HAVE A SAFE FOURTH OF JULY Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 2025
The eagle has landed
RODGER NICHOLS
MELISSA UHLES FOR THE SENTINEL
FOR THE SENTINEL
As expected, the Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) voted to approve the controversial Carriger Solar project in Klickitat County at its June 25 monthly meeting in Lacey. The motion to approve the draft site certification as recently amended and to recommend the governor approve the project was passed 6-1, with Klickitat County Representative Matt Chiles the sole “no” vote. The fact that Chiles had a vote at all underlines the unusual nature of the council. Its chair is appointed by the governor and the five other permanent members are appointed by, respectively, the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Fish and Wildlife, Natural Resources (DNR), and the Utilities and Transport Commission. A seventh temporary member with voting privileges can be appointed by the city, county, or port district in which the proposed energy facility will be located. Chiles made the most of his temporary membership on the council, questioning the staff on a number of concerns. He raised the question of water supply for the site, saying he understood that state health laws prohibit trucked-in water on a long-term permit basis. Ultimately, Joanne Starsky of the EFSEC staff said there was no need as “there are no on-site
Since 1982, the Goldendale chapter of the International Kiwanis Club has served the community. For 43 years, this chapter has worked diligently to meet the community’s needs through financial support, community engagement, and other acts of kindness. But now more than ever, the club must add members and dedicated volunteers—or again risk closing. “Our membership has been dwindling and getting older,” says Colleen Andreotti, Goldendale Kiwanis Club president. “Last year we were down to about 16 or 18 members. And of those members, about four or five were actually active and doing things, and it was getting to be very much of a burden on those few of us who were actually active in the club. So we decided we couldn’t continue any longer. The membership voted to disband the club, and that would’ve been at the end of September.” That changed when a member contacted The Sentinel. The story “Kiwanis Club shutting down” in
employees for this facility.” If so, that indicates that after construction is completed there will be no net job gain in the county from this project. Chiles also brought up light pollution, noise pollution, and the use of the word “periodic” in a late requirement to screen the solar farm from the adjacent DNR parcel. “Does that mean a pile of rocks every 500 yards?” he asked. “What is the intent there, and is that properly conveyed to the applicant?” EFSEC staffer Sean Greene responded, “It’s to indicate that this is not intended to be a visual barrier. The intent is to reduce visual impacts throughout the project.” He noted the final plan is subject to EFSEC approval and EFSEC will consult with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to ensure it does not affect other resources such as wildlife movement or water runoff. Chiles also lamented the loss of agricultural ground. “When we take farmland out of production for solar, we are not looking to our future,” he said. He explained it’s entirely possible to design projects that exhibit what he called “agrivoltaics,” mixing agriculture with the solar. “The only thing that needs to happen is to raise the panels up a little,” he added. “The fact that the Carriger project is not going to have any agrivoltaics is going to really hinder the accep-
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Defamation suit goes to appeal CONTRIBUTED
EAGLE IN ACTION: Top, Heather Greene at work sculpting the enormous eagle. Above, the sculpture on display in Goldendale. to potential buyers. Currently, he is contacting appraisers and auction houses and says he will be creating a website that will provide information about the sculpture for organizations and companies that may be interested in purchasing it. When asked if local government, like the City of Goldendale, might be interested, he considered the sculpture was unlikely to be in their budget. Despite the fact that it has not yet found a buyer, he expressed his surprise and delight at the fact that people have come from all over Oregon and Wash-
ington just to take a picture of it. Members of the Yakima Police Department recently drove through Goldendale for a funeral and took a picture of the eagle while they were in town. Richard Greene, who worked on the project with his wife Heather, said he’ll be relieved when the statue finds its permanent home. In the meantime, he’s watching over it while it’s in Goldendale. He said he was grateful to the Ross family for allowing for the time and money to get the project done correctly. Grinding, weld-
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Goldendale Kiwanis Club near demise–again LAURIE FOX FOR THE SENTINEL
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EFSEC greenlights Carriger project
Despite what Facebook says, it has not yet been sold
Anyone who has driven by the Goldendale Post Office lately has surely rubbernecked and concluded they did indeed see a gigantic bald eagle perched next door. The 35,000-pound bronze bird statue with a 55-foot wingspan has landed in Goldendale temporarily. Cascade Locks artist Heather Greene has been working for over nine years on the sculpture entirely by hand from her foundry in Oregon. First, she started with a foam carving and then layered oilbased clay onto it. The bronze casting is the last step. Each piece of the sculpture—the head, each wing, and the body—were created separately and had to be assembled in the final step. The eagle is her largest project to date. Greene had years building up to this experience. With a father who worked in an Arizona bronze foundry, she was introduced to the medium at a young age. She began creating her own sculptures around the age of two. Her sculpting of the eagle would have been easier if she used technology, but Greene commented in a Cannon Beach Gazette article that her process is similar to Michelangelo’s. He had to work by hand, in a time when current technologies for artists didn’t exist. Additionally, the philanthropic business owners who commissioned the work preferred that no technology be used in the art-making process. Though their identity was originally kept private, we now know that the aptly named monument, “Freedom,” was commissioned by Ty and Barb Ross. Now that the eagle is complete, they plan to sell it. Despite local rumors to the contrary, the eagle has not yet found a buyer. When asked why they weren’t keeping the eagle for themselves, Ty said that it was bigger and more expensive than he originally anticipated. The cost was substantial, but he only plans to disclose the dollar amount to very serious buyers. According to Ross, the original plan was for the sculpture to be on a marketing tour and be set up in different towns until a buyer was found. But recently, with ICE protests in towns he was considering taking it to in Oregon, Washington, and Nevada, he was advised that it might not be safe unless he planned to hire guards in those locations. So for now it will be in Goldendale while he reaches out
