DOT okays traffic circles
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Two single-lane roundabouts, one on each side of I-5, have been approved for Dike Access Road near Woodland’s industrial area.
The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has approved a design concept for the roundabouts, required before Wal-Mart can build a superstore near the interchange. Wal-Mart will pay for construction of the roundabouts.
In addition to the superstore, a high school is proposed for Dike Access Road, an access road into the industrial area.
Woodland Mayor Chuck Blum said he is very concerned about the impact of the roundabouts on industrial traffic.
WSDOT “is unconcerned about the industrial area,” Blum said. “Wal-Mart said that roundabouts were not their first choice. WSDOT dictated to Wal-Mart and the city what would go on their (WSDOT) property.”
Jeff Barsness of WSDOT said the state agency had approved the “design report only.” Before construction on the traffic circles can begin, WSDOT must approve a construction document, he said.
The traffic design calls for tear-drop shaped roundabouts at the bottom of the access ramps on the state right-of-way.
Barsness said that the outside diameter of the roundabouts is 140 feet, and the lane width is 19 feet. No traffic signals would be placed at the bottom of the ramps, according to the proposal.
When WSDOT first proposed a roundabout for the east side of I-5, the Port of Woodland testified in opposition, although it did not object to a roundabout west of I-5. Erica Rainford, who became Port director in February, said Port commissioners have not discussed the latest design proposal since she took over, and she could not say what the Port’s position would be now.
Industries located along Schurman Way have expressed concerns about safety conditions for heavy truck traffic that must negotiate roundabouts and have said they believe the traffic mix of shoppers, high school students and large industrial vehicles going through the roundabouts will lead to accidents.
Brian Walsh of the WSDOT Olympia office and WSDOT Southwest Washington regional engineer Bart Gernhart agreed that the mix of shopping, high school and industrial traffic is dangerous, no matter the type of intersection.
“It’s not a good mix,” Gernhart said. “We’re concerned about the difference in drivers, the mix of drivers, but we can’t do much about that. It was a land use issue.”
Wal-Mart will be built on land that was zoned by the city for freeway commercial use.
Blum and Darlene Johnson, owner of Woodland Truck Line, said industries and the city were not given an opportunity to comment publicly on the WSDOT approval of the traffic circle.
“I’ve searched the record for the past two years and I can’t find a public meeting called for that,” Blum said.
Blum, council member Marilee McCall, city attorney Brian Wolfe, and an undetermined number of Woodland-area residents met with representatives from WSDOT and Wal-Mart in an unannounced meeting Feb. 29.
Blum and Johnson said after the meeting that they were unhappy that public meetings were not scheduled with state officials before the final decision was made. The interchange lies within the Woodland city limits, Blum said.
In response to an e-mail sent on March 3 by Woodland city planner Kei Zushi asking if public hearings had been scheduled, WSDOT said no public hearings were set.
“Because the roundabouts are mitigation for the impacts created by Wal-Mart and are not a WSDOT project, even though WSDOT is the approving agency, WSDOT has not held any public meetings or hearings,” replied Jeff Barsness, assistant planning manager for the department’s Southwest Region.
Superior Court Judge James E. Warme ruled in October that Wal-Mart could begin transportation improvements without waiting for a citywide transportation study, now in progress. The city did not appeal Warme’s decision. City Attorney Brian Wolfe said that since the city did not file an appeal within the required time, no options are open to city officials.
“The appeal time has run out,” he said. “If they were going to do anything to appeal the judge’s ruling, they had to do it before the time expired.”
Despite the argument that the roundabouts will be unsafe for heavy traffic, WSDOT representatives say that statistics show roundabouts to be safer than either intersections with stop signs or those with full traffic signals.
Walsh said that studies done at nine intersections across the state show that fatal accidents were dramatically reduced after roundabouts were installed. The intersections studies provided a mix of two signalized intersections and seven with stop signs. The statistics, published in a 2006 report to Gov. Chris Gregoire, took place over 36 months, Walsh said.
