Our very own Councilwoman, Sandra Day, will compete at the Rotary Club of Three Creeks’ Dancing with the Local Stars, Saturday, March 23, 6-9 pm, at Windy Hills Winery in Ridgefield. This year’s theme is “A Night at the Movies.”

To purchase tickets or vote for one’s favorite local star with a donation, an online opportunity is available at www.rotaryofthreecreeks.com.

The six dancers will compete for best dance, voted by attendees and guest judges. The grand champion will be the local star who raises the most funds.

My face is VERY red! The Fine and Dandy Fabric Sale benefitting the library is MARCH 23, not February 23 as annnounced. Same time – 10 am to 2 pm.

Reminder – the reception honoring the Ridgefield Community Center Association (RCCA) Board for their recent donation of the building and land to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library is Sunday, February 24, from 3 to 5 pm in the small room at the Ridgefield Community Center.

All children who attend will receive a free book, compliments of the Friends of the Ridgefield Library.

The Lion’s Club Casino Night is Saturday, February 23, 7-10pm at the ilani Casino, in the Cowlitz Ballroom. Invite friends, neighbors, new members to the community. This will be a very fun night with small bites prepared by the ilani kitchen. Entry is $20 and includes 2 drink tickets, $200 in play money and eligibility to win prizes. 

Anyone that RSVP’s to sandyschill33@gmail.com or theduckmom@gmail.com will receive an extra raffle ticket for one of many prizes such as Raptor tickets, Family Season tickets for all Spudder games, $50 cash to be spent in Downtown AND throw a pie in Mayor Don Stose’s face on the 4th of July!, and more. 

Call today to reserve your spot.

Tired of the grey weather? Come and create beautiful watercolor paintings with a congenial group of artists. My next series of six classes starts Tuesday, February 26, and is geared toward beginner and intermediate artists. Even if you’ve never painted before, this class provides a very positive learning experience, and not only that it’s fun! Each class starts with a short lesson, and then you’ll paint the picture(s) of your choice. 

Class is held in my bright and cheery home studio in downtown Ridgefield.

You have the choice of a morning class, 9 to 11 am, or an afternoon class, 1 to 3 pm. Cost is $60 plus a material cost for first time students of $35. That pays for a palette loaded with paint and one brush, so you can paint at home if you want to. 

All other materials are provided.

Sign up now, 360-887-2160, or kathywinters179@gmail.com. Registration closes Sunday, February 24 because I need to buy palettes on Monday.

We had some slushy snow and rain Sunday night followed by heavy rain beginning Monday afternoon. I had about about 1.5 inches Monday and 2 inches more by 11 AM Tuesday in my rain gauge. The staff gauge on the footbridge in Abrams Park read about 9.7 feet for a flow of  1150 cubic feet/second Tuesday morning,  Unofficially, we had a 100 year rain event and a 100 year flood on Gee Creek. Public works was called out early to deal with flooding issues. Pioneer Street just east of Gee Creek had mud and debris flows and the bottom of Riemann Road was underwater as the culvert going across Pioneer backed up. North Main Avenue was closed at Depot Street as water ran across the road and formed a waterfall on the other side. The park Caretakers residence and outbuildings were flooded from a large flow where the creek had jumped its banks upstream.  It made a mess for a while but it was short lived.  By early evening the flood waters had receded and both North Main Avenue and Riemann Road were open.

The photo above is of the flood plain just below the Heron Ridge Bridge

The Gee Creek Trail at Heron Ridge was under some very fast moving water

The Park Caretakers residence and outbuildings were flooded.  City crews and court corrections crews worked to build a sandbag dike.

North Main Avenue was underwater until Tuesday Evening.  A larger culvert will be constructed later and this section of roadway will be raised above flood levels

   

Riemann Road near Pioneer was underwater for several hours.  There is a culvert that goes under both Pioneer and Bertsinger Road that is not large enough to handle extreme flows.

The remote site incubator normally sits a few feet off the creek.  It has 60,000 Coho eggs and fry in it and I thought they would be lost.  However, this morning I was able to get down there, restore flow, and clean the sediment off the eggs. There did not appear to be any mortality.  I visited the RSI on Allen Canyon Creek yesterday with Les Greear and that one is OK as well.

 

 

 

 

Last chance to mail in your ballot. Postage is pre-paid, or there’s a drop box at the Park ‘n Ride east of the junction.

This was posted on NextDoor recently – and I think it bears repeating.

“Teenagers today

Today my husband and I were walking in downtown Ridgefield. We came up on 2 teenage boys riding their skate boards toward us. As we approached the market on the corner the boy with I believe a orange (BRIGHT) cap on held the door open for his friend, but what was very nice was he waited for us to finish crossing the street and continued to wait for us as he held the door open. In my experience It seems that people are so busy these days they don’t take time to be courteous and I really appreciated this simple gesture. My husband and I were a bit surprised and extremely happy. We thanked the gentlemen and it reminded us this is what the world loves – a little bit of kindness.

If you are the parent of this child you should be proud. Thank you sir and keep it up.”

The Art of Brewing Coffee Manually with Phuong Tran, owner of Lava Java in Ridgefield.

Join us for this hands-on workshop and demonstration on how to brew the perfect cup of coffee using Chemex, French Press, and a Hario pour-over. Taste-testing is included.

Registration is required for this workshop. Please sign-up on the events calendar at www.fvrl.org. This program takes place: Saturday, January 12 at 2:00 p.m. at the Ridgefield Community Library, Saturday, January 19 at 10:30 a.m. at Three Creeks Community Library Wednesday, February 13 at 9:30 a.m. at the La Center Community Library.

These workshops are open to the public and are offered at NO cost to participants. Space, however, is limited, so please register at the FVRL site under the library offering the time and date of the workshop that best fits your schedule. Call the Ridgefield library, (360)906-4770, if you have any questions.

If you put up Christmas decorations outside your home or business, it would be nice if you monitored them frequently. Having candy canes that are in all angles of disarray and blow-up figures that are collapsed is not a good look, and certainly not the way we want Ridgefield to look.

I didn’t take any pictures, but there are a couple of very tacky looking decorations that need to be re-done.

The current Ridgefield representative for Clark County Arts Commission is Barbara AW Wright, and her term ends December 31, 2018. Liz Kolling, the co-owner of Ridgefield Arts Space, will be Barbara’s replacement on the CCAC. The city will announce her appointment at the City Council meeting on December 20th. The meeting starts at 6:30 at the Ridgefield Community Center and everyone is invited to come and support Liz in her new role.

Please join us again this year in helping the residents of the Ridgefield Living Center. We have a giving tree inside the Old Liberty Theater/Season’s Coffee. The residents have 3 wishes, mostly basic necessities, on each tag. We are a bit late in getting information out, so we ask to return the tags by December 17th. We also have some envelopes if a cash donation is easier for you, then we will do the shopping.

Thank you Ridgefield for your generosity.