Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two scheduled to appear Monday online.

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KAMIAH — More than 300 people flooded the Kamiah Skate Park at last weekend’s official opening to the community’s newest recreational offering.

Upriver Youth Leadership Council held the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the Kamiah Skate Park on May 6, with events from noon to 2 p.m. The new skate park is located next to the Kamiah Swimming Pool on 807 Idaho St.

This project was started by Jace Sams, a 19-year-old former Kamiah High School student, for his senior project in the 2020-21 school year, and UYLC.

“I like to skate and there was nowhere to do it, and a bunch of my friends who lived here liked to skate here too, and we were all having to drive to Lewiston to skate. We wanted to have something here for us to use,” Sams explained.

UYLC received grants to help pay for the designing and construction of the skate park.

“Sharlene Johnson (UYLC) helped me a lot with the grants. She did a lot of work and I helped her kinda finish them up and complete them. The big one we got was from the Tony Hawk Foundation. He gave us I think $5,000. That was big because it was during the COVID year and their funds were down a lot,” Sams said. “They didn’t give many grants out so it was cool that we got one. The City of Kamiah also donated the land, which was super sweet of them; they didn’t have to do that and they did.”

Sams has been skateboarding about five years, and is now studying English at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston.

“There are plans for a bowl on the right side of the park, so hopefully we can raise enough money for it and it will actually physically grow,” Sams said. “It will give the kids something to do down here that’s safer than the alternatives. It’s a safe, nice place for them to go and have some fun and they’re gonna be doing some good things.”

— Hannah Hale, The Clearwater Progress (Kamiah), Thursday

Columbia Pulp I, LLC, assets may go up for auction in June

SEATTLE — The receiver of Columbia Pulp I, LLC, will ask a King County Superior Court judge to approve a process to auction the assets of the Starbuck-area straw-to-pulp plant in a hearing set here on May 18.

Lance Miller, the receiver, was appointed in April 2022, to handle recovery of stakeholders’ value, an action initiated by UMB Bank, N.A., when Columbia Pulp failed to make payments when due. Among the receiver’s powers was the power to sell the assets. UMB Bank, N.A., is trustee for certain bonds issued by the Washington Economic Development Finance Authority.

Since June 2022, the receiver’s investment banker, GLC, has pursued a comprehensive marketing process to identify a third-party purchaser for “substantially all of the Company’s assets,” the court document indicates.

“It has now become clear that the Company lacks funding to continue to operate as a going concern beyond June 2023,” the receiver states in the motion to Judge Douglass A. North. “Thus, identifying and pursuing a value-maximizing exit in an expedited manner is critical to avoid substantial and irreparable harm to the Company and stakeholders.”

The receiver is proposing a bid deadline of June 12, with an auction, if necessary, to be held on June 15. A proposed sale hearing, subject to availability of the court, is June 26 and the sale closing date may be June 30. The May 2 motion asks the judge to approve the timeline.

Columbia Pulp is a single-purpose limited liability company organized in Washington for the purpose of developing, owning and operating an agricultural waste-to-pulp manufacturing plant, where wheat and alfalfa straw sourced within a 100-mile radius, would be processed into wet-lap pulp sold to tissue, paper, molded fiber and packaging manufacturers in the Pacific Northwest and United States.

— Lloyd Baker, Dayton Chronicle (Starbuck), Thursday