Before the roundabouts were installed, there were five fatal and/or disabling accidents during the period at the nine intersections. The number fell to one disabling accident and no fatalities over 36 months. The number of injury accidents fell from 15 before roundabouts to four after the traffic control circles were installed.
“We saw an 80 percent reduction in fatalities and a 73 percent reduction in ‘evident’ injuries,” he said.
Evident injuries are those that are less serious than a disabling injury and may include anything from cuts and bruises to broken bones.
Gerhart and Walsh said that the structure of the roundabout slows traffic to 15 to 25 miles per hour, but does not stop traffic.
The one-lane and a truck “apron” will keep cars from trying to pass larger vehicles as they move along the highway, Gerhart said. The apron is a “little low curb to slow cars down and keep them from going too fast around the corner,” he said.
Bill Raybell of PDM Steel expressed concern that rigs hauling large steel beams will not be able to maneuver through the roundabouts. He said the rigs had not been tested on a roundabout. Like Johnson, he said he was given little opportunity to provide an opinion.
PDM Steel delivers girders daily from Woodland to as far north as Canada and through Oregon, he said.
Johnson, who said the industrial community was ignored by WSDOT, said she would prefer to have signalized intersections at strategic points. Signals give a clear direction as to which vehicle can move and which must stop.
Gerhart said, however, that signals aren’t always obeyed.
“At signals, there are two different things going on,” he said. “The through traffic, and the change in traffic movement. The driver must make a decision at the yellow whether to go through or stop. There are lots of rear-end accidents.”
Gerhart said mock roundabouts have been set up at different places, including one in Washougal at an intersection with SR 14.
“Trucks drove through them,” he said. “They didn’t have that big a problem.”
The Dike Access Road-I-5 interchange is now controlled with stop signs.

Woodland musician gets Mideast tour
Alice Perry Linker
staff writer
When the call came from Portland musician Pete Ford to join a country band for a Mideast tour, Derek Boone said “yes” immediately.
The tour would take Boone, of Woodland, and the other members of the Pete Ford Texas Hold ‘em band to Air Force bases in as many as three Mideastern countries near the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“In all honesty, deep inside I wasn’t confident that we would go on this tour,” Boone wrote in an e-mail to The Reflector. “Imagine a small town country band playing in the Middle East on the government’s dime.”
Boone, a drummer and singer who usually performs for Bluelight and DaNada, substituted for Ford’s drummer who could not make the trip. In his day job, he works in the pre-press department of The Columbian.
From Air Force bases in Qatar, Kyrgystan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Boone has sent e-mail accounts of the band’s adventures.
His letters report “red carpet treatment” at all bases.
“They really treat us entertainers like royalty at these bases,” he wrote. “I say we don’t warrant the treatment, since the real royalty here are the soldiers, but I’ll let them think otherwise, if they wish.”
The band played its first show at Manas base in Kyrgystan, and Boone wrote about the performance, “a little rough, but we could have burped the alphabet and these young soldiers would have cheered us on. They are very grateful to have entertainment when they can get it.”
Some band members lost luggage, and Boone reported that it probably would never be found. “Their luggage will likely be taken by the Kyrgz and the contents sold somewhere in downtown Bishkek.”
Boone called Kyrgystan “quite the poor and corrupt country,” and described the countryside outside the Manas base as “what looks like deserted, rundown buildings… the workplaces of the local people. The fire station has a hole in the roof….”
Qatar proved a sharp contrast to Kyrgystan. The band members shopped in a large, western-style mall, Villagio, during a break while they were performing at Al Udeid, another Air Force base.
About their drive to Villagio, Boone wrote, “A very dangerous game takes place on the freeways of the Middle East. There are two lanes of traffic. The right lane is reserved for semi-trucks, which travel at about 35 mph. The left lane is reserved for the rest of the crazy… driving their sports cars at 80 mph.”
