Camas, WA — The two-time, back-to-back State Champion Camas High School (CHS) Boys Swim team lost their home pool several weeks ago as negotiations between Lacamas Athletic Club and the CHS Athletics Department failed to reach an agreement.

Fortunately, Cascade Athletic Club stepped up and took in the displaced team, but it hasn’t been without challenges. The venue change has forced the Varsity swimmers to begin practices at 5:30 am, which gives the boys ample lane space to maximize workouts. Junior Varsity practices in the evenings, beginning at 7:15, which alleviates lane congestion.

It also forces the champion athletes to get up before 5 am, travel to Vancouver, practice, then rush to shower, change, and drive or bus to CHS. It’s not ideal, but the team is adjusting.

“It takes an extra 10 minutes to get here,” said CHS sophomore, Jack Harris. “We have to get here pretty early. It’s not too bad, at least we have afternoons to get homework done, but it’s still a big change from last year. We’ll do our best given the situation.”

On day one, Head Coach Mike Bemis gave the entire team a tour of the facility, and thanked Cascade for their generosity. The team practices alongside competitors at Union, Mountain View, Evergreen, and Heritage.

“We’re treating this season like a new season,” said co-captain, Chris Xia. “We’re not really gonna focus on our past titles, we’re just going into this year trying our best and yeah we have some swimmers who have left, but we’re just gonna try to make up for them, and do the best we can.”

Swim

Camas Swim team captains, from left: Chris Xia and Austin Fogel.

The team won State titles in 2017 and 2018, thanks to amazing talent, and coaching strategies. But, they also lost three star athletes — Finn McClone and Mark Kim — to graduation, as well as Eric Wu, who dropped the team this year because of losing Lacamas Athletic Club as their home pool.

“The Camas High School Boys swim team is about to start training for our third state title,” said Wu. “I find it near impossible if we can’t do that without our pool. The past few seasons we were able to train in the afternoon at Lacamas. Not only does swimming in the morning affect our training, but it affects our whole day during school. Without proper sleep and a home pool, how will we put together another strong state team?”

Losing Wu was a blow, but the team is soul-searching, and working hard to fill in the gaps.

”We’re still gonna try hard to defend our State title,” said co-captain, Austin Fogel. “Hopefully some of the underclass men will step up and fill those shoes. We have some really fast swimmers.”

Their first meet of the season is today at Curtis High School.

Jewelry

www.michaelnutterjewelry.com

Background

So, how did a two-time State Championship team lose their home pool?

Several months ago, Denise Croucher, owner and operator of Lacamas Athletic Club, expressed her desire to have a member of her club staff serve as assistant coach to both the boys and girls Camas High School (CHS) swim teams. Athletes from several private clubs swim for CHS, including Lacamas Headhunters, Columbia River Swim Team (CRST), Portland Athletic Club, and Mt. Hood.

CHS and Bemis say Croucher wanted to be head coach, which Croucher denies.

Croucher’s demand to coach was met with resistance from CHS, whose loyalty remains to Bemis, who has brought home two back-to-back state champions. Negotiations between the two entities ended with the girl’s team being forced out and finding a new, temporary home at Cascade Athletic Club.

“Yes, we will continue to swim at Cascade Athletic Club for the boys season,” said Rory Oster, CHS Athletic Director. “We are grateful for the great management and leadership at Cascade who is willing to do whatever they can to help our program, and we will make it work. Again, our preference would be to swim at the local Lacamas Athletic Club and are disappointed an agreement could not be made.”

Swim

Front, left to right: Jack Duerfeldt and Luke Bales. Back, left to right: Zach Macia and Ben Taylor.

Croucher said she thought they were still in negotations, and was shocked when the girl’s team switched over to Cascade. At the time, CHS had hoped they could salvage the relationship and keep the Lacamas pool for the boy’s season.

There’s been bad blood between Croucher and CRST for more than 15 years, but Darlene Hill, owner and operator of CRST, says “There’s nothing there that can’t be fixed — the focus should be on the kids who all get along very well. The swimming community generally gets along well. This is very obtuse.”

Bemis said over the years Lacamas Athletic Club has manufactured tensions, but “we always found a way to work it out.”

Parents have complained that Lacamas Athetic Club management was seldom prepared for home meets, and that facilities haven’t been properly maintained. Croucher said their facilities were vandalized during home meets, and that the costs of opening the pool for the CHS team were too high. CHS pays $20,000 each season to Lacamas Athletic Club to lease lanes at their facility, said Croucher.

