Paul, Obama win caucuses
Far more Democrats turn out than
Republicans
McCain, Obama win
statewide
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul came from Oregon to boost their candidate, and it paid off, according to Mike Gaston, an organizer of the Feb. 9 Republican party caucuses in Clark County.
Paul garnered 224 delegates to the county convention, more than any other Republican candidate.
Mike Huckabee won 211 delegates, Mitt Romney 184 and John McCain 151.
Gaston said volunteers from Oregon passed out Ron Paul literature at the entrances to the buildings where the caucuses were held. Gaston was not sure if their presence and campaigning made the difference in the Ron Paul win.
Gaston said about 1,500 people who declared themselves to be Republicans took part in the caucus meetings, about half of whom (860) were elected as delegates to the party’s April 19 county convention at Prairie High School.
Gaston said the turnout was the highest in 17 years with the previous high being about 1,200 people.
Huckabee won the straw poll taken among those attending the Republican caucuses with 407 votes, followed by McCain with 329 votes, Paul with 319 and Romney with 313.
About 160 people attended the Republican caucuses at Battle Ground High School where Huckabee got 71 votes, followed by McCain with 43 and Paul with 34.
Republicans can still influence the delegate selection process by voting in the Feb. 19 primary election. About half of the delegates from Washington state to the Republican National Convention will be chosen based on the outcome of that election.
Gaston said supporters of both major candidates waved signs, and speakers made their cases for the candidates.
Obama handily wins among Democrats
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama easily claimed victory in the Democratic caucuses with about two-thirds of the elected delegates. Sen. Hillary Clinton won about one third of the delegates.
Democrat caucus organizer Dan Ogden said some 8,300 people attended his party’s caucuses, by far a record turnout. He said 250-300 people attended at most of the 30 caucus locations.
The turnout was three times that of 2004, said Ogden, due in part to the close presidential race and “the desire to bring about change.” About 3,200 people attended the Clark County Democrat caucuses in 2004.
In contrast to the Republican Party, none of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention from Washington will be based on the results of the Feb. 19 presidential primary election, adding interest and importance to the caucus process.
Obama garnered nearly 66 percent of the delegate count to 34 percent for Hillary Clinton. Some 1,652 delegates were chosen during the two-hour caucus event, with 1,088 favoring Obama and 559 Clinton.
Katja Delavar, who heads the Ron Paul campaign in Clark County, attributed Paul’s success in the county to people voting their conscience and principles.
Delavar said campaign workers went door-to-door in much of the county, passing out Paul literature and speaking with people.
“We brought Ron Paul into people’s homes,” said Delavar. “The main stream media blocks out Ron Paul. We canvassed nearly 100 percent.”
“Many supporters in Clark County are interested in voting their conscience,” said Delavar.
Delavar said some voters may shy away from Ron Paul, wondering if he can win and if they are wasting their votes. “It’s about principle,” said Delavar, describing Paul as a conservative and the only Republican who can beat either Obama or Clinton. McCain could not win, she said.
Delavar said people may vote independently, not by party.
Delavar said area supporters financed the campaign until November or December 2007 when some funding arrived from the national committee.
“People in Clark County want to take charge of their own lives,” said Delavar, “which means small government. That’s something Ron Paul preaches.”
Obama wins in Cowlitz County
In Cowlitz County, Obama was favored by about 65 percent of caucus attendees, with Clinton preferred by about 35 percent.
Cowlitz County Democrat caucus organizer Al Swindell said Obama supporters were “everywhere and highly organized.”
“They were really, really organized,” said Swindell, who described the excitement evident at the gathering. Swindell said one woman, age 88, was “so excited to be voting for a woman for president.” Swindell said his mother, the same age and a resident of Vancouver, had the same feelings.
The straw vote taken by Cowlitz Republicans favored Romney, followed by Huckabee, McCain and Paul.
Romney garnered 96 delegates, followed by Huckabee with 80, Paul with 52 and McCain with 49.
Obama, McCain win statewide
Gaston said supporters of both major candidates waved signs, and speakers made their cases for the candidates.
Obama won throughout Washington state with about the same margin as in Clark County.
Obama earned 21,629 delegates statewide (67.5%) to Clinton’s 9,992 (31.2%).
On the Republican side, McCain garnered 25.4 percent of the delegates, followed by Huckabee with 23.8 percent, Paul with 20.7 percent and Romney with 16.7 percent.
Huckabee has challenged the results of the state Republican caucuses, announced Sunday on the Clark County Republican Party Web site.
Huckabee accused the state party chairman of calling the election for McCain before all the votes were counted. Huckabee’s lawyers will pursue a full investigation, according to reports.