Al Udeid is much larger than Manas, Boone wrote, with a population of 8,000, compared to the 1,200 at the smaller base.
“Manas, with its huge snowy peaks in the distance, and slightly cool air, reminded me of something back home,” he wrote. “Al Udeid is very flat, very dusty (powder-like, and it gets into everything), and hot. When I awoke this morning at 8 a.m., it must have been 70 degrees.”
During the flight from Manas to Al Udeid base, the band members traveled with troops who were going into Afghanistan, and their plane landed in Kabul, where the young men and women departed.
“I didn’t expect to be as caught up in emotion as I was, watching those kids walk off that plane into a war zone,” he wrote. “Very emotional indeed.”
Boone observed that the soldiers on the flight were “mainly Army soldiers going into Afghanistan for their first time….”
The band members got a glimpse of the dangers faced by Air Force personnel during their early days at Manas.
“The explosive ordnance unit was very interesting. These kids dispose of live explosive devices every day while in the battle field,” he wrote. “The sample IEDs they displayed to us were pretty scary, and the piece of shrapnel that they had from an actual IED was about 5-by-7 inches and approximately 10 pounds.”
From Al Udeid in Qatar, the band traveled to Al Dhafra, a base in the United Arab Emirates. Getting there proved challenging.
“We were on a tight schedule: because we had to fly to our next base, Al Dhafra,” he wrote. “The Qatari soldiers… made us sit in the hot sun for about an hour until we could get clearance.”
The delays continued as they moved through three or four gates to the Pax Terminal where they would wait for the flight.
“I think we arrived at Pax at about 10:30 a.m. We didn’t step foot onto the plane until 10 p.m.,” he wrote. “It was a day filled with delay after delay until they just squeezed us onto whatever flight they could, just to shut us up.”
The flight delays, however, were overshadowed by the hospitality shown to the band on the bases, he wrote. Boone and others received base tours, met with base commanders, and were given decent accommodations and practice rooms. Everywhere, he wrote, they were greeted enthusiastically by the troops.
Boone gave high compliments to the quality of military food at every stop along the tour.
A search for “local food” sent the band to a “nice little place” in Dubai, where they ate Shawarma, “thinly sliced chicken with spices,” tabouli, falafel, lamb, “and all the usual foods known to this part of the world.”
By March 23, when then landed at a Naval base, NSA, in Juffair, Bahrain, Boone wrote about the quality of life on the bases.
“It seems that each leg of the tour has seen a better equipped base,” he wrote. “This base (NSA) is a resort. Trees and plants filled with exotic birds, and nice paved walkways with gazebos and awnings.”
Pete Ford, who plays piano and sings, has been performing country music in the Northwest for more than 15 years, according to his Web site. Boone wrote that guitar player Steve Sarber is the only active member of Ford’s band making the trip. Other members are Dwayne Gibson of Ridgefield, playing guitar and vocals, and bass player Paul Stevens of Louisiana.
Early in the tour, on March 8, Boone wrote, “It’s funny to think that by the time we finish this tour, we will be a pretty tight band. As soon as we get home, we go our separate ways, as if nothing happened at all.”
On March 23, Boone wrote about the performances in Bahrain: “The second night was fantastic. We played like a real band for the first time, and it was great.”
Boone is expected to return home March 28.

Woodland police to remain at current staffing
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Woodland Police Chief Rob Stephenson got some good news the evening of March 17.
He received the go-ahead from the Woodland City Council who voted 4-0 to hire an officer to replace one who had resigned. Earlier, Mayor Chuck Blum had suggested that Stephenson delay hiring in light of a budget shortfall.
“The citizens are concerned about protection,” said council member John J. Burke, who made the motion to allow Stephenson to hire another officer. “We need to move forward and fill the police vacancy.”
Had the police vacancy gone unfilled, the department’s sole detective would have returned to police patrol work.