“They pulled all shower plumbing off the locker rooms, they played with heaters and they ruined a locker room heater,” said Croucher. “Other teams would leave a mess in the locker room after each swim meet. We had a huge mess every single day after practice. Garbage strewed across the locker room. The attitude was very negative from outside swimmers. They don’t respect it like its theirs.  Honestly, sometimes I don’t think we want them back here. It has been so nice to have our team, staff and employees without the high school teams.”

But, she also feels bad a deal couldn’t be worked out.

“It’s not something we really want,” said Croucher. “We want the kids to be able to swim, so I’m a supporter of that. But, we have to find a way that it doesn’t impact the business so much. I also want a member of my staff coaching the team, that way our interests are represented at every practice, and at every meet. I’m open to suggestions.”

Swim

From left: Chris Xia, Dave Peddie, and Austin Fogel.

Bemis said the politics of the situation have been a challenge for more than a decade, and that they’ve always found a way to work it out. But, not this year.

“Leslie (the assistant coach) and I aren’t even allowed on the Lacamas Athletic Club premises anymore,” said Bemis. “It’s gotten that bad. Denise wants to coach both Camas High School teams, and if she doesn’t get that, then the Camas teams aren’t allowed to practice or compete there. It’s not a good decision.”

Bailey Segall, of the CHS Girls swim team, said that Lacamas Headhunter swimmers even petitioned Croucher to change their minds.

”They went in there and begged Denise to change her mind, but she wouldn’t listen,” said Segall. “Nobody is really happy about this.”

George, Washington — A bus accident in Central Washington changed many lives on Thanksgiving Day, including Battle Ground City Councilor, Shane Bowman, his family, and the small town of George.

Moments after bus three in a six-bus caravan transporting University of Washington Marching Band and Spirit Squad members to Pullman slid and rolled on the icy highway, Bowman said he heard the sirens of fire trucks and ambulances passing through George.

“I grew up in Central Washington four miles from George, we were visiting for Thanksgiving, working outside and we heard some police sirens and ambulances, so we assumed there was an accident,” said Bowman. “We finished our work and pulled up the news and learned that a UW band bus rolled over just six miles from us. My son said we should go see if we they need any help.”

So they did.

Within moments, the Bowman’s found out they were triaging victims at George Elementary School. So, they called the fire chief and asked if they needed anything.

“They said they needed food and blankets,” said Bowman. “We rounded up everything we had and headed down there. All the buses were there, five in total. So, we just took in everything that we had, we called a few friends to gather food, and we went to the gas station and cleared out all the hot pockets and burritos we could buy. We bought a couple hundred of them.”

Bus

Local community members brought everything they could to feed the 325 students and staff.

Using the tiny school’s kitchen, they heated up the food, put out the snacks, and watched local community members bring in their delicious Thanksgiving food.

“We fed all of them,” said Bowman. “We had enough water and people showed up with everything — soups and enchiladas. Everything.”

From 6:15 pm until the UW buses departed at 10:30 pm, Bowman’s family, including his son, Trey, and his parents, Alan and Sue (and a total crew of about 10) stayed for the duration. Another 15-20 families came in and dropped off food.

“We’d been down there quite a while, and a whole bunch of food came in — the kids just snacked on anything we had,” said Bowman. “Then a bunch of people brought in more food, blankets and mattresses. A couple even came in from Wenatchee on those icy roads. We thought they were going to spend the night at the school at first. It was chaos, but I was impressed with how professional everyone was. The UW students and staff are incredible. They had a lot to deal with. No complaining from anyone. The whole group was very professional.”

Bowman also got to spend time with Union High School graduate, Tommy Strassenberg, who used to live in Battle Ground. Strassenberg was a phenomenal wrestler who is now part of the UW Cheer team.

Everyone was equally impressed with the first responders — especially given the resource constraints an accident this size causes in rural Washington. Bowman said each little jurisdiction has ambulances, but they don’t have the resources here to deal with something this big.

The UW students are dealing with a spectrum of injuries — from sore backs and lacerations to broken bones and concussions, however, Bowman said it could have been a lot worse.

