Officials offer firewood advice
As winter approaches, homeowners make use of their fireplaces and wood stoves.
Homeowners should handle firewood purchases with caution, according to officials of the state Department of Agriculture.
“The majority of complaints we receive are from consumers getting less wood than they paid for, or being dissatisfied with the quality of wood they purchased,” said Kirk Robinson, manager of the agency’s Weights and Measures Program.
“Most wood sellers play by the rules, but there are some who will take advantage of unsuspecting consumers,” said Robinson. “Our goal is to protect consumers against bad transactions that could leave their woodpiles and their wallets short.”
State officials enforce regulations designed to ensure that firewood sellers deliver the quantity and quality of wood ordered. When inspectors receive a complaint, they conduct an investigation and work with the wood seller to make up the shortage or obtain a refund for the consumer.
In chronic cases, state officials work with county prosecutors to bring criminal charges against offenders.
Officials suggest that those buying firewood:
** get a receipt before paying for wood. The receipt should have the price, type and quality of wood, and be based on a cord or portion of a cord. The name and address of the seller and buyer should be on the receipt as well.
** The legal measure for firewood in Washington is by the cord. Sellers can deceive buyers with terms such as “unit,” “truckload,” “face cord,” “rick,” or “pile.” A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet.
** If the buyer is not satisfied, the load may be refused or the price renegotiated. Problems should be reported to the state before burning any wood.
** Buyer should be present when the wood is delivered and should inspect the wood before it is unloaded.
Area complaints involve one person
Robinson said that, over the last three years, his agency has received 10 complaints regarding firewood deliveries, and all 10 involved the same firewood dealer.
Robinson said nine of the complaints have been determined to be valid and have been settled; one complaint remains under investigation, he said.
Robinson said he believes the complaints were resolved when the dealer delivered more wood to those who complained. Robinson said he does not have records on exactly how the complaints were settled.
Robinson said he would monitor future complaints about this wood dealer. Robinson said he would write the dealer and urge compliance with wood sales rules.
Citizens who wish to file a complaint about the quantity or quality of firewood purchases may call (360) 902-1854, Larry Kanouse, (360) 902-1857, or Kirk Robinson, (360) 902-1856.

La Center, Ridgefield schools in turf war
Committee to hear final arguments
Alice Perry Linker and
Bill Myers
staff reporters
School officials from La Center and Ridgefield hope members of the Regional Committee for School District Organization will see things their way when they decide a La Center/Ridgefield boundary dispute.
A Committee meeting set for Dec. 4 was postponed and has not yet been rescheduled.
Faced with a growth of industrial-commercial land outside its taxing area, officials of the La Center School District want to expand boundaries to include land now inside the Ridgefield School District.
Ridgefield district officials, however, are opposed to any boundary changes, said Ridgefield interim Superintendent John Simpson.
The districts presented arguments on boundary issues Nov. 9 at a meeting of the same Committee. A final hearing, without public testimony, was scheduled for Dec. 4.
The La Center district is asking that land adjacent to I-5 and La Center Road be moved from the Ridgefield district to the La Center district. The Clark County commissioners have placed the area inside the La Center urban growth boundary and designated it for industrial and commercial growth over the next 20 years.
La Center Superintendent Mark Mansell said the county’s proposal for long-term urban growth gives the Ridgefield School District some 3,000 “employment acres,” while the La Center district will have about 49 employment acres without a boundary change. If the regional committee approves the new boundaries, La Center will have about 644 employment acres to Ridgefield’s 2,382.
The La Center district has been discussing the issue for most of the year at the staff and board levels. Simpson said the two boards met jointly once.
“We’d lose about 70 students,” said the interim Ridgefield superintendent.
Simpson said that Ridgefield school officials are not proposing any compromise.
Citizens with children in affected areas are appalled by the La Center attempt to move them to their district, said Ridgefield school board member Matt Swindell. “This could be a precedent-setting event in the state and beyond,” said Swindell. “Other districts are watching what happens here,” he said.
Swindell said parents in the Ridgefield district make conscious decisions to live in the district because of schools that produce great results, including superior test scores. “We’re being punished for our success,” he told Ridgefield city council members on Nov. 16.
Ridgefield council members agreed. They approved a letter to the Committee on School Boundaries supporting the Ridgefield district’s opposition to turf changes.