“If we have to pull the investigator off, we will lose momentum,” Burke said, adding that a full police force is important during the busy spring and summer season.
Council member Marilee McCall said the importance of an investigator has been shown by the press releases from the police department reporting arrests.
“We can see the results,” she said.
The year-end report showed that police solved 165 felony crimes and 729 misdemeanors. The incident clearance rate for 2007 was 69.55 percent.
Stephenson stressed the 111 driving under the influence cases that were filed by city police into district court.
“It’s interesting to note that Woodland Police Department is second highest in DUI arrests of all cities in the county while being the third largest city,” he said.
Only Longview posted a higher arrest record, with 193, and Stephenson said that the Longview department has “more than four times the staff, and they still aren’t twice the Woodland arrest rate.”
Woodland Police officers completed 131 felony arrests and 640 misdemeanor arrests, according to the report.
At full staff, the police department has 10 officers.

Sand piles temporarily close boat ramp
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Fishing enthusiasts anxious to get out on the Columbia River are facing a closed boat ramp at Martin’s Bar in Woodland’s Lions Day Park.
The closure will last until June or July, said Erica Rainford, executive director of the Port of Woodland, the agency that owns the land.
“We closed it for safety reasons,” Rainford said.
The safety issues have been raised as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deposit tons of sand on Port property, sand that will be used to fill low-lying areas in the Port’s industrial parks. The Port expects to sell the sand that it does not use, Rainford said.
The sand comes from the bottom of the Columbia River, a result of the channel deepening project that runs from Astoria, OR, to Portland. Rainford said that 757,000 cubic yards of sand are being deposited at Martin’s Bar and another 1 million cubic yards will go to Austin Point, also on Port property. Ports along the Columbia are sharing the sand.
The Port has no plans to close the boat launch at Austin Point, and Rainford said the Martin’s Bar launch will open as soon as conditions are safe.
She said heavy machinery is being used to push and compact the sand, an activity that could cause accidents.
The channel deepening project has brought more than sand to the Woodland area; it has brought objections to a Corps of Engineers plan to breach a portion of the Woodland Dike and flood 105 acres of farmland, creating a wetlands in Woodland Bottoms.
The Port, the City of Woodland, the Woodland Diking and Improvement District and the Woodland Chamber of Commerce, have objected to the Corps’ decision to breach the dike and asked elected officials for help. Farmers in the Bottoms have also opposed the Corps plan to flood the area.

Court upholds “Top Two”
State Grange was successful push
behind court action
 The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the validity of Washington’s “Top Two” primary system March 18, deferring to the wishes of voters who installed the system as Initiative 872 in 2004.
The decision means that voters in Washington will no longer have to select a political party in primary elections and then vote only for a candidate of that party. Instead, voters can cast ballots for anyone of any party, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the general election.
“We took the people’s case to the nation’s highest court and the people won,” said Secretary of State Sam Reed. “This is a victory for the voters of Washington because our democracy belongs to them.”
Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court wrote that overturning the Top Two primary system would “be an extraordinary and precipitous nullification of the will of the people.”
The 7-2 Supreme Court decision followed years of court battles over the primary election system.
Voters in Washington used the “Blanket Primary” system from 1936 until it was declared unconstitutional in 2003. The Blanket Primary system allowed voters to vote for any candidate of any party. The Republican and Democrat who got the most votes advanced to the general election.
The “Top Two” primary system is similar, except the top two vote-getters advance to the general election even if they are from the same political party.
The Washington State Grange and the AFL-CIO are credited with getting the Blanket Primary installed in the state through legislative action in 1935.
The political parties challenged the Blanket Primary immediately after it was established. In June 1936, the state Supreme Court upheld the Blanket Primary. The system was again challenged unsuccessfully in 1978. Over the years, the state legislature considered closed and open primaries, and held hearings on alternatives to the Blanket Primary system.
