HEADLINES & HISTORY SINCE 1879
Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2023
Vol. 144 No. 45
Museum welcomes new executive director
$1.00
Tuesday election Last night’s election results came after our print deadline. For complete results, visit www.GoldendaleSentinel.com.
LOU MARZELES EDITOR Amy Behrens seemed to have a foot in two worlds. She and her husband and two small children have family in Washington, and she also had a thriving career in southern California. The urban lifestyle was all around her. Not anymore. Behrens, formerly executive director of a prominent cultural center in San Clemente, California, now carries the same job title, but it’s for the Maryhill Museum of Art. She lands in Goldendale as the result of a search through an executive search firm based in Washington conducted on behalf of the museum as the retirement date for Maryhill’s previous executive director, Colleen Schafroth, was approaching. Schafroth was at Maryhill for as long as some people can remember, remaining a rock of solid competence. Maryhill’s board of directors wanted someone who could step confidently into that role while clearly respecting its history and legacy. Behrens brings those qualifications. “Coming to Maryhill was a really interesting opportunity,” Behrens reflects. “The organization that I previously managed, Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens, was experiencing a lot of success. It was, similarly, a nationally registered historic site built shortly after Maryhill Museum of Art was built. For me, this was both a way to continue my career growth as a museum leader in the arts and a wonderful opportunity for my family. We have long admired the quality of life you can have here in a place like Klickitat County. It’s very different from southern California. We have loved the area from afar for some time.” Behrens says the interview process was rigorous. “[Colleen] had been a part of the museum for 37 years and had been the executive director for the past 22,” she recalls. “There was a lot of stability under Colleen, and the
CONTRIBUTED: SANDY WELLS
LOU MARZELES
WELCOME TO MARYHILL: Amy Behrens is the new executive director of the Maryhill Museum of Art. Here she stands beside one of many Rodin works housed in the renowned museum. board knew they wanted to make a good, long-term choice for the museum’s future. In a place like Maryhill Museum of Art, which is a hundred years old and has been open to the public for over 80 years, you need someone who really wants to dig in and wants to be a part of the community deeply and also wants to continue the growth of such a great place and make sure that the flame doesn’t extinguish.” Over two months of phone and video and in-person interviews, Behrens won the job. And landed in an area that matched her career arc, one that was increasingly aimed away from urban centers. “My goal at this point in my life was not to be in the center of Los Angeles or Portland or Seattle or San Francisco,” she states, “but to be part of a museum that is really more in harmony with the land around it. Coming from a rural community myself as a child, I think in a different way than someone who grew up in an urban area.” Behrens is originally from Ramona, California, a small unincorporated area in San Diego County. “I could feel the impact
of what a museum has to offer for people of rural settings of all ages, but particularly for children.” She remembers seeing lots of oranges and avocados and livestock as a child, “really up until I was in college. And around that point in time, there was a series of fires that really devastated a lot of the agricultural production. And so when they began rebuilding, they started planting vineyards. There are still orchards. There’s only one dairy. There is one major poultry place, egg production mostly. The rest is all turning into wineries.” So how did someone growing up around agriculture end up in the arts? “I began my career on the commercial side of the arts and art galleries,” she says. “I attended a small, accredited arts college in Laguna Beach, California. A real credit to my parents was that they brought my brother and me to museums several times a year. It was an effort geographically and financially; we were at least an hour away from the city of San Diego. My mother was an elementary school teacher. They prioritized that for us. I don’t remember one exact moment of
The museum has more than 18,000 works in its collection.
an epiphany, but I can see looking at us now, my brother and I, where we are in our careers that we were both so inspired.” Behrens reflects on the excitement of seeing works of art produced by human hands and imagination. “There was so much that was possible, so much that was beyond what our day-to-day was, so much impact that seeing the arts could have on other people. And we both grew up from that. We brought with us a lot of ambition, a lot of curiosity, and a desire to help others discover that as well.” Behrens got a degree in visual communications and began work as a graphic designer and a writer, putting her skills at the service of art galleries and art associations. From there she migrated to Los Angeles into the art galleries there. She worked in an interim role as an associate director of a major art gallery in Los Angeles, fulfilling a dream of working with a major museum creating their visual materials. “But I didn’t really want to pursue my whole life living in a city,” she says. She landed a job at Casa Romantica first as director of marketing and member development and then being promoted to executive director. She calls Maryhill, with its unique museum contents in a re-
See Amy page A8
County businesses get federal funds to make energy improvements Thursday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) announced that 18 rural small businesses across Washington State—including two in Klickitat County—were awarded a total of $3,006,303 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which helps farmers and rural small businesses transition to renewable energy systems or make energy efficiency improvements. Sixteen of the small businesses announced today will use the funds to pay or help pay for the purchase and installation of a new solar array; one will purchase an energy-efficient HVAC system, and another will purchase a generator for an anaerobic digester. Altogether, the projects are estimated to generate 10.07 million kilowatt hours per year or enough energy to power around 933 homes. REAP was originally authorized in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, called the Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements programs. The 2008 Farm Bill expanded the authority of the program and renamed it to REAP. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act supported by Sen. Cantwell increased resources for the program by more than $2 billion over 10 years.
