Police report
Kittcom received the following calls from Jan. 2 to Jan 5:

A full-sized Dodge pick-up truck was reported stolen on state Route 906.

A vehicle was reportedly upside down near milepost 60 of Interstate 90.

A hit-and-run vehicle collision was reported on Second Street in Cle Elum.

A 7-year-old child was reported missing on John Wayne Trail.

A snowmobile reportedly struck a person’s vehicle on Second Street in Cle Elum.

A 16-year-old boy and girl were reportedly lost in the snow on Summit Central.

A hit-and-run vehicle collision was reported on Suncadia Trail.

A mailbox was reportedly struck by a snowmobile on Talmadge Road in Cle Elum.

A group of snowmobilers were reported overdue on Salmon la Sac Road.

Fire calls
Fire and ambulance crews responded to the following calls from Jan. 2 to Jan. 5:

An 87-year-old South Cle Elum man reported having a nosebleed that would not stop.

A chimney fire was reported on Fourth Street in Cle Elum.

The living room of a home was reportedly on fire on Cottage Avenue in Cle Elum.

Arrests<...

If you were in Cle Elum on New Year’s Day and thought you spotted a beer-drinking Bigfoot, you were right. Sassy the Sasquatch, unofficial mascot of WEND Magazine, a publication focusing on outdoor adventure and activism, made a surprise appearance. Portland’s Sal Bondi, right, stopped to offer Sassy some refreshment.

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer

UPPER COUNTY — Thursday’s closure of Snoqualmie Pass due to heavy snow and avalanche danger proved a boon for most motels in the Upper County.
But the Easton Motel wasn’t among them.
Despite a large number of travelers who opted to pay for a motel rather than sit in their cars waiting for the pass to open, the Easton Motel sat closed due to a power outage that began Thursday morning and lasted until around 8 p.m.
Brian Lenz, a local spokesman for Puget Sound Energy (PSE), said the outage roughly covered an area from Golf Course Road west of Cle Elum to Kachess. About a thousand customers were without power during the outage, Lenz said.
“We had a piece of equipment inside our substation, a transmission switch, fail,” Lenz said. “Getting people there to evaluate it had to be coordinated with getting a specialist from the West Side over the pass.”
“The State Patrol assisted us with getting a specialist over. Our crew here worked with the specialist to make a bypass on that switch, and we were...

By MIKE JOHNSTON
senior writer

Kittitas County commissioners have approved four requested changes to the county’s comprehensive land-use plan and rejected two others as not being compatible with the activities on surrounding property and not matching planning in their respective areas.
The comp plan outlines development and rural preservation policies that the county government follows in the non-city areas. It also designates areas of general land use, which is the basis for specific area zoning.
The requests for plan amendments are part of the county’s annual process to consider updates of the plan.
Making the decisions on Dec. 30 were Commissioners Alan Crankovich and Paul Jewell. Commissioner Mark McClain was not in attendance because of being on vacation.

Actions by commissioners to approve requests in a 2-0 vote:
n Ellensburg Cement Products Inc.’s request to add 251 acres to the mineral lands of long-term commercial significance designation off state Route 10 between Faust and Klocke roads.
Commissioners supported...

By CHELSEA KROTZER
staff writer

A Kittitas County snowplow driver was injured after getting stuck in a ditch along Hidden Valley Road the morning of New Year’s Eve.
The snow along Hidden Valley Road was reportedly so bad, drivers had difficulty telling the road from the ditch.
According to Kevin Johnson of D&M Towing, a second county snowplow was called in to assist the stuck driver. A chain was connected to the two plows in an effort to tow out the stuck plow.
Kirk Holmes, Kittitas County Public Works director, said the chain then broke and hit the driver in the stuck snowplow.
“The chain they were using broke and rebounded back all the way to the cab, through the window and struck the employee in the wrist,” Holmes said.
Holmes said the injured employee is going to be on leave for a month or two. Holmes said the employee is safe at home with a cast on his arm.
“This is about as good as it could have came out when you have something break,” Johnson said. “People who have used jerking straps or chains have had other...

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer

ROSLYN — For Roslyn Mayor Jeri Porter, 2008 ended with good news — and bad news.
The good news, at least from Porter’s perspective, is that for the second time in many years the Kittitas County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday denied a request to rezone nearly 19 acres of land north of Horvatt Road and south of State Route 903 from rural use to commercial use.
The rezone, which the city of Roslyn had opposed, was requested by R & R Land Co. The vote was 2 to 0.
The bad news was that the next day Porter slipped and broke her left leg just above the ankle.
“It’s in a soft cast while they decide if it needs to be pinned,” she said Thursday.
That said, “I was delighted by the decision (on the rezone request),” she said. “I think they did the right thing. They supported the Growth Management Act.”
Porter said there is a perception among some people that Roslyn doesn’t want commercial development “and that is wrong.”
But rather than allow unfettered development and sprawl now and try to deal with...

