As the Twin Harbors turns the page to the New Year, there are many ups and downs to look back on in 2014.
Last year, the Harbors continued to battle over crude-by-rail, created a new public agency, ramped up its recognition of native son Kurt Cobain and even saw a former Harborite come close to the Miss America crown.
These storylines and more make appearances in this year’s Daily World top 10 stories of the year. Here they are:
1. Crude-By-Rail
The top story for 2014 is one of those stories that’s likely to be in the top story mix for years to come. It’s the issue of shipping oil through Grays Harbor. Crude by rail, or CBR, is how most people refer to it, but the crux of the matter is a proposal by three different companies to build separate facilities in Hoquiam to store crude oil that would arrive on rail cars and leave on tankers and barges.
The past year has been marked by the issue’s progress through environmental review and growing public opposition on Grays Harbor. Environmental impact statements are in progress for each proposal. Opponents are petitioning to have two of the projects funneled through a different review process that would eventually leave it up to Gov. Jay Inslee.
The opposition objects on environmental and safety grounds and that movement really developed traction in April and May when three trains carrying grain to the Port of Grays Harbor derailed within a couple of weeks on Puget Sound &Pacific Railroad tracks. In June, executives from Genesee &Wyoming, the PS&P parent company, said the rail lines were in worse shape than they realized when they purchased the operation from RailAmerica and pledged to spend $4.3 million on upgrades in 2014, and another $4.5 million on top of that in the 18 months following.
2. A Public Hospital
What started as a legislative push to designate Grays Harbor Community Hospital as a “sole community hospital” to garner higher Medicaid reimbursement ended with the county’s voters creating their second public hospital district.
Community Hospital, which had been operating at a loss for several years, had been lobbying for the designation when language was added to the proposed legislation that required all hospitals receiving the higher reimbursement be public. With no other option, the Aberdeen facility embarked on a campaign to create Grays Harbor Public Hospital District 2, encompassing all but the farthest eastern reaches of the county.
Opposition surfaced on the North Beach and in East County, where the Harbor’s original public district operates Summit Pacific Medical Center in Elma. County Commissioner Wes Cormier even attempted to limit the new district’s boundaries to Aberdeen, and Summit Pacific’s commissioners began the process of annexing Montesano in case the new district failed to garner enough votes.
Ultimately, voters approved the creation of the district by more than 60 percent in August and seated its seven new commissioners, who now must take over the facility and keep it operating in the black in the coming years.
3. A Mill’s Demise
In February, the Harbor Paper mill was auctioned off — right down to the dust pans — with machines that once cost millions and provided countless jobs over the years, being sold for scrap.
Demolition of the old paper mill began in the fall and still isn’t complete. When it is, it will be the first time since the 1920s that the land has been vacant.
Harbor Paper is just the latest incarnation for the mill. Before that it was owned by Grays Harbor Paper, originally a local investment group that bought it when it was closed by International Paper and Rayonier.
What’s next for the property is unclear. The Department of Ecology has been monitoring the demolition process, and once the site is clear, the agency will check for contamination. Ecology officials have said there will likely be some hazardous materials left over on the lot, as is common for older industrial sites.
A company spokesman for Rayonier, which owns the land, said in February the company has not decided what to do next with the property.
4. Jobless on the Harbor
The Twin Harbors remained among the counties with the highest unemployment in the state again in 2014, with Grays Harbor spending much of the year either tied for the highest jobless rate or standing alone atop the same unenviable list.
There were some signs of recovery, as Grays Harbor saw its first single digit unemployment figures since 2008, holding below 10 percent for six of the 11 months of data available for this year. To the south, Pacific County saw its jobless rate drop below 8 percent for four months of 2014, a low it hadn’t seen since 2008, as well.
5. Parnel Gets 40 Years
Resolving a murder case that has tugged at the heartstrings of the Harbor for more than a year and a half, Patrick Parnel was sentenced to 40 years in prison in early December for killing his newborn daughter in Ocean Shores in April of 2013.
Parnel was accused of killing his infant daughter after his girlfriend, Brittany Taylor, gave birth to the baby in an Ocean Shores motel room. Parnel allegedly bludgeoned the baby then left her in a vacant lot, where an Ocean Shores woman later found the child’s body. A jury found Parnel guilty of aggravated second-degree murder in early November. Taylor was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison for her involvement in the newborn’s death as part of a plea agreement.
“You had every opportunity to make the right choice,” Judge Stephen Brown told Parnel at the 23-year-old Humptulips man’s sentencing. “Your baby daughter was totally helpless. You committed the ultimate act of child abuse.”
6. Downtown Changes
For years the City of Aberdeen and citizen activists interested in improving the look and the economic vitality of downtown Aberdeen have looked for something that would get things moving. In 2014, they looked to the outside for help, hiring consultants headed by Cary Bozeman, former mayor of both Bremerton and Bellevue.
About halfway through the year the Bozeman Group proposed a three-year plan with six action points. The top three are: development of a downtown riverfront park that would connect the core of downtown with the water, a gateway center at the entrance to the city and traffic changes designed to encourage motorists traveling through town to stop.
