Ellensburg Community Morning Show, Thursday, October 22nd
NEWS
Tonight is your chance to weigh in on the plan that will guide how Ellensburg grows for the next 20 years. The city's Planning Commission holds a public hearing at 5:45 this evening on the draft of Ellensburg 2046, the new Comprehensive Plan, along with the development regulations and the proposed zoning map that go with it. Washington cities have to update these plans every ten years. This one has been in the works since the spring of last year, with open houses, surveys and task forces along the way. The plan covers housing, transportation, land use, parks and economic development, and for the first time it includes a chapter on climate, meaning how the city gets ready for hazards like flooding and wildfire. After tonight, the commission sends its recommendation to the City Council, which takes a first look on November 2nd and is scheduled to vote on final adoption November 16th. The hearing is in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 501 North Anderson Street. You can also join remotely; the instructions are in the meeting agenda on the city's website, and the full draft is online. Questions go to Planning Manager Stacey Henderson at 509-925-8608.
The race for Kittitas County coroner comes down to two people who were both hired by the same man. Nick Henderson, the county's first elected coroner, set up the office in 2015 and brought on both Cori McKean and Charlie Divine. Henderson died a year ago this month, and county commissioners appointed McKean to finish his term. Now she and Divine are facing off on the November ballot, and at last week's League of Women Voters and Chamber of Commerce forum at the Hal Holmes Center, they disagreed about how the office has been run since Henderson's death.
Washington now has its first trees infested by the emerald ash borer, and they're on our side of the state. State agriculture officials say an arborist checking a dying ash tree in College Place, next to Walla Walla, found the beetle's larvae and its telltale D-shaped exit holes late last month, and more trees there turned out to have them. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed it last week. The only earlier find in Washington was a single beetle on a car windshield in Vancouver in August. The emerald ash borer has killed more than 100 million ash trees across the country since it was first found in Michigan more than 20 years ago, and no state has ever gotten rid of it. The Department of Natural Resources says that without treatment, a town can lose nearly all of its ash trees within 10 to 12 years of the first infestation. Walla Walla alone has more than a thousand ash trees in its public inventory, and ash is a common street and yard tree in towns all over Eastern Washington. The state's advice: don't plant new ash trees, don't move untreated firewood, and keep an eye on the ash you already have. The signs are a thinning crown and small D-shaped holes in the bark. If you think you've spotted it, report it to the Washington Invasive Species Council or through the WA Invasives app.
All those pink shirts at the rodeo added up. The Ellensburg Rodeo's Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign raised 14,700 dollars this year through merchandise sales and donations during the September 6th rodeo, and the Rodeo Association handed the check to Kittitas Valley Healthcare earlier this month. The money pays for free mammograms and follow-up tests for people in Kittitas County who couldn't otherwise afford them, and all of it stays here. If you'd like to give, call the Foundation at KVH at 509-933-8669.
Free flu shots tomorrow. Kittitas County Public Health holds its yearly drive-thru flu clinic Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Western Village, 1010 East 8th Avenue in Ellensburg. Drive in from Alder Street. It's first come, first served, while supplies last: 100 doses for adults and 30 for kids. Questions go to Public Health at 509-962-7515.
Looking ahead to next week, one of the country's best-known spoken-word poets is coming to Central. Carlos Andrés Gómez will be on campus Tuesday and Wednesday for two days of free, public events. Gómez is a New York City native and Colombian American poet who has performed everywhere from Lincoln Center to Tokyo. His first full collection, Fractures, won the Felix Pollak Prize, and his work has run in Poetry magazine,
Tuesday's events are part of the Lion Rock Visiting Writers Series. At noon, Gómez gives a craft talk on what he calls the radical power of autobiographical narrative, with a Q&A and book signing, in the fourth-floor attic space at the Brooks Library. From 2:30 to 3:30 there's a Zoom-only talk and reading for online students and anyone who can't get to campus; you'll need to pre-register through CWU's events page. And at 5:30, he reads from Fractures and his new bilingual chapbook, Patrilineation, in the atrium of the North Academic Commons, again with a Q&A and signing. All three are free, and five books will be given away to students at each one, courtesy of the Friends of the Brooks Library.
On Wednesday, he headlines Pachanga, the annual cultural celebration put on by CWU's Latino and Latin American Studies program, in the SURC Ballroom. The two-hour event features student performances and a short program with Gómez, Assistant Professor John Ribó, and Vice President of Student Engagement and Success Verónica Gómez-Vilchis. Gómez says he's most inspired by "that which is overlooked, unsaid, or unseen."
