Bulletin Column Sept. 22

Cameras are set up in preparation of the Pullman Police press conference regarding the arrest of WSU football players. See article for full story.

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 WORK ON FAIRVIEW

Colfax city crews plan a street patch operation next Wednesday and Thursday, Sept 28-29, on Fairview in south Colfax. The crew Monday installed an electric sign alerting motorists that the street will be temporarily blocked on those two days.

Public Works Director Matt Hammer reported the city plans to use a backhoe to excavate across the width of the street and that will lead to temporary traffic closures. The site will be just uphill from the city’s pump house which is located on the south side of Fairview. The crew plans to install a three-foot wide patch across the width of the street.

Hammer said they plan to temporarily place gravel in the excavated strip so motorists can cross it at night. They will remove part of the gravel the next morning to apply the asphalt.

Fairview is the main arterial to the nursing home and hospital. Motorists are advised to plan to detour around the work area via Mockonema and the Airport Road to approach from the west side.

Two unimproved city streets, Moller Road at the top of the Deanway hill and Almota Road above Hamilton Park, also can be used to get around the project, but both of those roads are in poor condition and can be hazardous.

The patch will be on the aging concrete section of upper Fairview which has sustained uplift problems in recent months. The city has used traffic cones to mark the spot.

CITY STRIKES OUT ON TRAIL GRANT

A Colfax application for a $500,000 grant to convert the former Union Pacific railroad into a trail along the S. Palouse River channel in Colfax failed to get approval last week from the state Recreation and Conservation Office board, City Administrator Mike Rizzitiello reported to the city council Monday night. The grant application was made in anticipation of the state’s plan to pull the rails which have been out of use for 10 years.

The project anticipates development of .67 miles of the railroad right-of-way from the now-closed crossing at Cooper Street and extending north to Last Street.

Rizzitiello reported Monday night the state DOT projections list removal of the rails from the track segment as early as February. He said the state wants the rails for their value, but has indicated they will sign the right-of-way over to the city. The railroad is believed to be located on property which at one time served as Lake Street inside the city.

The city also has already purchased former railroad siding property for development of a walkway project in the Eells Park area. The walkway would be on the north end of the planned trail project from Cooper Street.

Rizzitiello said the Colfax application was scored on the lower third among approximately 25 RCO applications from around the state. Available funds are distributed in order of scoring, and the amount available normally extends down the list far enough to cover the top five projects in the rating.

The city has also applied for a $102,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for possible development of art displays as part of the trail project.

COLFAX

RAILROAD MEET DEC. 7

Mayor Todd Vanek reported to the city council Monday night that the Colfax area meeting to determine the fate of the now idle rail line between Colfax and Pullman has been scheduled for Dec. 7 at The Center on Main Street.

The Colfax session will be one of a series of local public meetings to discuss the fate of the rail line which runs from Colfax to Pullman. Other local meetings will be in Albion, Pullman and at Washington State University.

The railroad line has been proposed for use as a Colfax-Pullman trail, but Vanek stressed the series of meetings is intended to advise the state Department of Transportation about what should be done with the right-of-way. The DOT is expected to present the results of the railroad sessions to the legislature.

STATE INMATE CONVICTED ON METH CHARGE

Victoria Fowler, 28, was sentenced to the three months in jail after she pleaded guilty in superior court Friday to a charge of possession of methamphetamine. Fowler was arrested last Nov. 20 when Pullman Police entered a room at the Holiday Inn and found her in the process of injecting heroin into her arm.

Fowler was brought here from the state’s Women’s Corrections Center at Purdy where she is serving a sentence for possession of drugs with intent to deliver in Kittitas County. The sentence here will run concurrently with the Kittitas County sentence.

According to the arrest report, Pullman officers went to the Holiday Inn last Nov. 20 after a member of the hotel staff recognized Theodore Fowler who had checked into the room with Victoria Fowler. He was allegedly identified because the employee had seen him on a television crime show.

Theodore Fowler has been charged here with possession of heroin and is now sought on a warrant for failing to appear in court for an arraignment.

A warrant had also been ordered for Victoria Fowler, but she was later determined to be in prison on the Kittitas County conviction. The court ordered her to be transported here from Purdy for plea and sentencing on the charge here.

She was also ordered to pay a $2,000 drug fine and $800 in costs and fees.

ARTS COUNCIL VISITS CITY COUNCIL

Members of the Colfax Arts Council visited Monday night’s city council session. The council has now been in existence for 10 years, according to Debbie Anderson, former president of the group who represented the council at Monday night’s meeting.

