HEADLINES & HISTORY SINCE 1879 Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2024
Vol. 145 No. 34
$1.00
Kiwanis Club shutting down JORDAN MAYBERRY FOR THE SENTINEL
TOP: JOHNLAPTADPHOTO.COM. ABOVE AND RIGHT: JORDAN MAYBERRY.
WILD RIDES AND GOOD GRUB: Except for a wild windstorm Saturday evening, it was glorious weather for the 80th Klickitat County Fair last weekend. It started with the kick-off barbecue Thursday (above and right) with a hungry horde enjoying all the fixin’s. Then there was the rodeo (top) with a bounty of rough-and-tumble events. See more rodeo pictures on pages B1 and B8.
1982 saw a new chapter of the international Kiwanis Club established to serve the town of Goldendale and its surrounding areas. For 43 years this chapter has been dedicated to meeting the needs of the community through financial support, good works, and fostering connections between volunteers and residents. At the end of September 2024, these services will cease as the chapter comes to an end. “Unfortunately, we do not have enough members to keep it running because it is all volunteer supported,” says Theone Wheeler, secretary of the Goldendale Kiwanis Club. “It seems to have been the same six to eight of us keeping it alive the last couple years.” Long-standing members have worked hard to keep the club together, but they too have faced challenges in maintaining their commitment. “Due to health issues and other reasons, members have been retiring and wanting to travel,” Wheeler explains. With a dwindling number of members and a lack of new volunteers, the club has found it increasingly difficult to sustain its operations. “We cannot hold it together without a full team of people,” Wheeler adds. Over the years, the Goldendale Kiwanis Club has provided numerous services requiring both financial resources and volunteer efforts to sustain. “We’ve raised money for 4-H, we’ve raised money for Native American hunting and fishing programs, we also do high school scholarships every year—that’s part of the money we raise; the rest goes to books, programs, the school district, and other organizations,” Wheeler details. A major initiative of the club was promoting children’s literacy. “We gave free books at any and every major event, and we give books to the schools as well for children’s literacy pro-
See Club page A8
Council hears on city financial health RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
LOU MARZELES
ROUND TABLE VISIT: Sen. Maria Cantwell was in Goldendale last Wednesday for an economic round table discussion with area civic and energy leaders. Left to right: City Councilor Miland Walling, Cantwell, Goldendale Mayor Dave Jones, Goldendale Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Teja Finch, Goldendale Airport Committee member Richard Lundin, Klickitat County Economic Development Director Richard Foster, Becky Brum from Rye Development (Goldendale Pumped Storage Project), KPUD General Manager Jim Smith, and Michael Rooney, also from Rye Development. Not in this picture: Jonathan Lewis, KVH, and Goldendale Observatory Administrator Troy Carpenter. The meeting was held at the Observatory. Cantwell heard from each person regarding his/her organization’s activities and plans.
Rancor returns to commissioners meeting RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL A resolution moving the Klickitat County Jail from the Sheriff’s Department to a new county Department of Corrections is complete and ready to implement. That was the message from HR Director Robb Van Cleave at the
August 13 commissioner meeting. He said staff had put the final touches on the resolution, including two new aspects. “Any remaining funds in the Americorps Grant will move to the Department of Corrections,” he told commissioners. “Odds are that the Re-entry Demonstration Initiative Grant they applied for
will be awarded after the transfer, and that’s covered in the resolution as well.” He also said he hadn’t spent any money in the process so far, but the time had come to do so. He asked for permission to go ahead and get new patches for the uniforms of the jail personnel. He originally thought it would be a
minor detail, he said, but found it’s more complicated than that as there are 16 people in the department, each with three or more uniforms. Commissioners said there was no need to commission a redesign of the patch, agreeing that the new patch could just be the coun-
See County page A8
The story of Monday’s Goldendale City Council meeting begins and ends on positive notes. In her second quarter report on the city’s fiscal health, accountant Jen Forsberg painted a comfortable financial picture: “The bottom line is, overall, the city’s looking pretty good,” she said. “Everything’s tracking where we budgeted it to be as a whole. The general fund is looking solid, the utility funds are looking solid, and then there’s nothing out of whack within the other funds as well.” A proposal to construct Captain Jack Commons, described as “a recreational vehicle, motor coach and equestrian neighborhood” at the site of the old nursing home on Simcoe Drive did not fare so well. The plan was earlier rejected by the Board of Adjustment in May, primarily on the grounds that the use didn’t fit the neighborhood. Despite City Attorney Quinn
See City page A8