Mayan Memers earn honors
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 months, 1 week AGO
The Royal Intermediate School Mayan Memers brought home a trophy from the First Lego League competition Saturday.
COURTESY PHOTO/POLLY CARLSON
A Royal Intermediate School student shows the Mayan Memers’ innovation project, a modular research station for archaeologists to use in remote areas of Mexico and Guatemala.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | January 28, 2026 12:50 AM
ROYAL CITY — The Mayan Memers, made up of fourth through sixth graders, won second place for core values – sportsmanship, teamwork and things like that – at the regional competition, then won at state for their innovation project. The students designed a self-sufficient modular research station equipped with LIDAR drones so local indigenous people in the Mexican and Guatemalan jungle can lead the research into their own history
“They built a Lego model of what the research station would look like,” said advisor Polly Carlson, who teaches the Highly Capable classes at RIS. “There's a building and then they've got some solar panels on a tower, so they'll be above the trees, and a backup generator.”
The students spoke with about 10 different experts to fine-tune their solutions, Carlson said.
“They talked to someone who lives here in Royal who built a greenhouse in Haiti,” she said. “He came and talked to them about challenges building buildings in third-world countries. And we talked to someone from the state Department of Natural Resources. They have some LIDAR experts (who) did a Google meet with the kids. So people have just been really generous with their time, being willing to talk to the kids.”
RIS had two other teams that competed at the regional level but didn’t advance on to state, Carlson wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. The Talking Trees won the Innovation Award at regionals for their project about an app to share the voices of Native American and other stakeholders for important historical and archaeological sites, and the Majestic Munching Moles designed a device to dispense mint oil to deter burrowing pests at archaeological dig sites.
Because she runs the district’s gifted program, Carlson has known some of the children since they were in first grade, she said.
“It's really fun to see them grow up, start as like these tiny, quiet little kids and then find their voice and find what their interests are,” she said.
Many of her students have older siblings on Piper’s team, who help her students with their projects, she said.
“(Polly) does the hard work for me,” Piper said. “She teaches them when they're younger, so they come up to me often knowing a lot of the framework of what the expectation is (and) we get to fine-tune it.”
A Royal Intermediate School student shows the Mayan Memers’ innovation project, a modular research station for archaeologists to use in remote areas of Mexico and Guatemala.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.