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CHINOOK 113TH Year - No. 10
County economy recovered in summer of 2013
O BSERVER
Week of Wednesday, February 12, 2014
WWW.CHINOOKOBSERVER.COM
Coastal lives are hit hard by heroin
CHINESE IMMERSION IN NASELLE
Many measures show return to pre-recession levels of business
Study suggests drug use has doubled here from 2001-12
OBSERVER STAFF REPORT LONG BEACH — Summer 2013 was good for Pacific County businesses, with the broadest category of sales tracked by the state improving 15.1 percent over the summer of 2012. These taxable sales climbed to nearly $70.2 million last summer, according to just-released data from the Washington State Department of Revenue. This was the best since the pre-recession year of 2007, when the total hit a record $71.9 million. One factor in last summer’s overall strength was bridgebuilding that pushed heavy construction to about $5.6 million. But a wide variety of other economic sectors also demonstrated strength. Retail trade — consisting of sales of material goods from stores — improved 6.64 percent last summer, totaling $20.4 million. This was the best since the previous high of $21.9 million in summer 2008. Accommodations and food services recorded $15.1 million in sales in Pacific County last summer, a 6.64 increase over summer 2012. This was a new all-time record for the hospitality sector of the economy, beating even the busy years of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial. (The total was $13.1 million for July, August and September 2005.) Last summer’s good tourist season was also reflected by inquiries at the Long Beach Peninsula Visitors Bureau, which wrapped up last calendar year with its best numbers ever. The long-suffering building industry also perked up last summer, with about $5.1 million in work reported to the DOR, a 38.8 percent increase from summer 2012. The last summer when builders did better was in 2009, with $6.9 million in projects. The industry is still a long way from the boom times, when projects totaled almost $11 million in summer 2008 and $9.2 million in 2007.
See ECON Page A10
By NATALIE ST. JOHN nstjohn@chinookobserver.com
Photos by DAMIAN MULINIX/dmulinix@chinookobserver.com
Naselle School kindergarteners go over Mandarin characters on a worksheet as part of a Chinese immersikon class.
Mandarin makes its mark By KATIE WILSON kwilson@chinookobserver.com NASELLE — It’s nearly recess and the students in Qian Xiao’s kindergarten class are restless. They start to ask her questions — in English. But Xiao, who goes by the name “Tina,” responds in Mandarin. Her students listen intently. One girl twists in her seat and a boy, at Xiao’s prompting, looks out the window to see if there is any snow on the ground. In Mandarin, he tells her there isn’t any. It’s been one year since the Naselle School, grades K-8, introduced a Mandarin immersion program for kindergarten and first grade. With 37 students enrolled in the immersion program and the majority of students performing well on state tests, Principal Karen Wirkkala hopes the program will continue. The school has reapplied for the grants that currently fund the classes and provide the native Chinese-speaking teachers, and school officials should know next month whether or not the grant applications were successful. “We’re planning on going on,” Wirkkala said, adding that the school board will also evaluate the program this year. Of Naselle School’s 32 first grade students, 20 are participating in the immersion program. Of the 33 kindergartners, 17 spend their school days speaking and learning in Mandarin. Chinese immersion programs have become popular across the country, with numerous public and private schools adding language programs in
First-graders names are spelled out in Mandarin above their backpacks in a Chinese immersion class at Naselle School.
recent years. When Seattle School District’s Beacon Hill Elementary announced in 2008 that it would offer language immersion programs, the school was overwhelmed by parents seeking to enroll their children. In Naselle, parents were also eager but had questions about the logistics of running such a program in a small, rural school district. Some parents wondered what would happen if the program ended up being too expensive. “My child is not a guinea pig and if there is not a well thought out, factbased plan that has clear and achievable logistics and approved funding, I believe that a failsafe status quo should be reinstated,” wrote one par-
ent in a post on a blog maintained by Bud Strange, a director on the NaselleGrays River Valley School Board. “Supporters of the program will say, ‘You can opt out.’ Very true, but this does not mean my child’s experience will be unaffected.” For Kimberly Muessig, a former preschool teacher, the decision to send her daughter to the first grade immersion classes was an easy one to make. The children she used to teach who had also gone to immersion programs had a very developed sense of language and strong reading skills, she said. This last year, she’s seen changes in her daughter, too.