“I spoke with the bus driver of bus 4 who said he nearly hit bus 3,” he said. “A second collision would have made things a lot worse. We’re very grateful there were no fatalities. There was a lot of ice on the road. We have four-wheel drive pickups and the roads were slick. It was bad out there. There was freezing rain and sleet for about an hour.

“Regarding the response, I don’t expect anything different. I was in Battle Ground when we had the tornado come through, and we had the same thing there. People just stepped up, and put aside all their differences, and that’s what was cool. All the Fire Departments here are volunteers. It’s refreshing to see everyone help out.”

The UW students spent the night at Moses Lake, and will likely return to Seattle tomorrow morning. They won’t attend the Apple Cup, which was their destination.

Last Christmas season, in an effort to support locally owned and operated businesses, I made a point to shop FIRST in downtown Camas, Washougal, and other small companies in Vancouver. My goal was to buy as much as I could without going to the mall, or into the traffic congested streets of Portland — or even going online.

The results amazed me! I was able to make 80 percent of my purchases before going anywhere else. I found some really cool treasures, some really fun gifts that my sons continue to enjoy. Once I did all I could at these sweet little shops, I ventured to the malls, struggled to find a parking space, listened to the madness, and made other purchases.

Yes, the mall has some great things, too, and I was happy to support the local business there, as well. But, I was all too pleased to leave and return to the peace of Downtown Camas to sip a hot chocolate at Caffe Piccolo, or enjoy a burger at Feast.

Small

Inside Lily Atelier, in Downtown Camas.

I see daily the up’s and down’s that local small businesses contend with, and I appreciate their steadfastness and continued hard work to serve us. So, I went to several local shops, and asked them what we can do to support them.

Here’s the list:

  1. When you visit the store, check-in on social media.
  2. Snap a photo of a product you like.
  3. Post the photo and tag the store on social media.
  4. Share your favorite store’s social media posts. Like, follow, share, share, share.
  5. Bring in your out-of-town guests.
  6. Follow the store on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).
  7. Word of mouth. Simply tell your friends to shop there for Christmas purchases.
  8. Get to know the retailers and how they support other businesses, including local artists, jewelers, card designers.
  9. Choose in-store products that give back to charitable foundations.
  10. Boost a store’s Yelp presence by giving them a positive review.

And, of course, buy, buy, buy!

 

Camas, WA — Life is just beginning for the The Artful Attic, a new Downtown Camas artist cooperative full service boutique, but some of the treasures they’re selling have a long history.

Case in point: Co-owner Lori Lander proudly holds a hand-turned wood bowl by local artist Ron Wiltsey, who created it from a burl from a sweetgum tree that was planted at Esther Short Park in the 1890s. He works with wood only.

“I just love this piece,” said Lander who opened the boutique with her soon-to-be-husband, Tyson Morris, just a few weeks ago. “It tells a story. Our store has many sweet treasures like this.”

Located at 217 NE 3rd Avenue, Artful Attic sits across the street from Salud Wine, and is just a stone’s throw from the mill.

Lander says the store features 17 local artists, roughly 65 of the store’s inventory.

“We wanted a platform for all kinds of art,” said Lander. “Our goal is to feature 100 percent local art. We could easily handle 40.”

Valerie Eliason does all the grain designed for her decorative wall art, handcrafting the stencils and applying a resin with a nice think veneer.

Artful

Come see this bowl, made from an old tree at Vancouver’s Esther Short Park.

Laura Koppes does a lot mixed media paintings. Uta Zuendel creates bamboo art using thin shavings resulting in stunning wreaths, ornaments, and other decorative work.

Chris Brodigan handcrafts the pottery (matching cups, plates, oil containers, bowls, etc) for an elegant table setting. Kathy Marty weaves stunning rugs out of Pendleton scraps.

“It was a challenge to get artists on board without a storefront,” said Lander. “The concept from opening was six months. We opened October 20.”

Artful Attic also does laser engravings, which costs $1 per square inch, plus a $10 setup fee. They can do cork, wood, metal, plastic, and glass.

“I love to create, and didn’t want to sit at a cube anymore,” said Lander. “I’ve dreamed about being a small business owner since I was a kid. I’ve had many ideas I just wanted to do. Come visit us and support the local artists. Let’s celebrate them!”

To learn more, visit www.artfulatticboutique.com

8:00 am UPDATE: Edie Myers-Power has been discharged, as have most, and reports are the UW students spent the night at a nearby hotel in Moses Lake. Her dislocated shoulder will require a surgeon when she returns to school. More information will be reported.

