Monday Updates: Concert raises $2,000 for free medical clinic
Monday, October 6, 2008 5:56 PM PDT
By The Daily News
Printable version
E-mail this articleLast week’s benefit concert raised more than $2,000 for the Cowlitz Free Medical Clinic, officials said.
Clinic volunteer and former patient Fabian Carrera held the benefit concert Sept. 28. Carrera, a Kelso classical guitarist who also teaches, said he wanted to use his gift to give back to the clinic.
In 2006, when he didn’t have health insurance, Carrera came to the clinic as a patient. He was so impressed with the service that he returns every week to help interpret for Spanish speaking patients, particularly men who may be embarrassed to discuss medical issues with a female interpreter.
Clinic organizers say Carrera is their most loyal volunteer.
The clinic, at 1405 Delaware St. in Longview, treats uninsured adults on a walk-in basis for urgent but not emergency care each Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m.
The concert at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Longview attracted 132 people and raised $2,107 for the clinic.
Barbara LaBoe, The Daily News
Work finished at Lions park
CASTLE ROCK — Expedited repair work at Lion’s Pride Park has been completed ahead of schedule and with no additional costs, according to city officials.
The work stabilized the bank along the Cowlitz River. It was considered so necessary the City Council in August approved contracting out the work instead of having city crews try to work it into their schedule.
The council approved spending $22,876 on the project but was warned the informal bid amount might change once the work began. City officials wanted the work done by Oct. 15 before this fall’s rains began.
The work came in at the original bid amount, Public Works Director Dave Vorse said.
The city’s project just stabilizes the bank using concrete fill taken from First Street during water main repairs. The long-term fix, to reroute water drainage and repositioning piers to redirect the river’s flow into the bank, is estimated to cost $300,000. The project is on hold due to lack of money.
Barbara LaBoe, The Daily News
Kalama post office plants palms
More palm trees sprouting up in downtown Kalama, a town with a Hawaiian heritage.
The post office recently planted some palms in its parking lot for “beautification of a really dry area” and because they were given by an anonymous donor, Postmaster Serrarin-LaRoy said Friday.
The plantings have no link whatsoever with the row of controversial palms planted in the city right of way along First Street at the Columbia Inn Restaurant, she said.
The other palms created a stir this summer because they were planted without permission and don’t fit with the city’s downtown beautification design. The city wants them removed.
Serrarin-LaRoy said the post office’s trees are entirely off of city property and right-of-way, “so it has nothing to do with that.”
Leila Summers, The Daily News
Longview 80-year-old faces new charge of child molestation
A charge of first-degree child molestation has been added to the existing charge of first-degree rape of a child against Richard Gardner Rambo, 80, of Longview.
The charge, which was added Sept. 10, accuses him of engaging in sexual contact with a young boy between Jan. 1, 2006, and Jan. 19, 2008. The rape charge, filed in May, alleges Rambo of having sexual intercourse with the same victim during that same time period.
The Nov. 19 trial date will be reset at a hearing scheduled for this morning in Cowlitz County Superior Court.
Leslie Slape / The Daily News
Past Month's Most Commented Stories