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In November 2021, Joe Schey was elected to the position of Mayor for the City of Vader. Joe had been appointed after the previous mayor, Lois Wilson stepped down to get married. This was his first election and he won by a landslide against his opponent 79% of the vote versus 20%. Mayor Schey has accomplished a lot in his 2 years as Mayor, he is sharing what he plans for the next 4 years.

At first, Joe was not 100% sure he was going to run for Mayor, but after several people asked him, he changed his mind. Joe knew he needed to run for office to finish some of the projects he started. "Running for office, this time as Mayor, felt like the right thing to do for both myself and the city. My family and I both felt that not running would have been letting ourselves, my supporters, and the city down. The city staff and mayor position had seen a number of changes in recent years, and the consistency that I brought to the table was needed to maintain the city's course."

At the end of July, a local newspaper wrote about Camo, a K-9 dog, who had been in the custody of Morton Police Department handler Tyler Randt Williams. That article was missing information which inaccurately put Williams and the MPD in a bad light as to the care of a problem animal.

Interesting as well was that the Lewis County Prosecutor engaged the Washington State Patrol to investigate the claims of the newspaper article with no additional proof. This is as per the WSP investigative report.

The story covered Williams, who was a police officer for the Morton Police Department. The article alleged that the Morton Police Department and Williams were negligent in their actions with the dog.

The Willapa Heritage Foundation is hosting their second online auction as our 2022 fundraiser. The auction starts on Saturday, February 5 and continues through Monday, February 14. The auction may be accessed by going to our website, willapaheritagefoundation.org. Check the auction for lots of items to bid on.

It is the mission of the Willapa Heritage Foundation to promote diverse cultural and artistic enrichment programs and opportunities to the communities' artists, residents and visitors. They endeavor to incorporate the community's youth and adults into the efforts of being providers and recipients of the arts.

The European Green Crab (EGC) is attempting to gain a claw-hold along the Washington coast prompting the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribal Council to declare an emergency. This green crab is a small shore crab that is native along the northeast Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea ranging from north Africa to Norway and Iceland. It is invasive to North America and threatens coastal fisheries.

The potential impact in the Willapa Bay include destruction of eelgrass beds and estuarine marsh habitats. They also threaten harvest of wild shellfish, the shellfish aquaculture industry, the Dungeness crab fishery, and salmon recovery.