11:00 pm UPDATE: Austin Miller has been discharged from the hospital. He will be OK, but will be very sore for a while.

10:25 pm UPDATE: Camas High School 2015 graduate, Austin Miller, sustained injuries in the accident.

”When talking to him he feels like his injuries are minor compared to others — cuts on hand and chin, sore back and pieces of glass in his scalp that need to be cleaned up,” said Mia Miller, Austin’s mother.

Edie Myers-Power is getting X-rays. Other names haven’t been released yet.

9:36 pm UPDATE: There was a total of 6 chartered buses carrying UW band members. The bus that went off the roadway was # 3 in the group. Also, the numbers transported to area hospitals is closer to 40-45 plus.

Local families are asking for your prayers. Please share this article. We will keep updating this story as more details unfold.

BREAKING NEWS: Icy road conditions caused one of three buses carrying members of University of Washington’s marching band and spirit squad headed to the Apple Cup in Pullman to roll on its side, injuring at least 25 people. 

The crash happened at 5:20 pm today on eastbound 1-90 about three miles west of George. The injured were taken to the area hospitals to be treated, which are being reported as not life-threatening. Injuries include lacerations, broken collar bones, sore backs, bruises, and glass shards in scalps.

According to Jennifer Myers-Power, her daughter, Edie, and several Camas High School graduates, are among those injured. 

“Right now, there are 20+ kids at the Quincy Valley Medical Center,” said Myers-Power. “From talking to the other Camas moms of Husky Saxes, Edie’s might be the worst. Of those not hospitalized, there was still lots of broken glass, so lacerations and bruises. Some hand injuries so I’m pretty sure they won’t be playing.”

According to Grant County Sheriff’s Office: “Chartered bus carrying part of the U of W band lost control and rolled about 5:20 p.m. east bound I-90 MP143. Bus came to rest on a frontage road. All people on board accounted for. Injured all have non-life-threatening injuries. Around 25 victims transported to several area hospitals. That number subject to change as we work to verify all information. Remainder of students on the rolled bus have been taken to George Elementary School to be re-evaluated by EMS. Working on plan moving forward.”

There is currently no need for any volunteers, food or donations at the George Elementary School school, but families are asking for prayers.

We’ll keep you updated on this story.

Photos by Seattle Times and Washington State Patrol.

 

 

Washougal, WA — Washougal voters passed Proposition 8 changing the City’s form of government from mayor-council to council-manager in the November 6 general election. Current Mayor Molly Coston will become the eighth member of the Council, and current City Administrator David Scott was appointed Washougal’s first city manager at the November 19, 2018 Council meeting. All changes will go into effect November 27, 2018. Mayor Coston will serve as the eighth councilmember until the expiration of her current term in December 2021, at which time the Council will revert to seven members. At the December 3, 2018 meeting, the Council will select a mayor from among its eight members.

“I am very pleased with the turnout of voters and am looking forward to the transition to the new form of government,” Mayor Coston noted. “I think this change is positive, that this will even out the playing field, where there’s not too much executive power vested in one individual. We have a great team in Washougal, and the transition is going very well. I look forward to returning to being a member of the Council and the opportunity to continue serving our community.”

In March 2018, Mayor Coston appointed the Citizens Government Advisory Committee and charged them with the task of determining whether it was the right time to transition to a council-manager form of government. The Citizens Government Advisory Committee recommended that the City Council place on the November 2018 ballot a measure to adopt the council-manager form of government for the City of Washougal. On May 29, 2018 the Council adopted a resolution placing this issue on the November 2018 ballot.

Councilmember Julie Russell served on the committee and said, “I appreciated being appointed to the Citizens Government Advisory Committee by Mayor Coston. After reviewing all of the information regarding the two forms, I reached the conclusion that the council-manager form would be the best for our community moving forward. The Council is strongly committed to ensuring that our transition to the new form continues to go very smoothly.”

Council-manager

David Scott.

Under the council-manager form of government, the city manager has general supervision over the administrative affairs of the city, including daily operations, handling personnel functions (including appointment and removal of employees), and preparation of the budget for submission to the City Council for their review and approval.

Scott has served as city administrator since 2010. On his appointment to city manager, he remarked, “It is an honor to have the confidence of the Council. I am very grateful for the opportunity and look forward to working with the team to serve our community.”

