Rayville

Nice little piece about Rayville here on a family history site:

A few miles west of the town of McCleary, Washington where the railroad tracks cross Church Street was the small town of Rayville.  The town was named after Joseph Ray a local sawmill owner.  Rayville had a post office between 1905 and 1907.  A forest fire in 1902 burnt the town down and the small community of Whites several miles to the west.

http://cottonfamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/looking-east-to-mccleary-washington.html

Bear Festival needs volunteers

VOLUNTEERS desparately needed to plan and manage 2012 festival weekend. The board is also looking for volunteers interested in serving on the board for 2013!! Nominations will be held in September.

McCleary Bear Festival Facebook

McCleary Bear Festival

 

Mini-Comics Day in McCleary

Comic: The Tapir's Pug Dog Sweater (Mini Comics Day 2012 with Steve Willis)  

Mini-Comics Day in McCleary, Pt. 1 (Check Steve's blog for further reports, including some scans of the comics created.)

Thunder Skies

Cause of power outage not yet known

More on power outage yesterday: http://kxro.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/mccleary-light-power-investigating-yesterdays-power-outage/

Power Outage Morning

North of Simpson Ave in McCleary lost power this morning, haven't yet heard the specific cause. Quite a few medics headed north out of town on SR 108 around the same time but don't know if this related to power outage. 

Update: from what I can hear on the scanner archives from this morning, sounds like there was a medical emergency north of McCleary that was not related to power outage.
 

Wild baby bunnies

Here in McCleary, keeping four cats safe and sound includes keeping them away from raccoons. Raccoon vs. cat encounters usually end up badly for cats. But this year raccoons didn't settle in any of the trees as they have years past. This year we have............*drum roll*...........rabbits.

First an adult wild cottontail rabbit was seen in the neighborhood. Next a teen sized rabbit was seen dashing through the yard. Then one of our cats was seen rolling wildly, tail lashing, through a patch of tail grass. We investigated and found it was "playing" with a tiny baby bunny.

The bunny was rescued and stashed back in a baby bunny hollow found nearby. I read up on wild rabbits and discovered that these babies weren't abandoned, their mother would be back at night to feed them, and that they were healthy.

When the cats were outside we kept a laundry basket turned over the bunny hollow to keep them safe. But that wasn't going to be enough, we could tell the cats would find a way to grab the rabbits anyway if we allowed. So we had to also sit by as guard. Cats would be out for an hour or two then brought back in, laundry basket removed so mother could get to them when she wanted.

The babies are very cute. And our cats really want to get to them. We've been hearing a lot of howling and cat complaints about the fact that we won't let this happen.

Now some of the babies can hop around a little. So we can't really let the cats out at all. Or mow the lawn in that area. And we know full well that even with all our efforts - a neighborhood cat or hawk or raccoon could get in at night and take the nest apart. We're doing the best we can. But we know our best might not be good enough.

(last photo by Steve Willis)

"A New Factory on the Coast" 1911

The Lumber World, Volume 13 - Lumber World Publishing Company, 1911

"Concerned Citizens for Better Leadership and Education in McCleary"

Signs festoon the corner of a building downtown 121 W Simpson, McCleary - here is some background:

From their Facebook page (have to sign in to FB to view):

About
C.C.B.L.E stands for Concerned Citizens for Better Leadership and Education in McCleary. Our mission is to enforce accountability and honesty and hold our leaders to a higher standard in upholding the McCleary School District Mission Statement.

Description
The mission of the C.C.B.L.E. is to enforce accountability and honesty and hold our leaders to a higher standard in upholding the McCleary School District Mission Statement. We, as a growing organization, have made it our mission to hold the McCleary School District to a higher standard; our children should be led by example, provided the best education possible, attend school in a safe and supportive learning environment, and heighten the level of education currently being delivered and to truly “meet the individual needs” of EVERY student. It is essential that the student body knows the school will provide an educator, protector, mentor and friend. 

(hat tip to https://twitter.com/#!/AlistairBooya for locating FB page)

Signs seen Downtown

These signs are from a building across the street from the Rain County restaurant, anyone know the story behind them?

Where were we from in 1955?

Distribution of McCleary WA population by place of birth October 1955:

The top 6 USA birth states:

Washington state 777
Arkansas 136
Kansas 133
Nebraska 65
Oklahama 49
Missouri 49

Interntational:

Canada 19
Italy 16
Greece 11
Norway 6
England 6
Sweden 5
Germany 4
Austria 4
France 2
Lebanon 2
Russia 2
Turkey 2

Other 5

Sunday afternoon SR 108 fatality

A 53 year old Shelton man died on Sunday after crossing the center lane just outside of McCleary. The man was riding his 1978 Honda motorcycle Sunday afternoon on SR 108 when he crossed the center lane and struck a 2005 Ford Excursion head on.

Motorcycle fatality on State Route 108

| FATAL MVA | STATE ROUTE 108 MP 4 - MCCLEARY,WA : 2 CAR FATALITY ALL LANES BLOCKED FIRE AND LAW O/S.|

— Public Safety Alerts (@PublicSafety911) May 13, 2012

Comix released by Balloon

Morty Comix # 2353

If you saw a ladybug helium balloon floating in the area, it wasn't your imagination.  

Dislikes & Outstanding Needs (from 1955 McCleary community survey)

Dislikes

• "Lack of cultural opportunies a. Music b. Dancing c. Recreation. Poor shopping center - (Poor veg. selection) etc. No lumber or hardware." 
•  "Some of the kids, I think, we got some real stinkers." 
•  "Vacant dirt lots and unsightly trees we need more improved roads and walks."

What do you consider the outstanding needs of this community?

•  "More businesses. More recreation. More cooperation and not so much 'let George do it'." 
•  "Vacant lots cleaned up. Street surfaced. Speed laws enforced on some streets." 
•  "We need a garbage can at school house and children taught to throw waste paper in it instead of strewing it along the street down the hill. Streets and vacant lots cleaned up. Sidewalk built on boths sides of street down the hill, from one edge of town to other. Both entrances of town beautified."

Illegal Burn

Sometimes when our town fire siren goes off I'm able to listen to the scanner and see what might be up. Last night was an illegal burning report, railroad ties and plastic being burnt.

We're headed into the season where more outdoor burns are done, good time to brush up on the relevant laws.

McCleary Fire Department lists what we need to know here in the city.

Grays Harbor county information here.

I also uploaded a copy of the Grays Harbor Outdoor Burning Rules.

Roof collapse (cell phone video of event, ad first)

Simpson Door Plant roof

 KBKW:

Employees of Simpson Door had about 3 minutes to get out from under a roof that collapsed yesterday under the strain of collecting water. Stacey Conkle, manager of McCleary plant tells us the collapse occured at their plant yesterday afternoon, creaking sounds alerted employees prior to the collapse.

Standing Water Damages Roof at Simpson Door Plant

What do you like about McCleary? (from 1955 survey)

What things do you like most about this community? 

• I'm employed here and people are friendly - I like small towns.

• The friendly sincere people. General lack of juvenile delinquency.

• Lack of class distinction. Friendly people. Sewer, water and lights and city improvements are outstanding.

• The fact that if the going is rough there isn't any town that will rally better. 

• Kind hearts and gentle people.

McCleary Community Survey