Bickleton to get new post office
Rebecca Gourley and Lou Marzeles
The Sentinel
The cost of getting mail for Bickleton residents lately has been more than $100,000 per month cumulatively, according to some area residents. That’s the combined cost of about a hundred people there traveling round trip to Roosevelt often enough to pick their mail in a timely manner, plus going the many miles to the nearest gas station to fill up for the journey.
Some have wondered why the U. S. Postal Service (USPS) has been forcing taxpayers to fork over that kind of money—especially in light of rumors that the service was not even aware that it owned the very building in Bickleton that it shut down in June for being unsafe. USPS officials deny the rumor, but some area residents say it’s so.
The situation has brought the attention of other federal officials, most notably U. S. Congressman Doc Hastings. According to Hastings’ office, there are now six mail collection boxes set up outside the condemned building in Bickleton as a temporary fix to the problem.
“I have been working closely with county officials and USPS to find a timely resolution to the temporary lack of mail service in Bickleton,” Hastings told The Sentinel. “Following extensive discussions with the USPS, it is my understanding that area residents now have access to mail collection boxes and that a permanent postal facility for Bickleton is in the works. I will continue to work with Klickitat County officials and Bickleton residents to see that USPS meets their commitment to a permanent postal facility in Bickleton.”
According to Charlie Keller, communications director for Hastings, other USPS buildings have been closed. Some have had to close due to financial situations, and others were condemned because of safety issues.
Carol Rebstock, operations manager for the USPS in Spokane, says she’s has been working on the issue since the beginning. “The building that was closed had structural issues that made it unsafe for the public and workers,” says Rebstock. The service recently received approval from headquarters to renovate the new building that the USPS will use as the new location for the Bickleton post office, just up the street from the old one. Renovations are expected to take about three months to complete.
Library levy likely to produce range of services
Lisl Garnett
For The Sentinel
In a town the size of Goldendale, the effects of cutbacks for something as central as the library can be felt by everyone—and in 2008 they were.
When the library’s funding, which comes from property tax, couldn’t keep up with inflation, the budget began to feel the squeeze. When the wave of defaults and other problems in the housing sector hit Klickitat, Skamania, and Clark counties, the library budget was in crisis. The effect began in 2008 with hiring freezes, wage freezes, and the elimination of all employee training; but it was still not enough. By 2009 the cutbacks began to get increasingly severe, with 10 percent of all staff being laid off, hours cut, books by mail eliminated, and programs once considered vital to the community such as educational lectures cut back.
For the Goldendale Area and much of Klickitat County, the library is more than just a place to get books. It offers one of few free computer and WiFi accesses in town and free printing. It offers resumé and research help and basic computer classes. It hosts free tax aid during tax season. For children, library personnel present story times, make visits to classrooms, and provide report research and homework help, in addition to multiple educational summer programs. Many local schools in areas such as Bickleton, Centerville, Roosevelt, Lyle, and Wishram aren’t large enough to have a school library for their own use and use the Bookmobile as their school library.
Perhaps these are some of the reasons Klickitat County voters carried the vote to approve the library levy—whereas Clark County was less enthusiastic. One library patron stated, “The free WiFi saves my sanity,” adding it was a place her son could play while she worked. Another said it was the only place they could find free computers and printing to allow them to look for houses in the area. One thing was for sure after the levy vote: there were smiles on the librarian’s faces, and it wasn’t just because of the increased funding. Klickitat County voters showed they valued the library’s work and saw the value in what they did.
So what’s ahead for Goldendale Library? Naomi Fisher, the Goldendale Community Librarian, stated a few things she knows for sure will change. Starting in 2011, the library will be open on Mondays again, giving current staff extra hours. They will also be hiring additional staff and ordering new books. Programs like those mentioned above will be offered, and Fisher hopes some of the programs that were cut can be restored. Beyond that there are many people with ideas of how to spend the money. One patron requested more computers. Others would like to see more programs for children.
County adult smoking up from last year
New survey results show that Klickitat County’s adult smoking rate has increased from 15 percent last year to 17.8 percent this year, which is higher than Washington’s adult smoking rate of 14.8 percent—down from 15.3 percent the previous year. Washington now has the third lowest smoking rate in the nation—the state’s best ranking since measuring across all 50 states started in 1995. Results of the survey were reported by the county Department of Public Health.
Since the state started its Tobacco Prevention and Control Program in 2000, the smoking rate has declined by about a third. This translates to 320,000 fewer people smoking in the state and about 105,000 people who will be spared an early, tobacco-related death. Despite these gains, people from low income and lower educational backgrounds continue to smoke at higher rates. The rate among people from low income backgrounds (household income less than $25,000) is 29 percent. The rate among people with lower educational backgrounds (high school diploma or less) is 27 percent. While people with lower incomes try to quit as often as people with higher incomes, they are less successful.
There is also a concerning new trend in tobacco use. Smokeless tobacco use, including products like chew, is on the rise among people who already smoke. In the last 10 years smokeless tobacco use has more than doubled among people who smoke. Smokeless tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents and is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. It is a known cause of cancer, including cancer of the mouth and pancreas.
While Washington has made significant headway in lowering smoking rates, overall there is still work to do. The tobacco industry spends more than $146 million each year in Washington State to market its products. State-wide, about 45 youth start smoking each day and about 7,500 people die every year from tobacco-related diseases.
Local tobacco prevention and control efforts include the establishment of smoke-free parks, education within the schools, and tobacco retailer compliance enforcement.
For questions about tobacco prevention and control, contact Margaret Pillon, RN with the Klickitat County Health Department, at (509) 493-1558. For questions about quitting, call the State Quit Line, in English at (800) QUIT-NOW and Spanish at (877) 2NO-FUME.
|
