Council hears reports on city hall, zoning law

The Cathlamet town council handled a wide variety of business when it reconvened its adjourned meeting last Monday. Items ranged from a report on the safety of city hall to recommendations to amend the town zoning ordinance.

Council Member Steve McNicholas and contractor Gregg Prestegard reported that the city hall needs structural reinforcement or it could eventually collapse.

Over the years, city personnel had removed a load bearing wall in order to accommodate large fire trucks when the hall served as a fire station. Now the roof and walls are starting to sag, they said.

Prestegard presented a plan to reinforce the building, but town Attorney Tom Doumit said the council should write specifications for the project and ask contractors on the small works roster for bids.

Other parts of the project would include insulating the city hall ceiling and installing a new heat pump.

Council members voted to contact consulting engineers Gray and Osborne., Inc., to develop the specifications and bid call.

--The council voted to allow the Wahkiakum Family Practice Clinic and Governance Board to pursue a proposal to hold longboarding races to raise funds for the clinic. Longboards are large skateboards roughly ranging from 36 to 60 inches in length.

Governance board spokesperson Sandi Benbrook Rieder said the races would include downhill and slalom races on the town hill and a push race on Puget Island. The downhill and slalom racers would start near Wahkiakum High School and come down Columbia Street.

The event would occur August 29 and 30, she said.

With council permission, organizers will contact Washington Department of Transportation and other agencies for their cooperation.

--The council voted to hold a public hearing on the proposed amended town zoning ordinance on June 3, 7 p.m. in the fire hall meeting room.

Planning commission Chair Fred Johnson said the commission had compared its 2008 draft with two other proposals and resubmitted its draft for council action.

In one of the main changes, the ordinance now has a single family residential zone classification, a multi-family residential zone, a mixed single and multi-family zone, a commercial zone and an industrial zone.

Existing uses are allowed to continue, Johnson said.

"This document maintains present policies," he said. "You can do residences in an industrial or commercial area."

Johnson said maps would be available to show proposed zones; and council members said they would make copies of the proposed ordinance available to the public, most likely on the town website.