Mansell said that the tax burden on homeowners will be reduced if additional industrial and commercial property is included in the La Center School District.
Mansell said he is also concerned about a loss of commercial property now inside the La Center city limits if a casino is built at the interchange of I-5 and La Center Road.
“The city has statistics that show that if non-tribal casinos or card rooms build next to a tribal casino, their profit goes up,” Mansell said.
If the city’s card rooms close or move to the I-5 junction and the school district‘s boundaries don’t include the junction area, “We’ll be left with next to no” commercially zoned areas, he said.
“The burden on the homeowner will be huge,” he said. “We want this review, we want this to be looked at. If we lose we can go back to the homeowners and say, ‘We’ve done everything we can.’”
The Clark County commissioners are developing urban growth areas as part of the comprehensive plan update. Cities must be able to provide urban services to lands within their urban growth areas. The commissioners are expected to complete the long-range development plan by the end of the year.
City of La Center officials have said they will actively pursue industrial and commercial development on property near the I-5-La Center Road interchange.
Swindell said he fears major fallout if La Center schools win the day. “If the La Center expansion is allowed, how many millions will be spent by Ridgefield and other school districts to protect boundaries instead of educating children?” he wondered aloud.
The Regional Committee for School District Organization is an independent body that hears requests for school boundary changes. Tim Merlino, chief finance officer of ESD 112, said most boundary change requests come from individuals or neighborhoods that want to change districts. Boundary disputes between school districts are rare, he said.
“This is the first time it’s happened in the 20 years I’ve been here,” Merlino said.
La Center (263-2131) and Ridgefield (619-1300) school district offices will be notified when a new date is set for the Committee meeting.

Citation dropped
Officials say man had valid wood
cutting permit
Al Butterfield of Amboy believes it was his letter to the editor, published in The Reflector on Oct. 25, that resulted in a reversal of his firewood fortunes.
Butterfield obtained a firewood cutting permit from the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and in early October drove up the 6000 Road east of Cougar to cut firewood.
The free permit program allows anyone to cut and remove up to five cords of firewood in designated areas where timber has been thinned or cut and residue left on the ground. DNR provides a map with each permit.
But on the way, Butterfield was stopped by agents of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife who contended that the area was open only to hunters and closed to all others. Butterfield received an $80 citation and advised to leave. He did.
Butterfield insisted that he passed no gates or barriers and had seen no “road closed” signs. He also said he saw no “road closed” signs as he left the area.
Butterfield described himself as a low income, senior citizen who uses wood for heating, cooking and water heating. His letter warned others of the problems he encountered.
After his letter was published, Butterfield said state officials called to apologize. They sent someone to the courts in Vancouver to rescind the citation. Officials told Butterfield they had failed to respect his permit and regretted the situation, Butterfield said.
Capt. Murray Schlenker of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said DNR officials had failed to inform his agency that firewood cutting permits had been issued for the 6000 Road area. The citation to Butterfield had, therefore, been issued in error, said Schlenker.
Since then, said Schlenker, Fish and Wildlife has obtained a list of those with firewood permits issued by DNR, and special, orange tags for accessing certain roads have been supplied to those with wood cutting permits.
Butterfield was issued a closed road permit, said Schlenker, However, Butterfield said he cut firewood elsewhere and is now stocked for the winter season.
Since his letter was published, Butterfield received four offers from people who wanted to give him free firewood. He expressed his appreciation to all who made such offers.
“I would have gone to court,” said Butterfield of the citation.

BG schools may sell Rock Creek
Public comments will be taken Thurs., Nov. 30, on a proposal by the Battle Ground School District to sell 3.17 acres of land in the Rock Creek Road area north of Battle Ground.
School District spokesperson Kelly O’Brien said the District purchased the property in 1997 for use by the Career and Technical Education Department. It is being sold because it is too small for any educational purposes, said O’Brien.
In the Career and Technical Education Department, students built houses for subsequent sale as a learning experience in construction techniques.
The District declared the property to be surplus in a resolution passed in September 2006.
O’Brien said proceeds from the sale will be deposited into the District’s capital projects account and used for construction, renovation or land acquisition purposes.
O’Brien said surplus property must be sold for no less than 90 percent of its appraised value. The parcel (221309-000) is shown in Clark County records as assessed at $154,000, and exempt from property taxes.
The District purchased the property for $60,000.