For many years, Washington was the only state with the Blanket Primary system, although it has been used in Alaska and in a modified form in Louisiana. Voters in California adopted a Blanket Primary system which was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001. That invalidation led to further challenges in Washington.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that Washington’s Blanket Primary was unconstitutional in 2003 because it violated the political parties’ right of free association. The Grange pursued the Top Two primary system with Initiative 872, and then defended the system against court challenges brought by the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties.
“The Court should be commended for agreeing with the Grange’s appeal and upholding the will of the voters of this state,” said Terry Hunt, director of government affairs for the Washington State Grange. “We filed this appeal in the Supreme Court because we believed from day one that Initiative 872 would stand up to any and all constitutional challenges. Now the voters of this state get what they want and deserve: a direct line to choosing the elected officials who will best represent what they need.”
Grange attorney Thomas Ahearne and state Attorney General Rob McKenna teamed up to argue the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hunt said the state Grange organization spent about $1 million in defending the Blanket Primary, getting Initiative 872 on the ballot, and then defending the Top Two primary system.
Will of people prevailed
Dan Ogden, a retired professor of political science who has been active in the Clark County Democratic Party, said the Supreme Court made the right decision in the Top Two primary election issue.
Ogden wrote his doctoral thesis on the Blanket Primary system, and has favored the system ever since. Ogden said that the latest court decision shows that “throwing out the Blanket Primary was unnecessary.”
Ogden now proposes that voters be given a Blanket Primary-type ballot with all candidates for a certain office listed in a single column instead of divided into columns by political party.
Ogden said the “party responsibility theory” does not reflect the realities of political parties. While parties may generally be associations of like-minded people who share certain principles, people choose to be “affiliated” with parties and no one is ever excluded. “They are not private clubs,” said Ogden.
Ogden said the Blanket and Top Two primaries are “consistent with the realities of American political parties.”
“There is nothing wrong with the Blanket Primary,” said Ogden. “It is consistent with the way the political parties work in this country.”
Ogden said it is possible that the Top Two vote-getters could be members of the same party, such as both Republicans in certain parts of eastern Washington, or both Democrats in certain parts of the Seattle area.
Ogden noted that minor party candidates who run as independents or as Libertarians, will be unlikely to qualify for the general election ballot under the Top Two system.
The Top Two primary system will not be used in the Presidential Primary, explained Ogden, because the no one is nominated or elected in such elections.
The so-called Presidential Primary is not really a primary election but rather a “poll,” said Ogden.

Princesses to ride BG rose float
Ken Vance
staff reporter
The four princesses who will ride this year’s Battle Ground Rose Float have been named as float construction moves ahead for the June 7 Grand Floral Parade in Portland.
This year’s princesses are Battle Ground High School students Katie Mitchell and Angela Lindersmith, Prairie High School’s Jordan-Leigh Reed, and Camas High School’s Moriah LeMire, a resident of Battle Ground.
This will be the 54th consecutive year that the Battle Ground Rose Float will make an appearance at the Portland parade. The theme of this year’s Portland parade is “Romancing the Rose,’’ and the Battle Ground theme is “Love is in the Air.’’
The main feature of the Battle Ground Rose Float will be a very large hippo in a white ballet tutu with a rose in her mouth being lifted up and down by four “grimacing’’ frogs.
The female hippo will be flirting with a smaller purple hippo in a pond at the front of the float. The eyes of the smaller hippo, a male, will be moving, looking at all that is going on around him. Two additional frogs will be pirouetting on lily pads in the pond.
“We wanted to do a real kid’s type fantasy this year; we haven’t done that for the last couple of years,’’ said Marlene Brown, who co-chairs the project with her husband, Don. “One of the guys has been trying to get a hippo on there for years. This year, he got his way.’’
The hippo promoter was Alex Reinhold, a member of Battle Ground’s city council.
“How often do you see a purple hippo coming down the street?’’ joked Brown.
