Other Headlines

Study: Mark Reed should move to Elma
ELMA — Locate the new Mark Reed Hospital in Elma.
So recommends the consulting firm hired last summer by Grays Harbor Public Hospital District No. 1 to perform a market analysis of where the new hospital currently being planned might be best located.
“The numbers all point to Elma,” Marc Sauvé, senior healthcare strategist with Nashville-based Gresham, Smith and Partners, told the district’s commissioners Jan. 28. The company’s bid for performing the study, which was not to exceed $27,500 in cost, was approved last August.

Lotsa love, little money
MONTESANO — There’s no money, but there’s a plan for the future at Lake Sylvia and Schafer state parks.
State Parks staff presented a draft plan for the parks Thursday, Jan. 28, to nearly 50 folks gathered at city hall.
“We have no funding, but we have a lot of love, and I think that will help us get through this,” state parks region planner Mike Hankinson said.
Comments on the plan are due Feb. 11. Plan copies are available online at www.parks.wa.gov/plans/lksylvia-schafer.

More timber money coming
MONTESANO — The county’s financial hole might not be as deep as initially projected. Newly revised estimates of timber revenue from State Forest Lands call for up to $1.06 million more in 2010 than the prior October estimate.
Forest revenue in the first half of the year still looks pretty bleak but picks up in the second half of the year, according to the state Department of Natural Resources’ Jan. 20 projections.

4 contend for McCleary job
McCLEARY — Four McCleary residents have submitted letters of interest in filling the Position 2 city council seat vacated last Dec. 31 by Don Hays, who resigned because of his work schedule. In alphabetical order, they are:
• Amber DiGerlando, who moved to town in 2008. She said she’s “concerned for the safety and health” of her family and neighbors and realized “I need to become more active in my community.” She wants a full-time police force, improvements in the public hospital district and school system, to see McCleary grow while keeping its “charm” and to “make sure that we continue to protect the air we breathe and water we drink.”
• Jeffery Geer, a volunteer McCleary firefighter who noted he’s also volunteered with the town’s annual Bear Festival, the East County Relay For Life cancer event and youth sports teams. Besides being “an active member of this community for a long time,” Geer wrote that he is also “familiar with the needs of this town, as well as the challenges McCleary faces in the future.”
• David Sisk, who lost his bid for the Position 3 council seat to Mike Lant last November. Sisk, who said five generations of his family have lived in McCleary, noted he has been a volunteer McCleary firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic and the city’s ambulance director. Employed by the Thurston County Chamber of Commerce, Sisk says his career has given him a “new understanding and awareness” of community service, as well as economic development.
• Randall Tremain, who made an unsuccessful bid in last year’s primary for the Position 4 seat Brent Schiller was elected to. The state probation officer and McCleary Planning Commission member has served as vice president of the Washington Correctional Association, a member lobbyist for the Washington State Federation of Employees and in other towns. He says it’s the duty of those who can to “carry out the work that keeps a city functioning and acting as a benefit to its citizens” and that he’s able to work with others toward common goals, be “fair and reasonable” and open to new ideas.
The four current council members, Lant, Schiller, Ray Boling and Bennie Ator, plan to appoint the new council member at their Feb. 10 meeting. Should a tie vote occur, Mayor Gary Dent is authorized by law to break it by a vote of his own.
Council members serve “at large,” meaning they don’t represent specific portions of the city.
The unexpired Position 2 term runs through 2011. To retain the seat, the new council member would need to win next year’s general election, according to Grays Harbor County elections administrator, Julie Murphy.

More Sports

Montesano boys cruise past Rochester, 62-46
MONTESANO — Setting a pace that Rochester could not handle, Montesano slowly pulled out to a 62-46 1A Evergreen League boys basketball victory Friday, Jan. 29, at Bo Griffith Memorial Gymnasium.
An evenly played first quarter left the teams at the same spot they began in, as both Monte and Rochester hit for 16 points in the opening period. The Bulldogs saw senior Jack Aldrich and Josh Tyler start to heat up; Aldrich hit six of Monte’s first points, Tyler added a pair of three-pointers, and junior Doug Benedict got in the act with a couple buckets.

Elma boys hold off Tumwater, 66-62, in nail-biter
ELMA — The Eagles went from a team that couldn’t miss in the first half to a team that couldn’t pass and beat the press in the second half.
Despite numerous mid-court turnovers late in the game, Elma’s early lights-out shooting early buoyed them long enough to pull out a 66-62 2A Evergreen Conference boys basketball victory over Tumwater on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at Elma High School’s gymnasium.

Eagle grapplers take down Bobcats
ELMA — Behind the strength of nine match wins, Elma knocked off Aberdeen 46-27 in a 2A Evergreen Conference meet Thursday, Jan. 28, at Elma’s High School Gymnasium.
Elma’s Luke Boyer (130-pounds), Kody Bensinger (152), Jesse Anderson (160) and Mike Bowe (215) each notched pin-fall victories for the Eagles. Boyer stuck Aberdeen’s Dyllyn Rhodes, Bensinger topped Kurt Teeters, Anderson pinned Chad Coates, and Bowe triumphed over Dale McCauley.