Other Headlines

County jobs on the line
MONTESANO — The county’s budget crunch is serious enough that commissioners are asking the county’s union employees to agree to a wage freeze and continued furloughs. Elected officials, non-union employees and other exempt workers face the same cuts to help fill a $3 million gap in the 2010 budget.

Without the concessions, the county will have to cut jobs and service, commissioners said.

They met Tuesday and Wednesday with the leaders of departments unable to meet the 10 percent cuts commissioners had requested earlier this month.

Commissioners met with Prosecutor Stew Menefee, Sheriff Mike Whelan, Auditor Vern Spatz and District Court Judges Thomas Copland and Stephen Brown Tuesday. They were slated to meet with Clerk Cheryl Brown, Juvenile Court Administrator Greg Reynvaan, Superior Court Judges Mark McCauley, Gordon Godfrey and Dave Edwards and Coroner Dan Burns on Wednesday after The Vidette’s deadline.

Preliminary budget calculations show the county receiving nearly $22.3 million in revenue next year, but the initial budget requests call for nearly $25.3 million in expenditures, Budget Director Rose Elway said.

That means the projected beginning fund balance of just over $3 million would be depleted if all requests were filled, leaving just $25 in county coffers, she said.

ORV Park to lay off three full-timers
MONTESANO — In what boiled down locally to a choice between Lake Sylvia State Park and the county Off Road Vehicle park, state leaders picked the state park, Commissioner Terry Willis said.
County commissioners Monday authorized the lay-offs of three ORV Park fulltime employees, along with seasonal staff at the park. The lay-offs leave park manager Dolores Noyes and an office assistant to manage the park through the winter when it is closed. Commissioners anticipate some of the employees could be re-hired in spring.

Money in the bank
MONTESANO — The school district started the school year with nearly $150,000 left; better than finance director Shiela Baker predicted in July.

However, there’s still some more expenditures that count against last school year’s budget that will knock the numbers down a bit by the time the budget is closed out in November, Baker told the school board Thursday evening, Sept. 17.

“It’s still looking like its going to be a positive number,” Baker said, but the district will have to continue clamping down on the budget.
In July, when the school board adopted the 2009-2010 budget, Baker said about $102,000 would be needed as “carryover” for spending in specific programs this school year.

The adopted budget anticipated a starting fund balance of negative $10,000, but that figure included $25,000 for summer emergencies that never materialized.

The $11 million budget is designed to dig the district out of debt. Because the district spent more money in 2007-2008 than it had, it is being monitored by Educational Service District 113.

The current budget is nearly $601,000 less than the 2008-2009 budget, reflecting heavy reductions in state funding and 7.53 percent reduction due to spending cuts.

Monte PD to stay at 8
MONTESANO — City council members had little desire Tuesday evening to discuss cutting the police department. Mayor Ron Schillinger proposed the elimination of a position that has been vacant since the beginning of the year. He cited his recent comparison study of comparable cities, which found Montesano has more police than similar-sized cities and pays highly per capita for police service — $714 per household — compared to the rest of the state.

“I wanted to have the discussion,” Schillinger said.

Councilman Chris Hutchings pointed out that the study also showed Montesano has the lowest rate of crime of the cities compared.

“As a parent, I want a safe community,” he said.

The Public Safety Committee discussed the issue and felt the need to fill the position, Councilman Chris Thomas said. When the city discussed options to police the city several years ago, citizens soundly denounced the idea of contracting with the county, Councilman Pat Herrington said.

“The citizens were plain, loud and clear,” he said. “They liked the police force as it is.”

The police department increased from seven to eight patrol officers, including the chief and deputy chief in 1995, Chief Ray Sowers said.

“We’re asking to maintain what we’ve had for years,” Sowers said.

Since then, the call volume has increased significantly, but he didn’t have exact numbers available because of a computer problem, Sowers said.

Woman wins suit
McCLEARY — A jury of seven men and five women ruled that the defendants were negligent and awarded a former McCleary woman $300,000 Sept. 8 in a lawsuit in which she said she was attacked and nearly murdered in 2006 by her husband. Her suit claimed that McCleary Police had been told her husband was planning to kill her but had not informed her of that fact.

Defendants in the Grays Harbor Superior Court case included the City of McCleary and McCleary Police Sgt. John Graham and his wife. The monetary award was reduced by $50,000 because of “damages” the woman could have “mitigated,” the jury also ruled.

Tamara Quimby alleged that another McCleary resident told Graham that Kevin Quimby had said he was planning to kill his wife, then himself. The officer’s “failure to contact Tamara Quimby to advise her of the threats that had been made against her and to prevent a future attack constitutes a breach of duty” by law, the suit asserted, adding that, as a result, Tamara Quimby “took no actions to protect herself from Mr. Quimby and placed herself in a vulnerable position that she would not have placed herself had she known of these threats.”

More Sports

No. 1 Bulldogs issue third straight shut out
MONTESANO — Three games into the season and Montesano has yet to be scored upon. On the other side of the ball the Bulldog offense has had no such difficulties paving the way for their 1A Evergreen League football opening 49-0 victory over Toledo Friday, Sept. 18, at Rottle Field. It did not take long for the Bulldogs to climb into the driver’s seat, and once there, cruise to the comfortable win, which included an appearance by the seldom seen football mercy rule. The rule states that after a team goes up by 45 points the clock only stops for timeouts — this went into effect with a minute left in the third period.

Chehalis airs it out to top Elma
ELMA — Behind three touchdowns and 232 yards passing from Chehalis quarterback Ben Ternan, the seventh-ranked Bearcats were able to upend the Eagles 34-17 in a 2A Evergreen Conference football match-up Friday, Sept. 18, at Elma’s Davis Field. With Elma’s leading rusher Zack Tornquist suspended for the rest of the season for violating team rules, the Eagles shuffled their line up to cover the open position, which included moving quarterback Tyson Sutten to running back and inserting Troy Collin at the QB position.

Bulldog volleyball sweeps Winlock
WINLOCK — Utilizing strong serves to set the tone, Montesano swept Winlock, 25-10, 25-9, 25-11, in a 1A Evergreen League volleyball match Thursday, Sept. 17, at Winlock.
Montesano’s Kara Trimble dropped in on 26 of 27 serves, while teammate Tera Novy was good on 16 of 17. The Bulldogs as a team scored 12 aces from the service line.
Up front Novy paced Monte with 10 kills, while her fellow hitter Kaitlyn Jensen added six.
Trimble had the bulk of assists in the match with 13 and Megan Truax tallied six digs.
The Bulldogs improve to 2-0 in league play with the win.
Montesano’s junior varsity squad also swept, 25-9, 25-7.