The four princesses will wear white ballet dresses and will stand on lily pads in the pond of blue iris. The swampy refuge will be decorated with reeds, pussy willows and lots of cat tails made with seeds and herbs. An abundance of fresh flowers will be added at the last minute to complete the float.
Each year since 1997, the Battle Ground High School marching band has accompanied the float in the parade. This year, the band currently has been given only “alternate’’ status.
“The reality is, to be honest with you, our scores weren’t high enough last year,’’ said Greg McKelvey, band director at Battle Ground High School. “I had a talk with the Rose Parade officials and I understood.’’
McKelvey said the band was also an alternate in 1997, but another band dropped out so the Battle Ground band moved back into the parade. He hopes the same thing will happen this year.
If the Battle Ground band doesn’t upgrade from its alternate position, it will still get to march in the pre-parade, but won’t be part of the judging process.
“We’ve marched in the parade every year since 1997,’’ McKelvey said. “Not too many bands are able to receive scores high enough to be able to come back year after year. It was bound to happen eventually.’’
Construction of the float is underway at the float building in Fairgrounds Park on E Main St. in Battle Ground near the city’s new skate park. Volunteers are needed, including those able to help with welding and wood detail. The work will take place 6-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
The decoration stage of the preparations is scheduled to begin April 8 and will be done 1-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. Beginning May 3, decorating will also take place on Saturdays from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.
For more information, contact Marlene Brown at (360) 921-7029 or visit www.battlegroundrosefloat.com on the internet.
“It’s a fun, fun project and we can always use volunteers,’’ Brown said.
Here’s a look at the four princesses:
** Katie Mitchell. The 17-year-old Mitchell is a junior at Battle Ground and a resident of the city as well. She is the daughter of Michael and Erin Mitchell.
Mitchell’s career ambition is to be a health nutritionist, fitness trainer or flight attendant. She plans to attend San Diego State University. She is active in Sacred Heart Catholic Church. She also participates in cheerleading and tennis at Battle Ground as well as the S.T.R.I.P.E.S. mentoring program.
** Angela Lindersmith. A junior at Battle Ground High School and resident of the city, the 17-year-old Lindersmith is the daughter of Jack and Michelle Lindersmith.
Lindersmith’s career ambition is to be a nurse or nurse practitioner. She plans to attend the University of Washington and would also like to attend Oregon Health and Sciences University. In school, Lindersmith is the Battle Ground student body secretary and a member of the National Honor Society. She participates in track and cross country and received a scholar athlete award (3.833 GPA).
Lindersmith also served as director for the Mr. Battle Ground competition that raised over $2,500 for the LIVESTRONG Cancer Foundation.
** Jordan-Leigh Reed. Reed, 17, is a junior at Prairie High School and is the daughter of Scott and Katie Reed of Battle Ground.
Reed’s career ambition is to be an athletic trainer and she would like to attend Eastern Washington University. She serves as choreographer for Living Hope Church’s Soul Purpose outreach dance team. At Prairie, she participates in dance and soccer and she won a scholastic award (3.9 GPA). Her hobbies include reading, dancing, and listening to music.
** Moriah LeMire. The 16-year-old LeMire is a resident of Battle Ground and a junior at Camas High School. She is the daughter of Jeff and Tanja LeMire of Battle Ground.
LeMire’s career ambition is to be a psychologist, children’s entertainer or a teacher. She participates in the community at the ROCKSOLID Community Teen Center and is a member of the dance team at her school. She was the first-place finisher at Camas’ 6th annual speech contest. LeMire enjoys singing, speaking and acting and was a member--at age 13--of the Portland Opera’s production of “Street Scene.’’

Hockinson hires help to study issues
Ken Vance
stff reporter
The Hockinson School District has hired a Seattle-based consultant to help it work through issues surrounding the performance of Superintendent Delcine Mesa-Johnson.
