The Board of County Councilors is accepting applications from local organizations for grants that promote historical preservation and programs, including preservation of historic documents. Applications for 2018 Historical Promotion Grants must be received by the Historic Preservation Commission by 5 p.m., Friday, Sept. 15.

Applications must include an original signature; electronic copies will not be accepted. The Historic Preservation Commission will review applications in the fall and submit recommendations to the county council in November. Grants will be awarded in December, and the money will be available in January 2018.

Interested people can find more information and applications online at www.clark.wa.gov/community-planning/historical-promotion-grants-program or by contacting Jacqui Kamp in Community Planning at 360-397-2280 or jacqui.kamp@clark.wa.gov.

WSU Vancouver will be home to the Electronic Literature Organization for the next five years. Referred to as the ELO, this international organization was previously sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. The ELO was founded in 1999 to foster and promote the reading, writing, teaching and understanding of literature as it develops and persists in a changing digital environment. The organization includes writers, artists, teachers, scholars and developers. Its members work at the intersection of art, literature and computation. As the only scholarly body dedicated solely to the investigation of literature produced for the digital medium, the ELO maintains a presence on six continents. Many readings, workshops, and other events will be held on campus during the 2017/18 academic year. More information about the ELO can be found at: eliterature.org.

Starting Saturday, July 1, anglers fishing the lower Columbia River must release any adult summer chinook salmon they intercept under new rules approved today by fishery managers from Washington and Oregon. By then, this year’s recreational catch is expected to reach the 2,656-fish harvest guideline established by those states from the Megler-Astoria Bridge to Bonneville Dam. Anglers fishing those waters can still catch and keep sockeye salmon, hatchery steelhead and hatchery “jack” chinook as outlined in the current state fishing rules. Ron Roler, a fishery manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, says the chinook fishery that opened June 16, below the dam went more quickly than in some years. Washington state fishing rules are posted on WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/.

Work will begin next week to enhance public safety by improving pedestrian and bicycle facilities along the west side of a 15-block stretch of Highway 99. On Wednesday, July 5, Colf Construction, LLC, a Vancouver-based contractor working for Public Works, is scheduled to begin replacing portions of sidewalk on the west side of Highway 99 between NE 63rd St. and NE 78th St. Access to all businesses will remain open during construction. The existing substandard sidewalk along this three-quarter-mile section of Highway 99 will be reconstructed to at least 6 feet wide, creating a safer, disabled-accessible walkway.