Public will comment on Chelatchie Rail/Trail
Proposed trail would open 35 miles of Clark County to sight-seeing
Bill Myers
staff reporter
Preliminary plans for a trail along the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad will be aired at open houses set for Tues.-Wed., July 10-11, in Brush Prairie and Yacolt..
Clark County public works and Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation officials will host a July 10 open house at Prairie High School, 11500 NE 117th Ave., and a July 11 meeting at Yacolt Elementary School, 406 W Yacolt Rd. Both open houses are scheduled 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Planners propose a 35-mile trail along or near the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad right-of-way. The rail right-of-way ranges in width from 50 feet to 150 feet. The railroad extends diagonally through Clark County from Burnt Bridge Creek at I-5 (east of Vancouver Lake) to the site of a former paper mill in Chelatchie Prairie, a few miles south of the Yale Reservoir.
Clark County officials hired Portland design consultant Alta Planning & Design to identify and explore options for building a trail adjacent to the rail line. A final plan is expected by summer 2008.
Alta team leader and landscape architect Steve Durrant said he is studying the feasibility of such a trail. He said trails near railways must by law be at least 8.5 feet from the center line of rail tracks. Depending on terrain along the route, a trail adjacent to the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad could be as close as 8.5 feet from the rail center line or as distant as 150 feet or more, possibly even out of the right-of-way along some segments, he said.
Equestrian uses of the trail could be feasible along trail lengths far enough from the rails to prevent horses from being frightened by passing trains, said Durrant. He said he hopes to hear from citizens on trail routing and uses at the open houses.
Trail routing might face legal challenges related to property access and rights-of- way. County planner Steve Schulte, who coordinated County rail negotiations in recent years, said that the County has clear title to about 90 percent of Chelatchie Railroad rail right-of-way. But title could be “clouded” along about 10 percent (slightly more than 3 miles) of the route, he said.
Schulte said that when land grants were issued for the rail line about 100 years ago, some grants allowed easements “for rail use only.” Such grants could allow objections by property owners to uses of easements for other than rail traffic.
“Title or right-of-way issues that arise would have to be handled on a parcel-by-parcel basis because most are unique,” said Durrant. He said some of the older easement agreements were hand written.
In such cases, the question of where is the best place for the trail will need answering, Durrant said. Questions about how the trail would benefit a property owner will also need to be answered, he added. He said that experience has shown that most citizens regard a properly-constructed and operated trail near their homes as an asset.
Durrant said a properly-constructed trail will have trail heads, rest rooms and other services spaced for the convenience of trail users.
City of Battle Ground officials are keeping an eye on the project. City planner Brian Carrico said the city may acquire 320 acres of Department of Natural Resource land south of the tracks and northwest of the city center at and near the top of Tukes Mountain. City officials believe this property could be used to compliment the trail and become a future city recreation and/or park area.
More information about possible routes of the rail will be displayed at the open houses. Feedback gathered from the public will assist project staff in planning and refining trail alignments.
Parents are welcome to bring children to the meetings, where light refreshments will be provided. Those unable to attend are invited to view the project Web page, www.chelatchie.org. The site will allow feedback on plans starting the day after the open houses.
Funding for initial trail planning comes from a Federal Transportation Enhancement grant, Park Regional Real Estate Excise Taxes and the Clark County Road Fund.
County information contact is Carolyn Heniges at 397-6118, ext. 4522.
Railroad has rich history
The railway now known as the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad has a rich history that dates back to 1888 when a line from Vancouver to Brush Prairie was operated by the Vancouver, Klickitat and Yakima Railroad. Founders of the railway had hopes of anchoring tracks all the way to Yakima.
Economic downturns and a devastating fire that became known as the “Yacolt Burn” in the early 1900s altered rail plans, but by 1903 the rail line stretched to Yacolt. Operated by the Northern Pacific Railroad, the line was hauling timber salvaged from the fire.
By 1948, the line was used to haul products from a plywood mill in Chelatchie Prairie. In 1960, the line was operated by the Longview Portland & Northern Railroad and also provided freight services to a paper mill in Chelatchie Prairie.
A consortium of Vancouver business owners bought the railroad in 1981. They named their line the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad. Clark County officials purchased the line in 1984, and leased the railway in 1987 to Lewis & Clark Railroad.
Lewis & Clark used the line for freight on tracks south of Battle Ground. For a few years, the line also carried sight-seeing passengers north of Battle Ground.
A group of volunteers formed the Battle Ground, Yacolt & Chelatchie Prairie (BYCX) Railroad and began to replace rail ties and repair rail rolling stock in 1998. The Lewis & Clark Railroad continued to operate freight services. County officials allowed the volunteers to carry passengers on sight-seeing trips through forests between Heisson and Chelatachie Prairie.