On March 12, the Hockinson School Board held an executive session, which Mesa-Johnson attended. Sources within the district told The Reflector the session was the result of an investigation into the superintendent’s performance and that “things have gotten to a chaos point.’’
“There was no formal investigation,’’ said Deb Stavig, Hockinson School Board President. “We had an executive session where concerns were brought forth to the board. A plan was developed to go with a facilitator. That has started this week and they are going to work through this process.’’
As a result of the session, the board turned to Judy Heinrich to help address the concerns. Heinrich, of The Whidbey Group, has worked with the Hockinson schools in the past and was referred to the district by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“We wanted this person to work with the staff,’’ Stavig said. “We felt that it would be best to have someone from outside the district. She uses a process that we thought would benefit the district.’’
A series of meetings have been scheduled between Heinrich and district personnel through April 9th, according to Stavig.
The complaints regarding Mesa-Johnson target communications issues, which will be the focus of the meetings to be held throughout the process.
“The goal is to increase the variety and frequency of communication, not only with the community but our staff as well,’’ Stavig said.
After the executive session on March 12, Mesa-Johnson sent an e-mail to members of the district and to The Reflector.
“It is my sincere desire to effectively communicate with all of you to further our district mission,’’ Mesa-Johnson wrote. “If I have failed to provide the strategies for two-way communication and collaboration to address our priorities, then I apologize.’’
In its three-year strategic plan adopted May 11, 2006, the district listed as one of its goals to “improve communication with all citizens and organizations to facilitate an exchange of communication.” Mesa-Johnson addressed that directive by creating her own blog, newsletter and parent forums.
Stavig would not say whether any further performance evaluations of Mesa-Johnson would take place once the current work with the consultant is completed.
“We’re going to wait for the process to continue,’’ Stavig said. “The board is going to be monitoring the process. Not unlike in any district, there is always an on-going evaluation process of district staff.’’

Utility drops appliance repair program
 Citing financial losses and a bleak outlook for the future, officials of Clark Public Utilities decided last week to end the Appliance Repair Program, including the companion Guaranteed Hot Water Program, after more than 50 years of operation.
Utility officials said the repair program had been popular with customers over the years, but suffered financially in recent years as fewer customers used the service.
Utility commissioners Carol Curtis and Nancy Barnes voted March 18 to end the program; commissioner Byron Hanke opposed the closure.
State law requires that the appliance repair program not be subsidized by other electric or water customers. “With the current financial condition of the repair service, the utility is legally prohibited from continuing the operation,” said Mick Shutt, spokesman for the utility.
The utility’s appliance repair program has lost money in recent years, including a loss of nearly $77,000 in 2005. By the end of 2007, the program remained $64,241 in the red. The number of repair jobs had declined in recent years, and lagged well behind forecasts so far in 2008.
Shutt said the commissioners considered increasing rates for services and cutting pay for employees, or a combination of the two actions. Five and 10 percent rate increases were evaluated, along with increased trip fees. The commissioner decided those actions would not solve the financial problems, said Shutt.
Shutt said utility staff members are paid more than private enterprise. Private contractor wages in heating and cooling work are $15-26, compared to the utility’s $37.52 per hour. Private plumbers are paid $36 per hour compared to the utility’s $41.49. And private electricians earn $23.50-34.15 per hour compared to the utility’s wage of $34.12 per hour.
Shutt said the utility has taken steps in recent years to alter the financial outlook of the program. Rates for service and parts have increased, technicians have been assigned to other duties outside the Appliance Repair program during slow times, and operating processes have been streamlined to improve efficiency, said Shutt, adding that inventories were reduced, overtime cut and marketing increased.
At the last, the utility was charging $100 for the first hour of repair work, and $50 for each additional 30 minutes. Rates were increased in June 2007.
“While these steps have reduced some costs and increased revenues,” said Shutt, “the fact remains that Appliance Repair continued losing money.”
The utility is no longer accepting requests for services. Both the Appliance Repair Service and the Guaranteed Hot Water program will end March 31.