The public hearing on the proposed sale will be held at Glenwood Heights Primary School, 9716 NE 134th St., Vancouver, beginning at 6 p.m.
Information is available from O’Brien, 904-1233.

Bull reunited with Hockinson owners
Heidi Wallenborn
news director
In mid-August, Stacie Cole discovered a stray red bull in her fenced horse pasture near the heart of Battle Ground.
It made itself at home with her two horses by the barn and by the looks of it had settled in to stay. She called The Reflector, which ran a front page story, and waited for her phone to ring.
By October, Cole thought her family had inherited a pet by default. She’d had only one caller, and he failed to properly identify the tag and the brand on the bull’s side. Other than that, nothing.
Eventually the bull’s owners, who live in the Hockinson area, were contacted by a reader and asked if perhaps the bull was theirs. They called Cole and gave the correct identification information then made arrangements to pick him up.
But the bull didn’t want to go.
“Herding, oh boy,” Cole said. “That was fun.”
Affectionately dubbed Mr. Bull by the Coles, the red beast had become like a pet. He came when Cole’s husband whistled for him and would sniff at his fingers, and seemed to enjoy hanging out with the two horses on the couple’s 15 acres at 1406 SW 10th Ave.
“It really bonded with my mare,” Cole said of the healthy young bull.
What Cole learned is that the Hockinson couple, she remembers the man’s name is Winston, kept three bulls in a field near Fred Meyer on W Main St.
The one Cole ended up with cost $1,200 and was to be used for breeding, she said. The wife went to pick up the bulls, found two, and thought a partner had picked up the other one, Cole said.
Somehow the bull ended up at the Cole’s place nearly a mile away and wandered past other pastures he could have made a home in.
Cole said it’s ironic that he showed up the day after a mare that had been sickly died.
That next day she looked out her kitchen window and saw in her pasture the bull with horns and a green tag dangling from it’s ear.
When Mr. Bull first arrived, the surviving mare tried its best to chase him off by kicking and biting.
But after awhile they were inseparable, Cole said. Whenever Mr. Bull’s owners came to pick him up, he jumped the fence and headed into the back field that is protected by thickets of blackberry bushes. He’d meander in the adjacent 32 acres of open field near City-owned Remy Park to the west abutting SW 20th Ave.
Mr. Bull also had a cohort in crime. Sometimes the mare got antsy whenever the owners showed up.
“It was like the mare was telling him, 'Get out, get out, they’re coming to get you,’” Cole said.
The owners tried unsuccessfully over the next two months to capture the evasive beast, and even tried using a dart gun, Cole said.
They finally brought over a trailer with another bull in it, parked it in the field, and waited. He eventually wandered in, and he was whisked away.
“It was kinda interesting and fun for awhile,” Cole said. “He seemed to like it here.”
The mare seemed to miss him too, she said, and for several days appeared to be looking for him.
“She’d go stand at different trails looking for him,” Cole said. “I think she took to him as her baby. She moped around for awhile, but she’s okay. She’s probably happy that now her food’s not being stolen.”
Mr. Bull was “a pig,” Cole said. “He ate a lot--grain and hay, and he really liked apples. I heard cows don’t like apples. I think maybe he thought he was a horse.”
Cole also thinks the timing of his arrival after the death of the other mare is ironic.
“The horse died, then he showed up,” she said. “Maybe he took her place. Although I wouldn’t want one, I’m sorry to see Mr. Bull go. I keep waiting for him to show back up. I keep looking for him.

Wendt’s trees are works of art
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Woodland’s Ruth Wendt has been preparing for Christmas since July.
It was mid-summer when she decided that the theme of this year’s tree would be “Ring in the Season.”
Wendt’s 9-foot-tall tree was auctioned off on Nov. 24 during the Festival of Trees at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Vancouver. “Ring in the Season” was the fourth tree she’s decorated under the Colf Family Foundation sponsorship.
“It’s fun,” she said, as she wrapped shiny gold material around the limbs of the lighted tree.
Wendt does not appear to tire of decorating trees. She’s also responsible for the Christmas trees that stand in the Hulda Klager House in Woodland, and she puts up a family tree.
When she chose bells for the tree’s theme last July, Wendt did not realize how difficult finding small bells would be. She searched on e-Bay where she found old-fashioned glass bells, but she couldn’t find larger bells.