Clark County officials leased the railway in 2003 to the Columbia Basin Railroad. The lease is for 30 years, with options for two additonal 30-year leases. Columbia Basin officials renamed the Vancouver-to-Battle Ground freight route to Portland Vancouver Junction Railroad.
Volunteers continue to carry sight-seeing passengers on the northern part of the line, known once again as the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad. With a restored steam engine, volunteers run excursions and special-occasion trips from Yacolt to Moulton Falls, treating passengers to rides through a tunnel near Moulton Falls and on a trestle that crosses the East Fork of the Lewis River.

County may appeal ruling on Cowlitz deal
Clark County officials plan to appeal a ruling that invalidates their 2004 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Cowlitz Tribe--an agreement dealing with payments to the county for law enforcement, court, jail, fire protection and other county services that would be provided if the tribe gains approval to operate a casino at I-5 near La Center.
State officials decided June 19 that the MOU constituted a de facto comprehensive plan amendment, and as such violated certain goals and provisions of the county plan.
As of June 29, county officials had not decided whether to appeal the matter to Superior Court, or take it directly to an Appeals Court.
Officials of the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board concluded that the county did not realize that the MOU would constitute a comprehensive plan amendment when it negotiated the agreement with the tribe.
Several parties joined together in 2004 to appeal the MOU, including Michels Development Inc., owners of two existing casinos in La Center.
The Hearings Board concluded in 2004 that it had no jurisdiction over the MOU and dismissed the Alexanderson-Dragonslayer-Michels Development appeal. The Hearings Board said then that the MOU did not constitute a development regulation, a comprehensive plan provision, or an amendment to either.
The petitioners appealed the matter to Thurston County Superior Court which affirmed the Hearings Board’s decision and upheld the MOU. But a Court of Appeals reversed that decision June 19 and found that the MOU constituted a comprehensive plan amendment.
The matter went back to the Hearings Board where county officials argued that the Appeals Court ruling pertained only to a section of the MOU dealing with the extension of urban-level water service to a rural area. That section, said county officials, had been stricken from the MOU which left the rest intact.
The Hearings Board, however, concluded that the Appeals Court decision pertained to the entire MOU, not just arguments about water service.
The Hearings Board also concluded that the MOU violated state law governing comprehensive plan development because public participation had not been “early and continuous.”
County attorney Rich Lowry said the county conducted two public hearings and outreach in La Center while the MOU was being developed. He conceded to the Hearings Board, however, that if the board considers the entire MOU to be a comprehensive plan amendment, then “a remand is necessary in order to achieve compliance with GMA requirements related to public participation and internal comprehensive plan consistency.”
The Hearings Board found that the MOU “substantially interferes with the fulfillment of Goal 11 (public participation) and therefore the MOU is invalid.”
Lowry explained that water services can be extended into rural areas but not at “urban levels.” He said a “big pipe” that would be needed to serve a casino would exceed a rural level of service.
Lowry said the section in the MOU dealing with water was included in response to concerns expressed by neighbors of the property that their wells might dry up if the Cowlitz Tribe used well water instead of a public water system.
Lowry said the Cowlitz Tribe has pledged to abide by the contents of the MOU even if it is not reinstated, affirmed or rewritten. The Tribe, said Lowry, has asked federal officials to incorporate the contents of the MOU in their approval process.
Lowry said the county advised the Hearings Board that consideration is being given to extending the La Center urban growth boundary to include the proposed casino property. But, said Lowry, the Hearings Board could not consider that information because it was not part of the record when the Appeals Court made a decision.
Lowry said the county will argue on appeal that the Hearings Board was wrong to invalidate the entire MOU when only the section about water service was cited by the Appeals Court. If the county prevails in that argument, said Lowry, the inclusion of the property in an urban growth boundary would become relevant.
Lowry said a decision on the matter could take 1 1/2 to 2 years. It would be faster, acknowledged Lowry, to develop a new MOU with the Cowlitz tribe, but that was not his direction from the county commissioners.

Water plant expanded
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Getting clean drinking water to the people of a city requires more than planning, designing, building, it requires money.
The city of Woodland will spend more than $710,000 to bring water from under the Lewis River to a plant that cleans and filters out metals and harmful compounds so the residents and businesses of the city can turn the tap and feel confident that their water is safe.
As the city grows, the need for clean water also increases, and the new water treatment system will provide three million gallons each day, up from the two million delivered daily before the expansion, said Mark Sarvela, water plant manager.