The City of Washougal will join 53 other cities across the state of Washington that are organized under the council-manager form of government, including Battle Ground, Ridgefield and Vancouver in Clark County. More information about the council-manager form of government can be found at http://mrsc.org/Home/Explore-Topics/Governance/Forms-of-Government-and-O….

 

Laser

www.VancouverLaserSkinCareClinic.com

For those looking for a Hallmark Card-perfect holiday experience, you need to look no further—and go no farther—than Hood River. The picture-perfect historic downtown is alight with holiday spirit, and with snow-capped mountains as a backdrop and warm cafés and restaurants for refueling, there’s no more picturesque place to get into the holiday spirit.

Throughout the month, visitors can enjoy stress-free shopping in Hood River’s historic downtown, where there’s something for everyone on their list, and support small businesses at the same time. (You won’t get views of Mount Adams and Mount Hood while shopping in a mall or from your couch!)

To help make holiday shopping stress-free, the City of Hood River will host free metered parking from December 10-25 (Sunday parking is always free!). For zero driving stress, those coming from the Portland area can leave the car at home as the Columbia Gorge Express bus service is continuing through winter, with a new Hood River stop location right in front of Full Sail Brewing! Check the Columbia Gorge Express website for the winter schedule, which begins on December 3.

Shoppers can reward themselves with handcrafted drinks from one of Hood River’s breweries or cideries, enjoy a meal that’s locally inspired, and then spend the night in a historic hotel, cozy bed-and-breakfast, or riverside lodge.

The Downtown Camas Association (DCA) announced today that Camas is a top 20 national finalist to appear in the next season of “Small Business Revolution – Main Street,” which is a streaming Hulu web series hosted by Amanda Brinkman and Ty Pennington.

Camas made the top 20 out of 12,000 applicants, said Maria Gonser, owner of Attic Gallery in Downtown Camas.

“I’m a big fan of the show, and I submitted an online application to get Camas to be on ‘Main Street’,” said Gonser. “The show really understands small towns, and they’re big on restoring them.”

Gonser explained that Small Business Revolution will choose 10 of those cities to come visit. And out of those 10, they choose five, then the show’s viewers will vote on the remaining five. The top vote getter will be the focus of season four.

The top 10 will be announced on December 11, and the town visits will take place in January. The top five will be announced in mid-February, and the public vote takes place the end of February.

“I was drawn to it because we have so many projects but don’t have all the funding for them,” said Gonser. “If we win, we’d get $500,000 in funding. Six businesses would get a major makeover, plus we need to send more love to 3rd and 5th Streets in Camas. I want to feel good when I go on those streets.”

Main Street

Call 360.696.9877

Once the show’s producers contacted Gonser, she directed them to the DCA’s Executive Director, Carrie Schulstad.

“I spent about 40 minutes on the phone talking with them,” said Schulstad. ”I told them all the great things about Camas, but also the areas that need major improvement. If we get picked, they will go into each business for a month and help them out. They all have their own expertise and help each business revamp their whole branding, their space, etc.”

To get to the Top 10, each town is encouraged to promote why they should be considered. Schulstad wants Camas residents to use the hashtag #MyCamas on social media posts.

“Please like their Facebook page (go to @SmallBusinessRevolution) and post a photo to their timeline with a message about why you love Camas and be sure to use the hashtag #MyCamas,” said Schulstad. “Our town can do this! Please use this hashtag on Twitter and Instagram, too!”

Main Street

The show is hosted by Amanda Brinkman and Ty Pennington.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is Small Business Revolution Main Street?

This is what the show’s producers say: “As we traveled the country, capturing the inspiring stories of 100 small businesses, we recognized that nowhere in America are small businesses more critical, and more under siege, than in our small towns.

“We created the Small Business Revolution – Main Street to help those small businesses, and in turn, those small towns, reignite the spark that drives them and keeps people coming back.

“Each season, we seek out America’s most inspiring small towns, and award the winner – and six of its small businesses – a $500,000 revitalization and feature the transformation in an original series.”

To learn more, visit www.smallbusinessrevolution.org

 

 

Camas, WA — After deliberating for about 25 minutes Wednesday night, the five remaining Camas City Councilors unanimously voted to appoint sitting councilor, Shannon Turk, to fill out the remainder of the term of former Mayor Scott Higgins, who recently retired from public service. She will be sworn in on November 19.

