NCWBusiness.com NCW Winter Recreation Guide 2013-2014 supplement inside. By Sebastian Moraga Staff writer Vince Lombardi was right. Winning isn’t everything. Lombardi was also wrong. Winning isn’t the only thing, either. Just ask the Future Farmers of Amer- ica students from Cashmere who made school history many times over last week in Louisville, Ky. at the FFA’s national competition. The school delegation –a meats evalu- ation team and a food science team— finished second and fifth in the nation re- spectively. Student Adam Ream finished seventh in the nation among individual participants. It was the first time Cashmere took teams to FFA nationals. More than 60,000 people had descended upon Louisville to compete, so to bring back a top-five finish and a runner-up finish on their first try is a performance many would consider worthy of a parade. Which is, of course, exactly what they got. Sirens and horns greeted the FFA students on their arrival in Cashmere, a development that surprised and thrilled the travelers, used to seeing parades in town occur mostly for sports teams. “It felt like we were coming back from a soccer game,” said Dani Morrison, a member of the food science team and also a “booter.” “I was like, ‘Dude, this is awesome,’” Morrison said. The new great chapter in the school’s FFA history books began more like a Poe story, with the team almost checking By Sebastian Moraga Staff writer An average of one phone call to RiverCom a week has some Cashmere residents –including the mayor—raising their eyebrows at Crunch Pak. At a council meeting earlier this fall, Mayor Jeff Gomes said he had heard from neighbors about repeated incidents near and around the apple-slicing giant’s head- quarters. He asked the sheriff’s office to investigate the frequency of the calls. “I wanted to get some concrete num- bers to see if it was just a perception issue or if it was in fact a lot of calls there,” Gomes said. After about three weeks, he got his answer: Thirty-one incidents at 300 Sunset Highway have been reported in 2013, along with 42 calls to RiverCom, as of Oct. 14. By comparison, there were 33 incidents By Bill Forhan Publisher Part one of three Unless you are in need of their services you may never have heard of the Chelan-Douglas Regional Support Network, otherwise known as the CDRSN. But for those who do need their services this agency pro- vides a vital lifeline and it is in seri- ous trouble. The CDRSN is one of eleven RSN’s across the state that administer state and federal funds for those with mental illness who do not have the personal financial resources to provide for their own care. Essen- tially the RSN agencies contract with private local providers to make sure services are available to those in need. Funding for the programs comes from the state and federal government. Some of the local providers who have received funding through the CDRSN include Catholic Family & Child Service, Children’s Home Society, Columbia Valley Commu- nity Health, Christopher House, Okanogan Mental Health, and Re- covery Innovations. The CDRSN certifies that the lo- cal providers are qualified to pro- vide the needed care then contracts with those organizations to provide service. When no local provider can provide the needed care clients are referred to the Eastern State Hospi- tal in Spokane. Local officials associated with the management and oversight of the CDRSN have often touted the superior performance and financial strength of the local agency. But all of that changed beginning with a state audit of Douglas County that concluded, “Our audit identified material weaknesses in controls that adversely affect the County’s ability to produce reliable financial statements and reports.” The report specifically cited the CDRSN, which is under the direction and control of By Sebastian Moraga Staff writer It’s your dream, too, admit it. Someone walking up to you and saying, “if you’re good at your job, you can pelt your boss in the head with a ball.” Well, the dream sort of came true for a bunch of budding salespeople at Cash- mere Middle School. The seventh- and eighth-grade students who did best at the annual magazine-sale fundraiser, got to smack their teachers with balls. And we only say sort of because the teachers could also smack back. “It’s dodgeball,” teacher Stephanie Ball said. In addition, students and teachers en- gaged in a different kind of battle, but one that also thrills the children plenty: The staff-versus-students volleyball match. The eighth-grade girls’ volleyball team faced off against a rotating group of teachers and staffers. Teacher Jeff Cravens said that the match began about six years ago when staffers and students noticed that the boys’ basketball team had an annual game against staff, but no girls’ team had one. “She really wanted equal time for the girls to be able to play against the staff at something,” Cravens said. “So she brought in the volleyball and they have been doing it ever since.” Teacher Megan Carlson agreed, say- ing the staff thought it was unfair only the boys got to play with the teachers. Both Cravens and Carlson played in the volleyball match, as did Carlson’s husband, Jeff. By Sebastian Moraga Staff writer In front of a packed Cashmere Middle School gymnasium, Wenatchee author Lisa Bradshaw, spoke to students about the business side of writing. The author of the memoir “Big Shoes,” and a cancer survivor who lost her husband to a lung disease when she was 32, Bradshaw called writing “the easiest thing I do.” “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer, without a doubt,” she said, adding that she wrote her first stories on a plastic typewriter. Bradshaw told students that with any career they might choose, detours and roadblocks will appear but they are just part of the journey. “What you want to be today is great and exciting,” she said. “But how you get there might help you become something completely different and someone completely different. She later added, “Have an open mind on how you are going to get there. I promise you, I never would have expected to write my first book about having cancer and writing my second book about losing my husband, who was my childhood friend since I was eight years old.” She advised students to not be afraid to be told “no.” Her first book she wrote received 13 rejection letters from publishers. One publisher who said no also suggested another publishing house that could be a better fit for the book. That second publishing house said yes. “Had I not been willing to go through the ‘no’ process, I would have never gotten to ‘yes,’” Bradshaw said. On her first book, she made about $1.75 per copy sold, she said. By Sebastian Moraga Staff writer Election night 2013 came and went yielding no surprises at the ballot box. Only one candidate had an opponent, and a write-in one at that. The rest of the city’s races featured one name each, so the resuts were predictable. Wenatchee Parks and Recreation director David Erickson was elected to city council, replacing Donna Wynne, who retires at the end of the year. Er- ickson, who lost in a write-in bid against John Bryant in 2012, had his own write- in opponent this time: political science student Shawn Hays. Erickson received 278 votes. Hays said he did not know how many votes his write-in bid received. “I had a few people text me with a picture of their ballot,” he said, “and my name written in there, so that was pretty fun.” Hays, whose landlord is city council member John Bryant, said he might apply for Bryant’s council seat if he resigns. “It’s what I wanted to do anyway,” he said of being a council member. “I figured it might be hard for me to win this election, being a write-in candi- date. Everybody that I talked to, those were the only people who knew unless word-of-mouth spread.” Hays said he knew people voted for him, he just did not know how many. “I don’t think it would be difficult for me to get my name out there in another election,” he said. The only thing he would do different was to get his candidacy signed up before the deadline to ensure his name appeared on the ballot. Now that the election is over, Hays said he would like to see Erickson stay involved on Cashmere issues. “Make sure to stay on top of every- thing that would benefit everybody in Cashmere,” he said. Perennial councilmembers Jim Fletcher and Skip Moore won re- election. Moore received 277 votes and FFA trip goes from scary to extraordinary String of incidents at Crunch Pak worries city Local mental health services in jeopardy � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ELECTION 2013 No surprises on election night Tradition continues at middle school Author talks the writing life to CMS students Photo by Sebastian Moraga The eighth-grade volleyball team, waiting for the Cashmere Middle School to serve, during the annual game between adults and children at CMS. The adults won again in two sets. Photo by Sebastian Moraga From left, Dani Kenoyer, Ashlyn Lewis and Dani Morrison, three members of the delegation from Cashmere who competed at FFA nationals and returned with fifth-and second-place plaques. Not pictured: Adam Ream, Kiera Burnett, Rylie Christensen, Molly Kenoyer and Sam Copeland. Photos by Sebastian Moraga Clockwise from top left: A choir of students from Vale Elementary performs at the big kids’ school during a Veterans Day assembly; Colton, Jeff and Erin Green, the latter two Army Veterans, attend the assembly; cheerleaders from Cashmere Middle School march during the Nov. 11 parade honoring the military veterans among us, including Marine Rick Mott, in the parade with his son Henry. SEE AUTHOR ON PAGE 3 SEE HEALTH ON PAGE 6 SEE TRADITION ON PAGE 4 SEE ELECTION ON PAGE 3 SEE INCIDENTS ON PAGE 3 SEE FFA ON PAGE 3 YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR CASHMERE NEWS November 13, 2013 • volume 107, No. 46 SiNgle Copy $1.00 Celebrating 106 years • 1907 - 2013 Index Along the Wenatchee B5 Bulletin Board 4 Calendar 4 Community 3-4 Church Directory B5 Life & Health B5 Neighbors 5 Opinion 2 Puzzles B2 Recipe B5 Schools 7, 8 Sheriff’s Report B6 Sports 7, 8 Classifieds Index Classifieds B1-B3 Businesses & Services B1-B2 Health Care Directory B5 Puzzles B2 Real Estate Guide B1 201 Cottage Ave. Cashmere, WA 98815 Phone: 509-782-3781 www.cashmerevalleyrecord.com $ 1 00
Vince Lombardi was right. Winning isn’t everything.
Lombardi was also wrong. Winning isn’t the only thing, either.
Just ask the Future Farmers of Amer-ica students from Cashmere who made school history many times over last week in Louisville, Ky. at the FFA’s national competition.
The school delegation –a meats evalu-ation team and a food science team—finished second and fifth in the nation re-spectively. Student Adam Ream finished seventh in the nation among individual participants.
It was the first time Cashmere took teams to FFA nationals. More than 60,000 people had descended upon Louisville to compete, so to bring back a top-five finish and a runner-up finish on their first try is a performance many would consider worthy of a parade.
Which is, of course, exactly what they got. Sirens and horns greeted the FFA students on their arrival in Cashmere, a development that surprised and thrilled the travelers, used to seeing parades in town occur mostly for sports teams.
“It felt like we were coming back from a soccer game,” said Dani Morrison, a member of the food science team and also a “booter.”
“I was like, ‘Dude, this is awesome,’” Morrison said.
The new great chapter in the school’s FFA history books began more like a Poe story, with the team almost checking
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
An average of one phone call to RiverCom a week has some Cashmere residents –including the mayor—raising their eyebrows at Crunch Pak.
At a council meeting earlier this fall, Mayor Jeff Gomes said he had heard from neighbors about repeated incidents near and around the apple-slicing giant’s head-quarters. He asked the sheriff’s office to investigate the frequency of the calls.
