GHS grad gets Hollywood moment
Klickitat County will get its 10 minutes of fame Friday as a Goldendale High School alumni vies for a half million dollar grand prize on ABC’s trivia game show Duel.
Thomas Bundy, a GHS class of 1989 graduate, will compete against a musician on the show producers describe as a cross between Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and poker’s Texas Hold ‘Em.
The game consists of five rounds where contestants wager bets on trivia questions. In each round there is the potential to win $100,000, however; if a contestant moves to the next round and misses, he or she loses everything.
Bundy said he knew his odds before he went in.
“If you’re a 60-40 favorite, your chance of wining five in a row is seven percent, or seven in a hundred,” he said, noting the improbability. “If you’re a nine to one favorite, the chance of winning five in a row is still only 50-50.”
The loan officer, who moved to Los Angeles 18 years ago, said when he lived in Goldendale he boasted Klickitat County’s highest SAT Reasoning Test score. Yet despite smarts, the show’s questions are designed to be hard to answer with certainty.
For example, on one episode, a woman loses when asked: Which city is farthest west? Los Angeles, California; Reno, Nevada; San Diego, California; or Spokane, Washington.
The answer, it turns out, is Reno, Nevada.
“I was worried I was going to embarrass myself and miss a question in an area I have a lot of knowledge in, that I consider my forte,” Bundy said. “I thought: ‘Don’t miss a sports question, don’t miss a politics question.’”
He said he is known among his friends as a “trivia buff” and learned about the show when a pal called from New Hampshire urging him to try out. He said he is glad he went.
“I had a blast,” he said. “For a day you’re kind of treated like a star. I had makeup people; they put you up in a hotel.”
As to whether or not the trivia guru walked away with a grand prize, viewers will have to wait to see. The contestant said he is sworn to absolute secrecy.
“I can’t even tell my wife,” he laughs.
Bundy’s Duel episode airs Friday, April 18, at 6 p.m.
Pool cover arrives at last for May opening
Much to the relief of the Goldendale swimming pool manager, Lori Anderson, and Central Klickitat County Parks and Recreation District board, the air-inflated “bubble cover” for the Goldendale swimming pool is finally complete. “This has been incredibly frustrating,” said Anderson. “Every time we thought we were going to get the cover, we would find out that there were more issues that needed to be addressed, and it wasn’t even done.”
The cover, which was originally scheduled to arrive in late August 2007 to extend last summer’s swimming season, was delayed for multiple reasons, including a delay in getting a contract signed with the manufacturer, design changes from the architect, and disagreements between the architect and the manufacturer.
The cover coincides with repairs that are being made to the pool surface, to stem multiple leaks related to mistakes made in the original pool surface. The vinyl liner was not completely sealed and allowed water to leak between the liner and the pool foundation. The concrete slurry on the bottom of the pool broke down, and turned into gravel, which poked holes in the liner of the pool. As water leaked through the holes, the concrete continued to break down due to the interaction with the chlorine. The concrete footings also separated from the metal pool walls, allowing leakage through the seam.
“We had hoped to finish the repairs during the fall months when it was still warm,” said District president Jennifer Smith. “That didn’t happen, so we planned on doing the repairs after we had the cover installed in February.”
But when the February completion date rolled around, the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system arrived, but the cover did not. After multiple conference calls, it was discovered that there were still construction issues between the architect and bubble manufacturer which had not been addressed, and construction was not complete.
The District had planned to open the pool for swimming the first week of April, during Goldendale’s spring break, but opening has been pushed back to May. There are still two to three weeks of repairs to the pool needed before it can be filled for swimming.
“As soon as we can get the bubble up and finish the repairs, the lifeguards are ready to go,” said Anderson. “At this point, we are waiting impatiently.”
The bubble cover is funded by an endowment that Wilma Olsen left to the City of Goldendale for a covered pool. Two years ago, the City of Goldendale and the Parks and Recreation Board worked out an interlocal agreement to use the money for a removable cover for the Goldendale pool. Updates on construction, repairs, the bubble cover and tentative opening dates are available on the pool web site at www.goldendalepool.com.
The Parks and Recreation Board meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month, at 6 p.m., at the swimming pool meeting room.
SAR volunteer numbers up, 22 complete recent training
Why would anyone choose to stay outside in the cold and the rain away from central heating and comfortable beds?
In Klickitat County Search and Rescue, it is quite possible that skills like shelter building, learned in KCSAR’s recent academy, may save a person’s life on some cold and rainy night.
This year’s academy boasted 22 students, graduating at different levels, an increase from previous years. “We had almost twice as many students as the last academy,” said Jeff King, KCSAR coordinator. “The last academy in 2006, was the first ever to be held in Klickitat County.”
With this influx of newly trained volunteers, the search and rescue team will be able to increase its effectiveness. Due to availability, prior to the most recent academy, between six and 10 of the 30 members could respond on the average call. Now with more than 50 members, the response on a call could be much higher. “It will allow us to have more searchers at any time a mission is called out,” said King. “More people in the field means better response and better community service.”
The course consisted of classroom training one evening per week, for eight weeks and one full day of field training, held on a Saturday. This was followed by a weekend field test where volunteers were qualified.
The field day required volunteers to demonstrate good searching technique, how to build a fire, appropriate pack preparedness, land navigation, radio use, how to build a shelter and other tasks necessary in search and rescue. Field-searching volunteers were required to spend the night in their shelters as a sure test of their abilities.
At the graduation, Klickitat County Sheriff Rick McComas stated that he was excited to see the large number of new members and was impressed with their dedication and commitment.
The new potential that this group of volunteers brings, both in terms of interest and specialties, has many of the members interested in specialized teams. An option that was previously unavailable.
For more information about volunteer opportunities with Search and Rescue, contact King, at 773-0223.
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