Men held for having children ride in trunk
An Oregon man was arrested after police found two of his children traveling in the trunk of the car for a family vacation, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Police pulled over the driver, Douglas Willy, on Saturday after receiving a tip from a person who saw them at a gas station. Police confirmed that there were two children, ages 12 and 13, traveling in the trunk of the vehicle.
Willy, his fiancee and their four children were taking a trip to Seaside but the automobile they were driving did not fit all six passengers. So, according to police, Willy decided two of the children would ride in the trunk to avoid taking a second vehicle. The children had been riding in the trunk for about 20 miles when the police pulled them over. Willy was arrested and charged with two counts of reckless endangerment. The fiancee took the four children home after were safely placed in the car with seat belts.
A phone call to the Willy residence was not immediately returned.
Police said Willy has since been released without bail.
West Glacier, Mont.
Plows to begin clearing Going-to-the-Sun Road
Snowplows are scheduled to start cutting through drifts today, the start of annual work to open Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road for the summer. The 2007 opening may be the most complex on record.
Washouts and accumulations of rocky debris from torrential rain late last year are among the reasons. In 2006 the road opened on June 23. In 2005 the date was May 22. This year’s opening is projected for July 1.
Progress in clearing the highway is watched closely by businesses that rely on Glacier’s 2 million summer visitors.
There are plans to install a temporary, steel bridge along a 103-foot-long stretch of road wiped out in the November storm. In just one day it dumped 8.5 inches of rain on ground already soft from earlier precipitation. Then the snow came.
Park officials estimate replacing the road and removing flood debris will cost $7 million. Repairing trail damage could cost an additional $1 million.
As survey crews wait to see whether melting snow will take out any more of the road east of the Continental Divide, they have been getting bad news on the west side.
“On Tuesday, we got word that one of the storm-damaged sections along upper McDonald Creek is experiencing further bank erosion,” park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt said. “Bank stabilization had not been completed there last fall, and the bank is starting to slide further.”
There also are new problems around the historic Logan Creek Bridge on the west side. Floodwaters did not go under the bridge but instead took out some of the road just above it. Crews cleared debris from the bridge area, but the creek has flowed over the repaired road, Vanderbilt said.
“The bridge was cleared, but the creek bed was not cleared, so the creek has begun flooding out of its banks again,” she said.
The temporary solution for the gaping hole in the road on the east side of the Divide is a two-lane bridge stored in the Rising Sun Campground west of St. Mary. A crew will install the bridge this spring, said John Schnaderbeck of the Federal Highway Administration.
Having the bridge in place will allow a contractor to reach a site where the highway administration has determined a retaining wall about 400 feet long is necessary.
Tacoma
Tacoma war protests cost $500,000, police say
Tacoma authorities say last month’s 12-day anti-war protests cost the city an unbudgeted $500,000 to provide a large-scale law enforcement presence.
The rough estimate covers overtime, regular compensation, equipment and food for hundreds of workers from Tacoma police and other agencies, said Tacoma Police Assistant Chief Bob Sheehan.
The city plans to ask the Port of Tacoma and the military to cover some of the costs.
“That’s a tremendous hit on our budget – a half million dollars of unexpected expense,” said Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma, adding that the military would get the first invoice.
“I think our request is justifiable,” Baarsma said. “I would expect that we would be reimbursed. I would be surprised if we weren’t.”
Tacoma police increased law enforcement at the Port of Tacoma during the convoying and storage of Army Stryker vehicles from March 3 until a ship carrying the military equipment left for Iraq on March 14.
Sheehan said there was an average of 100 to 150 officers on duty at the Port of Tacoma every 12 hours. During the 12-day span, officers arrested 37 protesters.
Tacoma Police got help from Seattle police, Washington State Patrol, Bellevue police, U.S. Coast Guard and the sheriff’s offices of Pierce, King and Thurston counties.