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The Chronicle - Centralia
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In loving memory of Beth Urban Robison: 1953-2024 
Mary Beth “Beth” (Urban) Robison passed away at Providence Centralia Hospital on Jan. 3, 2024. She had been sick with respiratory disease for several years, with weekly treatments to keep going until the end.
Mary Beth, or “Beth” as most people called her, was born on June 2, 1953, in Centralia, Washington, to Mary E. and Frank J. Urban. She was the last child of four; she was the baby of the family, always busy, on the go, and chatty until the very last day here. She grew up on Waunch’s Prairie and attended Oakview School as a child and Centralia schools. She is survived by her daughter, Lena Begnaud (Lee); granddaughter Megan (Raven Piper) of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and grandson Ethan Begnaud of Anchorage, Alaska; Timothy Urban of Rochester, Washington; and granddaughter Aubrey Urban; her sister Linda C. Amondson- Muller, Phoenix, Arizona; and her two favorite girls, the dogs Lilly And Lucy. She was preceded in death by her husband of 40 years, Mike G. Robison (deceased October 2022). Others who preceded her include her grandparents, parents, Frank and Mary Urban, brothers, John F. Urban and Larry C. Urban, and several close friends. Beth worked most of her life at several local restaurants and lounges. For many years, she was often recognized as the “Carla” from Cheers at the Kit Carson Lounge. She loved her job at the “Kit” and working for George and Alice. When Beth was younger, she had several horses and loved many animals. She loved her home and dogs and often worked with colored pencils, craft projects and puzzles. She worked hard, loved movies and enjoyed talking to friends on the phone when she couldn’t get out. Her last big outing was with friends at her 50th class reunion at Centralia High School. She talked about it a year later; it was a great time with several renewed friendships. Beth always enjoyed visiting her friends over breakfast out or at home and appreciated the support they gave her over the years. A few of her close friends are Penny Webley, Char Hammond, Beckey, Trisha, Margie, Sandy, Debbie Ludwig, Kriss E., and Jerry Vodra. Thank you. As an organ donor, she was able to give the gift of sight to someone else in need of seeing their family, colors and the world. A gathering will be held on June 2 at Casa Ramos in Centralia from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Interment will be at Lake Shasta, California, with her husband. You will be missed. |
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PDC issues 'formal warnings' to CT Publishing, Lewis County Republican Party, commissioner candidate; no additional action taken
The Washington state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) has dismissed a complaint against CT Publishing and The Silver Agency, both owned by Chad and Coralee Taylor, that alleged the companies failed to maintain publicly available commercial advertiser books. CT Publishing is the parent company of The Chronicle. In a letter Thursday, a PDC representative stated the commission will not “conduct a more formal investigation into these allegations or take further enforcement action.” A lawyer representing the newspaper previously acknowledged the error to the PDC. According to the PDC, the May 16 letter serves as a “formal warning” and will be considered if future violations occur. The complaint was filed by Kyle Wheeler on Feb. 13. “Both the Chronicle newspaper and the Silver Agency marketing firm were very reluctant to even provide the books for public inspection as required under RCW 42.17A.345,” Wheeler wrote in the complaint. “When these books were eventually provided, they were incomplete in not only the required categories listed in this RCW but I later discovered a transaction listed on the Lewis County Republican Party financial statements which were not included on the Silver Agency books until pointed out and corrected." In response, the Dan Brady Law Firm said that CT Publishing, “was surprised that the public could access company records that in almost any other circumstance are not available to the public.” Once The Chronicle became aware of the campaign finance and public disclosure requirements, it “began assembling the records requested." “However, the records were not organized or formatted in such a manner that would allow immediate and complete disclosure,” the letter reads. According to the response, the requested records are now available “to the extent they exist." The Chronicle and the Silver Agency created “an internal record retention and data fulfillment process to ensure timely and complete disbursement of any information requested.” The Chronicle and the Silver Agency also established email addresses to service future responses. “Based on our findings, staff has determined that, in this instance, CT Publishing and The Silver Agency’s failure to maintain and collect all required information …. so as to provide upon request an inspection of the books of account for political advertising, does not amount to a finding of a violation that calls for further investigation,” the PDC wrote in an email to Wheeler Thursday. Chad and Coralee Taylor purchased The Chronicle and its sister publications in January 2021. In recent months, Wheeler has filed several other PDC complaints against local officials and entities, including