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer

UPPER COUNTY — Just when their parents were probably ready to get them out from the house and back in class after winter break, students in the Cle Elum-Roslyn School District got an unexpected day off from school today.
Classes were cancelled due to an early morning power outage in the Upper County coupled with heavy snowfall, poor road conditions and a forecast that called for heavy rain and winds later in the day.
The early morning power outage, caused by a tree over power lines, affected 1,167 Puget Sound Energy customers. Power was restored around 7 a.m.
Snow plows were out early clearing snow from major roadways in the Cle Elum area but traffic was lighter than usual in the early morning.
That may have been because some commuters found themselves with no chance to get to work across Snoqualmie Pass.
The pass was closed between Cle Elum and North Bend due to avalanche danger from heavy snow that fell Sunday night.
In Cle Elum, a long line of truckers sat on the hill beside Safeway waiting...

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer

CLE ELUM — A fire believed to have been caused by a short circuit in a TV set or a problem with a power strip left a home in east Cle Elum charred and gutted Friday afternoon, according the Cle Elum Fire Department.
The blaze, reported just before 4 p.m., broke out in a home at 305 ½ Cottage Avenue owned and occupied by Roger Thoe.
Thoe said he had returned home to find the house filled with smoke and the TV on fire. He went to retrieve a fire extinguisher and was just stepping back into the room when the TV stand collapsed and the TV exploded sending burning plastic through the room.
“If I’d gone in there a minute earlier I would have been under that TV. I would have been fried,” Thoe said Saturday as he stood outside what remained of the home he designed and built.
An oversized plastic candy cane decorated with a ribbon hung outside door of the attached garage which wasn’t burned in the fire. On the other side of the building, mounds of charred rubble sat in heaps, stark contrast to the...

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer

ROSLYN — The Platters were wrong. Smoke doesn’t get in your eyes when you’re in love — at least not when you’re in love with the chance to warm up at the fire pit beside Suncadia resort’s skating rink.
The natural gas-fueled fire is a drawing card for both skaters and non-skaters alike, particularly on days when the temperature dips well below freezing.
Temperatures were so cold earlier this month that on at least one day those who ventured onto the ice skated free — and the evening session, the third of three sessions offered on Fridays and Saturdays was cancelled.
Two weekends ago there were only a dozen skaters on the ice for the afternoon session.
Last Saturday, at the same time, there were 30 at one point.
Some who came never ventured onto the ice, settling instead for a warm seat beside the fire. Among them the family matriarch, 88-year-old Alladeen Weatherspoon of Federal Way, part of a family group of 16 who rented a home at Suncadia over Christmas. Weatherspoon sat gamely by the fire...

Police report
Kittcom received the following calls from Dec. 29 to Dec. 30:

A vehicle was reportedly on its side and blocking lanes near milepost 73 on Interstate 90.

A vehicle collision was reported near milepost 70 on Interstate 90.

Fire calls

Fire and ambulance crews responded to the following calls from Dec. 29 to Dec. 30:

A 54-year-old Cle Elum man reportedly was having seizures.

Arrests

The following are the people booked in Kittitas County Jail from Dec. 29 to Dec. 30:

A 29-year-old Cle Elum woman was arrested by Washington State troopers for driving under the influence. Bail $500.

A person reportedly stuck a neighbor’s dog with a sword on First Street in Cle Elum.

Baby Jesus was reported stolen from a nativity scene on A Street in Roslyn.

A snow blower was reported stolen on Wapiti Drive in Cle Elum.

A juvenile was reportedly in custody for stealing a snowboard on state Route 906.

A water line reportedly broke and filled an unoccupied house with water on Coal Mine Way in Cle Elum.


Fire calls
Fire and ambulance crews responded to the following calls from Dec. 26 to Dec. 29:

A shop fire was reported on Westside Road in Cle Elum.

A transformer fire was reported on state Route 903 and Denny Avenue in Cle Elum.

A 61-year-old Cle Elum man reportedly was feeling light headed and having heart problems.

An 18-year-old snowboarder reportedly suffered from a head laceration on Summit Central.

