Fire Engine Dedicated

About fifty people met last evening at the Fire Hall to help dedicarte the new fire engine.  Ed Brown, Fire District Commissioner, introduced the volunteers, and the other Commissioners.

Ed explained how a small community like Mineral was able to afford a fire engine that cost nearly $300,000.

After the introductions, the gathering toured the fire house, looked at the different equipment, and some even took rides in the new engine.

Small-town civilities

One of the nice things about living in a small town is that a small group of people really can make a difference. I’d like to take a moment to recognize the Lions Club for all the little things they do around town, like the Christmas decorations, and the traffic management during fishing season.

One of those nice little touches is that someone noticed there were big mud puddles outside the post-office. This week, they’ve been filled in with gravel so no one gets their feet wet getting the mail. I bet if you looked around, you would find some other places in town that used to be rutted and are now filled in.  Thank the Lions.

Come meet the new fire truck

The Mineral Fire Department is having an open house for the community to come see the new fire truck. Show up at 6 PM on February 26 and admire the shiny red addition to our town.

The churches are providing coffee and cookies.

Ledger’s Weather Station Upgrade

The final steps were taken Saturday (01-27-07) to upgrade the Ledger’s Weather station.  A crew added an additional ten feet to the mast that serves the wind gage.  This lifts the gage well above roof level, and we hope improves accuracy.

Did You Notice?

On Monday the 22nd of January, Lewis County Public Works Department employee’s replaced the street signs in Mineral. The new signs are the same green and white, and the Ledger has not been able to note any name changes.  The new signs are about 1/3rd bigger and easier to read.

Good news from/for the park

Mt. Rainier’s road repairs have been fully funded, according to a story in The News Tribune. A total of $34 million will go to fix the road to Paradise, and it should be open as soon as mid-March. Other repairs will include Highway 123 and the West Side Road. There is also $2 million for repairs to Olympic National Park.

6 days of the week, the park will be closed, but on Sunday, we can get in and see what’s going on:

The main park road from the Nisqually entrance to the Westside Road intersection will be open for pedestrian and bicycle traffic on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Westside Road also will be open to walkers, providing the opportunity for longer hikes.

Visitors also can join a park ranger for a guided hike. Walks to Sunshine Point depart the Nisqually Entrance at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

There is a longer guided hike up Westside Road. For details, call 360-569-2211, Ext. 6131.

Get up there, look around, volunteer to be on a restoration team, or donate money for the restoration. They aren’t even going to know how badly the trails are damaged until the melt starts.

Baby, it’s cold outside

It’s been a cold winter for Mineral. The lake is even starting to freeze over, and Alder Lake is looking pretty solid, too.

On Wednesday, we got a substantial snowfall.

Oh, and for the kids sledding down the road at the cemetery? Not a good plan. That’s a blind hill, and if it’s slick enough for sledding, it’s too slick to stop well.

More pictures below.

Power’s out, again

Those of you in Mineral proper probably can’t read this right now (noon-thirty on Tuesday), because the power is out, and has been most of the morning. That’s why the weather reporting is out.

Speculation is that the PUD is repairing what they can of previous damages before the next big storm rolls in tonight.

I will tell you that outages in Mineral that aren’t caused by weather are usually very local. Next time it happens, instead of eating cold pb&j, wander across the Nisqually and get some nice hot food. For the outage on Saturday, we tried to go to Copper Creek, but they are closed for January, so we ended up at the  Mt. Rainier Overlander, and it was quite tasty. The bourbon burger is well worth the drive.

Weather

If you look over to the left of this page, you will see a teeny little banner with a temperature listed for Mineral. This is a weather station about two blocks from the post office, so it should be pretty accurate for “downtown” Mineral. It is updated every 10 minutes, so if you don’t see it change, refresh this page.

While it’s nice to have current weather, you probably already know more-or-less what it’s like outside. If you click on the banner, you get Mineral’s own Weather Underground page . This has forecasts, warnings, watches, and even seismic data. For people living further up the valley, there is also a Skate Creek weather station. If that still doesn’t cover you, there is a Google Maps application that has locations of personal weather stations, and you can look at it to find the weather station closest to you.

From what we can tell, the forecast is based on the forecast for the west slopes of the Cascades, and the passes, so it may sound a little more dire than it actually is. Still, it’s a lot closer to our actual weather than what’s happening in Seattle at the tv stations.

And just for the record, for the month of January, we have gotten 2.8 inches of rain, although some of that was snow this morning.

Santa and the new fire truck

Mineral got a new fire truck just in time for Santa to borrow it and go around to visit all the kids in Mineral.