“I wanted to get some concrete num-bers to see if it was just a perception issue or if it was in fact a lot of calls there,” Gomes said.
After about three weeks, he got his answer:
Thirty-one incidents at 300 Sunset Highway have been reported in 2013, along with 42 calls to RiverCom, as of Oct. 14.
By comparison, there were 33 incidents
By Bill ForhanPublisher
Part one of three
Unless you are in need of their services you may never have heard of the Chelan-Douglas Regional Support Network, otherwise known as the CDRSN. But for those who do need their services this agency pro-vides a vital lifeline and it is in seri-ous trouble.
The CDRSN is one of eleven RSN’s across the state that administer state and federal funds for those with mental illness who do not have the personal financial resources to provide for their own care. Essen-tially the RSN agencies contract with private local providers to make sure services are available to those in need. Funding for the programs comes from the state and federal government.
Some of the local providers who have received funding through the CDRSN include Catholic Family
& Child Service, Children’s Home Society, Columbia Valley Commu-nity Health, Christopher House, Okanogan Mental Health, and Re-covery Innovations.
The CDRSN certifies that the lo-cal providers are qualified to pro-vide the needed care then contracts with those organizations to provide service. When no local provider can provide the needed care clients are referred to the Eastern State Hospi-tal in Spokane.
Local officials associated with the management and oversight of the CDRSN have often touted the superior performance and financial strength of the local agency. But all of that changed beginning with a state audit of Douglas County that concluded, “Our audit identified material weaknesses in controls that adversely affect the County’s ability to produce reliable financial statements and reports.” The report specifically cited the CDRSN, which is under the direction and control of
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
It’s your dream, too, admit it. Someone walking up to you and saying, “if you’re good at your job, you can pelt your boss in the head with a ball.”
Well, the dream sort of came true for a bunch of budding salespeople at Cash-mere Middle School. The seventh- and eighth-grade students who did best at the annual magazine-sale fundraiser, got to smack their teachers with balls. And we only say sort of because the teachers could also smack back.
“It’s dodgeball,” teacher Stephanie Ball said.
In addition, students and teachers en-gaged in a different kind of battle, but one that also thrills the children plenty: The staff-versus-students volleyball match.
The eighth-grade girls’ volleyball team faced off against a rotating group of teachers and staffers.
Teacher Jeff Cravens said that the match began about six years ago when staffers and students noticed that the boys’ basketball team had an annual game against staff, but no girls’ team had one.
“She really wanted equal time for the girls to be able to play against the staff
at something,” Cravens said. “So she brought in the volleyball and they have been doing it ever since.”
Teacher Megan Carlson agreed, say-ing the staff thought it was unfair only
the boys got to play with the teachers. Both Cravens and Carlson played in the volleyball match, as did Carlson’s husband, Jeff.
By Sebastian Moraga Staff writer
In front of a packed Cashmere Middle School gymnasium, Wenatchee author Lisa Bradshaw, spoke to students about the business side of writing.
The author of the memoir “Big Shoes,” and a cancer survivor who lost her husband to a lung disease when she was 32, Bradshaw called writing “the easiest thing I do.”
“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer, without a doubt,” she said, adding that she wrote her first stories on a plastic typewriter.
Bradshaw told students that with any career they might choose, detours and roadblocks will appear but they are just part of the journey.
“What you want to be today is great and exciting,” she said. “But how you get there might help you become something completely different and
someone completely different.She later added, “Have an open mind
on how you are going to get there. I promise you, I never would have expected to write my first book about having cancer and writing my second book about losing my husband, who was my childhood friend since I was eight years old.”
She advised students to not be afraid to be told “no.” Her first book she wrote received 13 rejection letters from publishers. One publisher who said no also suggested another publishing house that could be a better fit for the book. That second publishing house said yes.
“Had I not been willing to go through the ‘no’ process, I would have never gotten to ‘yes,’” Bradshaw said.
On her first book, she made about $1.75 per copy sold, she said.
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
Election night 2013 came and went yielding no surprises at the ballot box.
Only one candidate had an opponent, and a write-in one at that. The rest of the city’s races featured one name each, so the resuts were predictable.
Wenatchee Parks and Recreation director David Erickson was elected to city council, replacing Donna Wynne, who retires at the end of the year. Er-ickson, who lost in a write-in bid against John Bryant in 2012, had his own write-in opponent this time: political science student Shawn Hays.
Erickson received 278 votes. Hays said he did not know how many votes his write-in bid received.
“I had a few people text me with a picture of their ballot,” he said, “and my name written in there, so that was pretty fun.”
Hays, whose landlord is city council member John Bryant, said he might apply for Bryant’s council seat if he
resigns.“It’s what I wanted to do anyway,”
he said of being a council member. “I figured it might be hard for me to win this election, being a write-in candi-date. Everybody that I talked to, those were the only people who knew unless word-of-mouth spread.”
Hays said he knew people voted for him, he just did not know how many.
“I don’t think it would be difficult for me to get my name out there in another election,” he said. The only thing he would do different was to get his candidacy signed up before the deadline to ensure his name appeared on the ballot.
Now that the election is over, Hays said he would like to see Erickson stay involved on Cashmere issues.
“Make sure to stay on top of every-thing that would benefit everybody in Cashmere,” he said.
Perennial councilmembers Jim Fletcher and Skip Moore won re-election. Moore received 277 votes and
Veterans DayFFA trip goes from scary to extraordinary
Photo by Sebastian MoragaThe eighth-grade volleyball team, waiting for the Cashmere Middle School to serve, during the annual game between adults and children at CMS. The adults won again in two sets.
Photo by Sebastian Moraga From left, Dani Kenoyer, Ashlyn Lewis and Dani Morrison, three members of the delegation from Cashmere who competed at FFA nationals and returned with fifth-and second-place plaques. Not pictured: Adam Ream, Kiera Burnett, Rylie Christensen, Molly Kenoyer and Sam Copeland.
Photos by Sebastian MoragaClockwise from top left: A choir of students from Vale Elementary performs at the big kids’ school during a Veterans Day assembly; Colton, Jeff and Erin Green, the latter two Army Veterans, attend the assembly; cheerleaders from Cashmere Middle School march during the Nov. 11 parade honoring the military veterans among us, including Marine Rick Mott, in the parade with his son Henry.
See AUTHOR on Page 3
See HEALTH on Page 6
See TRADITION on Page 4 See ELECTION on Page 3
See INCIDENTS on Page 3
See FFA on Page 3
Your best source for cashmere newsNovember 13, 2013 • volume 107, No. 46 SiNgle Copy $1.00
For more info, please contact Brian James, 782-3099.
CASHMere GuN CluB
TuRkey ShooT
THANK YOU The Cashmere Museum and Friends of the Old Mission are Thankful for generous contributions and help
for Apple Days.Martin’s IGA Market (awnings, apples & tank)Apple Annie’s Antique Gallery (pie contest
sponsor)Blue Star Growers (bin of apples)Monitor United Methodist Church
(Sunday Service)Color FX Printing (signs)
Liberty Orchards (poster printing)Cashmere Chamber (promotion)
Bradshaw is also the founder of the Don’t Wait Project, which encourages people to not wait to make positive, life-affirming decisions in their lives, such as getting a mammogram, or start exercising or becoming organ donors.
“Students need to learn not to be procrastinators, whether that’s in a personal or academic way,” if we learn from a young age to not put things off that are important to us, that’s why the DWP has an universal message. The kids need to learn that not waiting to do what’s important will serve them well.
In high school, when she thought she wanted to write greeting cards for a living, she wrote the president of Hallmark, and asked him what she needed to do to work for the company one day. The executive actually wrote back and answered. Brad-shaw said.
Bradshaw launched the DWP in 2011.
Lastly, while taking questions from students, Bradshaw fielded one from a student named River Richards, and so liked the name that she promised the student she would someday create a book character with that name.
“Keep up the good writing,” she told Richards and the rest of the students, some of whom received silver pens from princi-pal Tony Smith for their writing talent, Richards among them.
“Keep doing what you’re do-ing, and work toward your goal, whatever it is,” she said. Finally, she had a bit of practical advice
for future writers.“Learn to use the comma,”
she said.“I feel like from my first to my
second book I learned what made me a better writer was using the comma,” she said after the presentation.
Bradshaw said she was very impressed with the students’ questions.
“It meant they were really listening and some of them were
really getting what I was saying,” she said. “I was delighted with how thought-provoking they re-ally were. The one girl asked me if she had a personal story if she should write them down. I said I wouldn’t tell her she should, but I will tell her she could. I believe in writing down what we feel at the time we feel it.”
Fletcher received three more, which will certainly be a topic of conversation for the longest-tenured council members, who also sit next to each other at council meetings.
On the school board, sheriff deputy Paul Nelson was elected to replace Tracy Franklin, who did not seek re-election after a decade on the board. Nelson
ran unopposed, and received 717 votes.
Nelson will attend an ori-entation at the Washington School Directors Association conference in Bellevue later this month, he said. He predicted the replacement levy to be the first big issue he will tackle.
“That’s going to be the first major effort,” he said.
The Cashmere School Board’s longest-serving member, Roger
Perleberg, received 715 votes in his unopposed re-election bid.
In the Chelan County Fire District 6 election, unopposed candidate Bob Wildfang won another term as commissioner, receiving 719 votes.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaAuthor Lisa Bradshaw speaks to the entire student body at Cashmere Middle School about the business of writing.
INCIDENTS: Crunch Pak wants to be good neighbor
and 39 calls in all of 2012.The 2013 incident report list includes theft
(three times), accidents without injury, (six) suspicious behavior (four), robbery (one), fraud (one), harassment (one) and malicious mischief (one).
The 2012 report includes seven accidents with no injuries, two harassment calls, five burglar-ies, one theft, one malicious mischief, and three instances of public assistance.
“I was curious to see what that looked like,” Gomes said of the reports, “Knowing what RiverCom costs are, so we are already in excess of $1,300 just for RiverCom, and I’m sure it has an impact on the sheriff’s office, too.”
Tony Freitag, director of marketing and com-munications for Crunch Pak said the company has done much to try and minimize the number of calls.
“We take it very seriously,” he said. “What we want more than anything is to be a good neighbor.”