Centralia Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston, the Lewis County Republican Central Committee, Commissioner Scott Brummer and commissioner candidate Christina Riley. Riley received a written warning on April 18 for a failure to report contributions during her campaign. In the letter warning Riley, the PDC stated it did not discover evidence that “the late reporting was done to intentionally conceal campaign activity from the public.” “Based on our findings staff has determined that, in this instance, failure to timely and accurately submit C-4 reports disclosing a minor amount in expenditures and in-kind contributions does not amount to a finding of a violation that warrants further investigation,” the PDC wrote. The Lewis County Republican Central Committee (LCRCC) received a written warning on Wednesday for failing to “timely and accurately disclose an in-kind contribution on a C-4 report for election year 2023.” The PDC found the error did not warrant a violation that needed additional investigation. Complaints against Brummer and Smith Johnston are currently in the “assessment of facts” status, according to the PDC. They can be found at https://tinyurl.com/3mdmrnzu. In a response on April 17, Brummer disputed the complaint. “Mr. Wheeler claims I have failed to report a significant expenditure totaling $6,923.76 paid to the Silver Agency. I did not fail to report this expenditure,” Brummer wrote. “It was listed on the C-4 filing for the coverage period of July 26, 2022-August 31, 2022 under Schedule B: section 3 Debts and Obligations. This report was submitted on September 12, 2022.” In a response dated April 17, Smith Johnston said the failure to report an expenditure was an “unintentional error.” According to the response, a campaign treasurer failed to file an expenditure report with the PDC “at some point along the way.” “I apologize to the public for this error. I value openness and transparency with campaigning and it was my understanding and expectation that all financial information for my campaign was reported in a timely manner,” Smith Johnston wrote. “All reports have now been updated with correct expenditure information added.” |
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Prep girls tennis: W.F. West top duo qualifies for 2A state tourney
It was far from the typical ceremonious celebration. Still, the W.F. West High School girls tennis team’s No. 1 doubles pair had plenty of reasons to smile. Lilly Hueffed and Katelyn Wood triumphed in a winner to state match and ended up finishing in fourth place during Thursday’s final day of the Class 2A District 4 tournament in Vancouver. “I was filled with happy emotions,” Wood said. “It was meant to be.” Hueffed and Wood’s opponents were up 4-2 in the opening set, but the two Bearcats had won the previous game to close the gap. Then play stopped due to one of the players on the other side of the net having an uncontrollable nose bleed. Time allotted for injury is 15 minutes or the result is an injury default. It went over 15 minutes and it gave Huffed and Wood a spot at the state tournament next week at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle. “I am really excited for them,” Bearcats head coach Megan Wellander said. “State is a cool experience and now they get to enjoy it because they earned it. I said ‘You did it’ and we hugged. You have to find joy. It is not a fluke or an accident that we made it there.” A week after losing in the sub-district title match against their teammates, Hueffed and Wood fell in the first round and were faced with a slight uphill climb. They had to win two more matches to reach state. “We definitely knew we had to come in confident or we didn’t have a chance to get very far,” Hueffed said. “That (first round loss) affected us. The biggest thing we were able to do was bounce back from that.” Now, Hueffed and Wood will guarantee themselves at least two more matches next Friday. Potential placement would come the following day if they can snare a victory. Which Wood believes would be the cherry on top. “I think we’ll strive to have fun and do our best,” she said. “It has been stressful, so we want to make state a fun adventure. Enjoy the experience and still play our best tennis.” Sub-district doubles champs Ellie Mittge and Ema Weerasinghe will also head to state as alternates. The tandem beat the duo from Hockinson in the alternate spot match, the same duo that beat them in the first round. “They got it done,” Wellander stated. Tumwater’s Chloe Henderson, the singles champion from sub-districts, lost in a winner to state match. |
Portland Business News
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NW Natural, facing 'electrify everything' headwind, embraces Bill Gates-backed tech
In a first, small amounts of clean-burning hydrogen are flowing into the NW Natural distribution system.
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Leatherman CEO Ben Rivera on being a tinkerer and using an item he designed on a landmark day
Rivera became CEO of the Portland-founded family-owned company in 2013 after over two decades with the company as a manufacturing engineer.
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NYT Politics
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Supreme Court Justice Alito’s House Displayed a ‘Stop the Steal’ Flag After Jan. 6
An upside-down flag, adopted by Trump supporters contesting the Biden victory, flew over the justice’s front lawn as the Supreme Court was considering an election case.
