With the primary over, the office of Lieutenant Governor in Washington State will not have a Republican on the ballot. Joshua Freed has stepped up to take on the challenge and is now the write-in candidate for Lieutenant Governor for the State of Washington.

The race in the 19th Legislative District has heated up, Joel McEntire is running for State Representative against Brian Blake, the incumbent.

McEntire is a 4th generation resident of SW Washington, his family have roots in the Lewis and Wahkiakum area. He is a program mentor with Western Governors University, a Marine Corp reservist, a husband and a father of three. He is running to make this state a better place for everyone, including his children and their future.

Loren Culp, Lewis County's choice for governor, is planning a vehicle convoy to announce his arrival into King County this Saturday, September 19th. Culp, who is the Republican front runner has been very active on the campaign trail, holding rallies he now calls "protest" with at least 1000 people now attending.

It's been quite the campaign season, Culp has started a grassroots movement here in Washington and now he has set up the biggest convoy Washington has ever seen.

Winlock Benaroya Industrial Park has signed its first contract. Lowe's will be coming to the industrial park with a 1.2 million square foot building. The process to get here has been long and arduous.

The project started nearly 20 years ago, with the purchase of land by the Benaroya Company. Former mayor Cy Meyers, worked diligently to get the area into the Winlock Urban Growth Area, the largest expansion ever.

After talking with several local businesses, the Lewis County News decided to team up with Amy Smith of Boss Hoggs BBQ and start a community scavenger hunt. This will be a community event with the grand prize being a $50 Visa gift card. Now here is the fun part, we are asking you to participate by going into local businesses.

We wanted to do something to help the local businesses but we also wanted to offer something fun for students and parents during distance learning. Here is what we are doing:

Back the Blue is an American activism campaign focused on building community support for our local police officers. The idea is to support your local first responders, not to defund them but to defend them. There is such a movement starting right here in Lewis County.

The Lewis County Fire Departments in South Lewis County are looking for volunteers to help with their responsibilities. The responsibility of a volunteer firefighter is many, but the comradery with the other members will far outweigh the hard work.

The local fire departments start with the application process, they have an entire packet if you are interested.

On Saturday evening, August 22, Lewis County business owners and residents turned out to support the local FFA (Future Farmers of American) and 4H at the Chehalis Livestock Sale Barn. This is an event that usually occurs at the fair, but due to Covid the fair was cancelled.

After the abrupt and extreme changes that came this past spring when schools were closed statewide, we all did the best we could at school and home to see out the school year. Winlock School Superintendent Garry Cameron together with the district's new powerhouse administration team Scott Nye, Dracy McCoy, and Nick Birklid and Winlock's new Communications and Distance Learning Director, Megan Evander, in consult with a panel of community and school personnel, spent the summer aggressively planning, preparing and gearing up for returning to school in-person while also meeting the CDC's safety requirements. They were also simultaneously preparing for the potential pivot back to distance learning at any possible moment if a rise in cases of COVID-19 occurred. Unfortunately, that moment came before students could even step foot in the classroom.

The groundbreaking ceremony on Mickelsen Parkway was this past week. It is the beginning of something new but we can't talk about the Parkway without talking about the Mickelsen family. The Mickelsen family have been a part of Winlock for over 100 years and we are blessed to see a road named after them for all future generations to remember.