Bulletin Column

These reports are from the previous four issues of the Daily Bulletin in Colfax. They are reprinted here for the benefit of Gazette readers who reside outside of Colfax. Some accounts have been updated.

CITY PLANS LITTER PICKUP

Colfax city crews will pick up yard waste during the April 8-14 community cleanup week. The collection will follow the fall leaf bag format requesting residents to use paper bags and put them out along the curb for collection day. Bags should weigh under 50 pounds and can contain grass clippings, leaves and branches under one inch in diameter. Plastic bags of debris will not be collected.

Street crews have designated pickups for separate sections of town as follows:

April 8 - Southeast - Thorn, A Streets, East Cooper, etc.

April 9 - Southwest - Hillcrest, Fairview, etc.

April 10 - Downtown - Main, Mill, Clay, Morton, Sumner, etc.

April 11 - West Colfax - Deanway, Orchard, West Street, Perkins, etc.

April 12 - North Flat-Cedar, Oak, Riverside, N. Palouse River Road, etc.

Residents can bring branches up to three inches in diameter to the waste water treatment plant along the Walla Walla Highway that week prior to 4 p.m. on Friday, April 12.

Whitman County Landfill will offer discount rates for other refuse between April 8-20.

OAKESDALE ENTRY QUALIFIES

Elizabeth Eakin, who was named Oakesdale’s Distinguished Young Woman at Colfax Saturday, qualified for the state DYW competition in August under the state at-large program. It allows junior girls who reside in towns which do not have a preliminary DYW round to qualify for the state event. Judges at the Colfax competition awarded scores high enough for Eakin to qualify for the state event.

She is the first entrant to qualify through the Colfax event, although the practice is now being picked up at other preliminary rounds around the state.

Eakin, the daughter of Keith and Julie Niehenke, attends school at Colfax. Under state rules, other Oakesdale junior girls were notified of the Colfax entry and invited to compete.

Nicole Renard, Washington’s Distinguished Young Woman for this year who performed her acrobatic bird dance here Saturday, was an at-large entrant in the state event last year.

CHARGE FILED IN SIGN CASE

Ronald Z. Faaze, 19, has been summoned to appear in court April 12 after being charged with malicious mischief in connection with taking fire alert box signs in the Stephenson East dormitory last February in Pullman. According to the WSU Police report, a resident advisor spotted a pile of the small signs on the floor of the suspect’s room while walking along the hall.

The sign plates were believed to have been taken from alarm boxes on every floor of the hall, according to the WSU arrest report.

The report alleges 52 of the signs were recovered from Fraaze’s dorm room. Value of the signs was placed at $2,941.

CHILDREN’S SCREENING AT JENNINGS

Colfax School District scheduled its hearing, vision, motor, speech, language and cognitive development screening for Thursday, April 18, from 8 a.m. to noon at Jennings Elementary School. This screening is for children ages birth through 5 years of age.

This is the same day as the kindergarten registration.

The screening provides information to parents about the development of a child and helps parents prepare children for kindergarten.

Parents can sign up children for the screening beginning today through Wednesday, April 17, by calling Jennings Elementary School, 397-2181, for an appointment.

The office will be closed for spring break the week of April 1 - 5.

This service is provided by the Colfax School District at no cost to parents.

WSP REPORTS COLLISIONS

On March 16 at 5:40 p.m., David E. Olson of Spokane was driving a 2003 Ford Excursion southbound on State Route 195 when the vehicle drifted on to the southbound shoulder and struck a mail box and guardrail. The accident happened about four and a half miles north of Colfax. A 13-year-old girl who was a passenger in the vehicle was injured and transported to Whitman Hospital and Medical Center in Colfax.

On March 22 at 6 p.m., Michael R. Linder of Tacoma was driving southbound less than a mile south of Pullman on SR-195 when he failed to stop at the intersection of SR-195 and SR-27. Linder was driving a 2004 Nissan Maxima and hit a 2013 Ford Taurus, driven by Matthew G. Burkett of Pullman who was waiting at the stop sign to turn left onto SR-27. No injuries were reported.

ORGANIZERS ASKING FOR LATER HOURS

The Concrete River Festival is scheduled for the last weekend in July, Friday through Sunday, July 26 - 28.

Festival organizers are encouraging businesses to stay open as long as possible during the hours of 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, July 26, and from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 27.

Organizers hope that more than 3,000 people will attend the three-day event and want the festival to be an annual event.

For more information, businesses are encouraged to email whitney@inlandradio.com.

NINE POSTERS IN THE WORKS

Colfax Arts Council will have eight artists in the sixth edition of their annual street poster competition with six adults and two juvenile entrants. The adult entrants include five former entrants and one first-year entrant, Lynnea VanTrease.

Entering again for this year will be last year’s winner, Dick Gebhardt, along with Jerry Jones, Loretta Paulson, Craig Whitcomb and Tammy Lewis.

The two youth division entrants, Ashley Richman, is also a repeat entrant, and Chais Anderson.

The artists have been invited to a workshop session Saturday at the library when they will be given the street posters and tips on how to transfer their entry designs. Posters will be returned by May 3 and the council will put out ballot buckets around town for the People’s Choice art competition.

