April-

West Monitor Bridge goes green More than a century's worth of paint layers, rust and wear are gone from the trusses and railings of the West Monitor Bridge. The cracks in the I-bars that prompted concerns about the structural integrity of the 312-foot Pratt truss system across the Wenatchee River several years ago have been repaired, each piece of the truss and railings inspected. The new decking, expanding the road surface from 8 feet to 16 feet (though still a one-lane bridge), is in place and new weight limits are posted - 15 tons, up from the previous 4-ton restriction. The rehabilitated bridge, newly painted a dark green and soon to be equipped at each end with a traffic signal designed to allow one car at a time to cross the one-lane bridge, is about to be reopened to the public. Chelan County Public Works has scheduled a ribbon cutting ceremony at 2:30 p.m. April 19 on the south ramp, at the corner of Bridge Street and Old Monitor Road. The county-owned bridge, built in 1907, closed in August as the crew from Mowat Construction Company started the dismantling process. By February, the pieces had been inspected, repaired and repainted and were being put back together.
Cashmere Rotary celebrates 75 years The 1989 powwow is one of the Cashmere Rotary Club projects that will go down in history if Club Historian Everett Green has anything to do with it. Headed up by Cashmere Rotarian Terry McCauley and co-sponsored by the Colville Confederated Tribes and the Chelan County Historical Society, the powwow was billed as the first since the historic event in August 1931 that called attention to the tribes' fishing treaty rights. "It brought back something that hadn't been in the valley a long time. It's one of those projects that feels good as a club," Green said. And it's part of a legacy of Cashmere Rotary Club charter members, J. Harold Anderson and Mark Balaban. Anderson, an attorney who represented the Wenatchi Tribe, and Balaban, a founder of Aplets & Cotlets, organized the 1931 "Grand Powwow and Historical Pageant" with the help of the Cashmere Chamber of Commerce and local tribal leaders. Five years later, in 1936, Anderson and Balaban were the secretary and treasurer, respectively, of the new 30-member Cashmere Rotary Club. The service club is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The 53 current club members have a get-together planned for this evening, with the usual festivities and introduction of dignitaries and visiting Rotarians.
Fish project migrates upstream The decade-old juvenile fish sampling project previously located at the West Monitor Bridge is migrating upstream, temporarily. That's the hope, anyway. The project is in danger of losing an entire year's worth of data if it can't find a new home soon. The sampling season is mid-February to mid-July. "We're scrambling," Washington State Fish and Wildlife biologist Ben Truscott told the Cashmere City Council last Monday. Last summer, the 103-year-old Chelan County-owned West Monitor bridge closed as part of a rehabilitation project, the truss structure and railings dismantled, inspected, repaired, refurbished and repainted. The pieces of the bridge started being reassembled in February and a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the project was set for yesterday afternoon. The WDFW crew, which has operated the study under the bridge since 2000, expected to take up where it left off once the bridgework was completed, Truscott said. But the county is requiring a feasibility study before the cable can be reattached to the bridge pillars, he said, even though the pillars themselves were not part of the construction project.
McKenna named Vale Principal Sean McKenna's third-grade class at Vale Elementary School is gearing up for the state testing period in early May. That's his focus at the moment, he said, his classroom and his students. And it will stay that way until school is out. But before and after the school day, he is getting a taste of what's in store for him next year when he takes on the job as the school principal. He is already attending administrative meetings to talk about things like schedules, staffing and budget. McKenna, who has been teaching at Vale since 2005, was named to the post last week, selected from a final-four list of applicants, the only in-house candidate to make that cut. The final four were narrowed from a pool of 30 applicants who responded to the job posted in March, about a week after Rhett Morgan announced his decision to return to teaching after two years on the job.