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Washington Governor's Office
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On the road: Long-term care insurance, new psychiatric hospital, solar panels in King County
Publish Date
May 15, 2024
Story Body
On a gorgeous, sunny day in King County, Gov. Jay Inslee cut ribbons, high-fived some kids, and joined a press event celebrating another of Washington's nation-leading programs. The WA Cares Fund is Washington's new long-term care insurance program - the first of its kind nationwide. WA Cares helps people get care if they have an illness, accident, or other need for care later in life. Legislators improved the program this session by making WA Cares benefits portable. Now, Washingtonians who paid into WA Cares can still benefit should they move away. Marcos Worku was a nurse when he experienced a stroke at age 47. He suffered brain damage and mobility loss in his hands and legs. He recuperated in a nursing home for five years, slowly regaining his strength. He’s finally able to live independently again, but he needs a little help. The WA Cares benefit would help a lot in situations like Worku’s. Markos Worku walks up to his front door using his walker and accessible ramp — the WA Cares Fund can help beneficiaries purchase assistive equipment and even home accommodations like this.Earlier that morning, Gov. Jay Inslee joined a ribbon-cutting to open the new University of Washington Center for Behavioral Health and Learning. The facility is a psychiatric hospital with 150 beds for people with behavioral health care needs. It's also a teaching hospital where the next generation of psychiatric specialists will master their trade. Inslee proposed the hospital in 2018 as a part of a long-term strategy for transforming Washington’s behavioral health system. The state supported its construction with $244 million from the capital budget. The hospital will add bed space and train new professionals to relieve shortages in both categories. Rep. Frank Chopp, Gov. Jay Inslee, UW director of state relations Rashi Gupta, and Sen. Manka Dhingra help cut the ribbon to open the UW Center for Behavioral Health and Learning on May 15, 2024.Later in the afternoon, the governor visited Harborview Medical Center downtown. The hospital is the only level-one trauma center in a four-state area; it tends to patients with severe and complex traumas. But their survival rate is a miraculous 96%, a testament to the extraordinary expertise of their medical staff. Lately, the hospital has shown itself to be on the cutting edge in a new way. They've installed a bank of solar panels on the rooftop of the hospital to lower emissions. They've also replaced the boilers at the adjacent childcare center in favor of heat pumps to keep the children they care for comfortable. Gov. Jay Inslee was excited to see a brand-new bank of solar panels on the roof of Harborview Medical Center to power some of their systems while reducing emissions.Read more:
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Camas Post Record
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Historical society to hold plant fairs at Washougal museum
The Camas-Washougal Historical Society (CWHS) will hold its annual plant fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, June 23, at the Two Rivers Heritage Museum, 1 Durgan St., Washougal. “Each spring we collect healthy plants from local gardens and yards to hold this popular event,” event organizer Alma Ladd said in a news release. “We love seeing so many familiar faces year after year who look forward to our great prices and unique items to add color or interest to their flowerbed and landscaping.” Plants for sale at this year’s event will include creeping bell flowers, Solomon’s seal, forsythia, red hellebores, violets, Hosta lilies, pink and white peonies, wildflowers and other native plants. “We also have Camas lilies available, and they go quickly,” Ladd said. Funds from the sale will help the CWHS preserve and make available historic information and artifacts that tell the stories of the history, people and development of the Washougal and Camas communities.
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‘100 Summits’ documentary about Camas mountain climber headed to local theaters
Last summer, after mountain climber Andrew Okerlund, a 2021 Camas High School graduate, became the youngest person to complete the challenging Bulger List by summiting Washington state’s 100 highest peaks in a single season, the work of promoting Okerlund’s climbing feats was just beginning for another Camas High alumnus. Zach Hein, who graduated from Camas High seven years before Okerlund in 2014, had developed a nutritious, calorie-rich protein bar to help power his weekend mountaineering adventures during his college years at Montana State University. In 2020, Hein turned his meal bars into a business called Range Meal Bars. When Okerlund reached out to Hein last year looking for corporate sponsors for his Bulger List climbs, Hein was happy to help. “Andrew reached out — just an email looking for sponsorship,” Hein, now a mechanical engineer living in Seattle, recalled. “He was a college student on a shoestring budget and was looking for a food sponsorship.” That conversation would lead to far more than just a donation of Hein’s Range bars. In fact, by the time Okerlund began his quest to summit Washington’s 100 highest peaks in June 2023, he and Hein had decided to make a documentary film detailing Okerlund’s Bulger List climbs. “I can’t remember who brought it up, but it quickly evolved into me helping him bring that together,” Hein said. “That was a first for me, so I reached out to some of the contacts I’d worked with previously.” Soon, photographer and mountain climber Ross James Wallette, had agreed to join Okerlund on several of his