Commissioners hear recap of Bradwood Landing funds

Wahkiakum Community Foundation Executive Director Karen Bertroch gave an educational program to county officials and candidates for office at Tuesday's meeting of the board of commissioners.

Last week, candidate Wayne Flohr had asked the commissioners for a recap of the history of Bradwood Landing's two annual donations of $100,000.

With all the candidates observing the meeting Tuesday, Bertroch took advantage to review the situation.

In 2006, Bradwood Landing, the proposed liquefied natural gas plant subsidiary of NorthernStar Natural Gas, said it would donate $100,000 a year to the community foundation while the plant is getting off the ground and $500,000 a year when it is built.

Bertroch said that she, as director of the foundation, asked for the money. She said she had learned the group might be ammenable to funding community projects, and she presented a list of projects that could be funded.

"The intent was to bring resources to the county that we do not have," she said.

NorthernStar pesonnel met and decided to make the annual gifts.

Bertroch said she set up a Bradwood Landing Fund in the foundation, which has a variety of other funds. A committee of people from Bradwood Landing and the local community review and decide applications. Bradwood Landing has a majority on the board, and they've said they want 60 percent to go to local emergency response organizations. Last year, they approved a request for a study of radio communications, and recently, they approved funding a study of emergency response needs related to the potential operation of an LNG receiving plant across the Columbia from Puget Island.

Bonnie Linquist, a member of the foundation board of directors, added that Bradwood Landing controls use of the fund. Other allocations have already gone to the Skamokawa Grange and the Skamokawa Fire Department.

County commissioners, Bertroch added, don't decide fund uses, and no money has gone to county entities.

In other business:

--Commissioners voted to authorize Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow to access funding to make a part-time employee full-time for the victim witness coordinator job. The position is entirely funded by state funds.

Commissioners Dan Cothren and George Trott had objected to the move, noting that they had had to cut funding for jobs in other offices. However, Cothren said he had accepted the concept and didn't want to jeopardize future state funding.

--The board briefly discussed a recent citizen request for requiring licensing or tagging of dogs. Bigelow said he would put together a possible ordinance for future consideration.

Commissoiners and Sheriff Dan Bardsley agreed that people need to be aware of the cost of enforcement.

--Commissioners reported they had toured state-managed county trust timberlands on Monday.

Commissioner Dan Cothren said a negotiating session is set for July 8 in the county's effort to trade land now considered habitat for endangered marbled murrelets. The land could produce $1.5 million a year for the county, if the timber on it were logged, Cothren said.

--Judy Bright, director of the county's Health and Human Services Department, urged the commissioners to lobby the legislature for increased funding.

Public health services in Washington are in trouble, she said, because state funding is inadequate to meet existing needs and programs.

Commissioner Blair Brady said he had been appointed to a lobbying committee of the Washington Association of Counties, and the group has already said funding for public health is a very high priority.