Camas schools suffered at least $250,000 worth of damage during last week’s winter storms that blanketed the region in snow and ice over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, Jan. 13-15, and again on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
Back-to-back winter storms, fueled by cold arctic air and wind speeds that reached over 50 miles per hour (mph) in the Columbia River Gorge, blanketed the Vancouver metro area in snow and ice this week, causing power outages, downed tree limbs and a wind-driven residential fire that damaged a home on Southeast Blair Road, north of Camas-Washougal.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a winter storm warning for the greater Vancouver metro area, including Camas-Washougal, from 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, through 4 a.m.
It has been nine months since Camas students, staff and families flooded Camas School Board meetings in the spring of 2023 to support their unique “choice schools” in the wake of the district’s announced budget cuts and Discovery High School students participated in a planned walk-out the day before their 2022-23 spring break to protest the district’s plan to unify the project-based learning Discover High with the remote K-12 Camas Connect Academy (CCA).
One month after Camas residents and business owners concerned about the City’s Everett Street Corridor improvement project’s possible negative impacts to their homes and businesses packed the Camas City Council’s Nov. 20, 2023, workshop, city officials gathered again to discuss the corridor improvements and mull next steps for the traffic corridor.
The Downtown Camas Association is kicking off its first First Friday of 2024 this week with a host of mystery-themed festivities from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 5, throughout downtown Camas.
Whether it was the local library celebrating its 100th anniversary with a year’s worth of events, Camas teachers going on strike for the very first time, the critical Washougal school levies that failed in February, then passed muster with voters in the spring, or the re-opening of the newly revamped Camas skatepark, there was no shortage of hyperlocal, Camas-Washougal news in 2023.
From the more than 2,900 hours its volunteers contributed to improving the city of Camas’ historic downtown district to the nearly $30,000 worth of facade improvement grants and $5,800 mural investment on Northeast Cedar Street, the Downtown Camas Association (DCA) clocked some significant accomplishments in 2023.
Camas city officials this week formally approved an annexation request that caused divisions among neighbors in Camas’ North Shore area.
Less than two weeks before a 10-year agreement merging the Camas and Washougal fire departments was set to expire Dec. 31, officials in both cities have agreed to extend the interlocal agreement (ILA) for one month.
kelly.moyer@camaspostrecord.com