Morris views present, future in final State of County speech
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
If anybody had any doubts about Clark County commissioner Betty Sue Morris’s plans for the future, she dispelled those doubts in her opening remark of the State of the County address Feb. 9.
“Next year when you’re all back for the 2009 State of the County, I’ll hopefully be in sunny Melbourne for the Australian Open Tennis Tournament and I suspect I’ll be the one having the better day,” she said.
Morris, who is serving her rotation as county commission chair, plunged into the controversial issues of county growth, the proposed Cowlitz Casino and mass transit.
Throughout most of her speech she referred to the county commissioners as a unit, but at one point during references to the latest proposed memorandum of understanding between the tribe and the county, she stressed that she was expressing her individual opinion.
“If citizens in the county think that we will never have a resident tribe within our borders, I personally believe that is wishful thinking. At sometime, we will have one,” she said. “… If not the Cowlitz, one of them will find their way here.”
The county’s previous memorandum of understanding (MOU) was overturned in court and awaits appeal.
Morris said the county has reopened talks with the Cowlitz Tribe to write a document that “will spell out the taxes the tribe will pay, the regulations that apply, the infrastructure they will build, the services the county will provide, and the cost to the tribe for us to provide them.”
“Let me be perfectly, unmistakably clear,” she said. “Neither this board or the former board supports a casino at the La Center Junction, tribal or not.”
Refusing to negotiate with the Cowlitz Tribe, however, is “risky business and the odds for success are substantially stacked against us.”
She said she hopes negotiations will be finished by June or July.
On another hot button issue, high capacity transit and the proposed Columbia River crossing, Morris reiterated her opposition to light rail, but she admitted that the new crossing probably will have light rail that could end in Vancouver at either Clark College or 39th Street. She said she supports the Clark College terminal.
“… I have never been a light rail fan. I think it’s outdated,” she said. “My preference is for the emerging technologies of bus rapid transit and streetcar.”
Although “a little more expensive to operate” than light rail, bus rapid transit is less expensive to build, she said. Bus rapid transit “certainly should be the mode of choice for any new high capacity transit system within Clark County…,” Morris said. “Bus rapid transit holds great promise for quick and efficient internal circulation.”
Despite the downturn in the housing market, Morris was optimistic, and she called 2007 a “good year for the county financially.”
She predicted, however, that the slump will affect the county’s income, and she predicted that “the slowdown will no doubt continue through this year and could stretch into 2009.” She called for “prudence and restraint” in county spending, but she added that “it’s time to be cautious, but it’s not time for alarm.”
With the completion of the comprehensive plan for the county, the board will examine rural areas during this year, she said. Morris, however, said she plans to work closely with the county’s new Three Creeks special planning area, where she lives.
Three Creeks “isn’t really a new area, but… an area we more clearly defined” in 2007.
“It’s an area that needs a chance to define itself and determine its own destiny,” she said.
Morris ended her address with a look to the next 26 years when Vancouver will have a performing arts center that will be the home of the Vancouver Symphony, and the city will have a regional sports center. She also predicted that the county will be “crisscrossed with bike paths and trails” and will have a network of bus transit routes.

Swindell will run for county commissioner
Matt Swindell, who is in his second term as a member of the Ridgefield city council, has announced that he will seek election as a Clark County commissioner.
Swindell, a Republican, will face fellow Republicans Tom Mielke and Brad Lochspeich in the primary election. Pam Brokaw is the only Democrat so far to announce for the commission race. All seek to replace retiring commissioner Betty Sue Morris.
“I really care about what our county will look like for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” said Swindell, stressing the importance of working with the incorporated cities to plan for the future. He said he could improve the relationship between the county and the city of Vancouver.
“I would be proactive in planning,” said Swindell. “We don’t want the Seattle model to come here.”
Swindell, 38, is currently employed with Summerplace Homes in land acquisition and community development. He served on the Ridgefield School Board for 1 1/2 years before joining the city council. He and his wife, Leslie, have five children.
“A Clark County commissioner is a principal steward of the peoples’ quality of life,” said Swindell.
Swindell said he would talk to city officials and hear their planning visions. Then he would confirm that what officials said was supported by their citizens. “I want to make sure that government is doing the will of the people,” said Swindell. “I believe I can change the tone or atmosphere of government.”
Swindell stressed the importance of job creation. He said government should create opportunities for developers, and create opportunities for manufacturing jobs. He decried the 60,000 people who commute from Clark County to Portland daily to work. “What jobs are they doing?” questioned Swindell.