Shutt said Guaranteed Hot Water Program customers who have paid $2.95 per month received “insurance” while under the program and, like any other insurance program, coverage ends when the payments or program are discontinued. No refunds will be made, he said.
The Appliance Repair Program had operated with a staff of nine people, including seven technicians, all members of Local 125 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Based on seniority and qualifications, they may be able to move to other jobs within the utility, said Shutt. “The unfortunate result though,” said Shutt, “is that several utility employees will face layoffs” through the union “bumping” process. Jobs will not be created to retain all employees, he said.
“We appreciate the support and loyalty of our customers over the years and wish we could continue to offer Appliance Repair Service,” said Shutt. “Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to operate at a break-even level.”
Not everyone pleased with program demise
Bob Freund, a Clark County contractor/remodeler, said he has used the utility’s Appliance Repair Program for work private contractors could not do.
“They’ve done a lot of good for older people and people who can’t afford the high rates,” said Freund. “I’ve been taking stuff there for 25 years.”
Freund blamed paperwork for some of the utility’s problems, including the need for permits for certain repair work. “Why get a permit for something so minute. Fees and paperwork are killing this country.”
Freund said he would donate money to restart the program if he could gain support from others. “If I could get 100 people to donate $1,000 each,” said Freund, “we could get them back in the black and go from there.”
Freund also suggested that the utility lay off one person or reduce all workers to a 32 hour week to get the program on a sound financial footing. He stressed the good that the program could do for low income people and single mothers.
Freund said the utility should have held a public meeting before ending the program.
Freund praised the staff of the utility’s Appliance Repair Program. “Their repair guys are just like you and me,” said Freund. “They see a low income person with children and say, ‘I’ll do this for you.’”
“If these guys are being nice, more power to them,” said Freund.
Others views
Battle Ground resident Sandye Talbert said the utility should have done better work, referring to instances reported in The Reflector when the utility failed to acquire permits before installing some water heaters, and making installation errors.
“Doing a slip-shod job makes me mad,” said Talbert, who has been paying the $2.95 per month for the Guaranteed Hot Water Program.
Talbert also questioned what the utility has done with all the money paid into the Guaranteed Hot Water program, wondering if that money remained in a fund somewhere.
Talbert compared the Guaranteed Hot Water program to a pre-paid funeral plan. “And then, oops, we’re not going to pay for that anymore,” Talbert said, who believed a refund would be in order. “It irritates me.”
Nate Kysar, owner of Nate’s Plumbing and a critic of the utility’s Appliance Repair Program, said the utility should not compete with private enterprise.
“I am happy to see that it came to light that it (the program) was operating in the red,” said Kysar.
“I hate to see anyone lose their job,” said Kysar. “If we lose money, we go broke. If the utility loses money, they just take it out of their general fund.”
“It was never personal,” said Kysar of his objections to the utility’s program. “The government should not be in competition with the private sector.”
Kysar acknowledged that certain work done by the utility may not be available in the private sector. He said “no one else works” on cable heating because they don’t consider it to be safe and worry about liability. The utility has worked on cable heating systems, he said.
Kysar said the private sector will do as good a job or better in the water heater aspect of the utility’s program.
Jeff Miller, who owned Miller’s Heating and who was a long-time critic of the utility’s Appliance Repair Program, expressed pleasure with the decision to end the program. “I’m glad it finally went away,” said Miller. “I spent nine years fighting to get rid of it because of the unfair competition.”
“This validates what I believed that this program had to be subsidized,” said Miller.
Miller was among those who challenged the legality of the program in court. The utility lost in court and appealed all the way to the state Supreme Court. Before the Supreme Court issue a decision in the matter, the state legislature approved legislation allowing Clark Public Utilities to conduct an appliance repair program under certain conditions. Since then, Clark Public Utilities has been the only public utility in the state that can legally repair appliances.