CHINOOK OBSERVER REPORT SOUTH BEND — Chief Deputy Prosecutor Mark McClain has resigned his position in the Pacific County prosecutor’s office, and has accepted a new position in Lewis County prosecutor Jonathan Meyer’s office. His last day will be Feb. 17. In a prepared statement
over the weekend, McClain said that he was moving on because of significant philosophical differences with his boss, Pacific County prosecutor David Burke, who will run for re-election later this year. “It has been an honor to serve this community and the comments I have received from those I have worked with have certainly made me second-guess my decision,” said McClain, “but in the end if you have given your all and cannot support the directions of an office, you need to work elsewhere.” McClain declined to comment further on his reasons for leaving the prosecutor’s office, but expressed his appreciation for “dedicated public servants who are more than figure heads,” citing County Clerk Virginia Leach and Sheriff Scott Johnson as examples. McClain also said he wanted to thank the prosecutor’s staff — especially the paralegals. “They are truly the backbone of the office and any
Rehabs get to work as controversy ends By NATALIE ST. JOHN nstjohn@chinookobserver.com
OBSERVER file photo, 2011
Deputy prosecutor Mark McClain presents evidence to the jury in the successful murder trial of Brian Brush.
success I have had here could not be done without their efforts,” McClain said. McClain, 44, joined the Pacific County prosecutor’s office in 2011, after serving in the Kittitas County prosecutor’s office as chief deputy prosecutor, and for four years as a Kittitas County commissioner. In 2010, McClain, who describes himself as politically “middle-of-the-road,” ran as a Republican in an un-
See HEROIN Page A10
See CHINESE Page A10
Crime fighter resigns county job McClain cites difference with office’s direction
PACIFIC COUNTY — While statewide efforts to curb abuse of prescription painkillers have led to fewer overdoses and safer prescribing practices, they’ve also had some nasty unintended side-effects: With less access to painkillers on the street, addicts are turning to heroin. According to new data from the Washington state Department of Health, painkiller overdose deaths dropped by 27 percent between 2008 and 2012. But during the same period, heroin overdoses increased by 65 percent, causing 146 deaths in 2008, and 231 in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available. Rural areas, including Pacific County, are seeing a disturbing rise in heroin use, because it is cheaper and easier to get than narcotic painkillers like oxycodone, methadone and morphine. According to a 2013 study from the University of Washington, there are multiple indicators that heroin has a growing presence in the county and the region. Between 2001 and 2012, the number of pieces of Pacific County police evidence that tested positive for heroin doubled. In nearby Cowlitz and Grays Harbor counties, the evidence rates more than tripled, and Cowlitz has the highest rate of death by overdose in the state. Between 2009 and 2011, Pacific County had the state’s fourth-highest rate of Hepatitis C, which can be transmitted by sharing needles, and Cowlitz and Grays Harbor counties had even higher rates. And all along the Washington coast, a growing number of people who enter drug treatment for the first time are saying that heroin is their drug of choice.
successful bid to become Kittitas County prosecutor. In his first months in Pacific County, McClain took on two high-profile local criminal cases, prosecuting Brian Brush for the murder in Long Beach of Lisa Bonney, and securing a murder conviction for Devon Moore for the murder of his father Timothy Moore in South Bend.
See McCLAIN Page A10
PENINSULA — Two fledgling Peninsula addiction treatment centers that faced significant obstacles during their planning phases now say business is steady and the future looks bright. In 2012, Free By the Sea, a 35-bed facility owned by Ken and Kay Coffin, opened on the site of the former Sunset View Resort. Klean, the newest branch of a Los Angeles-based chain of recovery centers, opened in Long Beach’s former Ocean View Convalescent Center in February 2013. In both cases, getting to a point where they could serve clients was an extended process, fraught with complications. Licensing and permitting standards for treatment facilities are exacting in Washington, and each business had to satisfy additional conditions set forth by local authorities. In Free By the Sea’s case, there was vociferous local opposi-
tion. And managers at both facilities have learned that finding highly qualified staff in a rural area takes extra effort. During interviews in January and February though, spokespeople for both facilities said they’ve largely overcome these challenges and have plans to expand services in the future. “I think initially we had a bit of an issue just getting it up and running. But we got through that — it just took a little longer than expected!” Klean CEO Andrew Spanswick said during a phone interview last week. In a January interview at her office, Free by the Sea’s new CEO, Wendy Hemsley, who joined the company during a restructuring effort last fall, said that after a few false starts, the company has found its niche and now has a waitlist for clients. “We’ve grown exponentially but sensibly,” Hemsley said.
See REHABS Page A10
INSIDE THIS ISSUE PENINSULA LIFE
SPORTS WEEK
LOCAL NEWS
This old house, Oysterville style
Postseason begins postsnow for local teams
Animal shelter welcomes new manager
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Calendar ..........................A8 Cops................................A2-3 Court ..............................A2, 6 Life ..................................B1-2 Naselle news ..................A12 Opinions ........................A4-6 Outdoors ..........................A11
People ..............................A9 School ..............................A7 Sports ........................A13-14
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