All posts by CVHA Board

Criminal Apprehended

Recently a potentially dangerous criminal was taken into custody in OUR neighborhood.   Read below for information,  Please be aware of what is going on in the area and report any suspicious activity.

Fyi

———- Forwarded message ——— From: Christopher Hurst <chrishurst2000@gmail.com> Date: Tue, Jan 14, 2020, 6:44 pm To: Smith, Tyler D -FS <tyler.d.smith@usda.gov>, Griffin, James V -FS <JVGriffin@fs.fed.us> Cc: McNeil, Brian -FS <brian.mcneil@usda.gov>, Coughlin, Mary -FS <mary.coughlin@usda.gov>, Schmutz, Todd – FS <todd.schmutz@usda.gov>, Schramm, Martie -FS <martie.schramm@usda.gov>

Tyler & James,

Today at about 1PM Pierce County Deputies arrested a violent fugitive on a warrant on the 70 Road at the Winnebago that we reported to you earlier.  He was in the Chevy Colbalt when he was arrested, the one that built the camp on 28 Mile Creek that we sent you the photos of on a number of occasions.  He is one of the guys from that camp, the Winnebago and the pop-up tent trailer and White Jeep.  They are all part of the same criminal organization.

The community was apprised that a violent fugitive was in Greenwater and we had the attached photo of him that was passed around.  This information came from a Detective with a bail firm who hunts fugitives.  We just got the picture yesterday.  He is part of the group of criminals who operate out of the places we have already reported to the USFS on a number of occasions.  We also believe that they are the ones who burglarized the USFS property on the 73 Road.

This morning, Jake, the caretaker from CRR, said that he saw the guy on the 70 Road yesterday when he was driving around.  I went up the 70 this morning like I usually do to check the signs and saw him coming from the Winnebago, which has been parked there for at least 2 months at the second 7013 pull off (and was parked on the 7030 for most of the summer) and walking to the Chevy Colbalt which was parked at the 7013 across from the gate.  I went to the Greenwater Store and had them call Pierce County who sent 4 officers in multiple vehicles up to arrest him.  They came quickly and took him into custody.  The woman who I sent you guys a photo of at the encampment fled into the woods.  I am not sure if they caught her or not.

I talked to the bail guy who told me that this guy (Jeremy Olson) is extremely violent and has spent 20 years in prison for Murder in the Second Degree.  They arrested him on Burglary, Drug and Assault Charges today.  Evidently he has also assaulted government agents and is considered to be extremely dangerous.

We have sent many emails and photos of these guys for quite a while now and we understand that it takes time to make a case.  We very much appreciate all of the USFS folks who work up here and how they help our community and the forests, and we also know how stretched thin you guys are having to cover so much territory.

But here is my concern:

Just yesterday Brian and Mary of the USFS went on a tour up the 70 Road in uniform and in a USFS vehicle.  Had they come across this guy, and for any reason, come in contact with him, they are not armed and might have been assaulted or killed by him.  The same could have happened to Cody or Cameron or any other person wearing a uniform.

The Winnebago, the Chevy Colbalt, the Chevy truck and the White Jeep are all connected and they have also been committing significant crimes of cutting many trees and building the camp on 28 Mile Creek, not to mention the burglaries in the greater Greenwater Community and very likely the theft from the USFS.  They have been living up here in the woods illegally for many months.  When we have cleaned up their areas, as reported previously, there is much evidence of drugs and possibly stolen property.  Some of it is still at the encampment at the 28 Mile area that seems to have now been abandoned for the winter.  However the Winnebago is still there and it houses convicted murders and fugitives from the law.  This is putting our entire community at risk, not to mention the rest of the public who use the forests in the winter for recreation and also the USFS employees who might come in contact with one of these people and get injured or killed.

We really hope you can remove the illegal campers and tow these vehicles somewhere out of the forest and charge the suspects so they might not come back and commit more crimes and put forest users at risk.  I think we are lucky that no one got hurt up here and 7 months is too long for them to have been here in the first place.

 

 

CVHA Hazard Mitigation Plan Update

Our current FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan is expiring in July of 2020.  I have attended two Pierce County Emergency Management meetings that address updating the current plan by December 31st of this year.

The plan itself allows us to apply for grants to reduce hazard threats to the CVHA water system and will expedite FEMA funding if our system is damaged by any o f the 13 of 16 hazards identified  under the plan.  A 17th hazard will be added during this update, that hazard is Wildland Fire.

Our plan is one of the smallest and I do not anticipate any difficulty with the  update .  The CVHA water system is our only asset.

A  special thank you to former CVHA president Dee Patterson who completed the plan we are now operating  under.

