Ellensburg Community Morning Show, Tuesday, September 1st

The rodeo mural is back. The painting at Third Avenue and Main has been greeting people driving into downtown for forty-three years, and it just came through a five-week restoration.

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NEWS

Kittitas County has a third commissioner again. The Board of County Commissioners appointed Jeff Leichleiter yesterday to fill the vacant District 1 seat, the seat previously held by Cory Wright. Leichleiter is sworn in this morning at 8:30 in Kittitas County Superior Court. Until now the county has been running on a two-person board, with two commissioners carrying a three-person workload between them.

If you've been watching Kittitas Valley Healthcare board meetings from your couch, that's over. The hospital district's board of commissioners voted to stop recording its meetings and posting the video online, and to stop putting the agenda packet on the website ahead of time. The change took effect August 1st, which means July's meeting was the last one people will be able to watch after the fact. The meetings will still go out live on Zoom — they just won't be recorded, in Board President Jon Ward's words, "so we don't have those public records." Ward told the board he's worried about people using artificial intelligence to comb through public records looking for something to sue over." The final count was four to nothing with one abstention. State law still requires the district to post its meeting agenda online 24 hours ahead and to keep minutes open for public inspection — what's going away is the video and the packet of supporting materials. If you want those now, you go to city hall in person and pick up a paper copy.

Up in Cle Elum, the city has released the documents behind the firing of its city clerk. Debbie Lee was terminated June 26th, and until last week the city hadn't said why. According to the records the city released, Mayor Matthew Lundh fired her over her handling of public records requests — what he called a serious lack of oversight and judgment, inattention to detail, and carelessness. The city's investigation started in April after Councilman Steven Harper asked for records connected to his business and got only what was on the city's accounting software. Paper records were sitting upstairs at city hall. The documents say Lee told a coworker she was not going to dig through boxes, and told Harper all records had been released. The city also found 41 times she failed to tell people their records request had been closed. Lundh wrote that the question wasn't whether this would cost the city money, but when. Lee tells it differently. She filed a grievance in July through Teamsters Local 760 asking for her job back, and wrote that she'd been singled out for unfair and disparate treatment. "No matter what I did I could not meet the mayor's expectations," she wrote. "I felt like I was doing a good job with a big workload." She admitted making mistakes occasionally but said the city never tried to help her improve. The grievance is still out there. Erica Krum is serving as interim clerk, and Cle Elum is advertising for a permanent one.

The fires northwest of us are still growing. The Three Queens Fire is up to almost nine thousand acres, and containment is stuck at five percent — it hasn't moved in more than a week. The fire started with lightning on July 15th, about a mile northwest of Kachess Lake. Level 3 "go now" evacuations are in place at the Kachess Campground, the Cooper Lake cabins, Cooper Lake Road, French Cabin Creek Road and Upper Salmon La Sac. Level 2 covers Baker Lane and part of Upper Kachess Dam Road, and Level 1 runs north of Kachess along Kachess Lake Road and up Salmon La Sac Road on the west side of Lake Cle Elum. The Forest Service held a community meeting last night at the Cle Elum-Roslyn High School gym on the Three Queens, King and Goat fires. If you live up that way, check the Kittitas County Emergency Management evacuation map for current levels, or text the word FIRE-two-six to 8-8-8-7-7-7 to get changes on your phone.

And the rodeo mural is back. The painting at Third Avenue and Main has been greeting people driving into downtown for forty-three years, and it just came through a five-week restoration. Here's the good part: the man who repainted it is the man who painted it. Sven Sundbaum designed "Ellensburg World Famous Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair" in 1983, back when he'd been living in Ellensburg for forty years. He's over on the West Side now, running a sign shop, and the rodeo tracked him down a couple of years ago and asked him to do it again, same artwork. Funding took since 2022. The Arts Commission approved it in April, the Rodeo brought in the Kittitas County Fair Board and the Friends of the Fair to sponsor it, and the whole thing ran about eighty-eight hundred dollars, using modern materials so it lasts longer this time. Sundbaum built a new frame for it and finished on August 14th. "It was really fun," he said, "but I was in a big hurry to get it done." Just in time.

Here's what's happening around town today.

County commissioners hold a public hearing this afternoon on a Department of Natural Resources lease at Bowers Field. It starts at 2 o'clock in the Commissioners' Auditorium, Room 109 at the Kittitas County Courthouse, 205 West 5th Avenue. If you can't make it in person, you can send written comments to the commissioners' office at 205 West 5th, Suite 108, in Ellensburg — they'll take them through the day of the hearing.

A few road notes. The alley between Third and Fourth avenues, the one running parallel to Pearl and Pine, is closed from 7 this morning until 5 this afternoon for water utility work. Out on Canyon Road, the contractor was repaving the stretch between Umptanum Road and Mountain View overnight and expected to be finished early this morning; utility adjustments come after the holiday weekend and permanent striping goes down in late September. And starting today, the Cle Elum Transfer Station has a new way in — you'll enter off the new eastern driveway on State Route 903, follow the one-way route through the yard, and come out the old entrance on Number 5 Mine Road, across from the Upper County Public Works shop. The county says the change is meant to keep traffic from backing up onto 903. Questions on any of that: Public Works is at 9-6-2, 7-2-3-0.

The Kittitas Valley Memorial Pool and Fitness Center closed yesterday for its annual two-week maintenance shutdown. It reopens Monday, September 14th, with the fall schedule.

Looking ahead to Thursday — the Kittitas County Fair and the Ellensburg Rodeo both open, and they run through Labor Day. The rodeo opener starts early Thursday morning at the rodeo arena, and Clint Black plays Rockin' the Chutes Thursday night at 8:15. The rodeo parade steps off Saturday morning at 9:30, and the farmers market is downtown that same morning at 9.

One more on the fair. The Adult Activity Center still needs volunteers for the Senior Lounge — two-hour shifts, and volunteers get a free pass into the fair. Call the Adult Activity Center at 9-6-2, 7-2-4-2.

And if you're looking for something tomorrow evening, Open Mic Night is at Valo Cellars at 6, and the Roslyn Music Jam is at the RDA Creative Center at 6:30.

WEATHER                                                                                          

The forecasted high today in Ellensburg is 94 degrees with a low tonight of 61 degrees. Sunny, with patchy smoke before 8 this morning. The sunset is at 7:41 p.m. with winds calm early, turning southeast around 6 miles an hour this afternoon. No rain in the picture. There is an air quality alert in effect for Kittitas County — Ellensburg, Cle Elum and Easton — from the Department of Ecology, and it runs through 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. Smoke from the regional fires is pushing fine particulate into the unhealthy range, worst overnight and early in the morning. If you're sensitive to smoke, check the monitors before you head out and go easy on hard outdoor work today.

WHAT'S FOR LUNCH AT THE FISH OPEN TABLE?

The FISH Open Table lunch today is not posted yet. However, 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 to 1 at the Upper County Senior Center in Cle Elum, where the menu is a little different. Lunch is free, donations are welcome but not required, and prior registration is necessary. The community lunch for anyone needing a hot meal is from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Ellensburg Open Table.