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11 Vancouver soldiers to receive Purple
Hearts--Columbian, Dean Baker
Would-be bank robber gets bank to himself, then swat
team shows up and robbery is over--Columbian,
Kelly Adams
Nautilus stung by recall--Columbian, Jonathan
Nelson
Judge Robert Harris gives puppy killer six
months--Columbian, Stephanie Rice
Sen. Don Carlson urges 'comprehensive
university'--Columbian, Don Jenkins
Clark College makes transfer deal with University of
Phoenix--Columbian, Tom Vogt
Posey's Market Place coupon holders may be left
out--Columbian, Jonathan Nelson
Herrington says it's cloudy and cool on Clark
Campus--Columbian, Gregg Herrington
Ridgefield educators say Tuesday levy election is
vital--Oregonian, Jason Begay
Cheney sticks to guns of delusion--Seattle P-I,
Maureen Dowd
Bush ejects call for intelligence investigation--USA
TODAY, AP
Betty Sue
Morris: Initiative 680 would
deliver a stunning loss to Clark County
Tempering her
abhorrence of its by stating, “If Initiative 680
gets enough signatures to reach the ballot and
passes, we’ll make the cuts required with dignity
and discipline, and without complaint,” Clark County
commissioner Betty
Sue Morris added, “but it will be a stunning
loss.”
Morse, chair
of the board of county commissioners, told a packed
State of the County address audience at the Red Lion
Hotel at the Quay, this afternoon: “It’s politically
risky business for me to dwell on this topic because
we try hard to focus only on the good stuff. But I
am compelled by it anyway because elected officials
have too long hesitated to tell the other side of
the tax-cutting story, and with a new initiative
waiting in the wings that would make an immediate 25
percent cut to our property tax streams, I don’t
believe we can hold our silence any longer.”
Morris added
sound effects from Prokofiev’s
Peter and the Wolf
with the blare of horns signaling that the wolf was
about to take a 25-percent bite out of the county’s
general purpose budget.
The county
would lose $10.8 million the first year, and the
total loss to all government in Clark County would
be $22 million.
“If Clark
County closed and mothballed every park we own and
operate, sliced social services, gutted a number of
departments entirely and quit monitoring offenders
on probation, we still wouldn’t have cut enough to
make it,” Morris said, adding, “All these kinds of
cuts would happen all across the state.”
The state of
the county over the past three years was anything
but gloomy, according to Morris, who recited the
growth of the community since she last made a state
of the county address in 2001.
The county
has remained fiscally stable despite tax cutting
initiatives, Morris said. During those three years
there have been 862 new businesses added, 5,571 new
students entered schools, seven new schools were
built, 8,910 new homes occupied, and 33,000 people
became new residents in Clark County’s 656 square
miles.
2003, Morris
said, was a year of record achievement for the
county. Clark County formed its own Health
Department. The county Juvenile Department was
nationally recognized for its corrections program.
The Juvenile Department has the lowest rate of
detention in the state among counties the size of
Clark. The Mental Health Specialty Court reduced
adult crime rates of its clients and cut probation
violations 56 percent, and reduced the number of
jail bed days from 288 to 76.
Morris
praised the Public Service Center completed in 2003
and the reconstruction that has begun in the
courthouse.
With the help
of the Felida Neighborhood Association, the county
opened its first new community park in 25 years
Felida Overall, Morris said, construction in the
unincorporated area of the county was $491 million,
up 19 percent from 2002.
Saturday
last day to give
storm debris free ride
The final day
of free disposal of storm-related woody debris is
Saturday, Jan. 31, according to
Anita Largent,
Clark County Solid Waste spokesperson.
There is no
charge for dumping downed trees, limbs and branches
at the following locations: West Van Material
Recovery Facility, 6601 NW Lower River Road; H & H
Wood Recyclers, 8401 NE 117th Avenue; McFarlane’s
Bark, 8806 NE 117th Avenue; Central Transfer and
Recycling Center, 11034 NE 117th Avenue; and
Triangle Resources, 612 SE Union Street, Camas.
People
Katlin Smith
has been elected President of the Portland Metro
Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
She is principal of Katlin Smith Communications,
Vancouver. Elected to the board of directors of the
chapter was Chastell
Ely, also of Vancouver. Ely is a
communications specialist with the Port of
Vancouver.
News
briefs
Interstate 5
southbound between 99th Street and I-205 will be
closed to traffic from 8 p.m. tonight to 1 p.m.
tomorrow. Northbound Interstate 5 traffic between
Highway 500 and I-205 will be closed from 10 p.m.
tonight to 1 p.m. tomorrow. The temporary closures
are the result of widening I-5 to three lanes north
of 99th Street.
--- The Clark
County Public Facilities District meets at 5 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 2, in sixth floor conference room in
the Public Service Center.
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