Freitag listed the company’s creation of a full-time team that “does nothing but patrol the grounds, we have a staff of people who do noth-ing but pick up trash and we have moved our pickup point for waste management away from residential areas,” he said, adding that it’s hard to control what the company can’t see.
“We are limited as to what we can do once our employees get to the street,” he said. “And it’s hard to get the drivers to do what we ask them to do because they don’t work for us.”
Freitag mentioned the challenges the company has encountered and overcome in the past, such as the old occurrence of having trucks block Sun-set Highway traffic when exiting its building.
Crunch Pak operates 24 hours a day, and some
of the incidents come with having a round-the-clock business, Freitag said.
“I would be willing to bet some of these things take place in places with large parking lots,” he said. “One of the reasons we installed a large security system is to monitor what goes on in the parking lot. We also installed night cameras so we can see what is going on. We are very concerned about our employees and we want to protect them as much as possible.”
Situations like malicious mischief are unfortu-nate, Freitag said, but some of these issues will arise in any company with a large staff. Freitag said he will ask the Sheriff’s Office for the same information the mayor received.
“If we have that list and we identify a pattern we are going to address that pattern,” he said.
Lastly, Freitag asked the community to see the positive things Crunch Pak does, like participat-ing and sponsoring events during the school year and in the summer.
“But,” he said. “We always need to be better. If we can be better, we are going to be better and that’s our goal.”
Gomes said the city worries about the costs. If the call-per-week average holds up for November and December, it might cost the city close to $2,000 on RiverCom calls alone, he said.
“These calls are not generated by the Crunch Pak Company, they are generated by their em-ployees,” he said.
The calls are typical of RiverCom calls in Cash-mere, Gomes said, but “to me, they are kind of concentrated in one area,” he added, later adding, “It’s a problem for the sheriff’s department and it’s a problem for our city, financially, plus the threat of having all that going on.”
“We couldn’t even find employ-ees in there,” said Dani Kenoyer, a member of the meats evalua-tion team. “Dimly lit, and creepy and dirty, and the infrastructure was cracked the entire way down the outside of the building and the inside had caution tape.”
The chaperones, Scott Morri-son and Melissa Campbell, and some of the other team members started looking up reviews for the hotel. One review described a stay there as “the worst experi-ence of my life.”
The City of Louisville’s Hous-ing Bureau handled the book-ings for the visiting teams, said Rusty Finch, the teams’ advisor, describing the place as “unsafe and unsound.” The groups ended up splitting again, finding rooms at three different hotels, none of which looked like an Eagles song come to life.
“Thank goodness they found somewhere else,” Kenoyer said.
Once they found a decent place to stay, they hunkered down for three days before the start of the competition.
“The food science team only left their rooms to eat and to go
to the Louisville [Slugger] mu-seum,” Morrison said.
The meats team had a differ-ent, but equally tiring itinerary. On one day, visited meat coolers at Ohio State University, and at another college in Indiana.
“We graded like 16 carcasses,” Kenoyer said of the trip that started at 5:30 a.m. “By the time we got back to Louisville, it was like 1:30 in the morning.”
The teams worked and worked and worked, then the competi-tion started and their shoulders deflated like an untied balloon.
“You get in there and you feel good because you know you’ve been studying a lot,” food sci-ence team member Ashlyn Lewis said, “And then you get these questions and you have no idea, because they weren’t from the resource that they usually pull from.”
Relying on educated guesses and common sense, the teams soldiered on, gaining confidence with each step.
Still, when the end came and the top squads were announced, it was a shock to even the most confident ones in the group.
“Mr. Finch was like, ‘oh, we are probably going to get sixth or seventh place, maybe,” said Kenoyer.
When fourth- and third-places were announced, the team start-ed dreaming –or rather dreading, not having placed at all.
“We were clutching hands and we all just dropped ‘em, like ‘It’s done. They didn’t call us at all,’” Kenoyer said.
Then the second place team was announced, and it sounded kind of familiar.
“We freaked out, and everyone is kind of laughing because we were all so excited about second place,” Kenoyer said. “We were all hugging each other and jump-ing up and down. We couldn’t even believe it.”
Lewis and Morrison were at a different room, waiting for the food science results.
“Dani goes, ‘We’re not going to win, we are not going to place,’” Lewis said. “I’m like, ‘Dani, shhh! Don’t ruin this for me.”
Then, the school got called, and the two could finally breathe. And cheer.
“I was like, ‘fifth in the nation, that’s great!’” Lewis said.
A few members of the team weren’t totally sold on celebrat-ing a non-win, Kenoyer said, but she added that she believes second and fifth in the nation is “a huge deal.”
Morrison had high praise for their competitors, whom she described as friendly and chiv-alrous and –weirdly enough—thrilled to meet people from the faraway Evergreen State.
“Every t ime you walked around with ‘WASHINGTON’ on your back,” Lewis said of the team’s FFA attire, “they were like, ‘Dude, it’s Washington! Can we take a picture with you?’ We were like celebrities because we are from Washington.’”
Finch praised the students, saying they set the bar high for future teams wanting to compete at nationals.
“It’s going to be tough to dupli-cate,” said Finch, who has won nationals twice with meat teams from schools elsewhere, but whom witnesses say still went bananas when his Cashmere teams placed.
“He was the craziest one,” Kenoyer said. “He was hugging us all, he was dancing around, he makes me call his wife right away so I can tell her, he picked me and [teammate] Rylie Christensen both up at the same time. He was so proud of us.”
Lewis agreed. “He builds us up all the way,” she said. “He goes, ‘you guys are the best food sci-ence team I’ve ever taken back,’ so there’s all this pressure and you’re like, ‘If I don’t get first, is he going to be mad at me?’”
He wasn’t. He kept telling the teams how proud he was. Then, when arriving in Cashmere, he pretended to take a wrong turn to surprise his teams with a parade, in which firefighters wore their old FFA jackets. “It was really cool,” Lewis said. “I had never had a parade before.”
During this time, we ask your support and prayers for all the men and women currently serving our country. We give thanks to those who have, and are, defending our freedom.
We are grateful for their patriotic service.
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
Behind a dark mustache and sunglasses to match, Clete Hamil-ton cuts an imposing figure when he walks or when he drives his big rig around Cashmere.
So it’s more than a little sur-prising when he confesses that one of the things that brings him the most joy is to make people laugh.
Then, one looks at his t-shirt, depicting an inebriated insect and the caption “Bar Fly,” and one begins to think that maybe there’s something to that confession.
For the most part, though, a chat with Clete Hamilton, is an exercise in honesty, and as most humans will attest, honesty comes notoriously short on giggles.
A veteran of Afghanistan and Desert Storm, Hamilton minces no words when describing the state of the military or the pros-pects for victory in the Middle East. The only time he under-standably skirts around an issue is when he answers whether he killed somebody in combat.
“I’m’ not going to say yes, but
I’m not going to say no, either,” he said, his back literally to the wall of a local eatery.
Hamilton joined the military back in August of 1987 with two thoughts in mind. He wanted to pay for college, and he wanted out of his house in Coulee Dam.
“I never saw myself as making a career out of it,” he said. “That came later.”
The son and brother of military men, Hamilton said his dad always wanted to have his boys join the Army. His brothers served three years apiece. Hamilton served a total of 13 years.
At first, it was tough.“I didn’t much care for having
some guy I didn’t even know yell at me,” he said, “But once you got used to it, it was all good.”
Twenty-six years later, he said he would not change a thing about that decision. Well, maybe one thing.
“I might change my MOS,” he said, referring to his military job at the time, heavy-wheel ve-hicle mechanic, to a spot in the
infantry.In 23 years, the military has
changed a lot, he said, and not necessarily for the better.
“No discipline,” he said. “You can write somebody up, but these kids nowadays, they don’t care. It’s military-wide. Back in the day, someone told you to do some-thing, you did it right then. Now, if they don’t want to do it they don’t have to do it, and they get away with that.”
Besides, he said, bureaucrats are sending men and women on combat missions with “their hands tied,”
“When you are taking fire, they pretty much have to kill somebody before we are allowed to fire back,” he said. “That’s not right. If someone is firing at us, return fire. Whoever is writing these rules I don’t think he’s ever been in combat.”
His last days in uniform so far occurred in 2011, when he returned from Afghanistan at 44 years old. Part of the decision to leave was based on the lack of discipline he saw.
“Plus,” he said, “two war zones, it’s too much.”
The Clete Hamilton who left for Afghanistan is not the same one who came back, he said. That guy will never be back, he added.
Two years on since he last strapped it on for his country, Hamilton still struggles to what he called fitting back into society.
“It’s hard, you know? Really hard.” he said. “It messes with your head. You are always on guard. Even today, there are things I could do before that I can’t do now.”
Large sporting events, even large crowds in general all awak-en the soldier in him, and instead on focusing on Russell Wilson or Marshawn Lynch, this football-loving country boy looks for threats, and not the first-and-goal kind.
“Before, I could sit in the middle of a parking lot,” he said, looking at the middle of a parking lot from a chair next to a wall. “Not have a care in the world. Now, I have to have something solid at my back. Need to see everything that goes on around me.”
Even when Steve Godfrey, for-mer schoolboard member and a veteran himself, approached Hamilton with the idea of a mili-tary scarecrow for Ardeta Park, Hamilton kept his distance at first.
“I was watching him out of the mirror,” said Hamilton, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2012. “’Who is this guy, and what does he want.’ I didn’t know him.”
He added, “I don’t trust any-body. That’s just the way it is. Been in a war zone for so long, you’re always on guard. You don’t know who you can trust, you don’t know who you can’t trust.”
In the war, the lack of discipline made knowing whom to trust hard as well. Hamilton said he told himself that he was OK with dy-
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
For the second year in a row, the three schools in the Cashmere School District will work together to honor the area’s veterans.
Instead of having veterans, some of whom have children or grandchildren at different buildings, go to three different ceremonies, the city’s real-life heroes will receive the thanks of the area’s youth all at once on Nov. 8: first at a a breakfast, then a parade and then a luncheon.
The day starts with a breakfast of doughnuts and coffee at Vale Elementary School, said Bryan McNair, a high school student and a member of CHS’ leadership class which helps coordinate the daylong list of events.
“It’s kind of a meet-and-greet so some of the elementary kids can meet [veterans] and see them, and kind of get of a lowdown of what’s going on,” said McNair. “Kind of a gathering place so all the veterans have a place to go first.”
