$1 Serving our communities since 1889 — www.chronline.com Mid-Week Edition Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017 Boys and Girls Club Building Construction Underway on New Facility in Chehalis / Main 6 Fire Burns Centralia Home Sentenced for Sex Crimes Family of Eight Displaced After Blaze That Chehalis Man Accused of Possessing Child Porn Reportedly Started in Laundry Room / Main 3 Gets 15 Years for Recorded Assaults / Main 7 Centralia Elementary School Gives Herrera Beutler Students an Early Start in Robotics Supports Border Wall, Wants to Keep Social Security PHONE-IN: Congresswoman Holds Unannounced Telephone Town Hall Meeting By Aaron Kunkler [email protected] U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler held a phone-in town hall confer- ence with con- stituents Tuesday, addressing their questions on top- ics that included the environment, the border wall and health care. The phone-in town hall confer- Jaime Herrera Beutler Pete Caster / ence occurred congresswoman [email protected] Tuesday evening A sixth-grader at Oakview Elementary celebrates after accomplishing one of the programming tasks with her robot during the school's morning robotics class following protests on Wednesday in Centralia. outside her office in Vancouver earlier in the day, according to The SINCE NOVEMBER: Students it’s the opposite. Columbian. The protesters were Cox is one of more than 20 Oakview Elemen- rallying to pressure Herrera Beutler Responsible for Building, early risers enthusiastic about tary students to hold town hall meetings similar Programming Their building robots and furthering use one of the to other congressional Republicans several laptops their science, technology, engi- please see SUPPORTS, page Main 11 Own Robots neering and math (STEM) skills in the classroom By Justyna Tomtas through a new opportunity at to program Oakview Elementary School, a robot they [email protected] where students not only build made during the For some students, arriving robots from kits, but also pro- school's morning Mossyrock to at school early might not be a gram them to do various tasks. robotics class on reason to get excited, but for Wednesday. Hold Meeting fifth grade student Alan Cox, please see ROBOTICS, page Main 16 Over Riffe Lake Confusion Remains Over Legality of Napavine City Concerns By The Chronicle Tacoma Power’s recent an- Council Meetings and Actions as County Steps In nouncement of its intent to keep By Jordan Nailon Riffe Lake 30 feet below typical MEETING: Napavine Reappoints It’s also entirely possible that they took summer depth has prompted con- Councilor in Advance of [email protected] two steps backward. cerned citizens to organize a public On Feb. 7, Lewis County Prosecutor meeting in Mossyrock. NAPAVINE — At an eight-minute Jonathan Meyer hosted a meeting at the County Commissioners’ Special city council meeting on Tuesday, the city Mossyrock Mayor Thomas Lewis County Courthouse where he de- Meade confirmed the meeting Session; County Prosecutor, of Napavine may have made at least some tailed a number of missteps taken by the City Attorney Disagree progress toward untangling the twisted on Wednesday afternoon, noting web they’ve woven over the past year. please see COUNCIL, page Main 14 please see LAKE, page Main 16 The Chronicle, Serving The Greater Alleged Thief Nabbed New Event at Fairgrounds Deaths Lewis County Area Since 1889 Arrest First Pacific Minnick, Robert “Bob,” 97, Follow Us on Twitter Chehalis @chronline Made After Northwest Weaver, Marjorie L., 80, Payment Baby Fair Randle Find Us on Facebook Box Planned Novak, Dorothy Ellen, 95, www.facebook.com/ Toledo thecentraliachronicle Theft in by Local Miller, Grace Helen, 96, Centralia Onalaska Business Johnson-Hansen, Dale Vivian, / Main 5 / Life 1 88, Toledo LOCAL PEOPLE, LOCAL DECISIONS! CHEHALIS 714 W. Main Street HOW CAN 360.740.0770 WE HELP Also TOLEDO, You? WINLOCK, TUMWATER CH569917cd.cg & OLYMPIA Keith Macy Matt DeBord HOME | CONSTRUCTION | BUSINESS NMLS# 539574 Main 2 • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, Wash., Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017 PAGE TWO News Eye to Eye With Technology of the Weird 1980s film “Footloose,” which Woman’s Sassy Obit tells the story of a small town Warns People To Wait banning dancing and rock mu- sic. She said prior to the cancelled To Claim Her Stuff event, she’d never heard of the or- COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — dinance preventing dancing. Relatives of a 91-year-old Ohio woman who died this week are giving her the last word with a Iceland’s President Says sassy, occasionally profane obit- He Would Not uary that starts with the basics — “I was born. I lived. I died.” — Ban Pineapple Pizza and instructs people to “wait the REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) appropriate amount of time” be- — Iceland’s