Story Photos
 Traffic moved slowly on Interstate 5 once the snow hit. Greg Ebersole / Daily News file
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The year's top local stories
Friday, January 2, 2009 5:22 PM PST
By The Daily News
Printable version
E-mail this articleThis summer, the return of gas for less than $2 a gallon was as unlikely as a white Christmas. Yet, we had both. There was bad news for employment and housing, but good news for the performing arts. These are among our Top 10 stories for 2008 as selected by The Daily News newsroom staff.
No. 1: Jobless rate jumps
For several months in 2008, Cowlitz County had the highest unemployment numbers in the state. The jobless rate soared to 9.5 percent in November, and the number of people out of work more than doubled from a year ago — about 4,380 residents were jobless in November compared to 2,790 a year ago.
State economists are predicting the county’s jobless rate likely will hit double digits this coming year.
Fueling the county’s unemployment rates were layoffs at two of the area’s largest employers — Longview Fibre Co. and Weyerhaeuser Co.
In mid-October, Fibre announced it was shutting down its No. 9 paper machine and laying off about 90 hourly employees. Ten days later, the company announced its remaining five paper machines would be on a six-week rolling shutdown in November and December. About a dozen salaried, nonunion employees were laid off. The shutdowns are scheduled to be complete by Jan. 5
Company officials also decided that the No. 7 machine will be shut down for about four weeks beginning Jan. 12 because of poor market conditions. Officials also stated rolling shutdowns will continue throughout the next year until customer demand picks up.
Many of the employees took vacation time during the shutdowns, but others likely will swell the unemployment rolls temporarily, economists say.
Fibre announced a year ago its plans to lay off 200 hourly workers and 100 salaried employees by 2010 to cut costs. Fibre employed about 1,200 union workers before the layoffs were announced in 2007.
In July, Weyerhaeuser put into operation its new, high-tech mill, located next to the company’s existing planer mill on Industrial Way,
The mill replaced the 32-year-old Green Mountain mill outside of Toutle, which Weyerhaeuser shut down two months earlier, eliminating 130 jobs. About 60 to 70 former Green Mountain employees were hired at the new mill.
No. 2: Snowbound
“Remember the Christmas of 2008” likely will be among the memories of most people here for years to come. And many will want to say “Bah Humbug” to another white Christmas like this one.
Arctic blasts colliding with moist air off the Pacific Ocean poured a ton of snow on the Pacific Northwest, though short of record-breaking levels.
What made this storm system so memorable was that the white stuff stayed around for more than two weeks.
Many families had to make changes in their holiday plans, whether it was loved ones not being able to fly into Portland and Sea-Tac airports, stuck in the Gorge in blizzard conditions or not being able to traverse the heavily blanketed roads.
Locally, there were some power outages, kids got an extra three days of Christmas vacation, sales of chains and snow tires were brisk, along with snow shovels and sleds and road crews were on double overtime.
The snow level was anywhere from 10 to 15 inches on the valley floor and up to 2 feet or more in the surrounding foothills.
No. 3: Shrinking budgets
State, local school districts, county and city governments are struggling to cope with the tide of red ink that is plaguing all of their budgets. Sagging projected revenues and soaring operating costs — especially fuel for much of the year — mixed to make a perfect storm for budget woes.
Cowlitz County officials learned in late fall that the 2009 projected budget needed to be trimmed by $5.8 million due to the faltering national economy and slowed retail sales and construction. The county did that by scaling back projects and laying off 18 employees and eliminating 14 other jobs — and by dipping into its reserves to the tune of $2.4 million. The 2009 budget is balanced but officials warned even tougher decisions likely await for the 2010 budget.
In late summer, Longview City Council agreed to use $2.4 million in reserve funds to cover the shortfall in the current budget, leaving $4.3 million in reserve. The council also put a freeze on hiring and out-of-state travel and training, along with cutting back on supplies, maintenance projects and canceling some recreation programs.
Kelso School District throughout the school had to cut around $2.3 million from its 2008-2009 budget when enrollment figures fell by 337 students. More cuts had been planned, but some — especially in the special education department — were reinstated due to state and federal mandates, she said.
Positions cut included: 12 teachers; five classified positions; one part-time principal at Carrolls Elementary; two custodians; and the district’s benefits officer.
Longview School District faced a $2.4 million budget shortfall in August due to 100 fewer students enrolling in Longview schools, in addition to rising costs of doing business. In response, the district borrowed $600,000 from reserves and cut its deputy superintendent position and 14 staff positions — nine of which were vacant due to retirements or resignations. Also, eight assistant coaching positions were cut.
