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I’ve owned a 1993 Honda Trail 70 for years. Although it is street legal, it has seen very few miles actually on the street.
But I have always kept it licensed for those moments when I’d humble myself by putting my rather large frame onto this mini motorcycle and ride down a country road for a few minutes.
A series of events let the license tabs lapse in 2021 since I wasn’t riding it at all.
But just a couple weeks ago, I renewed the tabs. I grabbed the expired registration and went in to renew them, noticing that it was a reasonable $30 back then.
I had some cash, and I expected the cost to go up some, but I was shocked by how much. I could spend about $78 for a year or a one-time fee of around $144 for a collectable plate.
How did this tiny bike get so expensive to license in just a few years?
Remember the $30 car tabs we voted for all those years ago because our tabs were outrageous? I do, but I also recall how Olympia fought us on it. I understand how a mini motorcycle could harm the roads with a chubby old guy like me on it, but really — $78 worth?
Meanwhile, gas taxes continue to go up and tabs get more expensive, allegedly to improve the roads. But their condition continues to be poor with frequent pot holes.
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Once again, Green Hill School is in the news — this time not with some juicy sex scandal or drug smuggling. Nothing sexy like that. Rather, it was safety violations after an inspection by the state Department of Labor and Industries (L&I).
According to a recent news article in The Chronicle, the prison masquerading as a school was cited after complaints about staff exposure to health hazards.
One violation deemed “serious” reported a complaint that the employer, the Department of Children, Youth and Families, was residents (inmates) “did not ensure exposure evaluations were conducted to determine or reasonably estimate employee exposure to smoke.”
Further, it noted that residents smoke unknown contraband and light unknown items on fire, causing employees to experience symptoms of exposure.
It goes on to determine that the employer didn’t test to determine how much fine particulate matter might exist and that exposure could lead to “serious injuries involving permanent disability, death or chronic irreversible illness.”
And this determination and citation by L&I led to a fine, which of course will be paid for by taxpayers.
But here is what I read in the article about the complaint: Inmates somehow have access to matches and stuff to burn, but they aren’t supposed to. So how can that be? Smoking in state facilities isn’t allowed. I’m pretty certain lighters and matches aren’t either. So are the inmates rubbing sticks together or is security policy a mess?
I’m going with the security is a mess.
But this is endemic to our state government’s performance across the board. They just had a legislative session where they proposed all manner of things to do to fix issues at Green Hill. They of course have done poorly.
So something as basic as contraband in Green Hill isn’t, can’t or won’t be addressed by those responsible to address it. It seems to me that smoke in this place is serious and someone should fix this — but who?
In my view, at least part of the problem is in the name of the agency in charge of this place: the Department of Children, Youth and Families. There are no children in Green Hill, so why on earth isn’t this place run like a prison? Actual children or youth needing to be housed shouldn’t be in a place like this with grown men with serious criminal and behavior issues. And while there may be exceptions, many if not most of the Green Hill crowd are pretty seasoned criminal types.
We don’t hear about this nonsense in the county juvenile system — maybe because they in fact house juveniles and manage them better.
And I’ve not heard of this nonsense occurring in the county jail, either. Maybe there is something to the idea of housing actual juveniles and adults separately.
The common thread here is Olympia and foolish policy. Maybe they could fix what’s broken before moving on to other things they can’t do well.
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.
