Storedahl denied mine expansion
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
A gravel mine expansion in the East Fork of the Lewis River has been denied by a Clark County judge.
“This is a monumental decision,” said Portland attorney David McDonald who represented Friends of the East Fork. “It means protection of the riverine system. Over 100 acres in the floodway will not be given over to gravel extraction.”
The opinion from Superior Court Judge John Nichols denies J.L. Storedahl & Sons the right to expand the company’s Daybreak Mine beyond its 71 acres along the East Fork of the Lewis River. The decision could be appealed; Storedahl representatives could not be reached for comment before The Reflector deadline.
The Battle Ground and Kelso mining company sought a zone change to allow expansion of its existing Daybreak mining operations in the late 1990s. The Clark County commissioners denied a required zone change in 2005, clearing the way for the company to appeal the county decision to Superior Court. Before the commissioners’ 2005 decision, the commissioners and a county hearings examiner had conducted at least three hearings each on technical aspects of the company’s application.
Storedahl has been operating the Daybreak Mine under a non-conforming use granted by the county in 1973. In his opinion, Nichols wrote that the mining operation is “limited to use being made on the parcels as they occurred in 1973.”
Friends of the East Fork, a non-profit organization that has fought the Storedahl plan to expand, has claimed that mining operations would degrade the Lewis River and put threatened and endangered fish species at risk.
“This is a very important step forward,” said Dick Dyrland of Friends of the East Fork. “The recreational and social value of the East Fork outweighs mining interests.”
Dyrland said that the East Fork is in “terrible shape now. Two-thirds of the lower area has been dug out, and the temperatures have been recorded at 78 or 80 degrees because the river runs so wide and shallow there.”
Four threatened or endangered fish species live in the lower river, Dyrland said.
“The county, state and federal government have spent $22 million to try to turn that around,” he said about the loss of fish species. “The public has a big investment in this river on just recreation.”
McDonald called the Lewis River the “crown jewel” of southwest Washington.
As to the likelihood of a Storedahl appeal, McDonald said, “I’d be surprised if they did not. They’ve been at it for 11 years and they’ve been denied at every level.”

Police continue search for 911 caller
Brandy Slagle
Staff reporter
Like the digital drone on an answering machine, the 911 call repeated the same eerie message twice: There is a bomb in a backpack at Lewisville Middle School.
It was Fri., Feb. 9, 9:09 a.m. Police were instantly notified. In less than an hour, students had been evacuated to Battle Ground High School, police crews were searching the campus and news stations sent helicopters that hovered overhead for the rest of the day.
Battle Ground Chief of Police Jim McDaniel said last week that police continue to follow leads that could guide them to the person, or people, who placed a series of emergency calls threatening Battle Ground schools.
The second call came in a few hours later at 11:34 a.m. This time the voice was female, but still masked with a digital device: I have a sniper rifle at Lewisville Middle School and I will start (unintelligible) people in 30 minutes.
McDaniel said he and officers struggled to filter through garbled sounds and decipher the unintelligible word. He said they had to assume whatever it actually said, the intention was harmful.
Investigators are still unable to determine whether the call was a disturbing prank or serious threat, but McDaniel said police are not about to take any chances.
“I think that would be our biggest mistake,” he said. “It’s our main concern to find out if this threat was real or a hoax. It would be our biggest mistake to assume that it wasn’t serious and then have something happen.”

Prank or not, the threats have been troublesome to officials.
McDaniel had to dispatch 30 officers to Lewisville Middle School Feb. 9, which cost the police department about $2,500 in officer overtime pay.
McDaniel said that cost excludes the charges accrued for police resources sent by the Clark County Sheriff’s Department.
The guilty party will be responsible for recovering at least part of those expenditures, he said.
A third, more general threat reached the 911 center Wed., Feb. 14, 11:11 a.m., said McDaniel. The recording was again a digital female voice that repeated twice: The Saint Valentine’s Day massacre starts today, you guess what Battle Ground School.
McDaniel did not have to call in as many officers for the Feb. 14 threat. Officers were dispatched to each school site in Battle Ground and remained there throughout the rest of the school day.
While McDaniel said investigators are following up on a few suspects; they are not focusing in on one person at this time.
“Nobody has called and said ‘This is the person who did it, and this is how I know it,’” he said. “We are hopeful that will still happen.”
Battle Ground Police Department is still offering a reward of up to $1,000 for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for both incidents.
Those with information regarding these incidents can call Detective Sergeant Jason Perdue at 360-342-5241.

