News

The man accused of stabbing another man in the back during an altercation in a Centralia parking lot on Thursday has been charged with one count of second-degree assault. 

A witness reported the altercation in the back parking lot of Rite Aid on Harrison Avenue to 911 dispatchers at about 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 9. 

When officers arrived, they saw one man walking away from the scene and another man still in the parking lot. 

“The male that remained at the scene was bleeding heavily from his back,” the Centralia Police Department said in a news release. 

“Centralia officers and responding aid crews from the Riverside Fire Authority and AMR took quick action to stop the bleeding and the victim was quickly transported from the scene,” the news release stated. He was later flown via Life Flight to a St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma and “is expected to survive his injuries,” according to court documents. 

One of the officers at the scene reported the wound on the victim’s back was “consistent with being stabbed” and had gone through the victim’s rib cage, according to court documents. The officer said he “saw an immense amount of blood dripping from the wound and pink foam, consistent with a lung injury.” 

The man who left the scene was “quickly detained” and has been identified as Leonardo Mendoza, 28, of Chehalis, according to the Centralia Police Department. 

When asked by an officer if he had any weapons on his person, Mendoza reportedly “said he had a knife in his pocket but that he did not stab anyone with it,” according to court documents. 

He was arrested on several unrelated outstanding warrants. When searching Mendoza during the arrest, an officer located a cellphone, a black permanent marker and “a black folding knife that appeared to have blood on it,” according to court documents. 

When questioned, Mendoza allegedly said he had been sleeping when he woke up to the victim choking him, according to court documents. The officer reportedly “asked Mendoza if this was the first guy he ever stabbed,” to which Mendoza allegedly said, “yeah.” 

Paramedics reportedly did not see “any evidence of trauma” to Mendoza’s neck. 

The witness who called 911 reported she was in the Rite Aid drive-thru at the time of the dispute. “She stated that the two subjects mostly fought out of her view, but that she could hear them fighting” and reported seeing the victim kick out at Mendoza at one point during the dispute. Mendoza reportedly “had something gold-colored in his hand” at the time. 

Mendoza was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail just before 2:55 p.m. on May 9, according to jail records. 

His preliminary hearing in Lewis County Superior Court was scheduled for 4 p.m. on Friday, May 10. 

Construction equipment is now on site as contractors for WinCo Foods begin building its new location just off the Interstate 5 Mellen Street exit at Centralia Station, a new Port of Centralia shopping center development that has long been in development.

WinCo is a warehouse-style supermarket chain that offers bulk food items and is open 24 hours a day. Port officials have long described WinCo as the anchor tenant for the development, with hopes that it will attract other businesses to the surrounding area.

The project is being carried out in three stages, the first of which is finished with all pay estimates completed. It involved readying the construction site and roads surrounding the project site, including the Yew Street extension, and was completed by the Toledo-based contractor Midway Underground.

Stage one’s final pay estimate was made during the Port of Centralia meeting April 17.

“We appreciate all of Midway’s hard work on this. It was a challenging project through a lot of challenging weather,” Port of Centralia Executive Director Kyle Heaton said during the meeting. “But they did a good job, and we’re very pleased with the product.”

Midway Underground began work on Centralia Station’s first stage after its project bid was approved in August of 2022.

“It’s been in the works for quite a while and I'm happy to see it come to completion,” Port of Centralia Commissioner Kyle Markstrom said. “... While there were some change orders throughout the project, I don’t think there was anything that really caught us by too much surprise. I appreciate everybody’s work on getting all of those things handled.”

The Port of Centralia has announced a welcome reception for WinCo Foods at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, June 20, at the intersection of Art Lehman Avenue and Yew Street. An official date for the opening of the supermarket has not been announced.

Port Auditor Amy Graber told The Chronicle last month that only one pay estimate remained for stage two of the project.

Stage two, which has also been completed, involved building a new off-ramp named Art Lehmann Drive stemming from the I-5 Mellen Street exit. Art Lehmann Drive gives Centralia Station direct access to I-5 and was built by the Kent-based contractor Scarsella Brothers.

Now that the first two stages are complete, the final stage has begun as WinCo builds its supermarket, parking lot and a second building for other businesses at Centralia Station.

As for the cost of the project so far, nine pay estimates had been made to Midway Underground as of September 2023 totalling $5,369.837.28, according to previous Chronicle reporting.