After that, the veterans will gather between Vale and the school district office, from where they will depart on the parade around town and to the high school, starting around 9:15 a.m.
“Almost like your senior caravan,” McNair said. “Just not so crazy.”
The high school will host a large assembly at 9:45 a.m., with an open invitation for any veteran who wants to show up, McNair said.
The assembly is also open for students from
every grade, he added.The assembly will be followed by a l1:15 a.m.
luncheon at the Cashmere High School Community Center for all the veterans. A veteran, McNair said is anyone who has graduated basic training, whether active or retired.
“Anybody who is serving or has served our country in any way shape or form,” he said. One sibling of McNair served in the Marines for eight years and another is currently in the Marines.
McNair asked students of all three schools to ei-ther wear red-white-and-blue colors or shirt and tie for the boys and a dress or a skirt for the girls.
This is the second year in at least the last 20 that all three schools work together to honor veterans, said Cashmere Middle School librarian Shelly Milne, who heads the Leadership class for CMS students. Last year was the first joint effort of students grades 4-12, with first- through third-graders holding their own ceremony.
This is the first year all grades will participate, with even the youngest children making the trip to the high school for the assembly. Students from all three schools will perform during the assembly and all the veterans will be introduced by a student from the schools.
“We wanted it to be meaningful for all students,” said Milne, whose brother and stepfather were in the military.
She added, “I think it shows how important celebrating Veterans Day is to our three schools,”
Looking back, fighting forward
Schools working together to honor veterans
Councilman Bryant mulling council exit
Submitted photoFor the first time in decades, all three schools will join forces to honor and celebrate the service of our community’s veterans. A full day of events has been scheduled for Friday.
FFA places second in U.S.Photo by Sebastian
MoragaDani Kenoyer, Sam Copeland and Ashlyn Lewis hold awards that Cashmere FFA teams hauled from nationals. Kenoyer, Copeland, Rylie Christensen (not pictured) and Adam Ream (not pictured) compose the meat evaluation team that f i n i s h e d s e c o n d . Lewis Kiera Burnett (not pictured) Dani Morrison and Molly K e n o y e r ( n e i t h e r pictured) compose the food science team that f in ished f i f th . Ream finished seventh among individuals.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaJohn Bryant
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
About halfway through his four-year term as city councilman, businessman John W. Bryant says he will decide by the end of De-cember whether to stay on council or resign.
Bryant, whose business JASCO runs the Riverside Center for the city, approaches the tail end of a five-year lease with City Hall. The lease expires at the end of 2014.
The city will pick a new adminis-trator for the center months before then. Therefore, Bryant must de-cide whether to stay on council.
“I’ve got to make a decision soon,” he said. “Out of fairness, I want people who are maybe in-terested in running the center to have enough time to put a proposal together.”
Nov. 1, Bryant said that if he had to make the decision that day, he would probably resign.
Staying on means an administra-tor other than JASCO will be in place by January 2015. Resigning means Bryant is free to pursue a new deal with the city.
“Even though my contract with the city has been pre-existing,” he said, “out of fairness to the general public, if I wanted to negotiate or even put in a proposal to continue to lease Riverside Center, I would have to step down from city coun-cil.”
Bryant predicted the city would likely issue a request for proposal and give others the chance to get the lease. He said he wants to make a decision soon, so that if there’s a new tenant, he or she can have time to market him or herself
“It’s not something that someone can open the doors Jan. 1, 2015 and expect to have people beating down their doors,” he said. “We book that facility a year in advance. I have people right now asking for 2015 and unfortunately, I cannot book anything into 2015 until we know who the tenant is going to be.”
Mayor Jeff Gomes said that sometime at least during the mid-dle months of 2014, the city will begin advertising and negotiating a new contract for the center. In the past, Gomes said, that took several months.
“I’m sure we want to get that started soon, not too far into 2014,”
Photo by Sebastian MoragaClete Hamilton and the uniform he donated to the military scarecrow in downtown Cashmere. Hamilton wore both the uniform and boots in Afghanistan.
See STORY on Page 8
See SCHOOLS on Page 3
See BRYANT on Page 3
Your best source for cashmere newsNovember 6, 2013 • volume 107, No. 45 SiNgle Copy $1.00
November 11, 2013Saluting our military service people
past and present
We Salute and HonorOur Veterans
Remember all who make the sacrifices to keep us
free.LOCALLY OWNED
all who served our country...then and now
Jack C. Pusel, Retired Branch of Service: U.S. NavyYears of Service: 1966- 1970Location: WestPac, East Coast, VietnamM e t a l s / C o m m e n d a t i o n s : Meritorious Unit Commendation, National Defense Medal, Vietnam Campaign (1960) Vietnam service medal and ribbon.
Kenesaw Pusel, Deceased Branch of Service: U. S. MarinesYears of Service: 1929-1935L o c a t i o n o f S e r v i c e : Philippines, (4 years) and China.
John A. Gange, Deceased Branch of Service: U.S. Air ForceYears of Service: 26Location of Service: USA, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
William (Mickey) M. Smith, Retired Branch of Service: U.S Air ForceYears of Service: 22L o c a t i o n o f S e r v i c e : Vietnam, Luke AFB. Altus A.F.B., McChord A.F.B.
Thomas a. Northam, Jr., Retired Branch of Service: U.S. NavyYears of Service: 37Location of Service: Aboard destroyers, Pacific, Atlantic, Med.Meta ls/Commendat ions : Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with Combat V, Joint Service, Navy Medal, Vietnam A.F. Honor, and Various Qualifications, Service Recognition/area /Command and Civilian Awards.
Michael Moyles, Lt. Col. : Active duty Branch of Service: U.S. Air ForceYears of Service: currently 20 Location of Service: PentagonMeta l s/Commentat ions : Humanitarian Service, Joint Service, Defense Meritorious.
Marilynn Lietz, Col., Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 26Location of Service: USA and EuropeMetals/Commendations: Defense S u p e r i o r S e r v i c e , L e g i o n o f Mer it , Mer itor ious (4OLC) , Army Commendation, Army Achievement (1 OLC), National Defense (1OLC), Armed Forces Reserve medal, Overseas Service Ribbon (4OLC), Office of the Secretary of Defense ID badge.
David E. Severance, Jr., Sergeant (E-5), Retired Branch of Service: U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Years of Service 1961-1968.Location of Service: Assigned to NAS Sand Point, Seattle, Washington.
J i m A d a m s o n , S t a f f Sergeant, Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 1942-1946. Location of Service: Chief of firing battery, 65th Infantry Division Artillery. European Theater of Operation, France, Germany, and Austria.
R i c h a r d A l i u l i s . F i r s t Lieutenant, Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: Location of Service: CuChi, Vietnam. Metals/Commendations: Silver Star, 3 Bronze Stars.
Bill Haines, Boiler Tender third class, Retired Branch of Service: NavyYears of Service: 1956-1960, Location of Service: U.S.S. Currier, DE 700, South China Sea, U.S.S. Laws, DD558 South China Sea. Naval Reserve until August 1966.
Shea Edward Reed Morgan, Quarter Master 3rd class Petty Officer, Retired. Branch of Service: U.S. NavyYears of Service: 4Location of Service: CVN72 USS Abraham Lincoln, Nimitz class, Persian Gulf.
William Forhan 1st Lt. Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 1969 – 1972 Location of Service: Pershing M i s s i l e P l a t o o n l e a d e r , Schwaebisch Gmuend, FRG. Service Battery Commander, Colorado National Guard 1972 – 1976.
David C. Bergren, PFC, Artillery Forward Observer, Deceased Branch of Service: U.S. Marine CorpsYears of Service: 1942-1945 Location of Service: Pacific Operations, 4th Division - Iwo Jima
T e r r y P o r l i e r , M I E 5 Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 3Location of Service: Ft Lewis, Ft Benjamin Harrison, 1st Cav An Kae, Saigon Vietnam, Ft Meyer Virginia (Pentagon). Metals/Commendations: NDSM, VSM 2 O/S bars , RVNCM w/60 device.
G r e g o r y W a l t e r s , Quarter Master, Active Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of service- 3- active duty 1983 to 1986Location of service: Korea and Ft. Lewis, WA.Medals/Commendations: Korea Defense Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Army Overseas Service Ribbon.
Steve Alford, E5 Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 3 activeLocation of Service: Ft. Polk, LA, Fort Sam Houston, TX, Qui Nhon-VietnamMetals/Commendations: National Defense , V ietnam Serv ice , Vietnam Campaign Medal, Unit Citation, Good Conduct, Gallantry Cross.
Tom Baldwin, Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 6Location of Service: Republic of Korea
Alfred C. Bergren, PFC, Deceased Branch of Service:U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 1944-1946Location of Service: 85th Regiment,10th Mountain Division, U.S.A., and Italy.
Carl A. Bergren, SGT., Retired Branch of Service: U.S. Army Years of Service: 1952-1954Location of Service: 2nd Infantry Division, Korea
Mearl E. Bergren, SP-5, Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 1961-1965Location of Service: Aircraft Crew Chief, AD Maintenance School.
Richard L. Bergren, SP-4, Retired Branch of Service U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 1968-1970Location of Service: AIT Fort Knox, KY., Fort Gordon, GA., Vietnam.
Teresa D. Bergren.PFC, Retired Branch of Service: U.S. ArmyYears of Service: 1983-1985Location of Service: Food Service Specialist, Fort H o o d , T X . , F o r t S a m Houston, TX.
David Cecka, Chief Petty Officer Branch of Service: U.S. NavyYears of Service: n/aLocation of Service: Patuxent Naval Air Station Metals/Commendations: Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals and Air Medals
Verne Lietz, Retired Branch of Service: U. S. Air ForceYears of Service: 1942-1945 and 1949-1966Location of Service: India and Germany
Michael S. Forhan, E5, Retired Branch of Service: U.S NavyYears of Service: 6Location of Service: Naval Base Kitsap Bangor, USS Kentucky (Sub)M e d a l s / c o m m e n d a t i o n s : 2 Navy Marine Corp Achievement Medals, 3 Sea Service Deployment R i b b o n s , M e r i t o r i o u s U n i t Commendation, and Navy “E” Ribbon
To All U.S.
Veterans Everywhere...
ing, but not OK with what he called “dying stupid,” or dying because of others’ mistakes.