summer 2023 climbs and to memorialize the young climber’s journey through photography and videography. Hein also contacted Ridge Runner Films, a film-making company out of Nashville, Tennessee, and Chris Price, an Austin, Texas-based video editor, to turn the raw footage into a documentary movie that could show in local theaters and, eventually, be available online to inspire other mountain climbers and adventurers. “When we first started planning in June or July, we had no plot,” Hein said. “We were predicting what the plot might look like, but we didn’t really know.” The story wouldn’t unfold until Okerlund was actually on the mountains, trying to set a new record as the youngest climber, racing against the clock to complete all 100 climbs before his fall semester at school and contending with natural challenges such as wildfires and rock slides. Hein decided to join Okerlund on a few of his climbs, and said he was impressed by the younger man’s enthusiasm and positive outlook. “All of this was new to me,” Hein said. “But Andrew’s confidence and optimism definitely led to success on those peaks.” Hein said one of the themes that emerged in the documentary was the question of whether Okerlund would be able to complete his quest after a wildfire threatened to shut down his late-summer climbs. The Sourdough Fire, which started burning July 29, 2023, in Whatcom County, Washington, and quickly consumed more than 6,300 acres, worried the climbers and documentary makers, Hein said. “When the Sourdough Fire started, if and how Andrew would be able to finish was a big question mark,” Hein said. The film also focuses on the friendship that forms between Okerlund and Wallette, who barely knew each other when they decided to climb Washington’s highest peaks together. “You also see how Andrew changes,” Hein said. “He goes into it so young and as a relatively new climber, but after some close calls, you can see he is growing, building his judgment as a young adult.” The documentary, “100 Summits: Bulgers in a Season,” will have three in-person screenings in June, beginning with its premiere at the Liberty Theatre in downtown Camas on Saturday, June 1. The entire documentary crew will be at the Camas premiere, Hein said, and will stay afterward for a question-and-answer session. The doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets will cost $7 and will be available online at camasliberty.com and at the door. Other shows will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 2, at the Varsity Theater in Seattle; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 9, at the Mission Theater in northwest Portland. The documentary also will be available online for free after June 14. For more information about the documentary, or to find links to purchase tickets for an in-person screening of “100 Summits,” visit rangemealbar.com/100summits. To watch a trailer for the “100 Summits” documentary, visit youtube.com/watch?v=i9TbxWI2WGo |
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Changes ahead for crowded Heritage Park parking lot
Heritage Park is one of Camas’ most popular summertime recreation spots, but overcrowding and double-parking in the park’s public parking lot has caused several headaches for recreationists as well as city of Camas staff over the past few years. “We’ve had a lot of growth in our community,,” Camas Parks and Recreation Director Trang Lam said, noting that this growth has had an impact on the city’s parks, especially at the Lacamas Lake-adjacent Heritage Park, where summertime visitors who come equipped with boats, paddleboards and kayaks often find themselves vying for limited parking and dock space. “We’ve had some safety issues — user conflicts at the dock, double-parking and just overcrowding in general,” Lam told the Camas Parks and Recreation Commission in March. “It also impacts our (Lacamas Lake) Lodge rentals, as people will park in the lodge parking lot and our parking lot attendants have to run across the field and chase people out of there.” In 2023, Lam told Commission members that the parking lot issue at Heritage Park had ramped up during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “No one expected this level of use,” Lam said. “The pandemic created even more use in the park. And when you get more use, there’s going to be more conflict.” During the summer months, the park is typically over capacity Friday through Sunday, Lam said, and is often at capacity during the other four days of the week. She added that the majority of park users are not causing problems. “About 95 percent of the people are really nice,” Lam told the Commission in September 2023. “But every single weekend we have a handful of people who are mean to our parking lot attendants … or just not being courteous with other people.” Lam said this week that her parking lot attendants — typically college-age students — have had people yell at them and even throw cans at them. “When it gets hot out and people can’t find parking, people can be pretty rude,” Lam told The Post-Record this week. “We do have a great partnership with the Camas Police Department and the police will come through in the middle of the day to check on (the parking lot attendants).” This year, Lam said, might be a bit easier on visitors as well as city parking lot staff. That’s because Heritage Park is set to get a parking lot makeover this summer — with more plans in store in 2025 to help further alleviate overcrowding at the popular park. “For me, it’s really about reminding folks that the park was built 10 years ago and we’ve grown (as a City) quite a bit in the last 10 years, so that’s why it’s congested and why people are upset.” Lam said some of the City’s future plans for its North Shore area on the north side of Lacamas Lake also should help alleviate congestion at Heritage Park in the future, when