The Roslyn Library Knitting Circle, an informal group open to people of all ages and abilities, meets at the Roslyn Library at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 29. Librarian Erin Krake says even those who don’t know one end of a knitting needle from the other are invited to take part. Instruction is available for beginners, including children.
Children’s story time is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the library.
The library will be closed both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

For the Daily Record

The Cle Elum Ranger District, part of the U.S. Forest Service, was recently awarded the lion’s share of $333,505 in grants for recreational trail improvements and planning projects in Upper Kittitas County.
Funds were awarded by the state Recreation and Conservation Office, according to a news release. The ranger district is part of the Wenatchee-Okanagan National Forest.
One of the grants goes to a state park project in Upper County.
The funded projects included the following:
n A grant of $21,220 will be used by the Cle Elum Ranger District to analyze moving the North Ridge Trail, involving planning, surveying and completing an environmental review.
The project aims to move sections of the North Ridge trail No. 1321 to a lower grade, and installing switchbacks and drainage structures to prevent erosion.
The trail runs eight miles south from its trail head on the Little Creek road No. 4517 to its intersection with Manastash Ridge trail No. 1388. Little Creek Basin trail No. 1324 spurs off it...

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer

ROSLYN — It happened 28 years ago.
Bobbi Dreier, then 19, was introduced by her uncle to a man a few years older named Larry Fisher.
He was kind, gentle, funny and hardworking, she says.
“One problem: He drank like nobody I’d ever seen up to that point,” says Dreier, who lives in Roslyn. “He was never mean or belligerent, just couldn’t be ‘normal’ without his alcohol.”
The son of an alcoholic mother, he’d been abandoned in childhood. She remembers when he took her to visit a group home where he’d spent some time.
“All the boys and counselors loved him,” she says. “He was someone there.”
While they were dating, she says, he tried unsuccessfully to quit drinking. After a month, they went their separate ways.
Dreier went on to marry and raise a family.
But in the mid-1990s, Fisher’s name popped up in the papers. He became the second person in the state to be sentenced to life in prison under the state’s “three strikes, you’re out” law after he was convicted for the third time of second-degree robbery,...

Police report
Kittcom received the following calls from Dec. 24 to Dec. 26:
A Jeep reportedly rolled over near milepost 74 on Interstate 90.

Fire calls
Fire and ambulance crews responded to the following calls from Dec. 24 to Dec. 26:
A 20-year-old Cle Elum man reportedly suffered from alcohol poisoning.

Flames and smoke were reportedly coming from a bathroom on state Route 97.

Smoke and flames were reportedly coming from the garage of a residence on First Street in Cle Elum.

Kittcom received the following calls from Dec. 23 to Dec. 24:

A chimney fire was reported on Big Creek Road in Cle Elum.

A 31-year-old Cle Elum man reportedly received a gunshot wound in his rear end on state Route 97.

By ANDREA PARIS
For the Daily Record
HopeSource has extended another helping hand to families in need.
A new program, Hope University, assists low-income families through education to become self sufficient and independent of social services, HopeSource CEO Susan Grindle said.
“This is very exciting and is tremendously rewarding for us,” Grindle said.
The program is designed to teach basic life skills to those already participating in the HopeSource housing program. Currently, 44 families have signed up for the course which starts in 2009.
“In Kittitas County the government spends $10,000 per year per family of four,” Grindle said. “HopeSource can take that same family and move them off all support and welfare programs in less than two years with this program.”
Grindle said participating families are initially surveyed to find out what skills may be lacking and what the family specifically wants to learn. The 18- to 20-month-long course then teaches basic budgeting and banking skills at the 100 level. The 200 level...

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer

Snoqualmie Pass— Forget that the temperatures were cold enough to send an elf running for extra long johns.
Skiers flocked to Snoqualmie Pass for the first time last Friday. Even unseasonably wintry weather on the West Side, and a pass closure that ate into Sunday’s session by 2 1/2 hours, couldn’t dissuade them, says Holly Lippert, a spokesperson for the Summit at Snoqualmie.
“They were solid,” Lippert said of the crowds that showed up. “People are going to come up.”
Not that it’s all been easy going for this opening week of skiing at the Summit at Snoqualmie.
Strong winds on Sunday morning played havoc.
“The wind has been unfortunate. It’s blown snow out of places we would have liked to keep it,” said Lippert of the high winds that swept through the pass over the weekend.
Night skiing began Monday at Summit West, which is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Saturday. Sunday hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Summit East is currently closed. The Summit Nordic Center will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m....

Kittcom received some of the following calls from Dec. 19 to Dec. 22:
A vehicle reportedly struck a deer on state Route 97 and Smithson Road.
A three-vehicle collision was reported near milepost 69 on Interstate 90.
A person was reportedly smoking a marijuana pipe on Broadway Street in Cle Elum.
Money was reported stolen on Fowler Creek Road in Cle Elum.
The search and rescue of a cross country skier was reported on Morrison Canyon Road in Cle Elum.
A jackknifed semi truck was reportedly blocking the roadway near milepost 53 on Interstate 90.
A vehicle reportedly spun out near Cle Elum on Interstate 90.