He even declined to go on one mission --the only one he refused, out of more than 100-- because it entailed going with somebody nobody trusted. Once the un-trustworthy soldier was removed, Hamilton joined back in.
“I have no problem dying for my country,” he said. “but I’m not going to die stupid. Not going to happen.”
In Afghanistan, he said, he and his comrades in arms trusted no Afghan person.
“They are poor people, they are uneducated people,” he said. “But they can build the hell out of a bomb, and they are going to try and kill you every chance they get. You can see it. They might be friendly to talk to, but you can see in their eyes the hatred.”
The U.S. should pull all its people from Afghanistan, he said. The Asian nation is a place where children flick hand grenades at the men and women in green uni-forms, and a place where America will “never, ever, ever win.”
Dogs get treated better than women in Afghanistan, he said, describing it as a place where the educated few indoctrinate the
uneducated masses into fighting for them.
“‘Allah says to kill the infidel, the white man,’” Hamilton para-phrased. “‘the nonbelievers. The more infidels you kill, the higher standard you have in heaven.’ What kind of God does that, and what kind of person praises a God that does that?”
Furthermore, he said, Afghans have been killing each other off for years, and that will continue re-gardless of American presence.
“Let them do it,” he said. “No more of our people need to be over there dying,”
He would not volunteer to re-turn, but would go if the Army
sent him, he said. And if he died while doing his job, “so be it,” he added.
He wasn’t always so blunt, he said. The guy who left for Af-ghanistan tried hard to not rock the boat. The guy who came back calls a spade a spade.
“I’m harder than I was,” he said. “I guess some people just call me an (expletive). To each his own, I reckon.”
The interview lasts 48 minutes. Not once does he smile. Not even when standing face to face with the “man” wearing his combat uniform, the military scarecrow on Ardeta Park.
“I think it looks good,” he said
of the scarecrow. “I like it.”Hamilton said plenty of things
bring him joy, He’s not a smiler, is all, he adds. But he loves his family, his children and grandchildren, fishing and the outdoors.
Despite his struggles, Hamilton said he is getting better. He does not get angry as quickly as be-fore. Nightmares and flashbacks are still there, though, as is the diagnosis.
“Anybody who goes over there, and does what we did, see what we saw, if you don’t come back with some kind of condition, you need to go get checked out, because you enjoy it.”
Hamilton hangs on to some cau-
tious measure of optimism. “It’ll get better,” he said. “One
day I’ll be able to enjoy a sport-ing event again.” For now, he celebrates the small but certain signs of progress.
This August, he took his wife on a cruise to Alaska, with hun-dreds of people on board. It was his idea, too.
“I’m happy to say everybody made it back,” he said. “I’m be-ing serious. I don’t do crowds. I thought it would be a good test, and since everybody made it back, I figure I passed.”
Jon Gasbar, a Cashmere High School graduate, and an intinerant educator who has taught in Indonesia and New York, has signed a two-year deal to teach at Colegio Los Nogales, in Bogota, the capital city of Colombia.
The director of the Los Nogales school is another Cashmere grad, Ian Crossland. The 26-year-old Gasbar left Sunday for Colombia.
The contract ends a year long process that began when a teacher left Los Nogales and created a vacancy, Gasbar said. He hoped to travel this year, then changed his mind.
A teacher for five years and
a graduate of the University of Washington, he said his desire to expand his mind and gain experiences has led him to pick and choose classrooms far away from home.
“[I get to] look at different education systems around the world so I can see how people think and how they live in other places, and eventually come back here and share those experiences here in the Valley,” he said.
In Indonesia, he taught adults hoping to become English teachers and put on English workshops around Indonesia. During that time, he toured schools and was a frequent guest of teachers wanting their students to learn English.
“They ran a nationalized c u r r i c u l u m , ” h e s a i d o f Indonesian education. “Kind of like page-by-page, teacher sits
in front of the room, students do the worksheet.”
He later added, “I don’t want to speak poorly about their education system but it definitely needs help, just like ours does. Not just having students memorize things, but have them get out and do activities, work in groups and talk to one another.”
At Bogota’s Los Nogales –a private school- he will teach a fifth-grade curriculum to fourth-graders.
“English, reading, writing, math and science,” he said.
In Colombia, he said he hopes to grow as an educator, collaborating with the teachers of the school.
Outside of the classroom, he has set some goals as well.
“Obviously, improve my Spanish,” he said. “And learn to salsa-dance.”
Traveling abroad is fun, he said, but it can also be very lonely. On the other hand, Bogota is a lot closer to home than Indonesia, and he gets a month off during Christmastime and in July.
Before the Colombia job came open Gasbar almost took a job at the University of Talca, a town in southern Chile surrounded by orchards.
“They were telling me, ‘you would feel right at home, you would love it.’” His connection with the Crossland family swayed him in favor of Los Nogales. He will visit Chile when he travels to its next-door neighbor Argentina to hike the Patagonia.
“It’s been the only real place in the world I have ever really wanted to go to,” he said of
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
Given a chance to improve their future and perhaps change it for the better, a 2 a.m. depar-ture time doesn’t sound like much sacrifice.
“Chances are, we are going to be hanging out until then anyway,” said Dani Kenoyer, a member of Cashmere High School’s FFA.
Kenoyer, along with Dani Morrison, Rylie Christensen, three other high schoolers and two Cashmere grads, have a chance of being a national champion at FFA’s convention this October. But they have to leave Cashmere in the dark of night to make it out of SeaTac first thing in the morning be-cause Dani Morrison is a ter-rorist.
OK, not Cashmere’s Danielle Nicole Morrison, but there’s a Danielle Nicole Morrison on the FBI’s no-fly list, so it’s not easy for the good Morrison to get moving.
“It always takes me a few hours to get through the air-port,” she said. “Ever since I was little. I was like 5, little 5-year-old and they think I’m a terrorist or something.”
Morrison is on the food sci-ence team traveling to nation-als in Kentucky. Her FFA buddy Christensen is in the meats team. It’s the first time Cash-mere takes a team -let alone two- to compete at nationals.
“It’s really exciting,” said Dani Kenoyer, Christensen’s teammate on the m eats ’ group.
The travelers will host a dinner-and-dessert auction 6 p.m. Oct. 19, with the money raised going to help pay for the trip. The auctions –one live, one silent- will occur at the school’s community center. Tickets are $10.
The teams have a pretty good shot at making history, with Kenoyer saying FFA advisor Rusty Finch believes his teams
By Ian DunnEditor
Columbia Valley Community Health is one local health orga-nization on the front lines of deployment of the National Health Plan. The organization, which serves residents of Chelan and Douglas counties, has been planning for nearly a year to handle the rollout.
CVCH Outreach Manager Marlen Mendez they are considered an in-person assister, there to help people sign up for health insurance.
“We fall under the lead organization out of Spokane called Em-pire Health. It was actually they who had to build their network,” Mendez said. “We are just one of the local agencies that is part of their network helping people enroll.”
CVCH started preparing about a year ago, with plans to focus on their patients and then open it up to the community. CVCH serves about 24,000 people in Chelan and Douglas counties. They had to figure out a way to track who they talked to and what they ended up being qualified for. And then following up if they had any questions.
Mendez said they built a tracking system internally and devel-oped a timeline for getting messages out to their patients and the community. While the enrollment got off to a rocky start to due to problems with the www.wahealthplanfinder.org website, Mendez said there have been a steady flow of people asking questions.
“That has been great. We’ve had quite a few calls, people not knowing exactly what to expect. That is what we are here for,” she said.
They have received training on how to navigate the website. Last week was their first experience actually helping people enroll. Most people will actually enroll from the comfort of their own homes, she said.
“You don’t need to come to the clinic. You can do it on your own,” she said. “If you do come to the clinic, and need assistance and additional help, we are certainly here to help you. Or you can speak to a local insurance broker and see if they’re qualified to help you.”
At CVCH, they have computer stations, for those that may lack a computer or internet. You can just bring your documents and CVCH can help you along the way, if you get stuck. Basically, they are there to answer questions and guide people through the process.
Quite few people have stopped in, she said. In fact, there were people lined up at 8 a.m. on Oct. 1 outside the CVCH office. They did have to do some callbacks.
Documents needed include your ID and Social Security num-bers for anyone applying. You’ll need the date of birth for anyone applying, and your 2012 tax returns.
“You have to enter some income information. If you have an estimate, the system will try to do a match, but if it is not within a certain percentage, you’ll get a letter stating more information is needed,” she said.
Results are based your household income and household size. The system does all the work, she said. You’ll be put into three different pools. You might qualify for apple health, which is the Medicaid. You could qualify for a qualified health plan.
That is where you do the shopping, she said. You’ll be eligible for a tax subsidy, which you can use in different ways.
“You’ll have a monthly premium for coverage. You can apply your subsidy right then and there and it will bring your monthly
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
It’s a love story built for the movies. It’s a love story built at the movies.
Cashmere teacher leaves for two year trip to Colombia
FFA teams travel to Nationals
Columbia Valley Community Health helps roll out National Health Plan
Forty-four years later, back where it began
Photo by Sebastian MoragaTop row, from left, Dani Kenoyer and Tawnie Petterborg. Bottom row, from left; Sam Copeland and Adam Ream. All members of the team that starred at FFA State. All but Petterborg will make the trip to Kentucky for FFA Nationals.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaCasey Ruether in action against the Tonasket Tigers. After a 55-6 win over the Tigers, the Bulldogs prepare for a ‘Dog fight against the Okanogan Bulldogs 7 p.m. Oct. 11.(see page 8)
Bulldogs stomp Tigers 55-6
Forty-four years ago, East Wenatchee’s David Engley asked his then-friend Karen out on a date. She, a year older than him, accepted, and they drove to the Mountain Vue Drive-in Theater between Cashmere and Dryden where they watched “The Grad-uate,” a story of an older woman romancing a younger man.
Two months later, they were married. “We just hit it off right away,” she said from their home located between Cashmere and Dryden.
More than four decades after that first date, they decided to leave their East Wenatchee home of 35 years, and found a spot in Monitor they liked. When that fell through earlier this summer, they had two days to find a home, and they did. A lovely little spot on Stine Hill Road, where for decades and until 1990, stood the Mountain Vue Drive-in Theater.