Swindell said the land proposed as a casino by the Cowlitz Tribe could be put to a better use. “I don’t believe that is they best use for the land,” said Swindell, who stressed that he is a five generation Clark County resident.
But the county commissioners must look after the interests of residents, he said. “Clark County needs to offset the impacts a casino would have on our community,” said Swindell. “It would be my job as a county commissioner to make sure I’ve done the best things for the citizens of the county.”
“A casino is not my vision, not the quality of life I believe in. We can live with the casino.”
Swindell said he could change how people view county government. “I want to change the perception of how county government is being run,” said Swindell. “My perception is that some things are not as transparent as they could be.”
“I think I have the abilities to work well with others and listen to what other people have to say. I can create a positive influence on the way government works. I can be a humble servant of the people.”
Swindell said the county should allocate additional resources to law enforcement and criminal justice. He said planning should be done for the next 50 years.
Swindell can be reached at 518-5383.

Park proposed to honor vets
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Now that the skateboard park at Horseshoe Lake is finished, Blayden Wall is thinking about a companion park to honor those who are serving in the military, and veterans.
In Wall’s vision, the Tribute Park would be located where a parking lot now sits near the skate park and would include a handicapped-accessible fishing pier.
“We owe a debt to our veterans, and the least we can do is to show appreciation for their sacrifice and the sacrifices they will make in the future,” Wall said. “This is a good cause. It will give access to people with disabilities.”
Wall’s idea will have to go through channels before it can be developed. Elaine Huber, the city’s public works director, said a shorelines permit from the state probably will be needed, as well as other city permits.
The Tribute Park, as envisioned by Wall, would sit adjacent to the lake, and the existing parking lot would be moved. Paved paths from the parking lot to the park and the fishing pier would be constructed.
The skateboard park was finished only last fall after nearly three years of development and construction. It is at the far east end of Horseshoe Lake Park and is on land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and leased by the city.
In his upcoming presentation, Wall will note that a cable divides the BLM land from the remainder of the park and makes accessing the shore difficult for people with disabilities.
The fishing pier would be built in a “T” shape and attached to the lake bank by a gangplank that could be accessed by wheelchair, Wall said. Completion of the pier will be the first phase of the park.
In addition to a fishing pier, Wall wants to place playground equipment that is easy for those with disabilities to use. Building the playground as well as picnic tables and shelters would make up the second phase of development, he said.
The third phase would be the construction of a “spray park… to allow access to water recreation to people with disabilities….”
Wall said he has presented his proposal to the Woodland Veterans of Foreign Wars and the city’s park board. Both were enthusiastic, he said.
Wall said he has estimated the total cost of constructing the three phases at $170,000, with $60,000 for the fishing pier, $40,000 for the playground equipment and picnic tables, and $70,000 for the spray park.
“These costs are estimates only,” he said.
The skate park suffered some setbacks during construction, but Wall said he has learned from his experiences.
Fundraising has not yet begun, but Wall said the VFW members indicated that they would be willing to help raise money to build the park.
His time line is ambitious. He said he hopes to develop the fishing pier during summer 2008.
The city has budgeted some funds for conceptual planning, but Huber said she did not know the exact amount of the funds. Wall said that he would like to see a city donation of $25,000.
A former officer with the Woodland Police Department, Wall resigned in January to work with his wife at their independent company Wall to Wall Real Estate. The office is located at 131 Davidson Ave. The company may be reached at 360-624-3505.
For information about the proposed Tribute Park, call Wall at 360-609-4641.

Opening hour
confuses people
Most of the Woodland council members were seated, members of the press were in the audience, the police and fire chiefs were at the table, and a few residents were in the audience. They were all early.
Although the regular Woodland City Council meeting had been advertised as starting at 7 p.m. on Feb. 4, Mayor Chuck Blum announced that the meeting could not legally begin until 7:30 p.m.. The ordinance that changed the meeting time had not been published.
Blum apologized for the delay. Nobody barged out in a huff, and everybody waited until the minute hand touched 7:30.
Until the last meeting in January, the city council had various meeting times for various types of gatherings. Work sessions and budget meetings began at 7 p.m., committee meetings started at various times, and the regular council meeting began at 7:30, except during the budget-preparing season, when the council was called to order at 7.
Council member John J. Burke made the motion on Jan. 28 to change all council meeting times to 7 p.m., and the council unanimously agreed. New council member Aaron Christopherson commented that he would not need to call the city every Monday to find out what time the meeting started.
Although the meeting times will be the same, the meeting days will change when holidays fall on the first or third Mondays of the month, as happens in January and February. The next holiday will be Presidents’ Day on Mon., Feb. 18. The council will meet that week on Tues., Feb. 19, 7 p.m.

