HEADLINES & HISTORY SINCE 1879 Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2024
Vol. 145 No. 21
Ex-prisoner endorses jail
On target with a bow and in life
Sheriff identifies wrong person as NORCOR chair
LOU MARZELES EDITOR Carlee Ready’s archery resume—yes, the young woman from Goldendale has such a thing—is impressive. But then this is a person who graduated high school last year at 16 and this year graduates from Clark College in Vancouver next month with honors and an AA in Biology. She’s been working with a professional archery coach and is piling up a nice collection of archery appearances and wins. Carlee says she was just looking for something interesting to do in the community when her family moved to Goldendale about eight years ago. She found it. Her mom gave her a bow, a Martin, one of the prestige archery brands. Before that, the teen had shown strong interest in shooting sports but hadn’t picked up archery. Well, not regularly. She recalls having a little finger bow when she was four or five years old, shooting at a bale target— and often hitting the target dot. But here in Goldendale, soon she was involved with the 4-H archery group. Within a year, in 2019, she placed 1st in Districts competition and 4th in State. Then came the pandemic. You
RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
CONTRIBUTED
PROLIFIC: Goldendale’s Carlee Ready graduated from high school last year and next month graduates from Clark College. She’s also an archer of remarkable skill and with a growing resume. Right, professional archer Blake Jerome coaches Carlee on her form. He calls her eager to learn.
probably heard about it; everything was shut down. She didn’t shoot much again until an event at the Klickitat County Fair in 2022. Carlee went into a downturn with her archery, struggling to get her form back where it needed to be. Then she went to an indoor shoot in Ephrata, Washington, an event that was a milestone in her archery progress. “I met a lot of great people there,” she says. “So supportive. They were helping me. They were saying, ‘Well, how about you try
this? I noticed you were doing this; what if you did this? And then it was there I met my coach, Blake Jerome.” Blake is a professional archer. He began working with Carlee, and in February 2023—she recalls the time almost reverently— helped her set up her bow. Carlee goes into a detailed technical explanation of what that consisted of, but the final result was, in her words, “amazing.” “It felt weird at first,” she says, citing several factors about the bow that were totally new to her.
But it was the beginning of a new threshold of accomplishment. “Before then the longest I’d shot was 50 yards,” she states. With Blake, that range began to increase. “He told me, ‘We’re going to set your marks today.’ And he sets it 20 yards, 50 yards, 80 yards, 101 yards. I’m over there just scared because I’ve never shot this far.” Blake stressed distance was still a matter of execution. “It’s the same execution. It’s the same everything. It’s just a different distance. It’s just how
See Carlee page A8
Pickers Festival a celebration of musical joy LOU MARZELES EDITOR It used to be the Goldendale Bluegrass Festival. It drew people from all across the Northwest to enjoy a few days of music and fellowship in late spring. The Festival discontinued when local organizers decided to forego the project, but that didn’t stop Fred Coates. He began what is now called the Goldendale Pickers Festival. It draws people from all across the Northwest to enjoy a few days of music and fellowship in late spring. This year it’s next weekend, May 29 through June 2, at Ekone Park. “We’ve been doing this for seven or eight years now,” Coates says. “I thought, ‘Well, heck, what would it take to ask about renting the park and getting some porto-potties from Bishops and just getting some friends to come who are fond of the festival and then have a music party there?’ And gosh, it blossomed from that to where people really got behind it. Each year I just get in touch with the City, and they’ve been very cooperative because we bring up 120 people and campers and RVs,
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HARMONY IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE: May 30 through June 2 will mark the return of the Goldendale Pickers Festival, a weekend ode to harmony both personal and musical. and everybody goes to town to get their stuff and buy batteries and occasionally you buy some tires and whatnot, you know?” Coates says Goldendale is pretty, especially this time of year. “Ekone Park looks like something out of a Hallmark card,” he enthuses. “It’s just so beautiful.” Festival goers each year are a courteous lot. Coates says they’re very careful about parking their RVs with care and keeping the area clean and neat. “My involvement is, I bring a large wedding tent, and we put up
a PA sound system, and of course there’s music all through the day at the campsites, at the different jams,” Coates says. “And people just mix and match and get with different friends they haven’t seen for a while and create days’ and almost all nights’ worth of music there, from Thursday through most of Sunday even sometimes.” People come from Seattle and Eugene, Bend and Tri-Cities, as well as around the Gorge. “It’s become a place to come,” Coates states. “It’s the first festival in the summer season after win-
ter. Folks miss seeing each other over time. The Idaho and Eugene people don’t often meet. This is kind of a middle place. They get to come and be like a big family reunion.” The Pickers Festival also becomes a musical pollination point. “People get to trade their new lick and play their new song for each other,” Coates says. “And then we have a stage. We have a stage set up in the evening, and it’s free to the region there. Goldendale folks can come for free.
