Officials review draft H&HS analysis

Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday came to agreement on temporary quarters for the Cathlamet municipal library.

Commissioners also agreed to approve a franchise for Cascade Networks to use its road rights-of-way for installing of fiber optic communication lines, but they expressed disagreement on whether or not to lower their portion of the fee for connecting to a town sewer line going up Boege Road.

Finally, Building and Planning Department Director Chuck Beyer announced that GIS Specialist Dave Dixon had compiled an atlas of the county on letter size sheets. It can be purchased from the Building and Planning Department, or downloaded from the department's website, http://www.co.wahkiakum.wa.us/depts/pw/building.htm, under the GIS Map Library heading.

Commissioners voted to allow the Town of Cathlamet to move its municipal library into the River Street Meeting Room this fall while the library building is remodeled.

Commissioner Lisa Marsyla said she had gone over use requirements for the River Street Room and felt the county could accommodate the temporary relocation of the library.

Meetings and training sessions normally scheduled in the room can be relocated to other meeting rooms, she said, and county Emergency Services would have the right to take over the room, which is the county's Emergency Operations Center, in case of an emergency.

"While it's not the ideal solution, it's the best we have," she said.

Commissioners Blair Brady and Dan Cothren suggested that county Emergency Management Director Beau Renfro be part of the group that lays out the library floor plan for the room, and Mayor George Wehrfritz agreed.

If all goes according to plan, Wehrfritz said, the project should be ready to start construction in Septbember and be completed by the end of the year.

In other action, Commissioners Brady and Marsyla said they wanted more information before agreeing to Cothren's suggestion that the county lower its $3,000 fee for connecting to the Boege Road sewer line.

The county helped the town fund construction of the line up SR 4 to Boege Road with the idea that a new development at the golf course would connect and that local businesses and residents would connect. That area of Rosedale has lots of clay soil, and septic systems are problematic.

However, with the recesssion affecting the economy, no one has connected.

The town council recently voted to lower its connection fee to $500. However, it left the county's $3,000 fee, designed to repay the county's investment in the line, in place.

Cothren suggested Tuesday lowering the county's fee to $500.

"I've had several phone calls recently from people wanting to connect, but the fee is too high," he said.

Installing a new septic system would cost more than $3,000, Brady said, so that fee isn't unreasonable.

"I object to calling it a fee," he said. "It's a loan repayment."

Cothren responded that with a lower fee, more people would be interested in connecting, which would be good for the system, and the people could form a local improvement district (LID) to extend the line through the upper Rosedale area.

"We'd get some movement to form an LID," he said.

Marsyla doubted that a $500 fee would ever get the county's loan repaid.

She asked that the county host a meeting of town officials, Rosedale residents and any interested parties to discuss the fees and an LID.

Commissioners agreed to try to get that gathering together at their meeting on June 19.

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