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Vancouver proposes $14 million transportation
package--Columbian, Jeffrey Mize
Dinner train may travel Clark County
rails--Columbian, Erin Middlewood
Operator sees jobs, work for train--Oregonian,
Bill Stewart
Local skaters return home--Columbian, Paul Danzer
Military unveils plan to vacate Vancouver Barracks
by 2010--Oregonian, Allan Brettman
Doorways to heaven--Columbian, Gina Bacon
Is happy hour secret to long life?--Seattle Times,
Carol M. Ostrom
Ten Commandments judge removed--USA TODAY, AP
Parts of Los Angeles get foot of hail--New York
Times, John M. Broder
General says Hussein loyalists pose growing threat
in Iraq--New York Times, Eric Schmitt
Negotiations underway to give county railroad new
management, new direction
Clark County
commissioners Wednesday agreed to negotiate a
contract with Pacific Standard Corp. to take over
operation and management of the county-owned 33-mile
railroad that runs between Burlington Northern Santa
Fe’s Wye Junction at the mouth of Burnt Bridge Creek
and Chelatchie Prairie northeast of Yacolt.
Pacific
Standard owns the Spirit of Washington and the
Columbia Basin Railroad, both successful excursion
operations.
The Spirit of
Washington is also a successful dinner train that
offers three-and-a-half hour excursions between
Renton and Woodenville that include a stop at the
Columbia Winery.
The Clark
County volunteer organization Battle Ground, Yacolt
and Chelatchie Prairie Railroad, which has the
contract—it expires at the end of this year—to
operate the northern half of the railroad as an
excursion line, also envisions a dinner train.
BYCX was
paired with Northwest Container Services of
Portland, the operator of the southern part of the
line, in an unsuccessful proposal to continue
current operations and management.
The line,
currently in disrepair, is barely serviceable enough
for a handful of railcar movements a month between
Vancouver and Battle Ground.
But property
adjoining the line that is owned by the county is
worth millions of dollars.
Time will
tell whether a dinner excursion run like the Spirit
of Washington could be created. Cost of upgrading
the line is estimated in the millions.
Pacific
Standard’s vision is for more than dinner and a
train ride. It includes creation of a winery stop
and a conference center and small amphitheater at
the destination.
The county
commissioners’ vision includes a partnership between
Pacific Standard and BYCX.
Future
Olympians on the ice in Vancouver
The Pacific
Coast Sectionals of the U.S. Figure Skating
Association, sponsored by the Portland Ice Skating
Club, continue in the Mountain View Ice Arena,
14313 E Mill Plain Boulevard, through Saturday.
The
competition includes 158 top skaters from 11 western
states.
Tickets for
the events are $10 a day or $25 for all three days.
Competition begins around noon each day and
continues late into the night. Championship events
end at 11 p.m. tonight and Friday, and at 10 p.m.
Saturday. For further information, go to
www.pisc.org.
WSDOT
grant triggers foundation matching money to complete
Cathlapotle plank house
A grant from
the state Department of Transportation triggered
Fred Meyer Foundation and M. J. Murdock Foundation
grants of $60,000 and $75,000 respectively, to
complete financing for reproduction of a Chinook
plankhouse at Cathlapotle north of Ridgefield.
Construction
of the planthouse, to be completed for Lewis and
Clark Bicentennial activities, has already begun.
The
foundation grants assure completion and furnishing
of the $500,000 project, a reproduction of one of
several seen by Lewis and Clark in 1805.
Archaeologists project continuous occupation of the
state back at least 3,000 years.
Sen.
Murray booked by chamber
U.S. Sen.
Patty Murray
(D-Wash.) will address a Greater Vancouver Chamber
of Commerce luncheon Monday, Nov. 24, in the
Heathman Lodge.
Call
694-2588 to
pre-register for $30 tickets.
News
briefs
Port of
Vancouver open house presenting draft plans for
development of the Columbia Gateway, which would
nearly double port operations, is from 5 to 8 p.m.
today in port offices, 3103 NW Lower River Road.
---The Clark County Planning Commission begins
deliberation on proposals to update the county
comprehensive plan at 5 p.m. today in Vancouver City
Hall. --- The Fairgrounds Neighborhood Association
meets at 7 p.m. tonight in the Church Community
Room, 400 NE 179th Street. -- Two Vancouver
annexation proposals and one from Washougal will be
reviewed by the State Boundary Review Board for
Clark County at noon Friday, Nov. 14, in the
Vancouver Citizens Service Center, 1313 Main Street.
--- Old Slocum House Theatre Company’s
The Sorcerer
continues 8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday in the
theatre at Esther Short Park. A Sunday, Nov. 16,
matinee is at 2 p.m.
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