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T H U R S D AY, DECEMBER 5 , 2 0 13

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page B14

NEW LISTING A PATCH OF PARADISE

1848 sq. ft. of nice, country living on a 1 acre lot. New paint inside and out. Carpet, vinyl, kitchen appliances and more all only two years old. Great condition, excellent view lot. All for $165,000. R1358 $165,000

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NorthwestMultiple Listing Service

610 S. First in Othello (509) 488-5651

Eric Olsen • Broker • 989-0838

FOR MORE PROPERTIES GO TO www.sunbasinproperties.com

Gail Earl • 331-6497Pete Olsen • 488-9823Lynn Olsen • 488-9823

Meghan Olsen • 989-9721

Come In For Your Personal

New Construction Consultation

OLSEN HOMES, LLC.OLSEN HOMES, LLC.TOP OF THE WORLD VIEW

AmAzing View! 2001 blt on 5 ac. 9’ ceilings, cov. front & rear patios, 4th bdrm/den, isl. & ptry in kitch., huge master suite, 1500+ s.f. barn w/horse stall, hay loft & tack room, 700 s.f. covered R.V. parking, 539 s.f. garage, UGS in yard & pasture, fenced & cross fenced. R1350 $345,000

REDUCED•REDUCED•REDUCEDPERFECT STARTER HOME

Well kept 4-bedroom home. Open floor plan with vaulted ceiling that makes the home feel very spacious. The home is parked on a large lot. Enjoy outside entertainment on the newly built deck. R1302

$59,500 NOW $49,900

NEW LISTINGNEW CONSTRUCTION

1357 square feet. 3 bed, 2 bath, vaulted ceiling. Oustanding layout, excellent new neighbor-hood, affordable price. 2-10 Homebuyers warranty included. MLS #550719

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Opinion A2 | Community A3 - A5 | Schools A6 | Neighbors A7 | Cops and Courts A8 | Sports B1-B2 | Classifieds B3 | Legals B4

see BEAUTIFICATION | A4 4

page A44

Columbia Bank seeking applicants for

non profitpage A64

Walmart makes donation to

Wahitis Elementary

Mashed potatoesA two-vehicle collision south of Othello at Highway 17 and Booker Road slowed traffic for several hours. A 2008 Freightliner semi truck with a 1990 Star trailer was traveling westbound on Booker Road and failed to yield at the stop sign, pulling into traffic, northbound on Highway 17. A 2005 Freightliner truck pulling a 1981 Polar trailer, driven by Joel E. Smith, 37, Connell, driving northbound on Highway 17 struck the 2008 Freightliner. The 2008 Freight-liner, driven by Rebecca L. Avila, 53, Irrigon, Ore., failed to yield the right of way, causing the collision. No injuries were reported and both drivers were wearing their seat belts. The collision is still under investigation and charges are pending.

Photos by eric LA FontAine

by erik [email protected]

With the first of several de-liveries to town, the Othello Beautification Committee and their president Lynette Caruthers hope to make the community a little bit easier on the eyes beginning with placements of large, red deco-rative planters in front of many various businesses lining Main Street. The committee re-ceived a shipment with half a dozen pallets loaded with the planters and hopes to begin ar-ranging them before Christmas as part of a first wave of their plans to help Othello leave a lasting impression on visitors.

The pots, paid for by busi-ness owners who opted to participate, will mostly be featured along Main Street, between Fourth and Seventh avenues with a few more scattered here and there, Ca-ruthers said. She thinks their unique design should be eye-catching enough to be a call-ing sign for Othello.

“I can foresee these being

all over this city and we’re going to be known as the city of the beautiful red planters,” Caruthers said.

Caruthers and the com-mittee decided to pursue the project after being inspired by the landscaping they saw at a nursery in Quincy. After an unsuccessful campaign to have decorative trees planted along Main Street, they de-cided to look into the planters.

“We still wanted something that would be eye-catching, amazing, unique and we just hit on these red pots as a pos-sibility,” she said.

The planters vary in size and shape and Caruthers hopes an altered version of the tree-planting project done at a smaller scale could be possi-ble if business owners commit the time and effort in planting and maintaining them. For now, the committee hopes the community’s response will be positive and give them the initiative to go forward with other projects, like the 14th


The 38th annual Communi-ty Christmas Basket Program is officially underway once again and organizers Merritt Johnson and Tom Denison said they are looking forward to involving as many people as possible in donating the highly appreciated care pack-ages stuffed with food, clothes and toys just in time for the

holidays. The first major event of the

month-long program begins this Sunday, Dec. 8, at the Eagles Lodge where Othello volunteer firefighters will serve up an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for $8, with all proceeds going toward fill-ing up baskets.

Last year, the program de-livered almost 300 baskets to


Fielding one of the biggest teams in its history, the Othello High School Speech and Debate Club has had one of its strongest starts ever and looks for-ward to keeping the momentum as they host a tournament for CWAC teams at

McFarland Middle School this Satur-day at 8 a.m. Club Head Coach Laura Cooper, a math and science teacher at MMS, said not only is the club a great way for students to enhance their stud-ies and also meet new friends, but the work they’re putting in now should set them up for a record number of state participants in March.

“Every single clique finds a home and somebody to relate to in speech and de-bate,” Cooper said.

With 30 members – 20 more than last year’s size – Cooper expects the older students to help the rookies get up to speed and in doing so, set them up for


The Othello City Council wrapped up its 2014 budget discussions during its Monday, Nov. 25, meeting and settled on the final amount of $18.6 million after a final round of debates. The budget is a 22 percent increase over 2013 and includes a revenue projection of just over $16 million.

Taking up one of the more substantial pieces of the pie is the city’s water fund, which includes plans to drill a new

well to address the city’s rais-ing demand for water. The wa-ter utility fund requested the largest expenditure of all cat-egories and comes in at $4.7 million. Othello Finance Offi-cer Spencer Williams said the new well project takes up $2.7 million of that funding alone.

“Last year, our total operat-ing budget was about $3 mil-lion less than what you see here tonight,” Williams said.

He explained that the well project is almost exclusively the reason for the budget in-crease and requires dipping

into the city’s reserve water utility fund, as well.

One area that required tweaking before being put to vote was the city’s tourism fund, which was originally set to receive $20,000 from its reserve funds to help pay for a promotional video project the city is considering. Council-man Ken Caylor said he sup-ports the city’s plan to pursue the project but was concerned with the idea of using the city’s reserves to help fund it.

“I think this is a great idea, but I don’t think a lot of the

money should come out of the tourism (reserve) fund,” he said.

One of the options to fund the project would have the city requesting monetary support from businesses and organiza-tions in Othello and the coun-cil eventually came to agree on not giving the tourism any funding from reserves. They left the option available to amend the category’s alloca-tion of funding dependent on how much support they can

Beautification committee to kick start plans

Photo by erik PAgue

City of Othello employee Justin Barker unloads one of the pallets contain-ing the new red decorative planters commissioned by the Othello Beauti-fication Committee Tuesday, Nov. 26. Expect the planters to be featured in front of Main Street businesses by Christmas time.

Annual Christmas Basket program seeks donations and volunteers

OHS Speech and Debate off to good start, host tourney Saturday

Council puts finishing touches on 2014 budgetsee SPEECH | A6 4

see BASKETS | A5 4 see COUNCIL | A5 4

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