not fill open positions for certificated teachers and will reduce classified staff hours. According to the district’s website, district office employees will face salary freezes and reduced schedules. Superintendent Steve Marshall will take a pay freeze during the 2025-26 school year.

“There was a lot of communication and just looking at options that we have to put the 25-26 budget together,” Villanueva said. “We were able to get it balanced for next year.”

The Hockinson School District faces a $1.2 million budget deficit due to a projected dip in student enrollment, a key driver of state funding for public schools. The Hockinson School District …

08/06/2025

Despite early setbacks with federal funding, La Center’s long-awaited Breeze Creek Culvert and Fourth Street Widening Design Project is now fully funded and on track for a tentative October 2025 groundbreaking.

The project, which will widen Fourth Street from East Stonecreek Drive to Highland Avenue, includes a 7-foot-wide northern sidewalk, buffered bike lanes and a new bridge at Breeze Creek to improve fish passage and roadway capacity. The total cost is anticipated at $14.4 million, funded by $12.4 million in federal grant dollars, $1.4 million in state funds and $600,000 from the city’s transportation impact fees.

In late July, the city was notified it would receive $2.5 million through a Surface Transportation Block Grant to complete the project. According to La Center Public Works Director Tracy Coleman, this larger-than-anticipated grant would have reduced the city’s contribution by $816,763 to the overall project. Additionally, $739,511 of state funds would have been reduced, freeing up to $1.5 million to spend elsewhere on the project where needed.

However, that allocation was reduced to $1,860,323 by WSDOT due to funding availability and matching requirements, according to Coleman.

Coleman said the project is currently under WSDOT review, with bid approval expected in August. Construction is slated to begin tentatively in October and run through June 2027. Lane closures will be required during the work, though the city will provide notice and coordinate around the school bus schedule. The bridge replacement at Breeze Creek is included in the total budget and will require a realignment and temporary closure of about 600 to 700 feet of trail. An expanded stormwater retention pond is also planned near La Center Elementary, pending school district approval.

Despite early setbacks with federal funding, La Center’s long-awaited Breeze Creek Culvert and Fourth Street Widening Design Project is now fully funded and on track for a tentative October …

08/06/2025

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, R-Skamania, has requested more than $15.5 million in federal funding for over a dozen projects in Washington’s Third Congressional District, including three targeting key infrastructure needs in north Clark County.

“Every day across Southwest Washington, good people are sitting down and coming up with solutions for their communities — instead of waiting for the federal government to tell them they need to jump through more hoops and wade through more red tape to help their neighbors. The Community Project Funding process is a way I can recognize these community-led efforts and proactively bring dollars home for projects that might have otherwise been underappreciated or difficult for small, rural communities to fund in another manner,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a news release. “Last Congress, I successfully urged my bipartisan colleagues to give these projects the respect they merit — and I secured $21 million for projects in every county across our district, many of which have now broken ground. I’m now fighting on the Appropriations Committee to bring dollars home for more community projects that will grow our rural economies and that represent the nuts and bolts of good governance — from local meat processing for farmers, to ag education for high school students, to water and energy investments for ratepayers.”

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, R-Skamania, has requested more than $15.5 million in federal funding for over a dozen projects in Washington’s Third Congressional District, including three …

08/06/2025

The Port of Woodland has secured $1.8 million in state grants to complete a long-planned transformation of its Austin Point property into a 90-acre public recreation area along the Lewis and Columbia rivers.

The funding, awarded by the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, covers the engineering and construction of improvements including paved access roads, a parking lot, restrooms, trails, fish cleaning stations, lookouts and a primitive boat launch.

“This is a dividend to our port district of something that of this property being utilized, and available to everybody,” Port of Woodland Executive Director Jennifer Wray-Keene told The Reflector.

The project area, located just outside city limits off D**e Road, has been used by locals for years despite a lack of infrastructure. Visitors currently access the site through a gravel road with makeshift parking. The project will formalize paved roads, parking access and install amenities for walking, fishing, picnicking and boating while preserving the site’s natural shoreline.

“Utilizing this naturally beautiful area and opening more of the area for people to walk, bike, boat, picnic and fish along the shore will be a huge benefit to the Port District. There will still be the native feel with the natural shore for boaters to launch from and provide a significant shoreline to fish and recreate from along the confluence of the Lewis to the Columbia,” Port of Woodland Commissioner Rob Rich stated in a news release.

The Port of Woodland has secured $1.8 million in state grants to complete a long-planned transformation of its Austin Point property into a 90-acre public recreation area along the Lewis and Columbia …

08/06/2025

The first day of unofficial primary election results shows that the proposition to lift Fort Vancouver Regional Library’s (FVRL) property tax levy is passing.

As of Aug. 5, election night, Proposition No. 1 was passing with 39,208 votes in favor (52.98%) and 34,804 votes against (47.02%).

If approved, the Prop. 1 would restore the library district’s regular property tax rate to $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed value starting in 2026. The measure is FVRL’s first levy lid lift request in 15 years and funds 96% of its operating budget.