Robotics team earns state award.
The robotics team, Thunderbolts, made up of students from Woodland Middle School, took second place for teamwork in the Jan. 19 Oregon state championship tournament.
“The kids are really happy about the award,” said Tim Brown, the teacher who organized the group.
The team received a trophy made of Legos.
Members of the team were Natasha Lamb, Katelyn Hendrix. Andrew Gillaspie, Jennica Krohn and Robyn Young, eighth grade, and Haley Groshong, Sarah McCombs, Kaisa Peterson and David Sharshakov, seventh grade.
“Oh yeah, we’ll do it again next year,” Brown said. “This was our third time.”
Brown said some of the students who participated this year will return next year. Each participating team must solve the same problem. This year the puzzle covered energy generation. Next year the teams will face a climate change puzzle.
“That’s all we know now,” Brown said. “We’ll get the problem in September.”
Brown said that many of the teams who competed in Hillsboro, OR, came from larger schools. Other teams were put together through home school programs and still others were sponsored by industries, he said.
“I don’t think we had a realistic shot (at the championship),” Brown said. “We couldn’t score enough points with the robot to put us up there. Our strengths were in presentation, teamwork and programming.”
The overall champions for Jan. 19 were Stoller Middle School of Portland, home schoolers from Canby, and a neighborhood team from Portland.
Southwest Washington teams compete in the Oregon state championships.

Cowlitz PUD fights to keep power humming
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Weather, vandalism, and sometimes excavation cause more than a little trouble for the workers at Cowlitz Public Utility District.
Vandalism and theft of copper wire are problems that have become more common in recent years as the price of copper has risen, said Dave Andrew of the PUD. Attempted theft caused one of three major power outages in 2007, he said.
In August, vandals trying to steal what they thought was a copper wire from a power line caused a neutral line to snap and wrap itself around a high voltage line, leaving about 5,100 customers in the Woodland area without electricity.
An outage that affected most of the city of Woodland in November happened when an excavator working on Green Mountain Road downed a tree that hit a power line. The cause of the third outage, which came in April, has not been discovered, Andrew said, but PUD officials believe the spring outage was weather related and probably caused by blowing limbs hitting power lines and falling through the lines to the ground.
Monte Roden, director of operations for the PUD, said the utility is combating the vandals by using steel cable wrapped in copper sheathing instead of solid copper wire. The worst headache for workers is the theft of ground wire that leads from the top of a power pole to the ground.
“We’ve had a large number of thefts there,” Roden said. “We’ve gone to a copper clad steel wire and put on a guard. It takes a lot more work to steal, and when they try to sell it, there’s no return.”
The ground wire is important for the safety of the PUD workers, said Rick Syring, director of engineering, but the loss of ground wire does not affect customers.
The theft of copper wire is widespread, Andrew said.
Woodland’s recent boom in residential development has kept PUD workers busy, Andrew said, but for most part, contractors are cooperative and willing to work with the utility to prevent outages and damage.
“Development has kept us busy, but I think we’ve been able to keep up,” he said.
During building construction, crews are asked to maintain a 30-foot ground clearance from electrical power lines, Roden said.
“When they take down an 80-foot tree, they can be quite a ways away” and affect the lines, he said. PUD staff try to meet with contractors at the development site and let the contractors know where the hazards and the greatest risk of hitting lines may be.
Roden and Syring said the PUD is developing ways to limit the number of customers who will be affected when a major outage occurs.
“We’re trying to isolate these areas,” Syring said. “We agree that there are too many. Things happen that we cannot prevent.”
During 2008, the PUD will study and develop separate “loops” that isolate areas so that “when a single line goes out it will loop itself and limit the scope of the outage,” Syring said. Developing the loops takes “quite a bit of design,” he said.
“We can get better,” he said. “We always can get better.”
The bulk of the work is expected to take place this year, he said.
During severe winter weather conditions rural areas can be hit by power outages, and January was no exception.
“In January we had three or four weather related outages that affected about 400 customers,” Andrew said.
A feeder line to Cougar from north of Ariel has been problematic, Roden said.
“We’ll get a good year, and then it never fails, the next year the snow and high winds are back up,” Roden said. “The weather has been harsher (this year) than I expected.”
When snow and blowing limbs damage overhead lines, the PUD gets questions about underground cables, Andrew said.
“Underground is tough to maintain,” Roden said. “You have to find the damage and then dig to repair. Underground brings a different set of problems.”
The cost of laying underground cable to replace overhead transmission lines is also “significant,” Syring said.