THE SENTINEL REACHES 9 OUT OF 10 ADULTS IN GOLDENDALE
Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2021
Vol. 142 No. 31
$1.00
The hospital bond vote As of 8:23 last night, there were 1,383 votes (60.66 percent) to approve the bond measure and 897 votes (39.34 percent) against it.
CONTRIBUTED
ON THE FLY: Corynn Kayser races to stop the clock at the National High School Association Rodeo Finals in Omaha, Nebraska, last month.
Local rodeo kids compete at NHSRA National Finals TAYLER BRADLEY FOR THE SENTINEL
The National High School Rodeo Association (NHSRA) Finals were held in Lincoln, Nebraska, this year starting on July 18, with a grand total of 1,592 contestants competing from all over the country and the world, including Canada, Australia, and Mexico. The NHSRA is a large association that promotes athletes to pursue their rodeo passions. They do so many things to help these young competitors reach the next level. This year four Klickitat County locals qualified to compete, Blake Masden (bull riding), Joslyn Arnold (breakaway roping), Corynn Kayser (barrel racing), and Wade Endicott (team roping). These four kids and their support systems traveled the 1,500 miles to begin an adventure of a lifetime. The first performance started with a bang, and the kids then spent the next six days competing to make it to the short-go. In the first go-round, Corynn took off fast for the first barrel and stopped the clock at 18.42 seconds. She says, “It was definatly an adrenaline rush—nothing prepares you for competing at that level on the big screen in such a loud environment.” Blake drew a tough bull and almost made the buzzer. Joslyn nodded and chased after her calf, catching him in a time of 4.53 seconds. Wade and his partner caught their steer in 11.85 seconds. The first round ended, and each one of them worked hard and did their job. After a little break and some fun events in between, the second go round began. Corynn was very consistent and ran another 18.48 in the barrel race. Blake drew a great bull and rode for 75 points finishing him in the top
10 this round. Joslyn drew a fast calf stopping the clock at 5.44 seconds. Wade and his partner unfortunately had some tough luck in round two. With the first two rounds over Blake secured his spot into the short go. He k n e w t h e competition would b e
the national secretary. Corynn chose to run because she wants to “better the association and encourage each state to come up with a plan to better someone outside of our rodeo communicampaigned all ties.” She week, got to meet new people, and she gave a great speech. In the end, s h e won
CONTRIBUTED
NEW OFFICERS: Corynn Kayser, center, was elected national secretary of NHSRA and stands with the new vice president (Creek Williams, left), and president (Grace Wiening, right).
tough, but he also knew the bulls would be good this round and was ready for anything. Blake says, “The short round was a very different experience because a lot of people had left, so the stands were not as full.” Blake’s short round didn’t go as he wanted—but he still ended up 17th in the nation as a freshman, a huge accomplishment. “I plan on being back next year just coming back bigger and better,” he says. He has some huge goals set for himself. There was another huge accomplishment that came out of Nationals this year. Corynn Kayser made the decision to run for
and is now the National High School Rodeo Association Secretary. Corynn will go to various events throughout the year representing the association and participate in meetings to address items pertaining to NHSRA. We look forward to seeing all that she accomplishes in this next year. NHSRA provides lots of scholarships and fun for a full week every year in July, and it has helped so many of our local kids. The season will begin again this fall and finish up next spring. Be sure to give a shout -out to our local kids working hard to reach the national finals every year.
Submit photos for 2022 Calendar The Sentinel is gearing up for its annual calendar. Over the past decade, our calendar has featured photographs from photographers in the Goldendale area. This year, in keeping with our broader distribution througout the county, we’re welcoming submissions from photographers everywhere in Klickitat County and may change the name of the calendar accordingly. The photographer whose picture is chosen for the cover will win a free Amazon Fire tablet. Here are the guidelines: - Photographs must be of scenery, which can include wildlife. No photos of people. - They must be horizontal (landscape mode)—no vertical shots will be considered.
- All photos chosen must be in high resoltion, 300 dpi or higher. Submit your photos to: 2022Calendar@goldendalesentinel.com.