Anderson said the council began with a group headed by Dick Gebhardt who painted the mural of an early Colfax village scene on the south wall of the Sandbagger Tavern building on Main Street. The Main Street banners and the Meet the Artist series at the library have been other arts council projects. She noted the council now has an inventory of 80 street banners and would like to find more ways to display them.

The group told the city council they would like to be consulted concerning projects that involve public art which the city might consider in the future. They believe public art needs to be designed and displayed to complement both the community and the art itself. The council now has approximately 20 members, and Anderson said they would certainly welcome new members to increase the ranks.

NOVAK

SENTENCED TO 21 MONTHS

Michael Novak, 48, Colfax, was sentenced Friday to 21 months in prison by Superior Court Judge David Frazier. Novak was arrested in March on charges of assault, voyeurism and indecent liberties after two women reported Novak was secretly taking pictures in his bathroom and bedroom of visitors at his residence in the Wilcox area. He pleaded guilty to the charges May 6, but the status of the pleas came under question because Novak later requested and was granted an examination to determine his competency. The judge later ruled the results of the examination determined Novak’s competency to stand trial.

The 21-month sentence is the bottom of the standard sentencing range for the most serious of the three offenses, indecent liberties without forcible compulsion.

Novak had been scheduled for sentencing Aug. 26. He had requested a sexual offender sentencing alternative which would have converted some of the sentence to treatment time. The judge Aug. 26 said Novak had been determined to be not amenable to treatment but extended the sentencing decision to Friday. The alternative sentence was not allowed. Novak will be allowed credit for time served.

Novak was ordered to have no contact with the victims and two others and placed on three years of community custody. He was ordered to not possess or have access to recording devices, register as a sex offender, undergo evaluation and submit and pay for any polygraph examinations required by his probation officer.

PULLMAN CHIEF REPORTS ARRESTS

In an unusual news conference Friday afternoon in the Pullman City Council chambers, Pullman Police Chief Gary Jenkins announced two WSU football players had been arrested in connection with the early-morning fight July 23 at a residence on Oak Street in Pullman, from which two WSU students were taken to the hospital for treatment.

At the start of the hour-long session, Jenkins noted the department normally does not announce arrests at news conferences, but said the high level of public concern and interest about the fight and other arrests led him to call the session. WSU Athletic Director Bill Moos also participated in the session which brought television news crews from Spokane and area and campus reporters.

The chief reported WSU football staff members Friday morning “surrendered” Toso Fehoko, 19, and Robert Barber, 22, who were arrested and booked at Pullman on charges of second-degree assault. Both were later released.

The chief reported Pullman officers interviewed 61 out of 65 potential witnesses from the Oak Street fight. Among the 61 witnesses, 22 were WSU football players.

The report said when officers arrived at the scene Jackson Raney, 24, a WSU student, was on the ground unconscious, and Alex Rodriguez, 22, also a WSU student, was on the ground bleeding from the mouth. Both were taken to Pullman Regional Hospital.

Fehoko allegedly punched Rodriguez in the head. Rodriguez, who was struck by others when he was knocked down, sustained a broken jaw. The chief reported others involved were unknown. Barber was alleged to have punched Raney after he had been downed. Barber Sept. 15 was reportedly expelled from WSU by the student conduct board but allowed to remain in school and on the team while he appeals the expulsion.

Dylan Axelson, 18, also a WSU football player, was identified as throwing punches during the melee, but Chief Jenkins said the 19 seconds of phone videos police were able to obtain show Axelson was acting in self defense and will not be charged.

Pullman Police have also asked the prosecutors to file disorderly conduct charges against Dylan Rollins, 19, for provoking the conflict involved in the Axelson exchange, and against Pedro Diaz, 19, for provoking another altercation at the scene.

Part of statements leading up to Friday’s arrest announcement was a report early last week that WSU Coach Mike Leach believed football players were being targeted for arrest by police. Both Chief Jenkins and Moos Friday said they did not believe the players were being targeted. Both pointed out football players are known on campus and are easily recognizable by their size.

Moos was asked why Coach Leach said he thought the players were targeted, and Moos replied he believes that is the way Leach felt about the situation and probably still feels that way.

Investigation reports on two other WSU gridders, Shalom Luani and Logan Tago, have also been sent to the prosecutor’s office by the Pullman Police department. Luani is a suspect for second-degree assault for an alleged fight at the Pullman Domino’s Pizza Aug. 24, and Tago is a robbery suspect for allegedly taking beer from a man in Pullman June 4.