The announcement followed interview sessions with all four candidates: Turk, Pastor Georerl Niles, former Camas Mayor, Dean Dossett, and Camas City Councilor, Melissa Smith.

”Right now I’m glad the process is over because it was very stressful,” said Turk. “There were four very equally qualified candidates, and I spoke with them and they are very smart, likeable and would have been great mayors. I don’t know how Melissa is doing, she seems to be handling it very well. She’s a good person, and she wants what’s best, I’d hate for her to feel that she doesn’t have as great a value due to the votes. There is some benefit to having a unanimous vote.

”What I’ll do next is a lot of listening and continued learning, my own self-improvement, but also learning the things I don’t know. I have a lot of listening to do. I know my opinion and I know the people who I directly talk to — mothers with kids in the schools near Dorothy Fox. I know my ward, but I need to know the greater city.”

Turk will spend the next days and weeks deciding city priorities.

“My priority would be the pool/community center, and I need to lay out the options and let them choose what the priorities are. We don’t communicate processes well, so we need to work on that.”

Turk acknowledged the city has a public relations problem stemming from the departure of former City Councilor Tim Hazen and the ill-fated Senior Center project on Everett, and the lingering perception the council is a good ‘ol boys network.”

”We need more open communication,” said Turk. “Get all of the information out there that we have. Addressing the ‘Good ‘ol boys network’ perception, I will say this: Until I was appointed on council I didn’t know any of the city council members. I’ve grown with them, I hope they see my knowledge and potential leadership. The mayor is the city’s executive and needs to know how the city operates, so you would need someone with experience as opposed to someone from the outside.

“I am going to lay out a vision that would be to just get the city to focus on something — whether it’s firefighters, the pool/community center, police, or change the form of government. The executive provides the leadership and it’s a give and take. Some things they will bring up to the mayor and others will be from the mayor’s initiative. We need to talk about diversifying revenue. I see six options that we need to discuss.

“In the next 12 months, by the end of November 2019, I want people to understand where the city is going. I want actual progress toward whatever initiative we choose. I want development of a strategic plan.

“In 12 months, I don’t know if we can solve all the problems on the table right now. We can have the firefighter funding plan, but solving that issue is not what I see happening. We’re still talking about where to build the new community center/pool. It just takes time. I want to do all those things, I wish I could do everything.

“We have disparate points of view on Crown Park and the splash pad. Should I proceed with making a fantastic asset at Crown Park, or should I only focus on the pool? Lots of things to get done.

“It’s a leader’s job to proceed with the Crown Park Master Plan, and build a new pool with a community center. We need to have the competition pool centered there with sports fields. That’s what I want to do.”

She wrapped up her first interview as “Mayor-Elect” by praising a council colleague.

“Don Chaney acting as the mayor for the past six weeks has done a fabulous job of holding the line and making progress on communication issues,” Turk said.  “They’ve already made some changes internally. He just didn’t fill a seat, he tried to make improvements, and I appreciate that.”

She said she will run for a full term in 2019.

Turk

The four mayoral candidates. From left: Councilor Melissa Smith, Georerl Niles, Councilor Shannon Turk, and former Camas Mayor, Dean Dossett.

The Interviews

Each candidate was peppered with seven questions during their 20-minute sessions, and each finished with a 60-second closing statement about why they wanted to be the next Mill Town Mayor.

Chaney presided over the sessions, and councilors also had opportunities to ask questions.

The first question was really about personal introductions and professional backgrounds.

Turk explained her professional background in budgeting for local governments. She currently works full-time for the City of Vancouver doing budgeting analysis, and has 25 years of government experience.

“I have a strong sense of local government,” said Turk, who was nervous through about two-thirds of the interview. “I believe what I do is important. This is so nerve-wracking.”

The second question had to do with leadership and management style, and each candidate was asked to provide some examples.

Turk explained that she’s collaborative, and doesn’t always believe she has the only opinion.

“You have to listen to get buy-in and get to the common good,” she said. “I would like there to be a community center here in town. I would have to go out and see what people want.”

Turk

Camas City Councilor, Shannon Turk, during her formal interview with five of her colleagues.

The third question was about the city’s challenges over the next five years.

“Our biggest challenges are funding services — and going through the needs versus the wants,” said Turk. “We have many opportunities facing us. What are our options for paying for public services, for police, fire, etcetera? How do we pay for it? Parks and Rec has needs with limited resources — do we create a new taxing district? Then I look at growth north of the lake. We will have to pay for infrastructure improvements. I’m concerned about growth and there are many here that are upset about it.”

