News Briefs for Nov. 28, 2019

Christmas Ships coming to Washougal waterfront Dec. 7

The Port of Camas-Washougal will hold the 65th annual Christmas Ships Parade at Parker’s Landing Marina at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, on the Washougal waterfront.

The event, which will viewed from the Port’s administrative office in Washougal, will include up to 30 decorated vessels, free hot cider and cookies and carolers from Washougal High School.The first 100 children will also receive a free book courtesy of Printforia, a Port tenant.

Camas’ public electric vehicle charger down

Electric vehicle (EV) owners may have noticed the city of Camas’ only public EV charging station has been down for several weeks.

The Blink charging station, located next to the Camas Public Library, currently has an “out of order” sign on it, and Camas Public Works Director Steve Wall told Camas City Council members on Nov. 18, that the city is looking at replacement options for the charger as well as at whether the library location still makes sense for EV charging.

“We’ve had a handful of questions about that (the EV charger),” Wall said. “Staff is looking at options … and will bring back recommendations to council.”

Camas Mayor Shannon Turk said Nov. 18 that the city had installed the EV charger several years ago using grant funds from the state of Washington.

“We wouldn’t have purchased something that didn’t work,” Turk said of the Blink charger, which has had its fair share of problems in the three to four years since the city had it installed on the east end of the library.

“It was installed before I started working at the city,” Wall told City Councilwoman Melissa Smith in an email after the councilwoman inquired about the charger’s frequent breakdowns.

“There has been no technical support for the station from Blink through the years and, unfortunately, it has had issues from the get-go,” he added. I don’t believe the unit even shows to be functioning at all on Blink’s end when they try and pull it up through their network.”

Wall told Smith staff was ” in the process of reviewing the options and trying to think ahead about whether (the city) wants to add another station or two around town.”

“I think the other question worth asking is, ‘What other companies are out there that might be able to provide the same service and how do they compare?'” he said.

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