The new system is designed to provide water for 7,364 equivalent residential units (ERU), a measurement that estimates water usage based on how much one household of fewer than three people would use. Businesses and industries often count as more than one ERU. The system served 3,708 ERUs in 2003, the most recent water census year.
Woodland’s single well, the Ranney well, was dug on the river bank in the 1960s, and a series of pipes, known as laterals, laid under the river bed. Before making changes to the system, the city hired a professional company that sent divers into the well to blast out the laterals. New valves were installed.
“The system was built in 1967, and no cleaning has been done in the past nine or 10 years,” Sarvela said. “The cleaning increased the draw from the water source.”
The municipal water system does not affect the flow or the temperature of the North Fork of the Lewis River, said Elaine Huber, the city’s public works director.
The three water pumps at the well have also been upgraded with new larger motors to improve efficiency, Sarvela said.
Built in 1999, the water plant was outfitted with two filters to remove iron from the water. A third will be added in early fall.
“Installing the filter is more complex than the other work,” Sarvela said, adding that the system requires a number of mechanical and electrical components, as well as the filter media.
Apollo of Kennewick will install the new filter.
The cost of increasing the city’s water has been paid from reserves raised from fees charged for new connections, said Mari Ripp, clerk-treasurer. The cost of each new residential connection for water is $2,800, she said.
A city advisory committee is looking at the rate structure for sewer and water, but it has made no decision whether to recommend a rate increase.

As he nears retirement, Hundley cites concerns
about school testing
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
When Woodland School District Superintendent Bill Hundley decided to retire, he was given orders by his wife.
“She told me that I could not do anything for three months,” he said. “I’m taking her orders and relaxing for awhile.”
Hundley, who has been Woodland superintendent for seven years, has presided over a district that has seen an annual growth in enrollment until this year.
“Enrollment actually shrank during this year,” he said. “Until this year I think we grew nearly every month. This year, we shrank nearly every month.”
Hundley said he welcomes the reprieve from continuing growth, but he expects another uptick beginning next year.
“This year has given us some relief in our ability to house students,” he said.
During Hundley’s tenure, district voters rejected a bond issue in 2004 to build a school, but approved a later bond issue to buy land on Dike Access Road for a new high school. Hundley’s successor Michael Green will face another bond proposal to build a new school.
Although keeping up with growth has been a “challenge,” Hundley said he feels the greatest satisfaction in the district’s education improvements.
“We have completely overhauled the curriculum,” he said. “We’ve provided teachers with extra time and training. We’ve put processes in place to let teachers teach better.”
Test scores have risen through the years, he said. The most recent test results show that 87 percent of the Woodland class of 2008 meet the reading standards and 85.6 percent meet writing standards. The progress in math is not as good, he said, as 60 percent of the class meet the standard. Writing results increased by 13 percent over the past year, Hundley said.
“We’re a leader in WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) tests,” he said. “We’re at or above the state average in everything, and in some, we’re significantly above the state average.”
Academic achievement hasn’t always been so good.
“I can remember seeing the chart, and saying, ‘please let us be ahead of somebody,’” he said.
Despite his happiness with the district’s WASL results, Hundley said he is concerned about the amount of testing required by the federal government. His greatest concern is that students will lose their creativity in science and related fields.
“Our future is in creativity,” Hundley said, adding that students in China and Indian are being prepared to do routine work.
“We need people trained in creative acts more than students trained in the two-plus-two-equals-four routine,” he said.
The amount of time needed to prepare students for tests has “limited our electives,” he said.
“I have a deep and abiding fear that we’ve gone too far,” he said. “We’re spending too much time testing. I agree that we need to assess achievement, but we could do it more effectively. Our curriculum has narrowed–that troubles me deeply.”
His concerns about the current level of testing should not be interpreted to mean that he would like to lower standards, he said.
“I’m a strong supporter of high standards for schools and for instruction-based programs, but some of our mandated strategies have damaged our program a bit,” he said.
The state is now beginning to recognize the limitations of ongoing testing, Hundley said.
“I think it’s a work in progress,” he said.
At the intermediate and high schools, Woodland has been able to continue to offer electives, he said.
“We’ve maintained our options; we still have a pretty broad array of offerings,” he said. “At the elementary level we’ve lost time (for creative work).”
After 34 years in education, Hundley said that he will “dearly miss” his job, but he’s looking forward to his first free summer since 1975.
His wife Kay Purcell is a principal in Longview and is not ready to retire. The couple has not decided whether to move to Longview, although Hundley said that because of increasing gas prices and the length of his wife commute, “Longview has a draw for us.”
As to his activities after the three-month rest period, Hundley said, “I’ll be the husband she’s (Purcell) always deserved.”