“We found this one, we liked it and I thought ‘Hey!’” she said. “We were walking around and he goes, ‘you know, we had our first date here.’ I said, ‘I know we did.’ And he said, ‘and we parked right here!’”
The parking spot is now a green backyard with trees, flowers and a view of the hills.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaDavid and Karen Engley, 44 years after their first date, they return to the scene of the date, the old Mountain Vue Theater. The theater is gone and in its place stands a house that the Engleys now call their home.
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Practice areas includeBusiness, Real Estate and Estate Planning
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
Not a word is spoken, and all James Bauscher wants to do is laugh.
But he can’t of course. Instead, he does his best to compose him-self and say the next line.
Then Zander Robertson makes another face and Bauscher wants to crack up again.
Such is the story of the re-hearsals of “The Foreigner,” the first play of the 2013-14 season for Cashmere High School Drama, where Robertson’s character Charlie pretends not to speak English and communicates only via facial expressions.
“His facial expressions tell his story,” said James Bauscher, who plays two-faced Reverend David. “You’ll say something and he’ll look for an answer and just move his eyebrow or something and all you want to do is laugh.”
Kendra Salgado, who plays sunny, dim-witted Ellie Sims, agreed.
“I have a table scene with Char-lie and I have to pantomime with him and he copies everything that I do and it’s hard not to break out laughing.”
In his feigned incommunicado state, Charlie witnesses all sorts of macabre plans being hatched, with him in plain sight and no-body paying mind.
Robertson, a nine-year veteran of the boards, plays it straight, with one fourth of the play spent with his mouth closed.
“I have to be able to convey what I’m thinking and my person-
ality without saying anything,” he said. A challenge for any actor, and Robertson is no exception.
“It was pretty tough,” he said, but it’s still plenty fun.
The most fun, Robertson said, is watching other people be enter-tained by what happens on stage. Theater is a bug, and once you caught it, you are hooked, said Edwin Enciso, who plays Froggy La Soeur.
“Once you do one of them, you become part of the family and you keep coming back to it,” said Enciso, who plays Charlie’s buddy Froggy, who tells people Charlie does not speak English. “You want to repeat that experience, again and again.”
Enciso’s Froggy is an optimis-tic, glass half -full kind of guy. Even for Enciso, a happy sort himself, that much optimism required a bit of a stretch.
Krystal Sousley plays old, cranky Betty Meeks. Theater has been a hobby since middle school for her, but playing Meeks required flexing an unusual muscle. She had to act and react far slower than she is used to.
Bauscher plays a reverend trying to marry a woman for her money and then hoping to use that money as a springboard to power within the Georgia Ku Klux Klan.
“He is a weird fella,” Bauscher said. “Generally, I think I’m a super nice person, and having to put on that evil character is definitely difficult.”
It’s nothing, however, compared to what happens to Bauscher when Enciso’s Froggy starts
talking.“Keeping the Southern accent
when he talks to me is really difficult,” said Bauscher. Froggy speaks with a British tone, and when the two get together, Geor-gia becomes Trafalgar Square.
Becoming a character some-times gets out of hand, with the character’s mannerisms popping up in real life.
“I end up saying lines that my character says, but in school, in the way my character would put it,” said Salgado. “Just randomly quoting the script. If someone says something that sounds like a line I’m supposed to answer back to, it’s crazy.”
Still, receiving the chance to be someone else is a kick, Salgado said.
“You can have so many differ-ent personalities when you’re
acting, so many different char-acters,” she said. “When you’re yourself you’re just the one person. I enjoy being crazy or super-sweet, it’s such a range of options.”
Such range repeats itself when one looks around the stage. The old stereotype of the drama geek carries no weight around this bunch.
“This drama thing is so differ-ent than any other drama family,” said Bauscher, a baseball player in the spring. “You don’t have just the drama people, you have athletes, and the brainiacs like Edwin here and all the other people. It was really a cool thing to come into and be embraced and welcomed into.”
Cashmere High School Drama set to present comedy, ‘The Foreigner’
premium down or you collect it all at the end with your taxes. It’s up to the individual,” she said.
Those earning up to 400 per-cent of the federal poverty level qualify for a tax subsidy. For an individual, that’s up to $45,960 per year. For a family of four, that’s about $94,000.
Those in the higher income brackets may not qualify for the subsidy, but they can still shop online and purchase health care coverage. Mendez does not know much about how the plans differ, only that they all must include the 10 essential health benefits.
These benefits are emergency care, hospitalization, prescrip-tion drugs, laboratory services, mental health, pediatric, mater-nity and newborn care, preven-tative and wellness services, outpatient or ambulatory ser-vices and various therapies, like physical therapy.
“What individuals can do, they can go on the website www.wahealthplanfinder.org and just shop around,” she said. “They don’t have to commit to anything. They can look at what their options are. If they decide to enroll, they can create a file to do that. But there’s not com-mitment.”
The enrollment period is Oct.
HEALTH: Problems early on with healthplan finder website
COLUMBIA: Great experience
FFA: Hoping for National title
MARRIED: First date at Drive-in
Patagonia. “I have put it off for a long time. Can’t really go during our summers here.”
T h e s t e r e o t y p e d v i e w of Colombia and its history of violence does not worry Gasbar.
“They have been stable for a long time,” he said. “It’s a big tourist hotspot now, as far as the beaches go. Obviously something could happen, but something could happen anywhere.”
The days of long-term globe-trotting may be nearing an end for Gasbar, two-year trek to Colombia aside. He said he hopes to return home and earn a master’s degree at his alma mater.
He still hedges his bets when asked if he might stay longer than two years in the homeland of Garcia Marquez and Sofia Vergara.
“Right now, I would say no, but I don’t like to judge before I try
it out. It’s a possibility,” he said. “Things change.”
For a long time, he has loved South American culture, though. From his days as a student of Spanish under Fawnda Simonson and Susan Gubsch at Cashmere High School, to his time teaching Spanish to kindergartners in the Big Apple, to his everlasting love affair with Mexican food, south of the border has held a powerful spell over Gasbar.
Books like “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” moved him to expand his horizons and help people. The book tells a story of a doctor who brought first-care medical service to people in Peru, Russia and Haiti.
It wasn’t always that way. Growing up, his goal was to return to Cashmere and help his family with its orchard.
“That’s still a dream of mine,” he said. “I have sort of postponed it for some travel.”
are top-10 material with the potential to go higher.
The team wants more. Top three, for instance, is still a ways away but the potential is there, Kenoyer said.
“My goal is to win,” Chris-tensen said of nationals, “but top-three is pretty good, too. We can’t take it lightly, because this is not (FFA) state, this is nationals.”
Morrison agreed.“It’s taken so much work, we
beat like 50 teams at the state level,” she said “We are head-ing to practice right now.”
Practices are two hours long, and they cover an acre-wide list of topics. For instance, the meats team has to learn 130 different cuts, Finch said.
“We go through all the key components that we go through in competition,” Morrison said.
Eight students, including prep students Ashlyn Lewis, Kenoyer, Copeland and Adam Ream, two college kids, Mollie Kenoyer and Kiera Burnett, plus the two soccer players, will depart Cashmere with an eye on their competition and another on the future. At least for the high-schoolers, this is about more than a hobby.
“I want to be a food scientist,” Morrison said. “So this offers experiences, and chances for scholarships, so it’s great.”
Christensen agreed, saying being on the meats team helps in several ways.
“I want to be a large animal
vet,” she said. “There’s muscles and bones involved in this whole thing, plus it looks good on a college resume.”
Colleges in Texas, Ream said, help pay for your college educa-tion if you join their collegiate teams, so the opportunities are huge.
The trip to Kentucky alone will be a highlight for some, including Ream, who said he has never been so far away from home.
Even without Kentucky, the knowledge has changed their lives. They may not always be students but they will always be consumers. Thanks to FFA, they are better consumers.
“I know what I want more,” Copeland said. Christensen agreed.
“When I go to the store, I always want to go to the meats section and go, ‘That’s terrible, that’s terrible, that’s terrible, oh, I would eat that,’” Chris-tensen said. Kenoyer said her mom asks for her help when picking out food.
Morrison said she’s the same way as Christensen, but at res-taurants.
“I tend to look like, ‘Ooo, they are not wearing a hair net,’ or ‘that person needs to be wear-ing a beard net right now,’” she said. “It really makes me think twice about where I eat.”
Tickets to the auction are available at the door or through Cashmere FFA. Contact the school at 782-2914.
There’s no screen, but there might be one day, she joked.
“Our banker told us we need to buy a car with flames on the side,” she said. “And put a screen outside and sit in the car.”
Back in 1969, he met her at a tavern called The Igloo. A couple of days later, he went to her workplace, a restaurant called Mandarin, and asked her out. She said no, she had to work and did not have a babysitter.
They saw each other at The Igloo again and again David tried his luck. This time, he got a yes.
They were married eight weeks later and then a year later in a religious ceremony in Idaho. Forty-two years later, they renewed their vows.
“I hooked him good,” she said. No argument from David on that one. A photo of the two of them, from a month after their wedding crowns their mantel. There they sit, atop a rock, arms wrapped around each other like scarves.
“I want that photo on our tombstone when we go,” she said with a laugh.
Just like they did with the house –“We did a complete cir-cle, and we will die here because
we are not moving again,” she said—she wants another picture at that rock, which she said she knows right where it is.
Back then, they only had each other. Now they have two sons, a daughter, a granddaughter and four great-grandchildren. Nevertheless, on this autumn afternoon, it seems like the only company they need is a cat that’s still not used to the new place, some sunshine, two fishing rods and, of course, each other.
“We get along famously,” she said. David is fighting cancer, but he has been forewarned.
“I told him he wasn’t going to die on me,” she said. “I keep him busy.”
Both long retired, they said they wanted a quiet place. They did not expect to come full circle to the spot where it all began, but it makes for a good story among the relatives. Although the road is right in front of their house, it does not have the buzzing traffic of their old East Wenatchee home. And for them, and their cat, and their memories, that’s more than enough.
“It’s very peaceful,” she said. “We are very happy here.”
Screen shotThere were problems with the www.wahealthplanfinder.org website the first few days it was operational. But since then, the site has worked well, as there have been 180,000 total website visits since Oct. 1, according the Washington Health Benefit Exchange.