Artists will be introduced at the June 6 “Meet the Artist” session in the Colfax library and the winner will be announced at that time. Also, a $300 prize will be awarded to the design selected by three out-of-town art professionals. The prize sum has been donated by the Gebhardts.

SPRING ICE TAKES TOLL

Icy conditions were listed as a factor in three March 21 accidents reported by Washington State Patrol troopers.

Daniel T. Smith, Fernwood, was transported by ambulance to Whitman Hospital for injuries sustained in a one-car accident on Highway 272 3.5 miles east of Colfax. He was a passenger in a 2004 Toyota 4Runner driven by Benjamin D. Smith, Fernwood. According to the report, Benjamin Smith was driving eastbound at 11:40 p.m. when the Toyota went off the right side of the roadway and rolled several times.

Robin Hendrickson, Pullman, was unhurt last night when she lost control of a 2004 GMC Yukon 6.8 miles south of Pullman on Highway 195. She was driving southbound at 8 p.m. when the Yukon slid down an embankment and rolled. It came to a halt on its wheels.

David G. Yeaman, Clarkston, lost control of a 2004 Chevrolet pickup truck 5.9 miles south of Pullman 10 minutes later. The pickup struck the end of a guardrail and came to a halt on a steep embankment.

INTERNET LINK IN RAPE ARREST

Walter Weeks, 36, Des Moines, was arrested Wednesday at his residence in Des Moines on a charge of rape in the third degree which police allege was committed in Pullman. Police Commander Chris Tennant reported Wednesday the investigation began March 17 after the alleged victim’s mother reported what she had learned to the Pullman Police Department.

He said they believe the suspect engaged in a two-week internet conversation with a 15-year-old girl and traveled to Pullman where he met the girl and rented a motel room. The report alleges several consensual sex acts took place on the night of March 15. The investigation report filed in court March 20 said the alleged victim told officers the suspect took pictures while they were at the motel.

Working with Seattle’s unit which deals with internet crimes against children and the Des Moines Police Department, a search warrant was served for the residence and a vehicle belonging to the suspect and electronic equipment was seized, the report said.

Weeks was booked into the King County Jail.

A formal charge of rape in the third degree was filed Marcyh 20 in superior court here. Bond amount on the arrest warrant was set at $50,000.

CHARGE FILED IN PISTOL ARREST

A charge of second-degree assault was filed Wednesday, March 20, in Whitman County Superior Court against Ronald Robinson, 28, Republic. He was arrested last August after Pullman officers on foot patrol heard yelling in the college hill area Aug. 25 shortly after 1 a.m.

The arrest report said officers saw the suspect leaving the scene of the yelling, and they had to take him to the ground after he refused to stop. The report said a Glock handgun was found in the suspect’s front waist band. The Glock had one .40 caliber bullet in the chamber and another in a loaded magazine.

The residents of the house said Robinson had been yelling at them from a patio below the balcony where they were standing. They said they saw the suspect pull a pistol out of his waistband and wave it in the air.

Robinson had been summoned to court April 12.

SEEKING COURTHOUSE BRICKS

A research project by the Whitman County Genealogical Society has evolved into a search for one of the bricks that might have been salvaged from the first Whitman County Courthouse at Colfax. Monica Peters of Pullman said she has been researching the life and career of William White, the man who constructed the original Whitman County Courthouse in Colfax in 1890. Mr. White also operated a brick yard which was believed to be the source of bricks for the courthouse construction.

Peters said she has been doing research for a descendant of White who inquired about the possibility of acquiring one of the bricks from the first courthouse which was razed on the present site when the new building was constructed.

She said some of the early brick manufacturers made a practice of marking their bricks, but she has not been able to determine whether or not the bricks Mr. White used on the courthouse in 1890 had distinctive markings. She hopes to find someone in Colfax or the area whose family kept some of the bricks over the years and would be willing to part with one of them.

White, who is buried in Moscow, later sold the brickyard and moved to the west side of the state where he worked on several public buildings. He then moved back to this area and resided for a time in Palouse.

For more information call Peters at Pullman.

GROUP TO LOBBY FOR RR REPAIRS

A group of area residents plans to travel to Olympia Friday to seek financial support for making upgrades on the P & L railroad line between McCoy and Marshall. Work is underway at McCoy, located north of Oakesdale, on a new circular train loader which is expected to increase shipment of grain on the P & L line to the BNSF mainline at Marshall.

Bob Westby, manager of the state-owned railroad system which includes the P & L, said the group plans to seek state funding for repair of the railroad bridges between McCoy and Marshall which are expected to be subject to increased traffic with 110-car freight trains loaded at McCoy. The McCoy project is being developed by Co-Ag and Pacific Northwest Growers.

Two applications by the Port of Whitman for federal stimulus funds to replace or repair the railroad bridges failed to qualify for funding. Westby said applications for stimulus funding far exceeds the amount of money approved for the two stimulus funding rounds. The last round for funding was $500 million.

Westby said the system has received some funding from the Department of Commerce and some work is expected to be done on eight of the bridges in the coming months.