Olympia bans single-use plastic bags, and you can report violators LOU MARZELES EDITOR If you’re accustomed to using plastic grocery bags to line your smaller trash cans, you’d better stock up. After Oct. 1 this year— less than two months away—single-use plastic bags will be illegal. So much so that the state will establish a form people can use to report violators. But wait, there’s more: you’ll also have to pay 8 cents for all recycled paper carryout bags. By the end of October, in big cities contraband plastic bags will sell for $50 each. Plastic bag speakeasies will rise up in rural areas. Venezuelan cartels pushing cheap plastic bags will form gangs. Mass hysteria will reign. Exaggeration, of course. But for many the loss of an easy way to carry a lot of goods from the store will be a big deal, as anyone knows who’s tried to haul full loads in paper bags with flimsy paper handles. The state Legislature last year decided the negative impact of plastic bags outweighed convenience. The Legislature’s considerations have merit. Here’s what they focus on: • Every year Washingtonians use 2 billion single-use plastic bags • Plastic bags are a big problem in the recycling system • Plastic bags contain chemicals that are toxic once released into the environment • Plastic pollution poses both
physical and chemical threats to the marine environment To that list the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) also adds the ban will benefit Washington’s recycling system by: • Reducing contamination in the recycling and compost systems • Promoting reuse and recycled content • Building consistency in policy and enforcement across the state • Supporting the recycled paper industry As Washington transitions away from single-use plastic bags, Ecology says it will continue to provide technical assistance, education, and outreach materials to businesses and the public. The agency collaborated with local governments, retailers, business associations, and nonprofits to begin this effort and has even developed a bag ban outreach toolkit that is formatted for accessibility and available in 17 languages. (Those include large-population languages such as Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic. They also include Oromo, a language indigenous to a group native to Ethiopia and Kenya. And Amharic, a language native to a minority again in Ethiopia. And Tagalog, spoken by a minority in The Philippines. And Indonesian. And Lao, and Khmer. The plastic bag community is very diverse.) The state is serious about the ban and enforcement of it. A press
See Bags page B1
City wins award, works on plan to meet cost RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
The majority of Monday’s Goldendale City Council agenda dealt with the city’s wastewater treatment plant. On the positive side, the treatment plant received an Outstanding Performance Award from the Washington State Department of Ecology for achieving full compliance with its national permit. According to a letter sent to the city from Ecology, there are 300 wastewater treatment systems in the state, and Goldendale was one of 125 to receive the award. In part, the letter read, “It takes diligent operators and a strong management team working effectively together to achieve this high level of performance. It is not easy to operate a wastewater treatment plant 7 days a week, 365 days a year without violations. “Operators faced unprecedented challenges and used impressive creativity and shared expertise to manage wipes, gloves, and masks clogging pipes and pumps, and numerous other challenges. Ecology appreciates the extraordinary level of effort your plant operators demonstrated through 2020. Talented and efficient operators are critical to successful plant operations and protecting the health of Washington’s waters.”
On the downside, the council heard at its previous meeting that there were problems developing in the treatment plant’s sludge lagoon and other items that need to be dealt with soon. The estimated cost would be $4 million. The Department of Ecology has accepted an application from the city for a $4 million loan to cover the problem. But in order to pay back the loan, the city would need to raise sewer rates by an estimated $10 per month for decades. Following that meeting, city officials met with the Department of Ecology and last week held a meeting of the council’s Public Works Committee. After hearing a report from Eric Smith of the engineering firm RH2 Monday, Councilor David Jones moved to accept the loan and was seconded by Councilor Andy Halm. Their concern was partly because Ecology had already extended the deadline for accepting the loan from June 1. During extended discussion, Councilors Loren Meagher and Fil Ontoveros suggested that the city not rush to judgement before getting a few more facts and exploring alternate options. Ultimately, after hearing from Smith that Ecology would extend the deadline until after the next councilors meeting, councilors voted unanimously to table the motion until that next meeting.