La
Center residents vowing to fight casino of Cowlitz Tribe decides to
build--Columbian, Margaret Ellis
Vancouver Housing Authority gets one-year extension on its unique
Moving to Work program--Columbian, Scott Hewitt
Battle Ground School District board calls special Wednesday meeting
on construction cost estimates of $64.1 million bond
issue--Columbian, Amy McFall Prince
Preparations for this summer's Parade of Homes begins with ground
breaking this week--Columbian, Gretchen Fehrenbacher
Kathy Condon says business cards a must--Columbian
Amphitheater at Clark County traffic management plan found
inadequate county tells operators--Oregonian, Foster Church
Local voters may face as many as five tax proposals at the polls
this year--Oregonian, Allan Brettman
Cingular to get AT&T Wireless for $41 billion--Seattle Times,
Tricia Duryee
Haiti appeals for help; U.S. not interested says Powell--USA TODAY,
AP
Public
getting look at three versions
of community’s transportation future
Identity Clark
County’s second round of pulse-taking and information-dispensing has
begun with an outreach effort aimed at the entire community.
The subject
matter is transportation.
Working with a
consultant, the JD White Company, ICC’s Transportation Priorities
Project II has conducted meetings with officials of cities and towns
in the county as well as county and state transportation staff and
brass. These meetings have generated a wish-list of transportation
needs extending for 20 years.
The scenarios
range from no new transportation financing, a status quo approach
showing a falling off of transportation funding, to a 20-year
package that would require “significant” increased financing.
Sources of
current and increased funding are gasoline taxes, property taxes
(requiring a 50 percent public approval vote), city sales taxes,
sales taxes for transit systems, voter-approved bonds, municipal
general funds, impact fees, real estate excise taxes, grants,
vehicle title and registration fees, business license fees, business
and occupation taxes, street utility taxes, tolls, lodging taxes,
and, if approved by the legislature, regional transportation
improvement district assessments.
Although
planning results thus far don’t detail specific ways of improving
transportation, for example, light rail, one of the conclusions is
that doing nothing in the I-5 corridor is unacceptable.
There must be a
multi-modal solution in the I-5 corridor, says TPPII spokesperson
Ginger Metcalf, who is also
executive director of Identity Clark County.
“The scale of
improvements required far exceeds presently available state and
federal funds,” she says.
Volunteers from
Identity Clark County's Transportation Priorities Project II are
available to make presentations to businesses, community
organizations and other groups. Click above to go to their website
or call Suzanne Chandler at
823-6103 to schedule a presentation.
Details of
planning so far, along with maps and charts can be seen by going to
the TPPII website, www.tppii.com.
Clark still
fastest growing county in region
Clark County,
which grew at a rate of 2.4 percent last year, remains the fastest
growing county in the Vancouver-Portland metropolitan area, reports
Rich Carson, director of the
county Department of Community Development.
According to
Carson, the county’s growth rate is more than double that of
Portland and Multhomah County.
At the end of
2003 the county population stood at 372, 300, an increase of 8,900
residents, Carson says, adding that’s 24 new people a day.
While working
with a record $491 million in new construction last year, Carson’s
139 employees handled 129,766 telephone calls and also completed
104,412 building inspections as part of his department’s new 90-day
express permitting program.
Port of
Kalama announces
first industrial park tenant
ViaTech
Publishing Solutions is relocating its Longview production plant to
the Port of Kalama’s Kalama River Industrial Park, according to port
executive director Lanny Cawley.
ViaTech’s plant
in the port’s 23,000-square-foot anchor building employs 26
full-time persons. It is one of eleven production plants that the
Bay Shore, New York, company has in the United States.
People
Marla Wood, Vancouver, has
been appointed by Gov. Gary Locke
to the Washington Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse. Wood is
a K-12 extended learning and parent training program specialist for
the Vancouver School District.
News briefs
An open house
disclosing proposed improvements for St. Johns Road between NE 50th
Avenue and NE 119th Street is from 4 to 6:30 p.m. today in the
Barberton Grange, 9400 NE 72nd Avenue. For further information, call
project manager Scott Sawyer
at 397-6118, extension
4364.
--- A free program on how to
deal with mold and mildew inside the home is being presented by
Clark Public Utilities’ energy specialist
Bruce Carter at 7 p.m.
tonight in the utility’s Electric Center community room, 1200 Fort
Vancouver Way. --- The NE
Hazel Dell Neighborhood Association meets at 7 p.m. tonight in the
Clark County Public Works Community Center, 4700 NE 78th Street.
--- Clark County commissioners
meet in informal session at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18.
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Tuesday on the air
Leveraging Success from Your Organizations—3:30 p.m. CVTV
Portland Winter Hawks at Vancouver (live)—7 p.m. KUPL
Vancouver Land Use Hearings (2/5)—7 p.m. CVTV
Portland Blazers at Lakers (live)—7:30 p.m. KGW-TV, KXL, KRMZ
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