Ken Vance
staff reporter
Al & Ernie’s Foodliner in Battle Ground has received a three-month suspension from selling tobacco products due to sales to minors.
The store, located at 802 E. Main St., was the focus of compliance visits from representatives of the Clark County Public Health Department three times in a 19-month span from Dec. 5, 2005 through July 10, 2007. On three occasions, officials say, an employee at the store sold tobacco products to an undercover minor accompanied by a department official.
As a result of the failed compliance visits, the store was required to remove all tobacco products on Dec. 10. It also must display a sign revealing the suspension, which will last until March 10. If the store complies, it will be able to once again stock and sell tobacco products.
“The violation is for the sale of tobacco to persons under the age of 18,’’ said Kendra Ogren, enforcement officer for the Vancouver Enforcement Office of the Washington State Liquor Control Board.
The Clark County Public Health Department conducts routine compliance checks of retailers that sell tobacco products. Long Vue, health educator with Clark County Public Health, accompanied the undercover minor on two of the three trips to Al & Ernie’s Foodliner.
Vue said that each time the minor was sold tobacco products. On one occasion, according to Vue, the minor was asked for identification. By law, the undercover minor is required to produce identification if it is requested. In this case, the minor did just that, but was still sold a tobacco product.
“Sales to minors occur because clerks fail to verify that a teen is 18 years or older,’’ Vue said. “Either clerks don’t ask for identification, or they incorrectly calculate the teen’s age after looking at the identification.’’
A person who identified himself as the owner of Al & Ernie’s Foodliner was reached by telephone by The Reflector but refused to comment on the suspension. Vue indicated on both of his visits to the store, it was the owner who sold the tobacco products to the undercover minor.
“Both of the times it was the owner who sold the tobacco,’’ he said. “That’s not good.’’
Vue said one of the reasons his department conducted the compliance visits to the Battle Ground store was its close proximity to the city’s new skate park, located at E. Main St. and Fairgrounds Ave.
“It is very close to the skate park,’’ Vue said. “We have been getting some complaints that they had been in violation, selling to minors.’’
At the time the skate park was opened, the use of tobacco was allowed. However, that changed soon thereafter, and smoking is now prohibited at the site.
Brandy Slagle
Staff reporter
Battle Ground School Board members responded Jan. 17 to questions from district patrons about a Jan. 8 article in the Vancouver Columbian newspaper.
The article described the effect of winter weather conditions on schools throughout Clark County and quoted Kelly O’Brien, public information officer for the Battle Ground School District, on the perception that Yacolt and Amboy are responsible for snow days and “that we’re closing our schools for people who vote no on bonds and levies.”
Four citizens approached the board in regards to the quote.
Lori Homola said she was shocked by what she read.
“I have done a lot of work for the district (in garnering support for levies and bonds),” she said. “I took this as a challenge of trust.”
Homola, who lives in Yacolt, said she came to see if the board truly felt that way about the north county.
School board vice president Sam Kim said it was an unfortunate quote. Board members said they were not sure if the quote was taken out of context.
Board member Richard Kent said newspapers sometimes sensationalize an unrelated quote in an article in order to get people to read future editions.
Homola said that the school board should be working to get a more positive outlook in the district rather than build on a negative perception.
Board member Cecil Schlecht said that in prior years, statistics had shown low support from the north county region.
Kim advised Schlecht not to proceed with his comments to Homola. Schlecht told Kim he would rather speak on the matter if that was okay with the rest of the board.
“It is your job and it is my job to go out there and change that (perception),” said Schlecht. “We have to prove otherwise.”
Kim did not return calls from The Reflector regarding the school board meeting.
Board member Fred Striker said the perception is half true and half untrue. He said that statistics have shown low support in several areas of the school district on school district money measures.
Homola, as well as north county residents Monty Anderson and John Cichosz, reiterated their sentiments and said the district needs to take a more positive approach to negative perceptions.
O’Brien, who was not present at the meeting, later said the quote was taken from an interview conducted in winter 2006, a year earlier. She said the quote lacked context and did not include all of the conversation that had taken place on the subject between herself and Vancouver Columbian newspaper reporter Tom Vogt.
She said Vogt asked her what the number one question she received from district patrons was when schools were shut down but road conditions in the southern half of the district were not affected by winter weather.
While the perception has been there, she said, it is inaccurate. Statistics show much stronger support from the northern half of the district in recent years.
“It’s unfortunate that it (the quote) lacked context,” she said. “The perception that is out there is an inaccurate one.”
O’Brien, who has worked with groups that support school bonds and levies for two decades, said it was time the district communicated about these false perceptions openly in order to change them.
Girders now span I-5 at the site of the new SR-502 interchange, and officials report the new freeway access point is on schedule to open to the public by spring 2009.
Chris Tams, project engineer for the state Department of Transportation, said the last of the girders over I-5 were installed last week.
The 176-foot-long, concrete and steel girders extend from pier to pier in four sections, said Tams.
One section spans the southbound lanes, said Tams, one the northbound lanes, and the other two sections span the median and Gee Creek.
Girder installation began Jan. 17 and was completed in about a week. The girders were manufactured in Tacoma. Tams described the girders as “super girders,” installed eight abreast in each section. Each girder is “I” shaped, nearly seven feet tall, and weighs about 191,000 pounds, said Tams.
Tams said motorists traveling from Battle Ground to I-5 will circle around to the right to enter the freeway southbound, but will need to make a left turn to travel to the north of I-5. This configuration, he said, saved about $1 million and avoided some environmental impacts.
Tams said construction of the SR-502/I-5 interchange is being done in such a way as to not preclude future access from the west. The bridge is wide enough for lanes and ramps in the direction of Ridgefield, said Tams, although modifications would need to be done to portions of the new structure.
Tams said the new freeway interchange, complete with design work and right-of-way acquisition, totals about $56 million.
Tams said he will be the project engineer for the widening of SR-502 from Battle Ground to the new freeway interchange, a project slated to get underway in 2012.
The SR-502 widening project is presently undergoing environmental reviews. An access hearing dealing with where and how motorists will be able to access the widened road, will be held at the end of 2008 or early 2009, said Tams.
Tams said the widened SR-502 would likely only have sidewalks in the Dollars Corner rural center area, but not elsewhere. Ten-foot-wide shoulders will be provided for bicyclists and pedestrians, he said, but no other sidewalks or asphalt paths.
Traffic on I-5 was delayed during the several evenings when girders were installed. At times, southbound traffic on I-5 was diverted to the northbound lanes, and vice versa.
Tams said that construction of the bridge deck can now begin.
Used and worn out United States flags will be properly disposed of Sat., March 1, in a ceremony conducted by the Battle Ground Elks Lodge.
Project coordinator Dennis Martindale said the Elks will collect used flags from all sources, then conduct the public ceremony at the corner of W Main St. and 20th Ave. near Albertson’s and The Reflector. Each flag will be observed and then properly burned, said Martindale, following established protocol.
Anyone with a used or worn out U.S. flag is invited to drop them off at The Reflector, 20 NW 20th Ave., Battle Ground, prior to March 1. The Reflector is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. Used flags may also be dropped off at Fire District 11, 21609 NE 72nd Ave., Battle Ground.
The disposal program is free. Police and fire officials will be on hand to assist, said Martindale.
More information is available by calling Martindale, 687-3880.