More advances, improvements made to your community newspaper

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If you’re reading this, you already know about the latest improvement to The Reflector Newspaper.

The Aug. 6 issue of The Reflector is the first to be printed on a narrower web width, 22 inches per page. Hopefully, you’re finding the newspaper a little easier to maneuver in your hands. Not that I want you to regularly sample other newspapers, but this 22-inch web width should not be a new experience for you. The Reflector is not the first newspaper to make this change, which has been well received by readers all over the country.

Our small sampling to the change has netted positive reactions from our more than 29,000 loyal and engaged readers. Laura Venneri, general manager at The Reflector, broke the news to members of the Lewis River Rotary last week and our top executive reported back that the response was very positive.

It wasn’t that long ago that newspapers were as wide as 35 inches. The Reflector’s change in web width isn’t that dramatic. If you hold up a past issue of The Reflector to this week’s paper, you will see we’ve reduced the width of the page by about the size of one newspaper column. A page of The Reflector used to have six columns of content, and now it has five.

We want to make it clear, however, that you’re not getting less content. You’re getting the same amount of bright, large photos, local news and other features as you always have. You will be getting that content on more pages that are just a little smaller in size.

The size of the paper is determined by the amount of ads that have been sold. Over the course of a year, The Reflector has averaged about 32 pages each week with the prior web width. With the 22-inch page, that same amount of content will be spread over 38 or 40 easier-to-handle pages.

I should point out that the ease with which you handle your favorite community newspaper was not the driving force behind the change. You might have already guessed it, but there is a cost savings, albeit a small one for The Reflector, but also a larger savings for the print division of our parent company, Lafromboise Communications, Inc. It is more efficient to print the paper with a 22-inch web width. Lafromboise prints about a dozen newspapers. The Reflector was the last of that group of newspapers to go to the smaller-sized page. As a result, our print division doesn’t have to reconfigure the entire press each time it prints The Reflector.

The Reflector will experience a minor cost savings due to less set-up time required for press configuration,’’ said Christine Fossett, president of LaFromboise Communications, Inc. “We expect more pages in most weekly editions so savings on newsprint and ink will be nominal.”

As times change, so does your newspaper. The more progressive papers have gravitated to more color, more photos and smaller web widths. We hope you will be pleased with this latest improvement to The Reflector.

The bridge issue



Clark County residents have read a great deal in recent years about the bridge issue facing our region and even with the death of the Columbia River Crossing, that’s not going to change any time soon. It’s an important issue for those of us who live here in Southwest Washington. It doesn’t matter how provincial you are, at some point, you’re likely going to have to cross the big, wide (Columbia) river whether you like it or not.

I’m not going to go into great length at this time, but I have some observations. I am an opponent of light rail. I think it’s too expensive and unnecessary. Most of you agree with me. I had lunch with a couple of the fine folks at C-TRAN last week and Executive Director Jeff Hamm expressed to me that he thinks building any bridge over the Columbia River without light rail is a waste. He’s a smart man, but I disagree with that.

I have mixed feelings about the proposed third bridge at 192nd Ave. in east Clark County. The proposal, unveiled last week, is impressive from the standpoint of efficiency and cost ($860 million as opposed to the $3-5 billion it would have cost to replace the I-5 bridge with a new crossing that includes light rail. My problem is that I still have to be convinced a bridge at that location is the answer. How much congestion relief will it provide? I’m anxious to learn more.

The crossing that intrigues me the most is a westside crossing. The thought of driving from Clark County to Hillsboro or Beaverton is virtually unthinkable for me. A westside crossing would open up the entire area for Clark County residents. However, other than just one recent, exploratory meeting of Washington and Oregon lawmakers that just opened a conversation about the whole bridge issue, there is nothing in the works about a westside crossing.

La Center officials nervous about revenue

City of La Center officials recently revealed that current projections indicate the city’s revenue from the gambling tax imposed on its cardrooms could be $480,000 less than expected in 2014.

In recent years, the city has received just over $3 million annually from the cardrooms, which currently pay a 10 percent tax on their business. A City Council work session was called for last week, and then abruptly canceled, to discuss how the city would deal with the revenue shortfall.

I’ve been saying for years that La Center officials have taken the cardroom revenue for granted and even, at times, spit in the hand that feeds them. I have no problem with Cowlitz Tribe attempting to build a casino near the La Center I-5 junction, but it amazes me city officials bend over backwards to accommodate the Cowlitz development while having virtually no communication or cooperation with the existing cardrooms, which represent about two thirds of the city’s tax base.

I would guess things that could be discussed by city officials and council members as a result of the projected shortfall include raising or lowering the tax rate on the cardroom revenue, eliminating positions in the city’s workforce, reducing salaries and benefits of city staff and employees, and reducing the city’s level of subsidy for its sewer treatment plant (which would mean higher sewer rates). Obviously, most of those issues are affected by labor contracts and annual budgets.

The bottom line is this, for everyone who is nervous about this $480,000 projected shortfall, just imagine what it will be like if the proposed Cowlitz Tribal casino puts the cardrooms out of business altogether and that shortfall increases to $3 million.