people will have more options for recreating on the lake. “As we get into our Legacy Lands master planning, we will look at how we utilize the entire lake,” Lam said. Until then, however, the parking issue at Heritage Park remains a problem Lam hopes to fix over the next couple years. This summer, Heritage Park’s parking lot will receive a bit of a makeover, with public works crews set to slurry seal and restripe the parking lot in June. The re-striping project, which Lam refers to as “phase one” in the City’s efforts to alleviate overcrowding at the popular park, will add nearly 20 parking spaces for regular vehicles, while decreasing the number of spaces dedicated to boat-trailer parking. “We are losing some trailer stalls, but most of those are on the west side of the parking lot … which isn’t really used (by people with boats),” Lam said. The “phase one” project will reduce the number of trailer parking spaces from 41 to 25 and move them to the west side of the lot, where boaters typically park anyway due to its proximity to the park’s boat launch. The re-striping will also increase the number of personal vehicle parking spots from 64 to 83, Lam said. In March, Lam told Parks Commission members the City had hired consultants to look at the possibility of installing gates and ticketing booths at Heritage Park and at the Lacamas Lake Lodge parking lot, but had discovered space constraints at both locations. “We actually don’t have enough room to put in a gate with safe turning radiuses for folks who come in and don’t want to stay — particularly at the lodge, with the curbs we have there — but even at Heritage Park, it’s not big enough,” Lam said. Instead, Lam said, the consultants reached out to Clark County about the possibility of installing smaller ticketing machines at Heritage Park. “The county has about 10 (parking ticket) machines at their parks,” Lam told the Commission in March. “We don’t have to use their machines, but their machines do work really well.” Much like the “Parking Kitty” machines installed throughout the Portland metro area, the ticket machines prompt users to give their license plate number and pay for a certain amount of time. Lam said installing a parking fee machine at Heritage Park would not be something for the City to profit off of, but, rather, a way to help prompt more turnover inside the parking lot and alleviate overcrowding. “We’re just one little park, not a system like Clark County, so this probably wouldn’t generate a lot of revenue,” Lam said this week. “The goal is to move cars and make sure there is movement of people using the parking lot.” The possibility of charging for parking and installing pay stations at Heritage Park is what Lam calls “phase two” of the City’s plan for alleviating overcrowding and wouldn’t happen until at least 2025. “This year is phase one, so we will want to assess how parking is going and if (re-striping) is enough to manage the parking load,” Lam said. “And we’re holding off (on phase two) because Clark County is assessing their fee structure and talking to their Council, so we’ll want to see what Clark County does so we can make sure we’re aligned … and that people aren’t going to clog up other places. We want to make sure that, if we make this move, that we’re doing it for the right reason — to have more access.” Enforcing the current parking laws has had an impact on the Heritage Park overcrowding, Lam added, noting that people have stopped parking illegally on the side of Lake Road since Camas police began ticketing folks. “We haven’t seen people parking on the road anymore,” Lam said. “That has stopped. What we are seeing is people who are double-parked in the lot and blocking someone into a spot. We hate to do it, but, really, when we tow one or two cars a year, that stops the behavior pretty quickly.” Lam said her staff make every effort to find the owners of vehicles that are illegally double-parked at the Heritage Park parking lot before calling for a tow truck. “They make a true effort to find the car owner … but we did have to tow a couple of cars last year,” Lam said. Next year, Lam added, the park may get a new dock for kayakers and paddleboarders to help separate the non-motorized lake users from the motorized boats. “That would help with safety problems that come from being near the motoried (boats),” Lam said. “But that will require permitting, and we will have to do an assessment … to add a new dock facility.” Lam said the City will implement “phase one” with the re-striping of the parking lot this year “and then assess to see how parking is going.” If the re-striping is enough, Lam said, “phase two” may look a bit different. “If (the re-striping) is enough to manage the parking lot, then part of phase two would be separating the motorized and non-motorized access into the water and trying to find a second access point for the non-motorized (users).” If the re-striping and additional parking spots are not enough to alleviate the overcrowded parking lot, Lam and her staff will then look into other options, including paid parking. “We would also need to think about if (paid parking) would be seasonal, since we’re not doing it to generate revenue but to generate parking turnover,” Lam told the Commission in March. “And we would have to have some method of ticketing people if they (don’t pay or stay past their time limit).” The good news, Lam added, is that the City’s state grant agreements only require Camas to offer 24 trailer parking spots at Heritage Park and that should be enough to accommodate the park’s boat users. “So we’re trading trailer stalls for single-vehicle stalls, which is the trend anyway, and the trailer stalls are typically not maxed out,” Lam said. “We have regular (boat users) who come here — usually early in the morning and the parking lot attendants know the regulars.” |
