North Main Avenue is nearing having it’s final grade with many truckloads brought in the past few weeks.  When completed, the pavement will be more than ten feet higher than the old roadbed, placing this street well above any past flood levels.  There still needs to be a 2 inch pressure sewer installed in the street which will provide sewage from the wildlife refuge.  One of the employees of the contractor said that they may get curbs installed this week and possibly paving  done before Thanksgiving.   However, he said it would be more likely the first week of December.

We’re all looking forward to the completion of this project which began  after July 4th week-end.

The National Weather Service promised that an east wind would scour out the low clouds and fog today.  But this morning was very foggy.  Drops of condensation formed on a spider web on my porch.  Would it be like this all day?  However, an hour later the fog and low clouds disappeared and the sun came out.

The early morning sun lit up N Main Ave  from North of the Liberty Theatre

North Main Avenue from south of Pioneer

The setting sun lit up Pioneer street nicely.  It was a glorious day to celebrate Veteran’s Day.

 

 

 

 

The sunset last evening was beautiful.  Sunrises and sunsets all week have been great.  Yesterday driving out of Abrams Park it was dark.  Up the hill  there was a blaze of light as the sun lit up the big leaf maples.  It was worth taking a photograph.

At the Hidden Village subdivision North of Depot street, there are few evergreen trees.  Rather, there are oak, ash, cottonwood,big leaf maple, vine maple, and the only Pacific dogwood in this section of creek.  Native trees here don’t have the brilliant reds and oranges like the Northeast but still are  a bright contrast to the green just a few weeks ago

The row of street trees on Simons seen from the post office are bright red this time of year, but the setting sun made them even more brilliant.  We have only a few more weeks left to enjoy the fall colors, then all these leaves will be on the ground.  Soon,we will see those gray damp days and not see much sunshine.  It does look that the weather should be nice through the end of the month.  The national weather service predicts a slightly warmer fall and winter. Since there is no longer an El Nino(dry) or a La Nina(wet), the NWS  has no real prediction about how much rain we get this fall and winter.

contributed by Paul Snoey

 

Tonight I went to the City Council meeting, and I was happy I did, because there was so much going on.

As I came up to the RACC, Shawn Donaghy of C Tran was speaking about the new Ridgefield-themed bus. Look for it on the streets of Clark County – it’s very impressive.

The other side of the bus has photos of our sports teams – sorry I didn’t get a picture of that.

Then, inside the building, Mayor Don Stose proclaimed this month as Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Toni Bonacci, owner of the Ridgefield Raptors presented a framed memento of this summer’s games, with a picture taken Opening Day, sample tickets, and the line up of the two teams.

The Raptors were popular – average attendance this summer was 1200 people, and 68 seasonal employees were hired. Plus it sounds like the players loved being in Ridgefield.

Bill Bauman talked about the success of his Green Bag Project, which collects food bi monthly to take to Neighbors Helping Neighbors. There were 480 food donors, and over two tons of food has been donated in the last two years.

Don Walkinshaw, Director of Public Safety for the Cowlitz Tribe presented a check  to the Ridgefield Police Department for use of some of our equipment.

All-in-all, a full evening! It’s too bad more people don’t attend these meetings – they are very informative.

 

 

 

This photo was taken Saturday morning downstream from the new N Main culvert.  I had hiked down thru the woods below HiddenVillage to get this view.  On Friday, I had also hiked down and saw that the work area was fairly dry.  Above that, the earthen dam was intact and the large pump was able to keep up with the flow from two days of moderate rain.  Crews were busy on the stream bank above and below the culvert.  They were laying down fabric and doing stream bank restoration.   Early Saturday  morning beginning at about 2 AM, we had a few hours of very hard rain.  For  three days, we had a rain total of about two inches ending Saturday morning.  When I checked the staff gauge in Abrams  Park it showed a flow of more than 150,000 gallons/minute, much more than any pump could handle.  Looking through the culvert,  you can see the remnants of the earthen dam that was washed away early Saturday.  It meant that all the yards of dirt that made the dam were washed downstream.  On Monday, the hoses that had pumped the streamflow past the site were removed.   The project was close to the point that the flow could have been restored, so that makes sense.   However, it needed to be done in a way that prevented sediment from entering the stream.

This morning I noticed the electric signboard on 289th Street said the detour  would last until December 31st.  The original time was October 3rd,then Oct 16th, then November 29th, and now New Year’s Eve.

There has been a great deal of silence about this project.  There has been a lot about this project that needs to be explained in some official capacity.   Clearly, things have not gone as originally scheduled.  The delay interferes with emergency responders, the ability of people to commute, and others things such as school bus routing.  Who is paying for the extra costs, why the long delay, and who is responsible?

Contributed by Paul Snoey

Ridgefield Candidates Forum…Friday October 11 at 7:00 p.m. at Clark County Fire & Rescue’s community room (911 N 65th Avenue Ridgefield)

Attend this event to meet local Ridgefield candidates Scott Hughes and David Kelly (for Ridgefield Port Commission #2), Dana Ziemer and Matt Swindell (for Ridgefield City Council #2), Rob Aichele and Darren Wertz (for Ridgefield City Council #5), and Ronald Rowan and Sandra Day (for Ridgefield City Council #7). Councilors Lee Wells and Jennifer Lindsay are running unopposed and will not be attending. Cosponsored with local Ridgefield citizens.

Thanks to all who participated in the Davidson Insurance Referral Program during September. Twenty-one quotes were given and Davidson donated $525 for the remodeled Ridgefield Library. We will post a picture of  some of the Friends of the Library accepting the check in the near future.

The people at Davidson Insurance have been supportive of the library for many years. We thank them.

Have you donated yet? We’re getting down to the wire. Naming opportunities are available for new donations.

 

The correct date for the Ridgefield Candidates meeting is Friday, October 11, from 7 to 9 pm in the meeting room at the Fire Station, 911 North 65th Avenue.

 

The work area is flooded halting work on the section of N Main Ave and Gee Creek.  The work area is dependent on a pump to move water upstream to down stream of the work area.  We have had some heavy rain yesterday through this morning. The staff gauge in Abrams Park showed a flow of 70 cubic feet/second or 31,000 gallons a minute.  It is much too much for the pump and the creek has backed up almost to Heron Ridge Drive.  There will be some  more rain this week and flows should stay higher for a while.  Usually flows are less than 5 cubic feet/second in late summer.

~ Contributed by Paul Snoey

Another anonymous donor has pledged $10,000 for the Library Building Fund. thanks to the hard work of Rick Smithrud of the Fort Vancouver Library Foundation. This put us farther along the road to getting our newly remodeled library.

Now if only we had ten more donations of this size we could start building the library next spring.

 It’s easy to donate to the library building fund. Make your check out to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library and mail it to PO Box 534, Ridgefield, WA 98642, or take it to the library. Contributions may be tax deductible.

If you want to be a Cornerstone member by donating $1000, the money can be paid in regular increments, but you do need to sign a form in order for the Treasurer to track payments. There are other levels of giving also. Each major donor will receive recognition on a display in the new library. You can designate your donation be used only for the building fund if you like.

The student-run coffee shop is being constructed at the RACC. Plans are to have it open in early October, but this gives you a preview of the location and design.

More on this later…