The fourth question was about candidate perceptions and opinions of the various forms of city government. Camas operates under a strong mayor form of government and there’s been discussion about shifting that to a councilor-mayor, aka “weak mayor” form of government.

Turk said she’s comfortable with both forms.

“There are benefits to both,” she said. “Some strong mayors forbid council to interact with staff. I think that both forms of government are pretty similar — it’s just how they’re implemented. I would be comfortable working under wither form. I‘ve watched Mayor Higgins.”

Councilor Deanna Rusch asked: “The prior mayor was very active — Do you have any challenges to your schedule?”

Turk’s reply: “Scott set a strong example. I would not have those same opportunities, but I have a very flexible job. I see this as positive, but we need to rely on the strategic plan and decide what our goals are. Staff should feel empowered to make the decisions. It would be a hinderance to have me in here all the time.”

Turk

The waiting game. Camas City Administrator, Pete Capell, talks with Camas School Board member, Erika Cox, while Shannon Turk looks on.

The candidates were also asked about social media, how it’s changed the way in which society communicates, and how they approach adversity and criticism on the Internet.

“I have never responded to criticism on social media,” said Turk. “You don’t win when you engage in social media. Never engage because it creates more opportunity for vitriol.”

She encourages personal communication, face-to-face, and said sometimes people need perspective. She discussed the issues and concerns around Crown Park Pool, and how people didn’t realize there were nine months of communication on that topic.

Each candidate was also asked about their greatest strengths and weaknesses.

“I’m very aware of the functions of city government,” said Turk. “I love what I do, I would love to be the mayor because I see so much opportunity. My challenge is we need to communicate more, which is my biggest challenge. Sometimes I cringe at things attributed to me. When you are trying to represent the city that’s not the image I would want. Scott was such a masterful speaker. That’s not me, that’s my biggest challenge. It means I can’t speak.”

Turk

At the beginning of the Mayor interview sessions. Five Councilors would appoint Turk as Mayor.

 

Lori Keller, Master Aesthetician, and owner of Vancouver Laser Skin Care Clinic, located in Downtown Camas, answers common questions about laser benefits.

Why are laser aesthetics so effective?

It reverses the signs of aging and sun damage with minimal to no downtime.

When you come in, we will do a complimentary consultation to create a program for your skin care needs. For example, if a client wants to reduce wrinkles, we do a combination therapy which includes laser, microneedling, and peels, depending on the severity of the wrinkles or sun damage.

What are common myths and misconceptions about aesthetic laser treatments?

Does it hurt is the most common question. The answer is sometimes there is none to minimum pain level, depending on treatment being performed.

Another common question is “does it work?” The answer is yes — we have lasers that correct and ultrasound to lift and tighten the skin without surgery.

Going on the Internet and seeing mistakes being done by people who are unqualified or inexperienced. I have more than 30 years of experience.

What kind of equipment do you have?

The Cutera XEO platform is the laser we use, which I’ve been using for 20 years, and I’m happy with the results this awesome technology offers. We also have the Ultherapy ultrasound for lifting and tightening the skin without surgery.

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BEFORE/AFTER: Limelight treatment for brown spots and sun damage.

What makes our treatments a good Christmas gift?

Start the New Year with renewed self-confidence! You can see the results pretty quickly, depending on skin type. We feel that lasers offer great results in skin rejuvenation. Bring in the New Year with your best face forward. It’s about giving the gift of confidence at any age — male or female, young, middle-aged or more mature all benefit from our services at Vancouver Laser Skin Care Clinic! Lasers produce fabulous results, as well as facials,  microdermabrasion, chemical peels and ultrasounds for lifting and tightening without surgery.

We have special offers that are very affordable. It’s giving the gift of beauty.

What services does Vancouver Laser Skin Care Clinic offer?

Intense Pulse Therapy (IPL), Chemical Peel Treatment, Microneedling, Ultherapy, Face/Leg Vein Treatment, Botox/Fillers, and we offer Jane Iredale mineral makeup (makeovers), and medical level skins care products that perform!

We invite you to contact us for a complimentary consultation today. 360.823.0795 or visit us at www.VancouverLaserSkinCareClinic.com

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Lori and Jen hard at work at the clinic.