October 2, 2012
A fresh start for Mount Pleasant
Following a tumultuous year, the rural Mount Pleasant School District appears to be making some good headway in its efforts to "right the ship."
Following a tumultuous year, the rural Mount Pleasant School District appears to be making some good headway in its efforts to "right the ship."
With just more than five weeks left until the Nov. 6 General Election, candidates are ramping up their campaigns and doing their best to get voters' attention -- mostly in the form of political ads, mailers and phone calls.
It's late summer days like today -- sunny with temperatures that are expected to reach 90 degrees -- that make you realize how great it is to live in the Pacific Northwest. And Camas and Washougal are especially beautiful areas where a premium is placed on making sure there are plenty of parks, open spaces and recreational areas where people can enjoy the outdoors. Mother Nature does her part, but as citizens we must also take an active role in keeping our communities beautiful places to live, work and play. With that in mind, a number of service and community clean up events are scheduled in the coming weeks.
This morning, the Camas-Washougal Fire Department held its annual ceremony commemorating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The heartfelt event held in Camas, thousands of miles away from the East Coast where the attacks were focused, is an illustration of the widespread impacts of these events on the United States as a country. Similar ceremonies took place around America yesterday and this morning, from Vancouver to New York City.
Traveling into work this morning, there is a noticeable difference in the scenery. It's the first day of school for children in the Camas and Washougal school districts -- those big yellow buses are everywhere and children are once again bicycling and walking to school. As we've all become used to our summer driving routines, the influx of pedestrian and school bus traffic can have an unexpected impact on local traffic flow and speed. It's a change we all need to be aware of and take seriously.
Readers of the Camas-Washougal Post-Record know that we often have articles about accomplishments of local men and women, high school sports coverage, local city and port news, and a little bit of everything in-between. Like any small community in America, our cities have their issues but overall most of us likely feel these communities are safe places to live. But once in a while, we are unfortunately reminded that there are some truly bad people out who take advantage of others.
Please, oh please, say it's not so. Just last week the weather seemed to indicate that summer was finally here. With temperatures reaching into the upper 90s, the Washougal River was packed with people looking to cool off. The Camas Municipal Pool hit capacity. Youngsters gathered at Hamllik Park to feel the refreshing spray of water sprayed from the local fire department's fire hose.
In recent months, a dedicated group of Washougal residents, primarily members of the Friends of the Washougal Community Library, have been working to drum up support for finding an existing space or constructing a new building that would be offer a bigger, better location for the Washougal Community Library. The current facility, operated by the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, is housed in a 2,400 square foot space adjacent to the Washougal Community Center in the City Hall complex. Approximately 1,800 square feet is dedicated to public use, while the remainder is reserved for staff space and storage.
We often hear about the importance of taking care of our community and helping our neighbors, but we sometimes forget pets should be included in that concept as well. There appears to be a cat population problem in Southwest Washington. And it's a problem we should all be involved in solving.
It's safe to say that at first glance nobody is ever happy to hear about a proposal to raise property taxes, no matter what the purpose. But sometimes, when those proposing the increase have done their homework and it becomes clear based on the facts that it is justified, it just makes sense.
