Other Headlines

County loans itself $2 million
MONTESANO — The county is loaning itself $2 million to cover its bills for the rest of the year. The transfer is needed because money in the general fund — which pays the majority of the county’s day-to-day expenses — is expected to bottom out next month.
“If it does get to the point where there’s a cash flow problem, the process is in place,” Commmissioner Terry Willis said.
Commissioners authorized an “interfund loan” to borrow from the county’s “Aberdeen Post Closure Landfill Fund” if the money is needed to cover a shortfall.
The landfill fund was set up to cover the cost of monitoring the former county landfill on Olympic Highway after it was closed in 1994 to make sure there is no environmental contamination.
The county will have to replenish the landfill fund, plus interest.

10th Street paving to begin soon
MONTESANO — After a two-year delay, paving of 10th Street is scheduled to begin in September, Public Works Director Mike Wincewicz said Tuesday.
The developers of a housing subdivision at the end of the road planned to pave in 2007, but asphalt prices soared, Wincewicz said. Now the price has dropped somewhat, he said.
Paul Willis of Willis Enterprises in Oakville told Mayor Ron Schillinger he had been waiting for asphalt prices to decrease and wanted to wait until the development was complete because heavy trucks might damage the new paving, Schillinger said.
However, the city’s position was that the road should be paved by the end of the year.
Neighbors of the development had complained over the past two years of the unfinished paving job.

Council fired up about firefighter titles
MONTESANO — Despite what their helmets and uniforms say, the Montesano Fire Department’s officers technically aren’t lieutenants or captains. They’re Officer 1s and Officer 2s.
For months, Councilman Doug Streeter has prodded Chief Ken Walkington to change the uniforms to reflect the negotiated contract. Otherwise, the firefighters’ union could argue in negotiations, as it has in the past, that the officers should be paid what lieutenants and captains in other departments are paid, Streeter said.

Bid to add rooms at Beacon approved
MONTESANO — Beacon Elementary will get two additional classrooms, but other options await later school board decisions.
Last week, school board members unanimously approved a $790,599 optional bid by contractor Bershaeur Phillips to add the two new classrooms during renovation of the school. Board member Hilary Poler was absent.


More Sports
Simpson nabs Hobby Stock Shoot Out crown
ELMA — Season point leader Zack Simpson of Hoquiam hasn’t stopped applying the pressure to his competitors all year long and this weekend was no different as he pulled away for his second consecutive Cut Rate Auto Parts Hobby Stock Shoot Out title and a $1,000 payday Saturday, Aug. 8, at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma.
Not only was this weekend host to the Shoot Out, the Grays Harbor County Fair was running simultaneously, giving race fans and fairgoers alike the opportunity to take in some dirt track racing.
Joining Simpson in victory lane was Brian Vaughan of Longview, who won the visiting Sportsman’s class feature; Brian Izzi of Olympia, who won the HiLine Homes Hornet class A-Main; and the driving team of Mike DeBoard of Satsop and Zeb Conrad of Montesano, who were tops in the Cruiser class main event.