Economy cutting county revenues

A variety of factors are combining to deal Wahkiakum County’s Current Expense Fund a $1 million revenue shortfall this year.

The fund covers basic courthouse services such as the sheriff’s department, jail, courts, auditor and so on. The County Road and Health and Human Services have separate revenue streams that are still in good shape, officials said Tuesday.

However, the officials are developing possible tactics for addressing the $1.1 million shortfall for Current Expense.

Treasurer Paula Holloway said three main factors have teamed to cut revenues:

1. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources mistakenly told county officials last fall that they would receive over $1 million from the Cougar Rose timber sale. However, a DNR accountant discovered in June that the sale belonged to a number of trust beneficiaries, not just the county. That means an immediate loss of $740,000 in revenue, she said.

2. Washington state and Wahkiakum County are joining the rest of the nation and experiencing a decline in real estate sales, and the county’s funding from the state share of the tax will be significantly lower.

3. Interest rates on investments are paying very low interest, Holloway said, and will probably be $200,000 short of what was predicted in the budget.

Members of the finance committee, Holloway, Auditor Diane Tischer and Commissioners Dan Cothren and Blair Brady, said they would come back next Tuesday, 8:30 a.m., with a list of possible spending cuts or new revenue sources.

They agreed that it would take more than reducing office hours a few days a week.

“There may be program cuts,” Brady said. “For the kind of money we’re talking about, it’s going to be a major operation.”

Officials also discussed borrowing and writing interest bearing warrants. Holloway said the declining cash on hand in Current Expense funds will make borrowing expensive because of high interest rates.

She said Current Expense could borrow from the Contingent Liability Fund, which is supposed to contain sufficient funds to cover pension and retirement costs, but she would prefer to leave the fund alone.

The officials also said they would look at possible taxes they could impose. They haven’t used them before, they said, because they generate little revenue, but if they’re going to look to the legislature or governor for help, they need to have spent the reserves and have levied all possible taxes.

Cothren said he had talked with DNR officials about small sales that could be put on the market quickly; it appears there might be $300,000 in revenue in this source, he said.

Discussions will continue at the board’s July 15 meeting, 8:30 a.m.

Land Trust proposes dike Mill Road project

by Rick Nelson

Columbia Land Trust has proposed rebuilding Mill Road south of Rosburg to turn it into a dike.

The land trust has purchased many parcels of land in the Grays River Valley, including a piece on the northeast side of Mill Road that has an old earthen dike.

The dike has failed the past few winters, land trust spokesperson Ian Sinks said, and allowed flooding on private property on the southeast side of the road.

The land trust parcel separates the road from the river, and the land trust would like to turn the road into a dike with road on top and open the old dike to allow their parcel to become year-round wetland, a major goal of the group.

Sinks on Tuesday asked Wahkiakum County Commissioners Blair Brady and Dan Cothren to give either approval or acknowledgment of the proposal for a funding application.

Delvin Fredrickson of the Grays River Habitat Enhancement District said that district’s board of directors had voted to approve the project.

Public Works Director Pete Ringen and Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow recommended the board withhold approval and just acknowledge the project. There are too many details yet to be engineered, Ringen said, for him to be comfortable in approving the project.

Instead, Brady and Cothren voted to acknowledge the project, and Sinks said he would continue with the application process and have the design engineers check with Ringen to make sure county concerns were addressed.

Raven Webb, who owns land across the Grays from the site, said the enhancement district’s projects on adjacent property had caused terrible flooding in her area and was destroying the community’s quality of life. She said she felt that the land trust’s ultimate goal was to force land owners such as herself to sell their properties. She suggested the county require a large bond from the land trust and its contractors.

Counties teaming

to monitor registered sex offenders

by Rick Nelson

Commissioners from Wahkiakum and Pacific counties this week voted to team up to fund a new full-time deputy to monitor registered sex offenders in the two counties.

Pacific County Sheriff John Didion will supervise the officer and program.

He said the funding comes from the legislature in response to a Pierce County incident in which an unmonitored offender committed further crimes upon release from jail.

The officer filling the new position will be able to meet with and track offenders, Didion said. The volume of calls deputies now deal with keep them from that kind of work, he said, but the new position will allow it to be done.

Wahkiakum County has 17 registered sex offenders, Sheriff Dan Bardsley reported. Of those, only one is level 3, thought to be the most like to re-offend; two are level 2, and 14 are level 1.

Pacific County has 89 registered sex offenders, Didion said. Of those, four are level three, 12 are level two, and 73 are level one.

County proceeding

with dog tag ordinance

by Rick Nelson

Wahkiakum County Commissioners Dan Cothren and Blair Brady this week asked Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow to continue with development of an ordinance requiring owners of dogs to put ownership and medical information tags on their dogs.

The officials stopped short of a requiring dog licenses; they and Sheriff Dan Bardsley have commented that would be expensive to enforce.

Instead, the draft ordinance which Bigelow presented Tuesday calls for dog tags with the owner’s name, address and phone number and also a tag stating the date of the dog’s rabies vaccination.

A violation of the ordinance could lead to fines and seizure of the dog.

Cothren and Brady agreed there should be a grace period before enforcement starts to allow dog owners a chance to get the rabies vaccination information in order.

The commissioners asked Bigelow to draft the ordinance after public outcry over damage cause by loose dogs earlier this year on Puget Island. Two stray black labs got into a chicken coop and killed approximately 100 chickens before the owner of the chickens shot them. Officers were unable to determine the owner of the untagged dogs.