Midway Underground’s original stage one bid was $6,116,322.03, but as of last September, five change orders had been approved, raising stage one’s expected cost to $7,302,768.67.

Since September 2023, the following pay estimates were approved by the Port of Centralia for Midway Underground:

• Pay estimate 10 approved on Oct. 18, 2023 for $713,018.26

• Pay estimate 11 approved on Nov. 15, 2023 for $601,072.15

• Pay estimate 12 approved on Dec. 6, 2023 for $431,747.90

• Pay estimate 13 approved on Feb. 7, 2024 for $292,569.47

• Pay estimate 14 approved on Apr. 17, 2024 for $225,006.49

No other change orders for stage one were submitted. With the 14th and final pay estimate approved, Midway Underground was paid $7,633,251.55 for stage one’s work.

Scarsella Brothers had received two pay estimates for the project's second stage totalling $1,342,363.46 as of September 2023. Its original bid for stage two — approved in April of 2023 — was $2,337,681.75.

Since last September, the following pay estimates were approved by the Port of Centralia for Scarsella Brothers:

• Pay estimate three approved on Sept. 20, 2023 for $194,056.73

• Pay estimate four approved on Oct. 18, 2023 for $357,354.01

• Pay estimate five approved on Nov. 15, 2023 for $283,226.78

• Pay estimate six approved on Feb. 7, 2024 for $23,173.73

• Pay estimate seven approved on March 6, 2024 for $96,763.85

The first change order for stage two with Scarsella Brothers was also approved during the Port of Centralia’s Jan. 17 meeting for the amount of $40,264.68, and a second change order approved on Feb. 7 totalling $81,725.25.

With these two change orders, stage two’s expected cost rose from the original bid to $2,459,671.68. The seven pay estimates made to Scarsella Brothers now total $2,296,938.56.

Stage one and two’s combined cost so far is $9,930,190.11 with a final pay estimate still to be made to Scarsella Brothers.

Aside from the payments to the contractors, the Port of Centralia also made a payment on Feb. 7 to the Washington state Department of Transportation totalling $177,000 for inspection and technical support for the new I-5 Mellen Street exit for Centralia Station dating back to 2018.

Payment estimate six for stage two is listed as pay estimate seven in the Port of Centralia’s meeting minutes and agendas, but no sixth pay estimate was ever made in between the fifth and seventh.

Two pay estimates for the first stage, both listed an “No. 9” in the meeting minutes despite being made on separate dates for separate amounts, were also made before pay estimate 11 was mentioned in the minutes.

The Chronicle contacted the Port of Centralia for clarification and is awaiting the return of the port’s finance staff member, who was out of the office, Heaton said in an email.

To view the Port of Centralia’s past meeting minutes and agendas, visit https://portofcentralia.com/documents-center/meeting-agendas-and-minutes/. 

Information about C.L. Young is tough to come by.

An internet search turns up dated responses on long-archived message boards, while the Lewis County Historical Museum has no archival information on Young’s time in Lewis County.

That lack of knowledge is one of the reasons Jim Corbett is so excited about what he found while digging around a pawn shop years ago.

“I would say that this is probably the best surviving example of this guy’s work,” Corbett said.

The find: a maple wood violin inscribed, “Built by C.L. Young, Chehalis, Wash. 1912.”

In an interview Thursday, Corbett said he hopes to arrange a ceremony to donate the instrument during the Centralia Campout, which will take place from Aug. 10 to 18 this year.

“This is a piece of Washington State History,” Corbett said. “This is a really nice violin.”

A musician himself, Corbett said he discovered the instrument in a Seattle pawn shop more than 35 years ago. Now, he wants to donate the item to the historical museum for the next generation to enjoy.

Ideally, he said, the 112-year-old violin would be frequently played.

“An instrument needs to be played. It’s good for the wood,” he said. “It’s absolutely playable. It’s not fragile. It’s not falling apart.”

A fan of folk music, Corbett said he taught himself how to play the fiddle and is a member of the greater Seattle fiddle community. The interest, he said, eventually turned to violins.

Corbett found the fiddle while searching through a pawn shop on Seattle’s First Avenue nearly four decades ago. The pawn shop, he said, misread the inscription and believed the instrument was built in 1972 and put the instrument on sale for $100.

“It’s a good instrument,” he said. “But the value in it is the historical value, not the monetary value.”

Though nothing is officially planned, the 21st annual Centralia Campout will be held at 1300 K St. in Centralia.

For more information on the festival, visit centraliacampout.com/home.