Comcast Cares for Seaport Landing

Comcast Cares is returning to Aberdeen, this time focusing on the new Seaport Landing before the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain return in June.

The Lady and Chieftain return to Seaport Landing on June 5th and the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport is looking for volunteers to help them get ready.

Comcast Cares will be joining with GHHSA on Saturday and Sunday, April 26th & 27th in South Aberdeen as they paint, garden, landscape, and build on the landing.

According to the official page for the event, this project is looking for up to 120 volunteer registrations.

The Seaport says that you should bring your own gloves, both work and weather as they will be working rain or shine.

For more information, contact Aaron Mefford at Aaron_Mefford@cable.comcast.com

Project Detail

Grays Harbor Public Hospital signatures needed by Friday

The Grays Harbor Community Hospital has until Friday to get their 2000 signatures in order to put a measure on the ballot to become a public hospital district, and while many residents have already signed, more are needed.

A petition to form the new public hospital must be signed by at least 10% of the registered voters that live within the proposed district.

As a public hospital, Grays Harbor would qualify for additional funding to maintain employees and service under newly approved Sole Community Hospital legislation.

Taxes to residents would equal approximately $4.17 a month for every $100,000 in property value.

All 2,000 signatures must be collected by Friday.

Petition Forms are available to sign at the Grays Harbor Community Hospital main registration desk, an official Facebook page for the petition lists many places to find and sign and employees will be at businesses in the area collecting signatures.

All registered voters who live west of the Satsop River are asked to sign the petition.

For more information on where you can sign, go to Facebook.com/GHPHD.

Retail marijuana license lottery announced for this month

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Liquor Control Board have approved a lottery that will select the applicants for marijuana retail licenses that may move forward. The independent, double-blind process will take place April 21-25, and will produce a list of applicants that the agency will use to continue its retail licensing process. The agency expects to begin issuing retail licenses no later than the first week of July.

Initiative 502 directed the WSLCB to limit the number of marijuana retail stores by county.

In its rules, the WSLCB limited the number of stores statewide to 334. The most populated cities within each county are allotted a maximum number of stores with the remainder at large within the county.

Grays Harbor is allowed 6 retail locations total; 1 in Aberdeen, 1 in Hoquiam, 1 in Ocean Shores, and 3 others in other areas. Only 2 stores are allowed in Pacific County.

The rules state that if the WSLCB receives more applications for a jurisdiction than there are stores allocated the state would use a lottery process for producing a ranked order of applicants.

Both counties have 25 applications pending according to the WSLCB. At least half of the locations listed for Grays Harbor have either backed out, are under citywide blockages, or have addresses within 1000 feet of a park.

Being identified as the apparent successful applicant is not a guarantee that the selected applicant will receive a license. There are multiple requirements for licensure such as the applicant must pass a criminal history and financial investigation as well as have a location that is not within 1,000 feet of a school, park or other area specified by Initiative 502 as places where children congregate.

The WSLCB began pre-qualifying applicants for the lottery the weekend of Feb. 21-23. WSLCB licensing staff is currently reviewing pre-qualifying packets.

Initial estimates of returned packets show that despite repeated notices and reminders to applicants, roughly 25 percent did not return the required documents at all. Of the returned packets, anywhere between 20-50 percent are incomplete, thus disqualifying them from the retail lottery.

The WSLCB is expected to post the ordered list of applicants for each jurisdiction in the public records section of the agency website on May 2, 2014.

5 people arrested thanks to tip from the public

Aberdeen Police arrested 5 people at a home on multiple warrants and new charges thanks to a tip from the public.

Aberdeen Police Captain John Green told KXRO that officers got a tip about a home in the 700 block of W. 1st St that drug activity was occurring.

A 29 year old Aberdeen male transient was arrested on a Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office (GHSO) and Aberdeen Municipal Court (AMC) misdemeanor arrest warrant and a new felony drug charge.
A 24 year old Aberdeen woman was arrested on an AMC, GHSO felony and misdemeanor arrest warrant.
A 29 year old Aberdeen woman was arrested on an Elma misdemeanor arrest warrant.
A 20 year old Aberdeen woman was arrested on an AMC arrest warrant and a new drug charge.
A 24 year old Aberdeen man was arrested on a Hoquiam PD misdemeanor arrest warrant.

Grays Harbor unemployment increases, moves out of top 2

Grays Harbor unemployment increased from January to February, now set at 12.3%. With an increase of 0.7% from January, the number is still lower than last year when the rate was 13.9%.

Despite the increase, the county has moved out of the top 2 for the first time since February of 2013, when Grays Harbor was in 3rd place within the state. In 2012, unemployment was 14%, 14.1% in 2011, 15.7% in 2010 and 2009, and 7.8% in 2008.

Labor economist Jim Vleming said that Grays Harbor and the coast are moving out of the recession, along with the remainder of the state, but the process is slow.

Pacific County dropped in February, from 11.6% in January to 11.3% for February.

Ferry County is showing the highest unemployment numbers at 13.7% for February, with Pend Oreille at 12.6%, and Whatcom tied with Grays Harbor at 12.3%.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the private sector gained 1,900 jobs over the month and the public sector gained 600 jobs. Estimates for February 2013 to February
2014 indicate an increase in employment of 54,400 for the state.

Statewide, unemployment sits at 6.4%, with over 85% of the counties showing numbers higher. The national unemployment rate has been seasonally adjusted to 6.7%

PUD outage planned from Elma to McCleary

The Grays Harbor PUD and the City of McCleary have coordinated a planned power outage which will impact PUD customers east of Elma to the McCleary city limits. The outage will begin at 11:45 pm on April 12, and will impact customers for 10 hours.