 

G. Castellane for the CVHA Board of Directors.

Upper White River Migration Study Update

I talked to project manager Angela Angove and she informed me that the new website for this project will be active in the next 1-3 weeks. I will receive and provide the link to all CVHA river front homeowners and any other interested parties. She is also sending CVHA some brochures that have some basic information that I will distribute.
Not much has changed on the timeline, field work to start in June or July of this year and results not expected until years end or early in 2020.
The website will have contact information whereby homeowners can directly contact Pierce County for questions or concerns.

Mail Theft

Person or persons unknown rifled through the mailboxes in CV1. This occurred between 4 p.m and about 7 a.m. the next day, the only mail that could have been taken is from those who did not pick up their mail the previous day. This is a reminder to stay vigilant of unknown cars and people around the mailboxes and to make sure to pick up our mail each day.

G.Castellane for the CVHA BOD

Elk is OK

A homeowner found the damaged cage on their property. The elk was able to remove the cage and will be ok. The story is rather interesting, having to do with a rabbit in a cage, a carrot and a hungry elk. The only down side is the rabbit suffered a leg injury during the encounter.
g.castellane

Elk Needs Assistance

Today, October 10th between 9 and 10 a.m. a cow elk was seen at the east cul-de-sac of Crystal Village 1, Crystal Dr. E. This elk had a galvanized metal trap of some kind completely over her head. I called Washington State Fish and Wildlife and they will come out and assist her but they need the location. The elk appeared distressed and was moving towards the Forest Service compound or up the power line road. Unless she can remove this trap or have it removed she will likely perish from lack of water. A cursory search was made at the FS compound road and up the power line road with no results. If you see this elk note the time, place, location, direction of movement and the elks condition. You can either call my cell phone 253-736-4657 or fish and wildlife direct at 360-249-4628. Thanks to Gail Sowers for noticing and reporting this situation.

g.castellane

Mail Theft in CRR

A theft of mail occurred in Crystal River Ranch. The vehicle description is a black BMW hatchback, if you notice this vehicle around the mailboxes or cruising through the area, try to get a license number and description of occupants. Call 911 or Jake in the Ranch at 253-797-3145. This vehicle was seen near the mailboxes in CV1 sometime during the week of August 20-25th.
In addition to the above a break in occurred in CVHA with the theft of some tools and the FS summer home tracts have seen some thefts also.
This is a reminder to all CVHA homeowners to be vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to 911.

PSE and Wrong Creek Fire

The PSE project is progressing on a haphazard basis. The crew installing the poles are on call for emergencies along with our pole installation. They were called off our project to go to Kent for a transformer issue last week. With the heat and air conditioning use the grid is having problems, which is impacting the project. They also have a schedule of which poles to work on..when they returned they went to the Ranch to work. Anyway we expect them to complete our portion as soon as they can, I watched the Vac truck work and talked to the operator who assured me that there is little chance of them damaging our water main, which is good news. They removed the cottonwood tree in the commons when they placed the new poles there….

Wrong Creek Fire (initially Jim Creek Fire). Located on the 74 road across the washed out bridge on the West Fork of the White River. While returning from Enumclaw Saturday this fire put up an active smoke plume that was visible from Mud Mountain Flats. This was about 11:00 AM, at 2:30 PM I viewed the fire from the Lonesome Lake Road (Rd 7130). I met with the Field Observer who was monitoring the fire and gathered what information I could about probable cause, start date, strategies employed to date with results and the current status (Full Suppression). The fire will take boots on the ground for full suppression and most resources are committed to other fires, all the type 1 Hotshot crews are committed as of today. However, a type 3 Incident Management Team arrived today (Sunday) and are stationed at the Greenwater Fire Station. They will begin to gather necessary resources for putting the fire out. I am sure they will have an Information Board on site where fire status information will be available. The fire poses no threat to CVHA and there is no weather or other information that would change this for seven days. As always our Fire Chief Paul Sowers will be looking out for our best interests.

GCastellane for the CVHA Board of Directors.

PSE Project

PSE has decided to start the Power Pole project in CVHA. The latest timetable has Potelco preparing poles for removal and installation this week, with the actual removal/installation to begin next Monday the 23rd.
The only reason water service may be interrupted is if a break occurs during this phase of the project.
Since we must have the main charged to identify any problems we will have personnel on standby in case an issue develops. If a break occurs we will coordinate with Potelco and PSE to get the water service restored as soon as possible and inform affected homeowners of an estimated restore time.
There may also be some intermittent power outages as transformers and etc. are moved from the old to the new poles, these should be of short duration.
Most of these possible outages should be limited to CV1.

GCastellane for the CVHA Board of Directors.