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Dear Savvy Senior,

Does Medicare cover 100 percent of all preventive health care screenings? I'm due to get a colonoscopy and a few other tests, but I want to find out if I'll have to pay anything before I proceed.

New to Medicare

Dear New,

Medicare currently covers a wide array of free preventive and screening services to help you stay healthy, but not all services are completely covered.

You also need to be aware that the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) - which helps financially support Medicare - may very well cause these free preventive services to be eliminated in the future. But in the meantime, here's how it works.

Winlock Mayor Lonnie Dowell presented the Volunteer of the Year Award at a recent City Council meeting to Sergeant Randy Pennington, a reserve officer with the Toledo Police Department. Randy also serves as fire commissioner for Winlock.

The vote was put before the City Council and Randy won the award by a majority. Randy volunteers at least 30 hours per week regularly. Randy is one of those guys who live for the community; he is a true hero to many of us.

Jana Gann grew up in Castle Rock, so it was only fitting that she and her husband, Jeff, would open a business in town. Jana opened The Knotty Hooker in 2015 after spending many years in the food service and hotel management industry. With encouragement from Jeff, she opened the small yarn store and her life as a business owner began.

The Winlock Chapter of SkillsUSA competed at an annual conference last Saturday at Fort Vancouver. From the variety of events on offer the students chose four competitions to compete in: Job Interview, Prepared Speech, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Quiz Bowl.

There were no strangers in the Montesano Gym on Saturday night as the familiar rivals from down by the Cowlitz River took the floor. Fifteen days after getting the better of Winlock at their place by only 7 points, the Indians from Toledo were seeking to beat Winlock for a third time in the same season and also to attain a goal that they have been seeking hard after the entire season: The winner of this game would be guaranteed a trip to Spokane and the State Tournament.

SOUTH BEND - Yuri Pashang Lambert, 46, of Oakland, Calif., entered a guilty plea to possession of psilocybin mushroom, a felony offense in Washington. Lambert was arrested on Nov. 6, 2016, at Cape Disappointment State Park when he and his college-aged son were observed by park rangers rooting around in the dune grass collecting mushrooms. The case was heard in Pacific County Superior Court Friday afternoon.

Because of the prevalence of psilocybin mushroom among the harmless mushrooms, the park is closed to harvesting any edibles to prevent poisoning or inadvertent harvesting of an illegal mushroom.

Pacific County PUD #2 officials determined at their Feb. 7 meeting in Raymond that they will discuss the possibility of terminating a long-standing project to extend service to the Tokeland area at their second meeting in March, which will be held in Long Beach.

The City of Raymond has recently taken some necessary steps to help the Raymond Theatre remain open by composing a draft real estate transfer agreement that will ensure the theatre is ready to be purchased and run by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Currently the theatre does not exist as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and the Raymond Theatre Advisory Committee is taking the city's proposal into consideration. Another organization that has established itself as the Friends of the Raymond Theatre has received a grant from the L. V. and Stella Raymond Foundation to complete the necessary requirements to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, but that organization is also unsure that they want to purchase the theatre property.

The historic Raymond Theatre is currently undergoing a couple of work projects to simultaneously increase the theatre's functionality while also maintaining its period atmosphere. Funding for the renovation of the theatre's restrooms comes from the L.V. and Stella Raymond Foundation, while students and instructors of the Clatsop College Historic Preservation and Restoration program are currently working to restore the theatre's outer doors.

Theatre Manager Ann Steele explained that the intent of the work on the restrooms is to make them compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act while maintaining a 1920's atmosphere, the decade during which the theatre was built.