Local Events
At CWU, the Fall Career, Internship and Grad School Fair runs from 10 this morning to 2 this afternoon. It's for all majors, and alumni are welcome too.
The Ellensburg Adult Activity Center has Craft and Creation from 10 to noon and pinochle at 12:30. Call 509-962-7242 for details.
Toastmasters meets at 5:30 this evening at the Hal Holmes Community Center, 209 North Ruby Street.
Tonight from 5:30 to 7:30, the CWU Museum of Culture and Environment in Dean Hall opens "For the Love of the Game," a student-curated exhibit on 100 years of baseball and softball at Central, including the 1968 team that played in the NAIA World Series. You can meet the student curators, have some ballpark snacks, and see a second exhibit, Beisboleros, on the early history of Latino ballplayers in the United States, curated by CWU's Dr. Gilberto Garcia. It's free and open to everyone.
And looking ahead to the weekend: cellists from all over the state are in Ellensburg tomorrow and Saturday for the Central Cello Celebration, hosted by the CWU Music Department. There are recitals tomorrow at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 in the Music Recital Hall, with guests including Roberta Hansen Downey of the Seattle Symphony. The finale concert is Saturday at 6 in the Concert Hall, and it ends with the world premiere of "Marvel Heroes," a medley of Marvel movie themes written for cello choir by Tom Walworth. Everything is free.
Road Updates
On Saturday, 15th Avenue is closed between Okanogan and Columbia from 7 a.m. to about 5 p.m. for a Kittitas Valley Fire and Rescue training burn. Okanogan and Columbia stay open as the detour. The alley between 3rd and 4th Avenues, from Sampson to Anderson, is still closed while city crews replace the sewer main. And on weekends through early December, Utilities One is running new communication lines in alleys between 5th Avenue and Capitol, from Ruby to Wenas.ansfer station at 2603 West Green Avenue, open Monday through Saturday from 8 to 4.
SPORTS
Three Wildcats picked up conference player-of-the-week honors on Monday, and all three are in action this week.
Senior middle blocker Hayli Tri is the GNAC Defensive Player of the Week after putting up 15 blocks in two wins in Alaska. Wildcat volleyball has won nine straight. They're 13-4 overall, 9-2 in the conference, and they haven't lost at home all season. They're at Nicholson Pavilion tonight at 7 against Saint Martin's, and it's the Dig Pink match for breast cancer awareness. They're home again Saturday at 1 against Western Oregon.
Sophomore forward Jaylee Reynolds is the GNAC Offensive Player of the Week after scoring in both games last week. She leads the team with five goals. Women's soccer is 4-4-2 in conference, fourth in the GNAC, and plays at Saint Martin's in Lacey at 12:30 this afternoon, then at Western Oregon Saturday at 7 p.m.
And senior running back Ryder Bumgarner is the Lone Star Conference Offensive Player of the Week after running for 165 yards and five touchdowns at Texas A&M-Kingsville, tying a school record. He's fourth in all of Division II with 14 rushing touchdowns this season. Central is 5-2, a perfect 5-0 in the conference, and riding a five-game winning streak. The Wildcats host UT Permian Basin Saturday at 6 at Tomlinson Stadium. The Falcons are also 5-2 and coming off their first conference loss.
The nationally ranked women's cross country team runs tomorrow at 3 at the Tyson Invitational in Spokane.
WEATHER
Patchy frost again this morning, then mostly sunny with a high today in Ellensburg of 68 degrees and a low tonight of 35. Winds pick up this afternoon out of the northwest at 8 to 13 miles an hour, gusting to 23. The sunset is at 6:02 p.m. The real wind arrives tonight. The National Weather Service has a Wind Advisory for the Kittitas Valley from 7 this evening until 11 tomorrow morning: west winds of 25 to 35 miles an hour, with gusts up to 50. Bring in or tie down anything loose in the yard, expect a few tree limbs down, and there could be some power outages. If you drive a high-profile vehicle, take it easy. Tomorrow stays sunny and breezy with a high of 58, and tomorrow night drops to 28 with widespread frost. Saturday is partly sunny and 56, with a 40 percent chance of showers Saturday night and Sunday.
WHAT'S FOR LUNCH AT THE FISH OPEN TABLE?
The FISH Open Table lunch today is salmon chowder, made with wild-caught salmon, corn, potatoes, lemon, dill and cream, served with a roll and fruit. The senior lunch is open to all seniors age 60-plus from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ellensburg Open Table at 204 North Main Street, and from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Upper County Senior Center in Cle Elum, which has its own menu. If you're new, they can sign you up when you arrive. The community lunch for anyone needing a hot meal is from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Ellensburg Open Table.
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