The show goes on! Fireworks return to Fort Vancouver Sunday night, with some twists

It's not too late to save $2 per person by purchasing tickets online for the Independence Day show at Fort Vancouver.

At the gate, tickets will be $7 for ages 13 and up; online, they're $5 and can be purchased until 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, July 3.

Children aged 12 and under attend for free.

Gates open at 8 a.m., with entertainment on four stages starting at noon. The fireworks begin at 10:05 p.m., fired from Pearson Field rather than a river barge. This means they won't be visible from Portland or the river itself.

A separate "prime viewing" area will offer a catered picnic, live acoustic music, the best seats in the house, and tickets of $50 per adult and $25 for ages 6 to 20. Small children enter free. The prime viewing area opens at 4 p.m.

Also new this year is a free, staffed bicycle corral for people wishing to avoid congestion after the show. The City of Vancouver is working with Bike Me! Vancouver to give out free blinking lights to everyone who attends the show by bicycle.

The new bike corral will sit at the southwest corner of Evergreen Boulevard and Ft. Vancouver Way, near the traffic circle. It'll be supervised from noon on, but riders are encouraged to bring a bike lock.

For more details, including an event schedule and program, visit the historic site online at http://www.fortvan.org/pages/fourth-home.  

 

Battle Ground Public Schools rolls out new website

Battle Ground Public Schools has a new website that gives parents and the general public more up-to-date and easier-to-access information about everything from bus schedules to graduation requirements to school board meetings to Battle Ground Community Education to the websites of each of the district’s 20 schools.

There’s also a new and easier-to-remember address for the Battle Ground Public Schools' new site: www.battlegroundps.org. (However, the old site still works: www.bgsd.k12.wa.us.) The new site was created free of charge as a class project by computer graphics students in the Washington State University (Vancouver) digital technology and culture program, under the direction of Prof. Dene Grigar.

Users can now more easily access the page of a particular school. With the old district site, a user clicked his or her way through four pages and had to match a school name from a list with a number on a map before getting to the school’s own site. But now, the "Our Schools" tab on the district’s new home page leads to the school name and one click gets the user to the school’s site.

Community Services Northwest volunteer wins 2010 Hero Award from state mental health council

Dr. Abe Perlstein with CSNW Wellness Project manager Denise Stone

The Washington Community Mental Health Council honored Dr. Abe Perlstein of Vancouver at its annual conference in Yakima June 25. Perlstein, a psychiatrist, has volunteered at the Community Services Wellness Project since it opened in January 2004, a total of 500 hours of counseling, medication management services and counselor supervision.

The Wellness Project, one of the programs of Community Services Northwest, is a free mental health clinic for the uninsured and underinsured.

According to CSNW, Dr. Perlstein enters the clinic with a smile and has a wonderful sense of humor. In December 2008, Washington experienced its worst snowstorm in forty years. Southwest Washington had twelve to twenty inches of snow on the ground for over a week. One of those evenings, Dr. Perlstein was scheduled to come to the Wellness Project to see a client. The roads were so bad that CSNW had closed all their programs, including the Wellness Project. Dr. Perlstein shared later that he had driven through the terrible road conditions to get to the Wellness Project -- only to find that it was closed.

Perlstein is one determined "hero."

The Insider is taking Monday off

The Daily Insider will celebrate Independence Day Monday, July 5, with a break of its own. The site will return as usual on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 6.

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Campaign Events

Campaign kickoff: David Horowitz will launch a campaign for the position of Clark County Assessor with a fundraiser at Java House, 210 W. Evergreen Boulevard, on Thursday, July 8. His campaign will provide a wine tasting, coffee or cappuccino and light appetizers.

3rd District candidate forum: Leadership Clark County will host a candidate forum at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 8, at Clark College's Gaiser Hall, featuring candidates running for the open seat in the U.S. 3rd Congressional District. The event is free and open to the public.

Prosecuting attorney candidate forum: The Forum at the Library and League of Women Voters are offering a forum featuring the candidates for Clark County Prosecuting Attorney at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 15 in the community room at Clark Public Utilities, 1200 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. For more information, call 360-695-1566.

Daily Insider submission guidelines

Items are best submitted via email with the information, as well as photos, included in the body of the email. Please send two weeks before the date of the event to tony@dailyinsider.info.

News Briefs

• New City Hall: The City of Vancouver has purchased the former Columbian building on Esther Short Park from a holding company of the Bank of America for $18.5 million, about $150 per square foot for the 118,500 square-foot site. It's intended to become a new City Hall.

• Hazel Dell redevelopment: Clark County's commissioners will consider development incentives and design standards for the Highway 99 area at a public hearing Tuesday, July 13 at 10 a.m. in the in the sixth-floor hearing room of the county Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St. The county might decide to reduce development fees, speed up permit review and offer credits for bicycle, pedestrian and public transit amenities.

• 192nd Avenue signals: A new fiber optics communication system will better coordinate traffic signals along Southeast 192nd Avenue. Drivers along the road should experience smoother traffic, but motorists approaching from side streets may notice slightly longer signal delays.

• Voter deadline: Monday, July 19 is the last day to register by mail or online for the primary and special election on Aug. 17. This applies to anyone who has changed addresses since his or her last vote. Visit the county elections office at http://clarkvotes.org for more information.

• CRESA Book Club: The Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) will be hosting a lunchtime book club downtown to discuss the Amanda Ripley book The Unthinkable beginning Monday, July 12. Registration is available at http://www.cresa911.org/emergency/training-register.php or via phone at 360-992-6270. People may also participate in the book club discussion virtually, off-site, through Twitter by following www.twitter.com/CRESA_Presents. 

Calendar

• July 2: This Friday, galleries in downtown Vancouver and Uptown Village will remain open until 9 p.m. for the First Friday art walk. For more information, visit www.vdausa.org.

• July 7: Young Professionals of Vancouver will hold its monthly networking event on Wednesday, July 7, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Tigers Garden in downtown Vancouver, 312 W. 8th St. Admission is free. For more information, contact Phoebe Krueger at 360-567-2721 or phoebe.krueger@eocfwa.org.

• July 8: The City of Battle Ground is planning to improve Southeast Grace Avenue between Rasmussen and Eaton Boulevards, with construction starting in late 2011 or early 2012. The city will host an open house on the design plans from 4 to 6 p.m. July 8 at the Battle Ground Community Center, 912 E. Main St.

• July 19 and Sept. 16: The Port of Vancouver is offering two more "V.I.P. family tours" this summer of its site on 3103 NW Lower River Road. The events are 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, July 17, and 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16. To reserve a spot, call Andrew Ness at 360-992-1137 or amness@portvanusa.com.

• July 20: The next Face to Face with Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt and the Vancouver City Council will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20, at Fort Vancouver High School, 5700 E. 18th St., Vancouver.

• July 23: The Columbia River Economic Development Council's 20th Annual Golf Classic is coming up Friday, July 23. Hole sponsorships and player slots are on sale. For details, visit www.credc.org.

Friday on the air

Columbia River Crossing project sponsors council (6-25)—4:48 p.m. CVTV 21

First Citizen 2010: Royce Pollard (6-3)—10 p.m. CVTV 23