A lid lift is required to avoid deep cuts to library hours, staff and services, according to the district’s website. An approved lid lift would add 91 open hours per week districtwide, increase staffing by the equivalent of 18 full-time positions, and boost the materials budget by $450,000.

The first day of unofficial primary election results shows that the proposition to lift Fort Vancouver Regional Library’s (FVRL) property tax levy is passing.  As of Aug. 5, election …

08/06/2025

Thousands of Washington motorists have been caught speeding through highway work zones by new cameras the state deployed this year.

Since the cameras turned on in April, the Washington State Patrol says they’ve been used to issue 7,599 infractions, with nearly 4,000 more being processed, as of last week.

But only 262 of those thousands have resulted in fines, according to state patrol. First-time violators don’t have to pay anything, but the next infraction carries a $248 penalty.

Starting next July, drivers won’t get a grace period. The first violation will bring a $125 penalty, followed by $248 for subsequent offenses.

Washington averages over 1,300 work zone crashes annually, according to the state Department of Transportation. Last year, seven people were killed in crashes in work zones across the state, while another 38 incidents caused serious injuries. Speeding was a factor in about a fifth of those crashes.

A 2024 study from the Associated General Contractors of America found that 64% of highway contractors reported cars crashing into construction sites within the past year.

“The first few months of the program confirm what statistics show and what our workers have been saying — too many people speed through work zones,” said Secretary of Transportation Julie Meredith in a statement.

Thousands of Washington motorists have been caught speeding through highway work zones by new cameras the state deployed this year.  Since the cameras turned on in April , the Washington …

08/06/2025

National research laboratories in Colorado, Oregon and Washington focused on addressing climate change and its impacts and improving energy efficiency and affordability for Americans would be gutted under budgets proposed by President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, based in Richland, Washington and Portland, Oregon, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, based in Golden, Colorado, would see their funding in the year ahead nearly halved under the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget for the U.S. Department of Energy. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are negotiating spending bills for the next fiscal year that begins in October and will decide on the energy agency’s budget after Sept. 2, when they return from their August recess.

The national labs are meant to lead research and scientific experimentation in climate and clean energy strategies, including measuring extreme weather risks by collecting and analyzing atmospheric data from around the world and improving battery and grid technologies to get more wind and solar energy flowing to homes and businesses. They also study energy efficiency across U.S. infrastructure and commerce, all of which is meant to save Americans and businesses money and to curb climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Andrea McMakin, a former communications specialist and 34-year veteran of the Northwest Laboratory in Richland, said the U.S. risks losing its best scientists if the proposed funding cuts go through.

McMakin is part of the group Friends of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which has been raising concerns about the cuts. McMakin said the group learned in June that the lab’s former director told staff in a meeting that up to 1,000 people could be cut if the current budget passes, a number that’s been echoed by state leaders.

“Those people leave. They have to find jobs someplace. And we’re seeing that a lot of other countries are stepping up their recruiting to get U.S. scientists and engineers,” McMakin said. “We don’t want to see that. We want to keep our energy competitiveness and we want to keep our brain power here in the U.S.”

National research laboratories in Colorado, Oregon and Washington focused on addressing climate change and its impacts and improving energy efficiency and affordability for Americans would be gutted …

08/05/2025

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest is seeking public comments on a draft environmental impact statement that includes amendments to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan and Northwest Forest Plan for the Spirit Lake Outflow Safety Improvement Project, a news release from the U.S. Forest Service stated.

The project is part of a long-term effort to responsibly manage the water levels of Spirit Lake to keep surrounding communities safe. The tunnel is located within the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington state.

Following the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a natural debris blockage formed across Spirit Lake’s outlet. In 1985, an emergency tunnel was constructed to safely manage lake levels. Today, that tunnel — while still functional — requires rehabilitation to continue serving its role effectively into the future, according to the release.

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest is seeking public com ments on a draft environmental impact statement that includes amendments to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest Land and Resource Management …

08/05/2025

Ridgefield is streaky, said officer Tanner Steward. The hot streak was in play as calls for service kept coming in during a Reflector ride-along with Steward of the Ridgefield Police Department on Wednesday, July 30.

The night shift in Ridgefield features two officers and sergeant — which is comparable to many agencies of similar size throughout the state — but each call provided reason for all three on patrol to respond. The ride-along lasted from roughly 5 p.m. to midnight and featured three calls for service, a phone call followup to a “cold theft” and two traffic stops.

“Ridgefield comes and goes,” Steward said. “You’ll have a night or two where not much happens. You might get one call of someone calling in some kind of disturbance or, ‘Hey, this car’s been parked here for a while.’ You can go a whole night with getting zero 911 calls, and so you’re out there looking for that traffic stuff and looking for the auto prowl in progress — just trying to be visible to people and deter crime.”

Ridgefield is streaky, said officer Tanner Steward. The hot streak was in play as calls for service kept coming in during a Reflector ride-along with Steward of the Ridgefield Police Department on …