president’s strong fore trying to claim her stuff. views on pizza have caused an They wrote it in Jean Oddi’s international stir. perspective, recapping the peo- Gudni Th. Johannesson dis- ple important to her, adventures closed his opposition to pine- she had and her favorite activi- apple on pizza to Icelandic high Pete Caster / [email protected] ties, including playing cards and school students last week. Ice- Oakview Elementary School student Elias Friberg programs a robot he built in the school’s morning robotics class on teaching her granddaughter landic media reported that he Wednesday in Centralia. The story, and many other photos, is available to subscribers at www.chronline.com. “dirty songs.” said he’d ban the fruity topping Her daughter, Casey Oddi if he could. Clark, told The Columbus Dis- It proved Johannesson’s most patch the obituary celebrates a controversial statement since he blunt woman who lived unapol- took up the largely ceremonial Notable Quote ogetically. post last year. It also promises an “after- Amid a social-media storm, party” following the funeral Johannesson released a state- but warns: “If you are sick, don’t ment on Facebook, stressing that “I am committed to protecting our way of life.” bother to come. I might be dead, he does not have the power to but I still don’t want your germs.” ban pizza toppings, and is “glad that I do not hold such power.” Jaime Herrera Beutler Henryetta Abolishes The former history professor U.S. Representative, R-Camas says he “would not want to hold Decades-Old Dance Ban this position if I could pass laws (see page Main 1 and 11 for the full story) HENRYETTA, Okla. (AP) forbidding that which I don’t — Kick off the Sunday shoes: like. I would not want to live in Dancing in public is now legal such a country.” throughout Henryetta. For pizza, however, “I recom- City leaders voted Tuesday to mend seafood.” abolish an ordinance on dancing, the Tulsa World reported. The Man Who Smashed dance ordinance, with a penalty Today in History of $25, prohibited dance halls Trump Star To Pay within 500 feet of a church or Today’s Highlight in History: the Federal Radio Commission, dent George H.W. Bush’s defense public school. Damages forerunner of the Federal Com- secretary. (Tower’s nomination On Feb. 23, 1942, the first In February, resident Joni In- LOS ANGELES (AP) — A munications Commission. went down to defeat in the full shelling of the U.S. mainland sabella decided to host a dance man who destroyed Donald In 1945, during World War II, Senate the following month.) during World War II occurred Trump’s star on the Hollywood U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima cap- In 1992, the XVI Winter above her store, which is within as a Japanese submarine fired Walk of Fame has been sen- tured Mount Suribachi, where Olympic Games ended in Al- 500 feet of a church. The city’s on an oil refinery near Santa tenced to three years of proba- they raised a pair of American Chamber of Commerce posted Barbara, California, causing lit- bertville, France. tion for vandalism. In 1997, about the event and called Insa- tle damage. flags (the second flag-raising a 69-year-old Pales- bella a rule breaker on Facebook An attorney for James Otis was captured in the iconic Asso- tinian teacher opened fire on and accused her of getting special says he pleaded no contest to the On This Date: ciated Press photograph.) the 86th-floor observation deck treatment, because of her hus- felony Tuesday in Los Angeles In 1836, the siege of the Ala- In 1954, the first mass inocu- of New York’s Empire State band, who’s the city’s attorney. Superior Court. mo began in San Antonio, Texas. lation of schoolchildren against Building, killing one person “We wanted just a good, clean, Attorney Mieke ter Poorten In 1848, the sixth president polio using the Salk vaccine be- and wounding six others before fun event. As I said, we know says Otis agreed to pay $4,400 of the United States, John Quin- gan in Pittsburgh as some 5,000 shooting himself to death. we’re in the Bible Belt. We weren’t for the damage and attorney’s cy Adams, died in Washington, students were vaccinated. Ten years ago: A Mississippi having alcohol or anything. We fees and perform 20 days of D.C., at age 80. In 1965, film comedian Stan grand jury refused to bring any just wanted it to be fun for the community labor. In 1870, Mississippi was read- Laurel, 74, died in Santa Monica, new charges in the 1955 slaying community,” Insabella said. Otis used a sledgehammer mitted to the Union. California. of Emmett Till, the black teenag- After the event was canceled, and pickax to deface the star In 1903, President Theodore In 1970, Guyana became a er who was beaten and shot for Mayor Jennifer Clason decided about a week before Trump was Roosevelt signed an agreement republic within the Common- supposedly whistling at a white to look over the ordinance.