By Bob Spiwak
A very busy day in Mazama on Saturday. The World-Famous Pancake Breakfast was its usual success, this year augmented by a yard sale — once a staple, but long in hiatus. Ms. Gloria and I had a table and spoke with a lot of local people we’d not seen for a long time. Among them was the daughter of 98-year-old Gretchen Gilford, who has the paper read to her every week at her home near Spokane. She was one of the regulars at the Winthrop Artisan shop, long before the advent of Confluence and Winthrop art galleries. We regret not recording her daughter’s name (in the midst of conversation and questions about our dog), but wanted to share this news of someone Ms. Gloria worked with in the old days. She’ll love knowing she was in the paper.
Amidst the hubbub of the yard sale, Claire Bunney, community club vice-president, appeared with a bulletin for this column. Methow Trails, the Mazama Advisory Committee, Bill Pope and Steve and Kristin Devin will have info and answer questions about plans for the Mazama parking lot and adjacent properties on June 4 at 7 p.m. at the Community Club.
This brings us to the statistical segment of the column beginning with the Harts Pass info: The snow water content is down 15 percent for the week, now at 60 percent. Also diminished is the snow depth, losing 13 inches to 27 inches. This Memorial Day, rivers and ponds are rising noticeably.
Many people have asked what’s going on with the salmon recovery project at the old Fender Mill site. To that end I wandered over with a 100-foot tape measure and recorded its dimensions. I do not vouch for exact mathematical accuracy in the final numbers.
Each log, on average, is about 10 feet long and 10 feet thick, without measuring the root balls on each. The pile is 83 feet long. Being unable to measure the height, we estimated it at about 20 feet. We come up with 16,600 cubic feet of logs, without considering two smaller piles. No idea what the weight is.
These logs will be strategically placed in the river, and some probably in a ditch to be dug and filled with pipes that will collect ground water, ultimately emptying in the river. Much like the reverse of a sewage mound, with ground water entering the pipe and the collected water exiting at the river. There were two nice fellows hanging ribbons that mark the course of the excavation the other day and gave us the explanation.
The semi-annual car count concentrates on westward vehicles during the non-peak hours of 9-10 a.m. on Memorial Day Monday. We discovered the results of last year’s count, which was westbound, 273 vehicles; and eastbound, 63 vehicles.
As it was last year, the weather was sunny with broken clouds, 56 degrees at 9 a.m. when the one-hour count began. This year topped that of 2014 with 342 westbound vehicles, 161 in the first half hour. Eastbound were 67, four more than last year. If we had enough hands we’d like to add a count of pickup trucks. It seems an inordinate number, but does confirm the industry blurb that they are an ever-growing segment of the automotive industry.
This year we added a supplementary count — vehicles (in the overall count) that were towing recreational vehicles, not boats nor self-propelled motor homes. These numbered 63. Motorcycles were minimal, only one large group of 10. They totaled 21 east and westward, mostly the latter.
While the overall numbers are minute compared with urban traffic, if you do the math, add miles driven, the cost of fuel, pick any conservative amount that each person spent, and you’ll come up with an eye-opening figure. I don’t have space here to do it.
It’s only three months until Labor Day, when we do the second half of the count. With a little luck, I might find last year’s results. If not, I think 2013 is in the books — somewhere.