The second set of three, longer range goals involve improving access and traffic patterns near the rail line, bringing movie theaters and living space downtown and restoring some of Aberdeen’s marquee buildings, such as the Morck Hotel, the Becker, Elks and Electric buildings.
The plans were discussed at a public meeting in July that drew about 60 people.
Bozeman said it will take private investment, paired with public money, perhaps from state or federal sources, but he’s also been clear with the city that it will have to be willing to make financial contributions, too.
Meantime, across the Chehalis River, the Historical Seaport Authority is working on a development it calls Seaport Landing, which would tie the Lady Washington tall ship to a tourist attraction that would showcase the area’s maritime and logging history.
7. Remembering Nirvana
The last year saw more recognition of pioneering grunge rockers Nirvana on the Harbor, and a higher profile for deceased front man and native son Kurt Cobain.
In the same year as the Harbor-rooted band was inducted into the national Rock &Roll Hall of Fame, the Harbor found several ways to honor the band and musician, beginning with Hoquiam Mayor Jack Durney declaring Nirvana Day early in the year. Then came the announcement of a week-long celebration declared by Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson, centered around a birthday party of sorts for Cobain on Feb. 20.
The event, at the Aberdeen Museum of History, saw the unveiling of artist Randi Hubbard’s long-ago sculpted “Cement Resurrection” statue of Kurt Cobain at its new home at the museum, along with musical acts and special guests.
But, headlining the year’s Nirvana theme on the Harbor was the September dedication of “Nirvana and Aberdeen,” a downtown mural commissioned by Our Aberdeen. The group tapped Harbor artist Erik Sandgren to do the 68-foot mural that now hangs on the Moore’s Furniture building.
Sandgren led a team of artists, including Jason Sobottka, David Wall, Anthony James and Dominic Senibaldi, to create the work. Joining them to dedicate the mural at the “Come as You Are” gala on the sunny September day was Nirvana bassist and longtime friend of Cobain Krist Novoselic.
8. What to do About Pot?
When marijuana became legal a year ago on Jan. 1, it seemed like there would be a stampede to cash in. But it’s been slow going.
Grays Harbor still has just one retail location where pot is sold and that’s in Porter. The larger population area in the inner harbor area of Aberdeen and Hoquiam have no stores.
Confusion and frustration with the state regulatory structure and with individual communities sometimes dragging their feet on if, or where, pot operations can locate, has been a hindrance. And federal banking laws still complicate things and make it, essentially, a cash business.
Growing and processing operations have been a more attractive business model and county officials have said they are getting many inquiries from people who want to get started. One has been approved in the Elma area.
9. Miss Lauren Kuhn
A pageant journey that began in 2007 with a Miss Grays Harbor Outstanding Teen pageant culminated in a fourth-runner-up showing at the 2014 Miss America Pageant for former Harborite Lauren Kuhn in September.
Kuhn’s entrance into the pageant world as a 15-year-old Aberdeen High School sophomore led to several crowns over the ensuing years, including Miss Tahoma, Miss Seattle and Miss Grays Harbor, but she fell short each time of the Miss Washington title to punch her ticket to Miss America.
That all changed for the current Harvard Dental School student as she captured the Miss Massachusetts title this year and headed for national television.
Kuhn, or “Dr. Massachusetts” as she became known, impressed the judges and crowd with her piano skills and articulate nature, and finished just four spots from the top out of 53 contestants. Kuhn also garnered $15,000 in scholarships.
10. A New-Look County
The retirement announcement of longtime Superior Court Judge Gordon Godfrey in August was just the beginning of a changing of the guard at the county as 2014 comes to a close. The county will begin the New Year with its first-ever female prosecutor, a new assessor and its second female county commissioner.
Godfrey, a 22-year veteran of the Superior Court bench, was one of the more colorful characters to wear a black robe at the courthouse. District Court Judge Steven Brown was appointed to replace Godfrey, and, in turn, Aberdeen attorney David Mistachkin has been appointed to fill Brown’s spot in District Court.
After a political dust-up with the County Commissioners, who refused to appoint Katie Svoboda to replace retiring prosecutor Stew Menefee because of a disagreement with the Grays Harbor Democrats, Harbor voters removed all doubt by picking the veteran deputy prosecutor to succeed him in November. Svoboda has already been sworn into office.
After a turbulent term in the Assessor’s Office, Rick Hole was unseated by one of his employees, Dan Lindgren, who hopes to stabilize the office and finish a conversion to yearly property assessments.
Joining the new faces at the county is one many already know, as former Cosmopolis mayor Vickie Raines joins the County Commission in January. Though she ran against Keith Olson of Quinault in the general election, it felt like she was running against sitting Commissioner Frank Gordon in the primary.
Gordon actively campaigned against Raines during the primary, but remained largely silent during the general election after Raines advanced and Gordon’s preferred candidate, Al Smith, was eliminated.