See Festival page A8
Mayor appoints new city administrator RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL The Goldendale City Council did not have to look far for a new city administrator, following the announcement at the May 4 meeting that previous administrator Pat Munyan had decamped suddenly for greener pastures. At this week’s meeting, Mayor Dave Jones announced he had appointed City Clerk-Treasurer Sandy Wells to the position, subject to the consent of the council. City policies and procedures say openings for city jobs may be offered first to employees. Jones said the opening had been publicized internally, and Wells was the only applicant. Those policies also allow the mayor to appoint
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the city administrator with the concurrence of the council. While the council all agreed that Wells was a good choice, some were not happy with the process. “In the past, we had council members actually participate in that selection process,” said Councilor Loren Meagher, “and at our last council meeting, we talked about having a Budget Committee meeting about staffing and budget, to come back to council with what that would look like.” He reminded the council that for the last several years the public works director and city administrator positions had been combined, and that the council would have to figure out how to cover both positions.
“I’m just disappointed to be excluded from that process,” he said, “and disappointed we haven’t had that budget discussion to work together and find the best solution for the city.” At his request, an executive session was added to the end of the meeting to discuss issues around the hiring. Councilor Theone Wheeler praised Wells, saying, “She’s proven her worth, and she’s already taken on the majority of what our past two administrators had, which was outside the scope of even the Clerk’s position.” She argued that Wells should have an assistant, to do all the things that she already knows how to do so that she can focus on the new job at hand and argued
for more discussion before a vote. “I think we need to decide who’s going to have what job now,” she said, “and see that the people who need to be trained for a new job get the education that they need.” She then asked for, and got, confirmation from the mayor that the public works director position would be split away from the city administrator’s duties. Though the resolution approving Wells’ appointment passed, Wheeler and Meagher voted against it on process grounds. Asked for a statement after the meeting, Wells emailed “I have worked at the city for 14 and a half years and felt with the support of the other staff members that I could fill the job. I will do
See City page A8
In place of the usual repetition of pro- and anti-Sheriff Songer sentiments expressed at Klickitat County Commissioner meetings, Goldendale resident Bruce Shelton offered a unique perspective at the May 14 edition. He identified himself as a former Klickitat County Jail inmate, and said he had been incarcerated several times across the country. “This jail we have here? It’s wonderful compared to a lot of jails that are around,” he said. “The guards pay attention any time I’ve been in. They listen; they try to help. If you are willing to reach out and say, ‘I need help,’ they do... I’ve been surprised and impressed.” He said he has tried to help fentanyl users quit but that withdrawal symptoms were so painful, people suffering from them are not in their right mind and can only think about ending the pain instead of reaching out for help, as in the case of the prisoner who killed himself. He added that he thought moving prisoners to NORCOR would be a long-term and expensive commitment for the county. Bob Yoesle of Goldendale provided another unique thought about the potential of the proposed health monitor bracelets for prisoners. “Technology is great,” he said, “but technology can have its problems, especially if you’re a new adopter. You need to know exactly what you’re getting into and the long-term costs.” He reminded commissioners that the City of Goldendale had replaced the streetlights with LED lights, but the company that manufactured them went out of business and took its proprietary software with them. The city had to replace all the lights and find new software. He also wondered if the county had paid for Songer’s trip to the Constitutional Sheriff’s Convention in Las Vegas. Songer himself was present and spoke twice. In the first instance, he assured people that he had paid for his Vegas trip out of his own pocket. “Not one county dime was spent,” he said. “Let’s make that clear.” He then asked Commissioners Anderson and Zoller if they had contacted the Democratic Party regarding a pair of petitions supporting the closure of the local jail, suggesting he suspected them of colluding with Democrats on the petitions. One of the two petitions was presented that morning by Jenne Patterson with 285 signatures. “You both have a political agenda,” he said. “You know it, and you can deny it until hell freezes over, but we know what the truth is.” Both commissioners later denied any involvement with the petition. Songer also said he had contacted Sherman County Sheriff Brad Lohrey, whom he identified as a board member and the NORCOR chair, and said NORCOR agreed with him that to close the jail would be “the worst mistake Klickitat County ever made.” But as a point of fact, while Lohrey was on the board for a number of years, the current board consists of county commissioners from Wasco, Hood River, Sherman, and Gilliam counties. The chair, Commissioner Scott Hege of The Dalles, said he hadn’t been contacted and said he understood that Songer had instead spoken with two county sheriffs. Songer also reiterated the charge that commissioners had
See County page A8