No. 4: Home sales slump
After two years of fast sales, the Cowlitz County housing market took a nosedive in 2008, but the slump wasn’t as devastating as in other parts of the country.
The market showed signs of decline at the end of 2007, but home sales really began to drop off at the beginning of this year. The 29 homes sold in January was the fewest for that month in at least three years, and sales remained sluggish for the first half of the year.
The median home price fell from last year, but less dramatically. Home brokers said sales at the bottom end of the market began picking up first, which is usually the first signs of a recovery.
No. 5: Bursting ballot boxes
The possibility of the first African-American president or first woman vice president, coupled with the chance for another razor-thin face-off for governor brought out a record number of voters statewide and locally.
Of the county’s 55,331 registered voters, 45,793 cast ballots in the November election for an 82.76 percent return. The turnout was the largest in recent years and slightly higher than the predicted 82.5 percent turnout.
No. 6: Super development
In October, Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., announced plans to build a second store in Longview at the site of the River City RV and Trailer Park. The company bought the site for $4.9 million from Seattle developer Louie Gadini, who closed the park and displaced about 166 residents this summer.
The closure of the trailer park had been delayed for a few months after a group of residents accused Gadini of demolishing their homes before the deadline.
Many of the residents vacated the park — a hot spot for police calls — and left trailers standing, prompting Gadini to demolish some of them out of safety concerns, he said.
Wal-Mart hopes to start hiring for its second Longview store in January 2010 and open about six months later, barring any appeals of building permits.
The target date for the 150,000-square-foot Supercenter on California Way is roughly the same time as the planned opening of the retail giant’s Woodland store, said Jennifer Spall, Wal-Mart’s Bellevue-based senior manager for public relations.
No. 7: Cartel crushed
In a massive swoop in April, federal and local law enforcement broke open the Barragan Drug Trafficking Organization, including making arrests in Woodland and Long Beach. Agents said the international cartel controlled the distribution of meth along the Interstate 5 corridor, bringing 200 pounds a month up from superlabs in Mexico. About half the meth stayed in Washington, and the rest was shipped to the Midwest and East Coast, authorities said. The family-run cartel has operated in Washington for at least 20 years.
No. 8: Rollercoaster fuel prices
This summer, $2 for a gallon of gas seemed as obsolete as the horse and buggy. But the price of oil plummeted as the worldwide economy stalled, and local motorists are again buying gas for less than $2 for the first time in three years.
Gas prices have fallen steadily since the hurricane season, and the rapid collapse of the worldwide economy fooled most oil industry analysts, who predicted prices could rise as high as $5 per gallon
The midsummer average locally was $4.30 per gallon.
No. 9: New day for performing arts
Lower Columbia College’s $24.5 million Rose Center for the Performing Arts opened in June. It includes a 525-seat auditorium for musical events, a 125-seat hall for plays, a rehearsal space, a new visual arts gallery and a recording studio, along with classrooms and offices.
A few blocks away, renovation of the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts started in December. The Columbia Theatre will get an expanded lobby, new restrooms, wider seats, a new heating system and possibly improved dressing rooms and sound systems. The Columbia Theatre work will cost at least $7 million, mostly financed by state sales tax.
No. 10: Assessing our appeal
In an effort to improve their image, the cities of Longview and Kelso paid a Seattle marketing firm $10,000 each to assess the cities last spring with a critical, honest eye and suggest strategies for becoming more appealing to visitors.
Destination Development’s CEO, Roger Brooks, anonymously visited both cities for two days in March and later presented his report to city and county officials and community members.
Both cities needed to work on their “curb appeal,” Brooks said, urging them to scrub their downtowns, beautify streets, keep stores open later, make the cities more pedestrian-friendly, improve way-finding signs and market the communities’ attractions to visitors.
The Kelso-Longview Chamber of Commerce took the lead in organizing Community Assessment Task Forces in both cities to decide which of Destination Development’s recommendations to execute and what else should be done to improve the area. Longview’s task force presented its action-plan report to the City Council in early December, and Kelso’s report will be presented when it’s finished.
Other year-in-review articles:
New Year's Fireworks photo gallery
Top government blunders
Top criminal blunders
Memorable quotes
Top sports stories, Part 1
Top sports stories, Part 2
Kelso Resident wrote on Dec 31, 2008 7:26 AM:
kitten wrote on Dec 31, 2008 8:27 AM:
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