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Photo by Sebastian Moraga.The cast of “The Foreigner,” the play opening at Cashmere Middle School Auditorium Oct. 23, 24 and 26 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens. There’s no show on Oct. 25 because of the football game.
1 to March 31. Coverage starts Jan. 1, 2014. There is a penalty for those that do not enroll, $95 for adults and $47.50 per child.
Mendez said that amount will increase over the years.
CVCH is located at 600 Orondo Ave. in Wenatchee. Their phone
Photos by Sebastian MoragaThese are but a few of the dozens of scarecrows polka-dotting the Cashmere landscape as part of a Chamber of Commerce-sponsored competition. From left, is the city’s crew, the beauty from A Cut Above and the Homecoming Couple from Kashmir Gardens.
October 9, 2013 • cashmere ValleY record 3
Community
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
The yellow stone sat in Xitlalitl Lozano’s hand, glistening in the October sunshine.
To her credit, thoughts of what to buy with it did not cross her mind. No, sir, she’s a collector, she said. And this stone was just one more for her collection of rocks, even if it’s gold.
With her tiny rock in hand, Lo-zano showed her dad, who showed her mom, all of whom ooohed and aaahed. She went right back to pan-ning for more. If on her first try, she had struck gold, goodness knows what she would find next.
The 11-year-old Lozano wasn’t the only one striking gold, if only fig-uratively, at Apple Days, an autumn party that proved as ageless as that yellow stone in Xitlalitl’s hand.
A celebration of the Pioneer and Native American traditions, infused with some contemporary touches, Apple Days succeeded in attracting myriad families to the Cashmere Museum and Pioneer Village.
“People have told me this is the best it’s ever been,” said Joan Baldwin, who helped organize this year’s edition.
One big attraction were the horses from Tillicum Riders, which gave children free rides across the village. Another hit were the bow-and-arrow workshops.
Without a doubt, however, the most unique attraction this year was the arrival of the Spirit of America Memorial statue, built to honor and remember the people lost in the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
The statue seeks a home and Cashmere is one of the candidates. This was the first-ever appearance of the statue in town. It visited Leavenworth earlier this summer, and it will return to Cashmere in November for Veterans’ Day cer-emonies at area schools.
The statue was a hit with people of all ages, and so was the infor-mation Dave Lewis shared with them.
Lewis, the executive director of the Spirit of American Foundation gave onlookers and visitors and a story of how the statue came to be,
why it tours the cities of Washing-ton state.
“People in the towns we go to in eastern Washington never have a chance to be part of an historic event like this,” he said. The tour started July 4 and has visited a dif-ferent city each of 13 weekends.
Children received a slightly softer message than adults did, Lewis said.
“They still don’t understand the tragedy like you and I do,” he said. “It’s so important, because that’s the future of our country.”
The statue shows a fireman, an office worker, a military service man and a flight attendant hold-ing hands in a circle, with their backs to one another. The circle is incomplete between the flight attendant and the military service man, allowing for people to pose and finish the circle.
“Along as Americans remain uni-fied and stay together, no terrorist or no enemy will ever defeat the United States of America,” Lewis told a group of visitors.
All the statues face upward, as if giving thanks to God and as a sign of perseverance and optimism, Lewis said.
“We don’t look down, we don’t look back,” he said. “We look up.”
Along with the statue, the me-morial carries a piece of World Trade Center steel and a piece of Pentagon limestone.
“You cannot imagine,” Lewis said. “Just yesterday 20 or 30 people, the emotionalism and the symbol-ism and the closure they get from this, they just start to cry.”
He later added, “It’s just an emo-tional thing, hard for us to watch sometimes.”
Monalisa Buck brought her neighbor’s children to Apple Days.
“They wanted to see it, so I brought them down,” Buck said.
The children posed, but refused to smile. The serious face had less to do with the gravity of the moment and the statue than with children being children, Buck said.
“They’ve got a tooth out, that’s why they won’t smile,” she said.
Apple Days welcomes the past, the present and the future
Photo by Sebastian MoragaElliott McIver and Hannah Beardsley are led around the Pioneer Village’s grounds by the Tillicum Riders Cindy Fowler. The Riders offered a trip atop a noble steed for free to children visiting Apple Days.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaElliott and Sydney McIver from Cashmere make a complete circle with the Spirit of America Memorial statue, one of the attractions at this year’s Apple Days.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaAs it’s the case almost every year, the bow-and-arrow workshop was a big hit among children at this year’s Apple Days. In the photo, seven-year-old Nicholas Silva of Wenatchee takes aim at a rubber dinosaur (not pictured).
Photo by Sebastian MoragaXitlalitl and Khloe Lozano pan for gold during this year’s Apple Days. The siblings from Wenatchee ended up drenched, but at least in Xitlalitl’s case, they found some gold to make it worthwhile.
6 Cashmere Valley reCord • October 9, 2013
Community
NCWBusiness.com
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
There might be something new coming to downtown next spring.
A parking lot, long blocked off by saw horses, may become the site of an L-shaped two-story building housing studio apart-ments and stores.
The building’s site plans have been approved, said Cashmere City Planning Director Mark Botello.
Initial blueprints show three studio apartments of 720 square
feet each, another, 1,680 square-foot building perpendicular to it, parking spots for 10 vehicles, as well as landscaping along the edges of Cottage and Woodring.
“No canopies,” Botello said. “It would just increase the overall cost of the project.”
The building housed a gas station years ago, Botello said, but added that the Washington State Department of Ecology had extensively vetted the building and deemed it clean and “good to go” years ago.
The lot, located at 131 Cottage Avenue in downtown Cashmere, was purchased for $107,000 by
Woodridge Construction and Development LLC at the begin-ning of 2012. It is measured at one-fifth of one acre and it’s on its third owner since 2004.
A spokesperson from Woo-dridge Construction and Devel-opment who identified herself only as the owner’s wife, declined to comment for this article, say-ing “the time wasn’t right.”
She said that Woodridge Con-struction and Development had purchased the property as an investment and had initially en-tered into an agreement with the
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
The most respected guy and the least respected guy are a handful of feet away from each other. The most respected guy remains un-touched, standing firm while tied to a post. The least respected guy wishes he were so lucky.
People have duct taped his butt, planted him atop a fire hydrant and even tried to resuscitate him.
Life is tough when you’re a scarecrow.
Life is great when you are the organizer of a contest that has surpassed even the most optimistic expectations of success.
Dozens of scarecrows have
popped up around Cashmere, with the Cashmere offices of Wenatchee Valley Clinic and Cashmere High School among the latest in joining in the autumnal craze.
“It was kind of a test,” said Jill FitzSimmons of the Cashmere Chamber of Commerce, which bor-rowed the idea from a California town and organized the contest. “I didn’t think of how people were going to jump on board. They carried the momentum and it just took off.”
The chamber set a mid-Septem-ber deadline for people to sign up and get their scarecrow in an official map. When the map ap-peared, about 40 scarecrows had been listed. Since then, the amount
of scarecrows has doubled.Asked to list the odds from one
to 10 of the contest coming back next year, FitzSimmons said “12.”
“Some people really got carried away and they are making two or three,” she said, adding that the judges –Cashmere Royalty Austyn Woods and Sarah Fitzpatrick- added an ‘ensembles’ category to the scarecrow contest just for that reason.
Horan Estates’ Millie Merlot scarecrow won “Grand Champion,” while the scarecrow at Cashmere Cottage Yarn won “Most Creative.” The roof-climbing firefighter at the Cashmere Fire Department won
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
It’s 7 a.m., the start of class is still almost a full hour away, and yet for a group of students, the schoolwork is about to kick into gear.
As expected, some have beddy-bye faces, but nobody’s dozing on the desk. Everybody is to a degree engaged with what is going on. Some trickle in late, but most of them are early or on time.
Welcome to Zero-Hour Leader-ship, the two-year experiment on youth leadership conducted by
Cashmere High School that so far had produced positive, if sleepy, results.
The class is mandatory to ASB officers, but elective to everyone else. Students in the class have a hand in organizing almost every intramural non-athletic activity the school offers. And when the students aren’t organizing some-thing, they learn about leadership, what it takes to serve, and what it takes to work as a team.
“It’s a project-oriented class, we tend to go from project to project
Parking lot turning into new downtown building
Scarecrowed: Cashmere contest a hit on its first year
Photo by Sebastian MoragaKnellie the Knitter, winner of the Most Creative prize in the city’s scarecrow contest. The scarecrow belongs to Cashmere Cottage Yarn. For pictures of more than 40 scarecrows, check out our Facebook page’s photo folder.
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Tribe spokesman pledges continued care for cemeteryBy Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
A priceless piece of history in our midst will soon receive some much needed care.
The Indian cemetery located behind Apple Annie’s on Eeels Road will be taken care of, after several family crises forced the suspension of the annual upkeep, a spokesperson for the Colville Business Council.
John Sirois, a member of the confederated Colville tribes, to which the Wenatchi tribe be-longs, said that the Wenatchi members of the confederation always take care of the cemetery, but one of the elders William Dick, who always used to take care of it, died this year.
“We have had a lot of people passing away in our Wenatchi group,” he said. Dick used to spearhead an annual trip to the cemetery, where tribal mem-bers would clean it and weed it. The tribe forbids non-members from cleaning the cemetery.
This year, with the family emergencies, no trip
took place. Sirois said it was the first time in de-cades he could remember not making the trip.
“I would like to let everyone know we will be there to take care of it,” he said. “I really appreci-ate the heads-up.”
The credit goes to Bill Yenter, a 1950 graduate of Cashmere High School, who said he used to help his grandmother maintain the cemetery when he was younger.
“That was between 1945-50,” Yenter said. “From the seventh to the 12th grade. We would go in a couple times a year and clear out around the gravestones, making sure the graves were identifi-able. A chief from the Wenatchi, Chief Tecumseh, used to come to our house, and he had a beautiful singing voice. Also, Grandma’s brother was a sheriff deputy and he spent a lot of time up in the reservation in Nespelem.”
Back then, Yenter said, his grandmother knew of some of the Indians who were buried there, and
Early to bed, early to rise, early to lead
Wheelchair-bound citizen asks for better crosswalks
Photo by Sebastian Moraga
C a s h m e r e ’ s Casey Ruether (5) pitches the ball to Mason Elliott (not pictured) during Cashmere’s rout of Okanogan Oct. 11. Ruether and Elliott scored th ree o f Cashmere’s seven touchdowns.