During the outage, multiple PUD crews will undertake maintenance work on transmission lines, including the replacement of five deteriorating power poles.

The outage will impact PUD customers on the Elma-McCleary Road from the Grays Harbor County Fairgrounds to the McCleary city limits. All customers on the Cloquallum Road will be impacted, including those on the Upper Falls Creek, Bush Creek and Powers Creek Roads and customers on the Stamper Road from Cloquallum Road to Upper Falls Creek Road. All customers off the Elma Hicklin Road will be impacted, as will customers on Heise Road, Rosemary Lane North and South and McKnight Road.

In preparation for this outage, customers are advised to take precautions with any electronic equipment and leave them disconnected until after the power has been fully restored.

The outage time of 10 hours is only an estimate and power could be restored at anytime as work is completed.

Boat runs aground on Westport jetty

The Coast Guard was able to rescue 4 recreational boaters after they ran aground near Westport on Sunday.

Coast Guard Station Grays Harbor received a distress call from a good Samaritan that said a boat with four people aboard had run aground on the south jetty.

The four people were wearing lifejackets and had no visible injuries.

Crewmembers launched a life boat and a ground crew to the scene, while a Jayhawk helicopter was also sent from Astoria.

Three of the four boaters were able to walk the jetty to shore while the fourth was hoisted aboard the helicopter and taken to Station Grays Harbor where local emergency medical support was waiting.

Crewmembers were able to pull the boat off the jetty and tow it to shore.

There was no report of pollution.

Renovation projects underway at Grays Harbor Raceway

The ink is barely dry on the contract and Funtime Promotions say that they are already working full speed at Grays Harbor Raceway.

There are many renovation projects getting underway as the 2014 season quickly approaches. Danny Kirkpatrick and K&B Excavating are busy reshaping the pit parking area. “The reshaping project will allow the pit parking area to drain and dry much quicker after a rain storm” said General Manager Steve Beitler, “The reshaping and a slightly different parking pattern will make the pit area a lot nicer for the teams. We want to improve the lighting and the sound system in the pit area this summer also”.

Other renovation projects underway are a total makeover in the main concession and upgrades to all the other concessions. “There are a lot of projects that need to be done, we will gradually get them upgraded one by one.” said Beitler, “We are committed to give the racers and the fans a great place to enjoy their Saturday Nights!”

Search continues for missing Elma man

The search is continuing for a missing Elma man.

On Wednesday, between 3 pm and 4 pm, 59 year old Richard Park walked away from his home in the 1900 block of W. Star Lake Drive in Elma.

The Mason County Sheriff’s Office was called and began a search & rescue mission.

As of Thursday morning, Richard had not been found and efforts continued with search and rescue teams from Grays Harbor, Mason, and Thurston Counties, as well as aircraft from the Washington Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.

Richard needs to be cared for and his family is extremely concerned.

If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of Richard Park, please immediately call 911 or contact the Mason County Sheriff’s Office at 360-427-7761, case # 14-03449.

RICHARD LAWRENCE PARK, 59 YEARS OLD
DOB: 07/03/1954

WHITE MALE, GRAY GOATEE, 6’-00” TALL, 185 LBS., GRAY HAIR, BROWN EYES

LAST SEEN IN THE 1900 BLOCK OF W. STAR LAKE DRIVE, ELMA, WA, POSSIBLY CARRYING A FISHING POLE

NO VEHICLES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PERSON.

NOTE: FAMILY MEMBERS STATE THAT DUE TO RICHARD’S BRAIN CANCER, HIS FUNCTIONAL AGE IS ABOUT 12 YEARS OLD AND HIS BEHAVIOR CLOSELY RESEMBLES THAT OF AN ALZHEIMERS PATIENT.

LAW ENFORCEMENT NOTE: RICHARD PARK HAS A FELONY PROBATION VIOLATION ARREST WARRANT DATED FROM 1997 FOR RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY.

Grays Harbor Community Hospital ranks among most affordable in Washington

Nerd Wallet, a website ranking businesses by savings, has recently expanded their focus to include “best hospitals” by state. The new website tool is meant to help patients investigate the cost of hospital care in their local area. They analyzed the 100 most common treatments at 47 hospitals in Washington, to identify the most affordable hospitals.

Grays Harbor Community Hospital ranked 5th among the top 10 most affordable facilities within Washington.

The website says, “Grays Harbor has a patient satisfaction rate of 64% and provides affordable treatments for heart attacks, injuries to cartilage in the knee and sepsis.”

Tom Jensen, CEO said in a release to KXRO that, “We understand that healthcare can be very expensive; Grays Harbor Community Hospital works to ensure that our costs are fair and competitive, especially in our rural community.”

“Our goal is to ensure that these cost effective services remain available in our area. We are asking the community to support us as we move forward in requesting voters’ approval of a Public Hospital District #2 in Grays Harbor County. Being ranked as one of the most affordable hospitals in the entire State of Washington is further evidence that Grays Harbor Community Hospital is worth fighting for,” said Tom Jensen, CEO.

The Most Affordable Hospitals in Washington
1. Olympic Medical Center—Port Angeles, WA
2. Central Washington Hospital—Wenatchee, WA
3. Island Hospital—Anacortes, WA
4. Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital—Yakima, WA
5. Grays Harbor Community Hospital—Aberdeen, WA
6. Samaritan Healthcare—Moses Lake, WA
7. PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center—Bellingham, WA
8. Wenatchee Valley Medical Center—Wenatchee, WA
9. Virginia Mason Medical Center—Seattle, WA
10. Kadlec Regional Medical Center—Richland, WA

For more information please visit: http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/health/2014/03/10/best-hospitals-washington/