Police seek help from public on break-ins
Andrew Christiansen
Reporter
Goldendale police are looking to put the cuffs on a group of people who they believe are responsible for a rash of burglaries in Goldendale. The thieves come out only at night and are responsible for a series of break-ins in the area.
Six burglaries occurred in a three week period, the most serious targeting Allyn's Building Center on Sept. 6 and again on Sept. 10.
There are enough similarities in the crimes that the police believe they know who is responsible, but they need public help to put an end to the spree.
The latest problems started on Aug. 22, at Stage Stop liquor store. Thieves broke a window and entered the store, stealing cigarettes and alcohol at about 1:40 a.m. The same thing happened again on Aug. 30, just past midnight. In both cases, the break-in was reported in progress and police were close enough that they believed the thieves were still in the store, but searches showed they had escaped. Also hit twice was the Goldendale swimming pool, first on Aug. 25 and again on Aug. 29. Little was stolen, but there was damage both times from the break-in. The next incident investigated by the police was a broken window at Aimee's Attic on Main St. on Sept. 3. A window was broken, but the store was not entered and police believe it may be unrelated to the other burglaries. The next night burglars got into the General Store and stole at least $600 worth of merchandise. Then came Allyn's, two nights later, some time between police checks at 1 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Damage was done in the store, and the thieves managed to break into a safe. But they weren't done. Perhaps due to their penchant for getting in and out quickly, the thieves didn't finish the job, so they returned four days later and worked over the safe again.
According to Police Department spokesman, Reggie Bartkowski, "We are down the road to solving these crimes, but we need the public's help. We need people to call in anything suspicious and let us know if they have had anything stolen, even small things that people think is no big deal. It might be the thing that helps us break the case."
Police Chief Rick Johnson spoke of the situation at last Friday's Java Talk meeting. "We are fairly confident we know who these people are," he said. "We're putting an extreme amount of pressure on those people right now, and we're getting a lot of hysteria running around in that group. We know we've hit a nerve. We're fairly confident we're targeting the right group."
Johnson emphasizes Bartkowski's point about how call-ins from the public could be a huge help to the police. "There have been reports from people not when the burglaries were happening," Johnson says, "but a few days later we hear reports of people saying, 'Well, yeah, I saw a couple of these guys dressed in black standing on a corner, and he looked like he had a radio or something in his hand and was talking into it.' But nobody called and reported it at the time. And that's one of the things we really stress: we need to make sure that if you see this at three o'clock in the morning, pick up the phone and call. Usually what we find out about why they didn't call, they say, 'Oh, we didn't want to bother you guys.' Well, that's what we're paid for."
The people who are committing these burglaries are reported to dress in black at night and are monitoring police communications and patrols. They are communicating with walkie talkies or phones, and they are likely to have backpacks.
"If you see people lurking around at night, dressed in black and seemingly out of place, please call us," says Bartkowski. The police are also urging people to do common sense things that make it more difficult for these people to operate. Thieves don't like light, so install motion lights outside and use timer lights inside that can switch on and off at different intervals. Also, according to Bartkowski, these people scout their targets well and seem to know which businesses are not making nightly deposits. In regard to the advance scouting, Johnson emphasized that business owners should be suspicious of people in their stores who spend a lot of time just looking around but not necessarily making purchases. And protect property in vehicles, says Bartkowski.
It is believed that the same suspects are routinely prowling cars both in daytime and at night. "They walk along jiggling handles until they find one open," says Chief Rick Johnson. Some people make it too easy, leaving purses, phones, GPS units in cars with doors unlocked and even leaving windows open. At night time the prowlers target vehicles in unlit areas, since they are afraid of being seen. Vehicles in dark places don't have to be open, since the thieves can break in unnoticed.
Since the group is believed to be local, they likely have friends or family who are probably not supportive of their activities. The police would appreciate assistance in bringing this to an end.
Proposed water rate changes get public hearing
Andrew Christiansen
Reporter
The planned changes in water rate structure received its public airing at last week's Goldendale City Council meeting, but there wasn't much in terms of useful suggestions from the small number of people who testified.
The hearing began with public works director Keith Grundei explaining the need for changes. One important reason cited is that beginning with 2010, expenses are expected to outstrip income by $67,000. It isn't a one-year problem, according to Grundei's figures. He expects the deficit to grow to about $649,000 by 2015, due to expenditures of up to $40,000 per year on capital improvements and $66,000 increase in loan payments. Grundei also detailed the need for revenue to replace steel and asbestos concrete distribution lines, replace the transmission line from the mountain springs and replacement of the decaying water reservoir.
One public suggestion dealt with a potentially less expensive way to repair the reservoir. Ron Lightfoot suggested using a temporary plastic liner and repair the concrete reservoir. Grundei acknowledged that the suggestion might be possible and that the city would hire an engineer to look at the options.
Another comment questioned how the proposed rate system would encourage conservation when higher users would pay less per cubic foot. No one had alternate solutions to offset the expected deficiency, although one person preferred to have city employees bear the burden with salary reductions, to which Mayor Arletta Parton was quick to voice support for the employees and rejected the suggestion as being an unrelated issue. The public works committee will review the issue and decide how to proceed.
The next council meeting, Sept. 21, will have the second reading of the revised parking ordinance. The only discussion at the last meeting during the first reading was how to deal with parking issues near the public schools. The proposed ordinance states that there shall be no parking of vehicles on portions of Schuster, Collins, King, and Roosevelt streets during bus loading and unloading times. Councilman Clint Baze preferred to see no parking on Schuster from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m., stating that the intent is to rid the street of vehicles that are parked on the street around the clock, presenting a hazard to children loading and unloading from vehicles. Baze said the stated restriction would make it difficult for parents who visit the school at times when parking lots are full. Baze recited a list of vehicles with no current license plates that were parked on Schuster in the last couple of weeks. The ordinance will be up for second reading at the next meeting and, if approved, will have public notice prior to going into effect.
Caller says she passed documents to GCS parents
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
In follow-up developments to last week's story on the Goldendale Christian School, a person called The Sentinel to say that she, not former principal Guy Roberts, was the one who passed controversial information on to parents of children attending the school.
In a phone conversation Tuesday, Tara Olson confirmed that she took the document that contained proposed changes in the school's bylaws to the parents. Olson said that when she saw the document, she became concerned and felt parents needed to know about it.
The proposed bylaw changes led to sharp reactions by many of the parents of children at the school and resulted in a dramatic chain of events and counter-reactions.
After the appearance of last week's article, Roberts contacted The Sentinel to claim that the representation of his actions as depicted in the article were inaccurate. Roberts asserted that a key initial question put to him at the start of the interview with him was in fact never asked, notwithstanding interview notes that show the question as being the first thing mentioned. Based on his contention that the question was never asked, Roberts said his responses thereafter were inaccurately taken to mean he acknowledged complicity in acquiring the proposed bylaw changes document and passing them on to school parents.
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