(SEE PAGE 8)
Bulldogs down Okanogan
Photo by Sebastian MoragaEven with plenty of room and no other vehicles in sight, this driver chooses to stop on the crosswalk. A local resident who uses that crosswalk said that even when the warning lights turn on, some drivers ignore them completely, endangering the lives of pedestrians.
By Sebastian MoragaStaff writer
Nothing about this makes this particular Monalisa smile.
Not when her life is on the line every time she crosses Aplets Way between the Cash-mere Baptist Church and the parking lot for Liberty Orchards.
Motorists just don’t pay attention, said Monalisa Buck, Cashmere resident afflicted since birth with cerebral palsy and who uses a wheelchair.
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EMPLOYMENT LAW
BUILDING: Chamber paid the lease on the lot for many years
CEMETERY: Tribe planning to resume cemetery upkeep
CROSSWALKS: Solution may be to write more tickets
city and the Cashmere Chamber of Commerce for the renting of the spot as a parking lot but that the two other parties had ended the agreement.
“We did,” said Jill FitzSim-mons with the Cashmere Cham-ber of Commerce. For years, she said, the chamber held the con-tract on that piece of property and “we covered the insurance for it. The monthly lease pay-ment was split between the city and the businesses downtown whose customers used the lot,” FitzSimmons said.
After a while, FitzSimmons said, only John Clifford of Clif-ford’s Hardware was paying for most of the businesses’ half. At one point, the paying for a parking lot started looking like something the chamber board no longer believed it should do, FitzSimmons said.
“We had a meeting and we said we are not interested in do-ing this anymore,” she said. “The city said, ‘we aren’t, either.’ The chamber board did not believe it was their job to hold the lease on the parking lot.”
Botello said that after the last change of ownership, the place had been blocked off with saw horses over liability concerns.
“If people slip and fall they can sue somebody,” Botello said.
The construction may cause a problem for the hand-operated billboard on the side of Overall Kitchen and Bath, as it may at least partially block it. Botello
said the people in charge of the development “will have to work something out with the the dif-ferent owners.” The billboard belongs to Clifford, FitzSim-mons said.
Snags aside, Botello sounded glad about the perspective of welcoming new business ten-ants to downtown.
“People want to come to Cash-mere,” he said. “We just don’t
have a lot of space. All we have is Cottage and Aplets and a little bit of Sunset and that’s it. If we had the space, people would come to town. We are not like Wenatchee.”
He added, “I would love to see more retail traffic in town.”
FitzSimmons agreed, saying about the plans for future de-velopment, FitzSimmons said, “I could not be happier.”
Botello predicted work on water and sewer this fall, with most of the work starting next spring
The company, the Woodridge spokesperson added, was not so sure about a set timeline yet.
“When we break ground,” she said, “we’ll call you.”
they never knew of a prohibition for non-Indians from cleaning the place.
“I guess I broke the law,” he said with a chuckle. “Nobody ever complained to us. It wasn’t pristine like the Cashmere Cem-etery but we tried to make it look presentable.”
He added, “I go to Chelan every summer, and we go through Cash-mere because I still have relatives in Cashmere. Every time I drive up I take a look at the cemetery. It doesn’t look like anyone has done much for it.”
Sirois said he was surprised to learn that the cemetery was dirty, but that it was a temporary situa-tion at worst.
“My aunts will probably be there this weekend to fix it,” he said.
Yenter applauded the decision.“Thank him for me,” the 81-
year-old Yenter said. “Or maybe I’ll just call and thank him my-
self.”Sirois welcomed feedback from
anyone with concerns about the cemetery. His number is 509-634-2212 and his cellphone is 631-1448.
“We have several large families and each one has had substantial losses, not just elders but young people. And when you lose young people in your family, you give up the things that you normally do. You take a break and that may be the reason we have not been down there. I’ll pass it along and once word gets out, we will be down there to take care of it.”
He added, “it’s been devastat-ing. Each one of the families has lost one or two young people, so it’s been kind of rough. I’m sur-prised about the cemetery, but after all that has happened to our community it’s not too much of a surprise.”
They assume they have the right of way so they drive past the crosswalk, regardless of whether lights are blinking or if anyone is crossing.
“One person might stop,
but the other one goes right through,” she said, from her River Street home. “Even if you are on the crosswalk, no matter which way you cross.”
“I know,” she added, “that I can’t be the only one motorists are ignoring.”
Just in her own experience, she hasn’t been. A motorist al-most hit her husband once.
“He was with me one time, and the cars were coming, we go to the crosswalk and we get about halfway and he says, ‘They are not stopping! Don’t move!’”
“I said, ‘Honey, I don’t want to lose you on a crosswalk.’”
Another time a motorist al-most hit a neighbor’s child who accompanied her on a trip downtown.
“Before the people stop, the kids step out in front,” she said. “They are not thinking of life and limb, they just take off. They think they have the right of way and my heart just sinks, because they have no fear. Kids don’t fear that kind of stuff.”
The drivers ignoring the blinking lights of the crosswalk sign and the white stripes on the ground are of a variety of ages, Buck said, so she can’t blame one particular group or another. Nor has she seen any-one talking on a cellular phone as they drive.
But it has happened at least five times to her, she said. She approached a sheriff’s deputy last week and the deputy prom-ised her he would look into it.
Buck can walk, but her ce-rebral palsy has left her with little or no balance and mostly wheelchair-bound for years. That has not stopped her from trying to enjoy her hometown, with trips to places like Apple Days, along two neighbor chil-dren. She used a conventional wheelchair until she switched to an electric one last year, which makes getting around a little easier. Still, the stress of
worrying about unruly drivers is getting to be too much.
“My husband said, ‘maybe we should put more flags on you,’” she said. “I said, ‘Honey, they will not see more flags. They aren’t even paying attention now.”
The crosswalk on Aplets is not the only troublesome spot for Buck. Using the downtown crosswalks on Cottage also is tricky.
“You can’t see around the parked cars,” she said. “By the time you get to the end of the cars, someone is already in front of you.”
Buck said she is very grate-ful to never have been hit, considering that she has seen people on two legs –and not two wheels—endure the same close calls she has.
“The crosswalk is there to tell you to be wise to pedestrians,” she said. “And they are not even doing that. I just shake my head because I don’t know what else to do.”
One solution, she said, is to start hitting distracted drivers where it may well hurt a bit: Their wallets.
“Start writing tickets,” she said. “The crosswalk is there to preserve lives, and if people aren’t paying attention, they are not going to preserve lives. Someone ought to observe, I don’t know if a policeman, a sheriff’s deputy or a newsman, but someone ought to observe, sit there, take pictures and watch what happens. Push that button and watch what hap-pens.”
Photo by Sebastian MoragaThe closed-off parking lot near the intersection of Woodring and Cottage may look substantially different by this time next year. A two-story development, bringing storefronts and studio apartments downtown, hopes to arise from that spot.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaThe Indian cemetery just north of U.S. Highway 2. Citizen concern has reached the ears of the Colville Confederated Tribes and some of its members have pledged to clean the cemetery up before too long.
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SCARECROWS : Good fun
“Best Business Theme,” and the dentist with the sugar-crazed patient at Hankins Dentistry won “Best Ensemble.”
When it comes to popularity, though, few beat the military man and the city worker at Ardeta Park, located a few feet apart, but with completely different lots in life.
“That poor guy in the park has been messed with every day,” FitzSimmons said. “And will be messed with every day.”
Other than that, the only in-stance of vandalism happened to the Chamber’s own scarecrow. Somebody stole its hands, Fitz-Simmons said, but they were easy to replace.
Another popular scarecrow, she said, was the sheriff atop L.E. Wilson Tools on Pioneer Avenue, one of the few scarecrows that lights up at night. She person-ally likes the paper mache witch scarecrow that Apple Annie’s built.
“I love that one,” she said. “Paper mache can be so hard to work with.”
Steve Godfrey, who built the military scarecrow out of wood, said he thought it would be a “cool idea” to have a G.I saluting the flag.
“Since he was going to be standing at attention, he was going to be pretty stiff,” said Godfrey, an Air Force veteran. “I basically constructed a skel-eton out of wood: chest arms and everything.”
Godfrey described his work as “probably the most serious scarecrow of the whole lot.
“I wanted it to be a serious entry, a salute to the military,” said Godfrey whose wife also
served in the Air Force and whose son Robbie is a Cashmere High School grad and an Army infan-trymen in Afghanistan.
“His life is in danger every day he is out there as far as I am concerned,” he said. “His unit is coming back just before Thanks-giving.”
When he decided to build the scarecrow, Godfrey was going to dress it in an old military uniform. Until one day he saw a truck ahead of him in traffic, car-rying a bumper sticker that read “Afghanistan veteran.”
Godfrey said he followed the truck, introduced himself to the driver and that’s how he met Clete Hamilton, the man whose uniform the scarecrow wears.
“He was an Iraq and Afghani-stan war veteran and he donated the whole uniform,” he said. “That uniform saw combat in Afghanistan.”
The uniform has seen no com-bat in Cashmere, with most people treating the saluting man well.
“It’s very fitting for this com-munity,” said FitzSimmons, who just met Hamilton a week ago. “I don’t think they will mess with it. People have respect for it.”
Not all scarecrows are so fitting for this community, FitzSimmons joked.
At first, she said she expect-ed lots of football scarecrows. There’s only two. And in a bit of irony for this eastern Washington town, one is a Husky scarecrow and the other a Seahawk fan.
“Where’s the Cougar?” Fitz-Simmons quipped. “I’m just ask-ing.”
Photo by Sebastian MoragaDr. Decaynator and his patient, Candy. The duo won the Best Ensemble prize in the city’s scarecrow contest.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaCashmere’s gravity-daring firefighter, the scarecrow that won the Best Business Theme in the scarecrow contest. More than 40 entries participated, and that’s only about half the scarecrows that have appeared around Cashmere.
Photo by Sebastian MoragaWith a necklace of bottle corks, and hair of grapes, Millie Merlot at Horan Estates is a fair and deserving winner of the “Grand Champion” prize in the city’s scarecrow contest.
