Dredging underway along Island

They may not get everything they want, but Wahkaikum County officials and Puget Island residents on Tuesday expressed pleasure that the a dredge will beging dumping sand along eroding shorelines this week.

Commissioners, citizens and representatives of the US Army Corps discussed the project on Tuesday. Officials reported that because on East Sunny Sands hasn’t signed a right-of-entry permit, only two-thirds of the project will be done, but they felt that the work would address the severest erosion in the Pancake Point area.

Public Works Director Pete Ringen aos reported that the Corps hasn’t yet approved a permit for depositing spoils along Ohrberg’s Beach at the lower end of Ostervold Road because of a misunderstanding over a requirement for screening a dredge intake.

“We’ll continue talking with them this week,” said Commission Chair George Trott.

The commissioners handled a wide variety of other business at their Tuesday meeting including:

--Wahkiakum Family Practice Clinic Business Manager Kathy Patterson reported that the clinic did very well in Septmeber and posted the best quarter since the county purchased the clinic almost three years ago.

The three clinicians generated $98,000 in billable revenue despite one being gone a week for continuing education.

Clinic managers are focusing again on soliciting donations from patients to cover $220,000 in loans from Wahkiakum County. Patterson said the clinic received $2,500 in donations in the past three weeks to push the totalto $30,000.

--Puget Island residents Mike Lewis and Frans Eykel urged commissioners and other officials to be frank about negotiations with NorthernStar Natural Gas over a possible contract for the county to provide security for liquefied natural gas tankers headed to the proposed Bradwood Landing LNG plant.

County officials have said the county was negotiating with NorthernStar over costs and scope of equipment to address safety issues the plant operations might pose for the county, but Commissioner Dan Cothren last week revealed that the county also might contract to provide security for the tanker traffic.

Lewis said the contract could expose the county to big liabilities in the future.

“I would highly recommend that you suspend negotiations with NorthernStar and see when the plant goes in,” he said. “You’d be in a better negotiating position to deal with them.”

Commissioners responded that the negotiations are in preliminary stages. Trott, Sheriff Dan Bardsley and Undersheriff Jon Dearmore have toured two LNG facilities to learn about security operations.

“When we get an agreement ready, it will come to the board and the public,” Trott said.

Frans Eykel also urged the board to back off from signing any security agreement before the proposed plant’s future is settled in the permitting process and the courts.

“At this time, I formally request a public hearing with a 30-day comment period prior to signing of any contracts pertaining to NorthernStar,” he said.

--The board also held public hearings on the annual road construction program and six-year road program and followed with votes to adop them.

Projects for the 2009 year include construction of a new ferry terminal on Puget Island, repairing the AG Hanson Bridge over the Elochoman River, stabilizing a slide on the Altoona-Pillar Rock Road, replacing a culvert with a bridge at Clear Creek in the Elochoman Valley, paving portions of West Little Island, Beaver Creek, Elochoman Valey and North Welcome Slough roads, and improvements to Ingalls and the Covered Bridge roads.

--The board also rejected a claim for damages from Linda Bunce. She told commissioners that she followed crew directions to board the ferry Wahkiakum and her car was damaged when it scraped a ramp timber, sustaining an estimated $3,300 in damage.

Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow recommended the board reject the claim, saying it’s the driver who’s responsible. Bunce could then take the claim to Superior Court for a judge to decide.

The board voted to reject the claim, Bigelow offered to help Bunce collect documents for her appeal.