Other Headlines
County cuts loom
MONTESANO — County Commissioners are closing in on cutting the budget to cover a drop in expected revenue this year. A public hearing will be held at 2 p.m. May 18 in the commissioners’ chambers at the courthouse in Montesano. There are still some details to be worked out, but the gist of the cuts is known.

Commissioners dealt with a $1.5 million shortfall in the $26 million operating budget by asking department heads to come up with 6 percent cuts. Every county department, except the Superior Court, cut costs by raising fees, applying for grants, eliminating positions, working fewer paid hours among other cuts. The cuts total about $1.25 million; there are also an expected revenue increases of about $204,000 in raised fees and grants.

Swine flu over the cuckoo’s nest?
The swine flu pandemic fortunately didn’t pan out as feared but allowed a real-life opportunity to try new public emergency response, said Joan Brewster, director of the county Public Health and Social Services Department.

“We are now seeing this as a mild illness,” she said Monday. Concern about the virus caused her department to be busy — fielding queries from the public and communicating with health officials around the state — Brewster said.

For example, Web site traffic more than doubled last week from 5,882 hits the prior week to 14,432, she said. Her department added information about the swine flu and links to other swine flu resources.

Wynooche River waste removed
WYNOOCHE VALLEY — There’s a knack to pulling plastic out of riverbank trees with a pole: turn and twist like spaghetti on a fork. It’s not as easy as it may sound. Nature has a way of tying knots tighter than a seaman and balancing on the bow of a bobbing boat doesn’t make the job any easier.

However, it’s a job volunteers have spent the past several weekends doing to clear up several miles of the Wynooche River littered with tattered remnants of plastic hay bale covers deposited during floods in the past several years.

“This stuff went everywhere the water went,” said Rick Ereth, a fish biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, who worked with co-workers Curt Holt and Scott Harris last weekend. The three have been volunteering or working, depending on whether they need to use state equipment, to remove the debris this spring.

More Sports
Chehalis 10-runs Elma baseball
CHEHALIS — Posting runs in each inning but the fourth, Chehalis overpowered Elma in five innings 10-0 in a 2A Evergreen Conference baseball match-up Thursday, April 30, at Chehalis.
The Bearcats tallied single runs in the first and second frames, before a 5-run outburst in the third inning set the stage for the mercy-rule victory. The Eagles only managed two hits in the loss that drops them to 5-7 in league play and 7-8 overall for the season.

Monte fastpitch holds off Holy Names
SEATTLE — A big fifth inning helped propel Montesano over Class 3A Holy Names 8-4 in a non-league fastpitch match-up Friday, May 1, at Seattle’s Lower Woodland Park.

The Bulldogs scored five times in the top of the fifth inning to set the stage for victory and tacked on two more in the sixth frame, which gave them enough breathing room to withstand a four-run rally in the final two innings by the Cougars.

Aubree Pocklington delivered two RBIs for Montesano, while teammates Erica Rydman, Courtney Lloyd, Michaela Ecklund and Tori Erickson also registered an RBI each.

Monte’s Devyn Baker went all seven innings in the circle, striking out five in the process. With the win, Montesano improves to 13-1 overall for the season.

Grizzly golfers down Bulldogs
COSMOPOLIS — Keeping all of its counting scores under 60, Hoquiam upended Montesano 275-312 in a non-league girls golf match-up at Highlands Golf Course in Cosmopolis.
Hoquiam’s Kelsey Klein took medalist honors with a 49.
Montesano’s low-scorer was Missy Gregorius, who carded a 50.