Fire calls
Fire and ambulance crews responded to some of the following calls from Dec. 19 to Dec 22:
Flames and smoke were reportedly coming out of a garage on First Street in Cle Elum.
house fire reportedly rekindled on Westside Road in Cle Elum.
An 88-year-old Cle Elum woman reportedly fell in the kitchen and needed assistance getting up.
A 56-year-old Cle Elum woman reportedly fell twice and hit her head from the...

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer
CLE ELUM — The city of Cle Elum has told a local businessman he’s waited too long on his appeal of a hearing examiner’s ruling that his property is out of compliance with the city’s municipal code.
Twice in as many years, a hearing examiner has ruled that the Cle Elum Trading Post, owned by Gary Wivag and Sherry Trumball, was in violation of city codes. The first ruling was remanded back to the city after Wivag filed an appeal and the audio recording of the hearing proved unintelligible. That forced a second hearing last spring.
Wivag’s attorney Ken Beckley filed an LUPA (Land Use Petition Act) appeal in Kittitas County Superior Court. But as of this month, Beckley had not requested an initial hearing at which a date for trial would be set.
Now the city, tired of waiting, is threatening to make moves of its own.
In a letter to Beckley dated Dec. 4, City Attorney Michael Kenyon said he had recently viewed Wivag’s property with city staff.
“Based on that review, the city remains convinced that...

By MARY SWIFT
staff writer
CLE ELUM — The city of Cle Elum has told a local businessman he’s waited too long on his appeal of a hearing examiner’s ruling that his property is out of compliance with the city’s municipal code.
Twice in as many years, a hearing examiner has ruled that the Cle Elum Trading Post, owned by Gary Wivag and Sherry Trumball, was in violation of city codes. The first ruling was remanded back to the city after Wivag filed an appeal and the audio recording of the hearing proved unintelligible. That forced a second hearing last spring.
Wivag’s attorney Ken Beckley filed an LUPA (Land Use Petition Act) appeal in Kittitas County Superior Court. But as of this month, Beckley had not requested an initial hearing at which a date for trial would be set.
Now the city, tired of waiting, is threatening to make moves of its own.
In a letter to Beckley dated Dec. 4, City Attorney Michael Kenyon said he had recently viewed Wivag’s property with city staff.
“Based on that review, the city remains convinced that...

By MARY SWIFT
Staff writer

CLE ELUM — The weather outside was freezing. But there was nothing but warm holiday spirit inside the Upper Kittitas County Senior Center last Friday when an army of local elves gathered to put together food boxes and gifts for more than 90 local families.
It was all part of the sixth annual Canopy of Caring effort, a home-grown project that strives to make the holidays better for those in need in the Cle Elum-Roslyn area.
Chairman Beth Marker, who took vacation time to take care of last minute details for the event, was in good spirits Friday afternoon as she watched a bevy of volunteers — from age 7 on up — sort through wrapped gifts and put them at the proper tables.
Families were scheduled to show up Saturday to pick up their food baskets and gifts.
“This place will be empty by 1 p.m.,” Marker, surveying tables laden with gifts and boxes of food piled underneath. Each spot was marked by a number, identifying which items belonged to which family.
In all, upwards of 35 volunteers were involved...

Police report
Kittcom received some of the following calls from Dec. 18 to Dec. 19:

A 44-year-old Roslyn man reporting being unable to breath.

A search and rescue was reported in Roslyn.

By CHELSEA KROTZER
staff writer

As the snow fell over Kittitas County Wednesday, the number of vehicle collisions, rollovers and slide offs increased, keeping local law enforcement and tow companies busy into the early morning hours.
Washington State Trooper Richard Magnussen said the agency responded to more than 50 different calls in Kittitas County since the snow began to fall Wednesday.
“People need to slow down,” Magnussen said. “People are just driving too fast and following too close.”
Magnussen said majority of the calls were in response to one-car collisions and vehicles off the roadway. There were also a few collisions resulting in minor injuries.
One collision involved a Chevrolet Trailblazer crossing the median and rolling, blocking the eastbound lane for one hour near Elk Heights Wednesday afternoon. The vehicle was traveling too fast for weather conditions.
The driver and passenger were transported to Kittitas Valley Community Hospital with head, back and neck injuries.
The driver was cited for driving...

Kittcom received some of the following calls from Dec. 17 to Dec. 18:

A vehicle was reportedly struck by a snowmobile on Roaring Creek Court in Easton.

A roll-over collision involving a semi was reported near milepost 91 on Interstate 90.

A non-injury vehicle collision was reported on state Route 903.

Fire and ambulance crews responded to some of the following calls from Dec. 17 to Dec 18:

A 34-year-old man reportedly suffered a facial laceration after being involved in a roll-over vehicle collision near milepost 93 on Interstate 90.

A 27-year-old man reported having chest pain after his semi was involved in a collision near milepost 71 on Interstate 90.