Vol. 146 No. 27
the August 21, 2024, issue of The Sentinel, brought six new members to the organization. “Of those six members who signed up, there are now only two who are actually doing anything,” Andreotti says. “And two [active members who] did not renew their membership. So, we’re back to the same position.” The search for new members and active volunteers continues. Now, “Out of 22 members,” Andreotti says, “only five or six are active in the club’s activities.” Some of the Goldendale Kiwanis Club’s service projects include raising money for scholarships and purchasing books for children’s programs, cleaning up one mile of Highway 97, placing American flags around town (their signature program), and distributing food donated through Second Harvest’s Mobile Market at Goldendale’s Christ the King Lutheran Church. “One of the new members really stepped up and has taken on much more than we expected for a first-time member,” Andreotti said. “She applied for a grant from Legends Casino, and we got $3,600 from them.” The grant money will
be used to purchase books for children’s programs and flags for holiday and community events, according to The Sentinel’s June 11, 2025, article, “Legends distributes grants to 135 organizations.” Andreotti also “came up with the Duck Derby, which we got about $2,000 from,” she says. “And it was not a good weather day, so we could have done much better. We were able to actually do scholarships this year, which we originally did not think we were gonna be able to do. And we can pay for our books for the kids.” It’s people, not so much money “It’s not that money is the issue as much as it’s people to help with our service projects,” Andreotti says. “One of our service projects is highway cleanup. We have a mile of Highway 97 we’re responsible for. We haven’t been able to do it for over a year because we don’t have the people. It takes about 12.” Also of concern is the placement of American flags around town. “We put the flags up on Main Street, Roosevelt, Broadway, and Simcoe. We do that for
See Kiwanis page A8
LOU MARZELES EDITOR An ongoing local defamation lawsuit has two new developments, first a ruling on a Motion to Reconsider and second the filing of an appeal. Local businessman Michael Snyder filed suit against Darlene Williamson, Leandra Kessinger, Amanda Derschon, and Julia Solvej for defamation against him, claiming the four defamed him by accusing him of having a criminal record and of being a pedophile. (Snyder was never found guilty of any charges and has no record. Charges made against him arose chiefly from his former wife during an acrimonious divorce proceeding.) The defendants had been involved with a Facebook page called “Beware of Starcade Pizza Owner.” Starcade Pizza was a business Snyder owned. The court had previously dismissed Snyder’s case in May 2025, and Snyder filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider that dismissal. The court ruled on the Motion to Reconsider on June 24. In that motion, Snyder wanted the judge to reconsider the dismissal under four different legal grounds: Procedural irregularity: claiming the court process was unfair. New evidence: submitting new witness declarations. Insufficient evidence: arguing the dismissal wasn’t supported by facts. Substantial injustice: claiming the outcome was unfair. The judge’s decision of June 24: denied on all counts Procedural irregularity (denied): the judge found no irregularities in the court proceedings. Simply disagreeing with how the judge applied the law to the facts doesn’t count as a procedural problem, the court ruled. New evidence (denied): Snyder submitted new declarations from Joseph Ristano, Charles Cain, Jeanne Crain, and “John Doe No. 1.” The judge rejected these because: • Some evidence wasn’t legally
admissible (especially the “John Doe” declaration) • Most facts were already known to Snyder before the original hearing • The evidence wouldn’t change the outcome anyway • It was mostly repetitive of what was already presented Insufficient evidence (denied): the judge addressed several specific issues: • Facebook administrators: while the judge acknowledged that Williamson and Kessinger may have been administrators of the Facebook page, this doesn’t make them legally responsible for defamatory comments posted by other people. • Kessinger’s statements: her posts about court records and criminal charges weren’t defamatory because she was referencing documents, not making false claims about convictions. • Williamson’s statements: these were considered personal opinions, not defamatory statements • “Beth Dutton” posts: the court ruled Snyder couldn’t prove that defendant Derschon was actually the person posting under this pseudonym. Substantial injustice (denied): the judge noted that courts rarely grant reconsideration on this ground, and Snyder essentially repeated the same arguments he made originally without showing any actual injustice. Bottom line The judge denied Snyder’s motion for reconsideration in full. The original dismissal of the defamation lawsuit stands. The case appears to involve disputes over Facebook posts about Snyder, but the court found that Snyder couldn’t prove the defendants were legally responsible for defamatory statements, even if some of them were administrators of the Facebook page in question. Justin Leigh, attorney for the defendants, commented on the ruling: “On behalf of the defendants, we are pleased with Judge Krog’s ruling on Plaintiff’s Motion for Reconsideration. We believe the court reached the
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