REAP seeks to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy development for agricultural producers and rural small businesses by providing grants and guaranteed loans for eight different categories of renewable energy production, including wind, solar, anaerobic digestion, hydro, and geothermal power, as well as for energy efficiency improvements. Eligible applicants are agricultural producers and rural small businesses. The following small rural businesses in Washington State were awarded REAP funding: • $14,400 for Basin Farmworks in Adams County. This investment will be used to purchase and install a 16.2 kilowatt (kW) solar array. The project will save Basin Farmworks $2,018 per year in savings and replace 21,034 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. • $1 million for Weyns Farm in Adams County. This investment will be used to purchase and install a 1080 kW solar array. This project will save Weyns Farm $152,384 per year and replace 1,497,736 kWh per year. • $99,930 for Legacy Farms WA in Clark County. This investment will be used to assist the purchase and installation of a 47 kW solar array. This project will generate $2,559 in energy sales per year and will generate 55,096 kWh per year.
YEARS OF SERVICE: Nancy Kusky was honored at Monday’s Goldendale city council meeting for her years of providing videos of meetings.
Kusky honored at city council RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
There was a bittersweet moment Monday night as the Goldendale City Council meeting marked the end of an era. It was the first meeting in 12 years that Nancy Kusky has not made a video recording of the meeting and posted it on YouTube. By invitation of the city, she made a brief appearance at the beginning of the meeting and was presented with a bouquet and plaque honoring her for her service to the city. And under the report of officers section of the agenda, Councilor Filiberto Ontiveros thanked Nancy for all she had done and added, “I hope she still gives us a few phone calls on our birthdays.” Ontiveros was referencing Nancy’s talents at playing “Happy Birthday” on the kazoo to people in the community. Other items in the meeting included a report on the city’s projected budget for 2024. The totals will be higher due to sev-
See City page A8
CONTRIBUTED
SOLAR COMING TO WINERY: Maryhill Winery is a recipient of funds awarded to Klickitat County businesses to install solar panels. • $51,447 for R.P. Kuiper in Clark County. This investment will be used to purchase and install a 36.48 kWh solar array. This project will save R.P. Kuiper $2,900 per year and will replace 35,600 kWh per year. • $11,847 for Sage Hill Electric in Franklin County. This investment will be used to help purchase and install a 16.2 kW solar array. This project will save Sage Hill Electric $1,485 per year and will replace 30,819 kWh per year. • $7,484 for Silva Family Farm in Island County. This investment will be used to assist in purchasing and installing a 9.6 kW solar array. This project will save Silva Family Farm $1,177 per year in energy generation and will generate 9,500 kWh per year. • $18,926 for Dog Townsend in Jefferson County. This investment will be used to assist the purchase and installation of a
12.75 kW solar array. This project will save Dog Townsend Inc. $1,259 per year and replace 26,882 kWh per year. • $12,132 for Plum Forest Farm in King County. This investment will be used to assist Plum Forest Farm with the purchase and installation of a 9.62 kW solar array. This project will save Plum Forest Farm $4,232 per year and replace 9,405 kWh per year. • $19,492 for Lazy T Farm in Kittitas County. This investment will be used to help Lazy T Farm purchase and install a 20.4 kW solar array. This project will save Lazy T Farm $2,800 per year and replace 17,374 kWh per year. • $522,150 for Underwood Fruit & Warehouse in Klickitat County. This investment will be used to purchase and install a 448.8 kW solar array. This project will save Underwood Fruit & Warehouse
See Funds page A8
Sheriff won’t enforce federal wolf law LOU MARZELES EDITOR
Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer Friday released a statement strongly opposing a program to introduce wolves into the county and asserting he will not enforce laws related to their protection. “The introduction of wolves into Klickitat County is a bad idea in my opinion,” Songer said. “Wolves will be killing livestock and domestic pets and will present a public safety threat to our citizens.” Gray wolves have been classified as endangered in all or parts of Washington since federal lawmakers enacted the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973. In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) ended ESA protection for wolves in the eastern third of the state
See Wolf page A8