Community Calendar: Lighted Tractor Parade; White Christmas at Evergreen Playhouse; Centralia Holiday Farmers Market

The Greater Toledo Community Library’s Valentine’s Day Book and Bake Sale will be held on Saturday, Feb. 11, and Tuesday, Feb. 14. Valentine’s Day cards will also be available for $1 to $2 each, many of them with Mary Engelbreit designs. Books are supplied by Friends of the Toledo Library and sweets are baked by volunteers.

Saturday was a great morning to plunge into Mayfield Lake for a good cause for dozens of area residents. The 2023 Special Olympics Polar Plunge was again hosted by the Lewis County Icicle Brigade. State Rep. Peter Abbarno and members of the Centralia Police Department led what has become an annual January tradition. All proceeds support Special Olympians in Lewis County. There’s still time to donate: https://impact.sowa.org/fundraiser/4310402.

Jester’s Auto Museum and Event Center was the location of the Lewis County Fire District 5 annual awards dinner on Jan. 21. The event was cosponsored by the Fire District 5 Firefighters Association and the district. Attendees were able to spend time viewing the impressive collection of automobiles prior...

Rainier Eye, set to open in June, may help those with trouble seeing — but, its owners’ vision for a community-owned and operated optometry clinic is clear. The clinic, located in Chehalis, will be co-owned by Drs. Mary Ferris and Angela Loeb, who previously worked as optometrists in Olympia.

The Chehalis Basin Local Action Non-Dam (LAND) Alternatives Steering Group held a workshop earlier this month at the Great Wolf Lodge to give basin residents a first look at four proposals that now require public input. The group was formed and funded through the Office of Chehalis Basin to look...

The Riverside Fire Authority (RFA) experienced a 17% increase in calls for service in 2022, with a total of 4,742 calls, surpassing the previous record of 4,404 calls in 2021, according to a news release. The growing population across northern Lewis County, including the city of Centralia, is attributed to...

A house fire near Capitol Forest that killed five members of the Cox family earlier this month spurred hundreds to attend a vigil at Tumwater High School Sunday evening. One organizer said they had brought enough food for 1,000 people, and nearly that many attended, almost filling the upper portion of the high school stadium that overlooks Sid Otton field.

Chronicle staffer Sarah Burdick captured these photos of semi-rare "hair ice," also known as ice wool or frost beard, during a walk near Napavine on Sunday morning. "Fungus shapes a strangely wondrous kind of ice called hair ice that is found only on rotting logs ... To see hair ice, one’s best chance is to hike into a broadleaf forest between the latitudes of between 45° and 55° N on a cold morning. There, amid patches of snow and frost, a keen eye might spot delicate crystals extending from wood in filaments about 0.01 millimeters thick — about the diameter of a human hair. But as soon as the sun rises, the fragile sculpture will melt away," Smithsonian Magazine wrote.

After 14 years working for the county, four-and-a-half of those in the big job, Lewis County Manager Erik Martin announced Tuesday morning he will be resigning from his position for a new opportunity in engineering. Around the end of March, Martin will take a job as director of Perteet Inc.’s...

• Fraudulent transactions out of a state retirement account were reported in the 700 block of North Tower Avenue at approximately 8:45 a.m. on Jan. 26. • A burglary to a vacant building in the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue was reported just after 8:50 a.m. on Jan. 26. Maintenance items were reported stolen.

Inside what Gov. Jay Inslee described as Washington’s first facility on a “new horizon of behavioral health treatment,” daylight warms the room despite it being a foggy, rainy Friday morning. Inslee and other officials gathered inside Maple Lane School’s newest building for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, celebrating what...

Olympia police on Monday arrested a 34-year-old man on suspicion of fourth degree assault with sexual motivation after he allegedly touched a 17-year-old girl inappropriately. The potential charge is a gross misdemeanor, Lt. Paul Lower said Tuesday. About 5 p.m. Monday, the girl exited an apartment in the 1800 block...

Toutle Lake: Swanson 29, Cox 15, Nicholson 10, Kimball 8, Younker 4, Fraidenburg 4, Webber 2, Moss 1. Onalaska: C. McGraw 10, Rushton 9, Russon 9, R. McGraw 8, Underhill 6, Lawrence 3, Mozingo 2, Conkey 2. The Onalaska boys basketball team came up short on senior night Tuesday, falling...

The Washington State Auditor’s Office has completed its inspection of the Lewis County commissioners in their role as the board of supervisors for the Chehalis River Basin Flood Control Zone District and gave them an exemplary audit, according to a county news release. Auditors looked at accounts payable, compliance...

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has referred Aron Christensen’s case back to the prosecutor’s office, The Chronicle confirmed Tuesday. The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office is in the process of reviewing the investigation material submitted by the sheriff’s office and will decide whether to file criminal charges related to Christensen’s death in the coming weeks.

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office is continuing an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a man found in Porter Creek near Elma last week. Gerald Eugene Beglinger, 53, is scheduled for an autopsy on Friday by the county coroner's office. "We're trying to backtrack and find the...

In another solid showing for the Twin City, the Mat Cats took third at the Lion’s Den Championships at Bethel High School in Spanaway on Sunday. TC had 184 points, and competed against 33 other teams in the tournament, finishing behind just Ford Dynasty and NWWWC of Bremerton. Title-winners...

At Columbia Adventist (Battle Ground) Mossyrock: K. Kolb 17, Young 16, M. Cooper 14, Isom 8, L. Cooper 7, E. Kolb 5. Columbia Ad.: C. Payne 19, Delaney 15, Log. Pierce 11, L. Pierce 4, M. Payne 1. The Mossyrock boys basketball team held serve Tuesday in 1B Columbia Valley...

Messina Occhino paged in the Washington state House of Representatives Jan. 16-20. The Chehalis Middle School student was sponsored by Rep. Ed Orcutt, of the 20th District. Messina was able to experience the Legislature in the second week of the 2023 legislative session. She assisted the Washington state House of Representatives with duties on the chamber floor, made deliveries throughout the campus and supported member offices. Messina also attended Page School to learn more about the legislative process.

After Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was beaten by several police officers in Memphis on Jan. 7 and died in a hospital three days later, body cam footage released in the days following revealed a gut-wrenching, aggressive attack. As Nichols’ death and the subsequent footage re-ignited conversations and protests...