“I bought wine glasses and had the stems cut off,” she said. “I hand painted the glasses, decorated them with churches and schools, buildings that had bell towers.”
The dozen glass “bells” feature hand drawings of the Woodland Presbyterian Church, the Brush Prairie Baptist Church and the old Vancouver Presbyterian Church built in 1909, among others. Wendt hand-drew the structures without using stencil and painted the rest of the “bells” in various colors.
“I couldn’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent on the tree,” she said.
A large bouquet of bells that graced the top of the tree was made from light-weight florists vases.
Wendt didn’t stop with one 9-foot tree. She made two garlands and a wreath for the festival, and she sewed beads, sequins and gold rope onto a round gold table cloth to make the tree skirt.
She said that decorating trees is a creative process.
“It is a work of art,” she said. “You have to have a vision.”
During the four years that she has been decorating trees, Wendt has learned a few tips.
“You learn that you can’t put anything too heavy on the tree,” she said. “Sometimes you put something on the tree and you say, ‘That’s not going to go.’”
Although she did the design and created the ornaments, Wendt received decorating help from four other Woodland women, Mary Klein, Rebecca Roberts, Fran Norcutt and Kathleen Tyrrell.
“I had four helpers and I used every one of them,” she said.
Proceeds from the Festival of Trees go to the Rotary Club.
Although the Festival of Trees has ended, Wendt’s decorating work can be seen on the trees at the Hulda Klager House, 115 S. Pekin Road. The house is open to visitors Fri.-Sun. Dec. 1-3 and Dec. 8-10. Hours are 4-7:30 p.m. The house will open earlier on Fridays. Call 225-8996 for information.

Love of reading leads to Woodland Library
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
The new Woodland librarian is a long way from Indiana, but she’s close to home.
Abbie Anderson, who became the librarian for the Woodland Community Library in early November, returned to the northwest after many years in Bloomington, IN. She said her parents and siblings live in the Seattle area and she has extended family in Southwest Washington.
Anderson didn’t always want to be a librarian. She left her Seattle home in 1983 to study music at Indiana University. Originally she planned to be a performer, playing bassoon, but she changed her focus to study musicology and folklore. She was preparing to write the thesis for her PhD, when she decided to leave the music field and study library science.
“I was working on my Ph.D. when I realized I no longer wanted what a Ph.D. was for,” she said. “It was very difficult for me to do.”
Anderson “stumbled” into the decision to go into library science, after friends suggested that she might be interested.
“It should have been obvious,” she said. “I love to read and I love what a public library means. It’s the engine for lifelong learning, something I really care about.”
She no longer performs or plays the bassoon.
“I love to sing,” she said, “but I’m not trained as a singer.”
While she studied at Indiana University for her master’s in library science, Anderson worked full time as the curator of education for the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, affiliated with Indiana University. There she primarily organized tours and programs about the museum. One of her responsibilities was taking museum programs to public schools.
Woodland’s librarian chose a small community after many years of living in a college town, partly because “I was no longer used to the city.”
She said she also likes the idea of a public library’s importance to a smaller community.
“I interned in French Lick (IN), a remote town in one of the most impoverished parts of the state,” she said. “The library was very important there for the people. It was an important place to be, because the town had not much else to draw on.”
Anderson said she also wanted to return to the northwest.
In her few weeks with the library, Anderson has been impressed with the community’s interest in the library, and she said she expects to enjoy living in Woodland.
“Here we have the pleasure and comfort of a small town but easy access to shopping and other benefits of a city,” she said.
Anderson said she’s optimistic about the library’s future in Woodland.
“We hope the library will grow as the city grows,” she said.
One goal of the library and the Friends of the Woodland Library is to have a new building, but Anderson said a new building is a long-range goal, one that will take many years to achieve.
“We’ll have to be patient,” she said. “We need to build community support, recruit more people. A new building is more in the planning and recruiting stages.”
When she’s not cataloging books or doing other library work, Anderson enjoys reading or going to movies with husband Bill.
“We’re big movie buffs. We love films,” she said.
About Bill Anderson, she said, “He’s a big gardener. We’re looking forward to having a home where he can garden. I do more watching and enjoying than gardening. I’m an assistant gardener.”
She said she’s also looking forward to spending time on the Oregon Coast (“the most beautiful place”) and investigating hiking opportunities in the mountains.