BG man teaching English in China
Tom Armstrong of Battle Ground is in the midst of a 10-month trip to China where he is teaching English to several hundred Chinese college students at China-Canada College, as well as children as young as 4-6 years old, and a group of pastors.
Armstrong arrived in Yantai, China, a city of about 700,000 people, in late August 2006. He teaches eight groups of students with nearly 40 in each group. Classes are 90 minutes long, he said, with a 10-minute break in the middle. The school is a public college where students pay $400 a year to attend.
Armstrong lives in a campus dormitory located about 400 yards from where he teaches. He is paid $300 a month plus the dorm room and utilities.
Yantai is located in a coastal area. “Students travel 1-2 days by train to get here,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong said his students began learning English in the fifth or sixth grade. Because Chinese schools have such a rigorous approach to education, Armstrong uses a lighter technique which he has dubbed “Fun with the Foreigner.”
“I work to build a classroom friendship and a place where students have a desire to learn,” said Armstrong.
Students receive textbooks. “I have hundreds of pictures I display on the classroom television and also music,” said Armstrong. “We play classroom games. I like free days that are open to write and speak on any subject. We visit the ocean shore and also try to speak English in Wal-Mart. The school wants to have students exposed to English culture and also control the fear to express themselves in English.”
Armstrong said KFC, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart can be reached by bus from the campus.
Armstrong said students see American movies but the English is too fast for them to understand so English captions are displayed. “I was even told in the classroom to slow down my speech--something that improves with practice.”
The 15,000-student campus has four cafeterias. Armstrong said he has become accustomed to the food which includes vegetables, pork, fish, chicken and beef. “They love all kinds of fungus plants,” said Armstrong. “Meat cleaver is the tool in the kitchen, so it’s difficult to tell what meat is being offered in the pan unless I ask. No sugar, salt or pepper out on the tables. Plenty of fresh fruit. They eat healthy and I usually try to eat in the cafeterias with my students. I eat just about anything.”
Armstrong said he has not been sick except for a chest cold that bothered him for nearly a month.
Armstrong said he also eats from street vendors. “I can usually get a hot noodle bowl for 75 cents,” he said. “There is an all-you-can-eat buffet for $5. I’m getting used to various fungus, squid, fish, seaweed, pork fat and strange vegetables.”
Armstrong also rents a room in the central city. That room measures seven feet by seven feet. The owner of the home rents four rooms to nine people. The owner has water
supplied to his room, so Armstrong takes a two-quart bottle to be filled. The toilet is in a small room attached to the house in the public street. “The toilet has a concrete floor and a six-inch hole which goes to a holding tank. The tank is emptied regularly by buckets and ropes and dumped into a large truck and taken away.”
Armstrong uses a translator when he visits the central city area.
At the central city area, Armstrong joined Victory Church with a congregation of about 6,000, he said. The church was built in 1922 and “the Chinese pack the building like sardines with only two foot aisles to walk around,” he said. “The Chinese are very talented in singing, acting, teaching and praying. Services are two-plus hours long.”
Armstrong teaches English to 20 Chinese pastors and lay workers all day Saturdays, using English songs and a dual Chinese/English Bible. He also volunteers to teach English at a private, primary school, teaching students who are 4-6 years old.
Armstrong said he can cross town with a $1 taxi ride. Rail and bus services are plentiful, although planning is required. Tickets are needed 3-4 days in advance because all transportation fills up, he said. He has endured winter months, reporting snow four times but not heavy. The temperature was 29 degrees in his central city room, he said.
This teaching trip to China continues Armstrong’s international adventures and volunteerism.
Armstrong retired in 1997 after 29 years with the Long Beach, CA fire department where he was a firefighter, EMT, engineer and fire science instructor. During the last 10 years of his career he commuted to Los Angeles from his Battle Ground home.
Armstrong has made 13 trips abroad in humanitarian causes. Armstrong traveled to Austria four times to work in construction. He did medical work in Croatia. The next three trips were to Albania where he did medical and food work. He then traveled four times to Afghanistan doing medical services work, including trips following the U.S. invasion of that country.
Armstrong is not a doctor but has credentials as an emergency medical technician. When doing medical work in a foreign country, he consults with doctors about conditions he observes in outlying villages.
Armstrong said he has not experienced any difficulties being an American in China. He said a U.S. missile that hit a Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia 10 years ago “still has the Chinese upset. I freely tell people I’m from the U.S.A., display a U.S.A. flag in the classroom, and also sometimes wear a U.S.A. baseball hat with a flag that lights off and on.”
Armstrong said his wife, Donna, will travel to China to visit him for three weeks starting in late March. “She is a good-looking blonde and she is gong to make an impression/riot with these Chinese,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong said he plans to finish his teaching stint and return to the United States on June 27, 2007.