Commissioners handle varied issues

Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday handled a variety of business, including:

--Commissioners gave tentative authorization to Wahkiakum Mental Health to hire a full-time therapist to fill a vacant position. Mental Health Director Chris Holmes said a half-time therapist is leaving to take a job in Hawaii. Also, the department has left vacant since July, 2008, a full-time position. The department needs the full-time therapist, he said, and it has money in the budget to cover the position. Commissioners agreed they would fill the position but asked Holmes to supply an updated written explanation of how the positions are changing.

--Commissioner Lisa Marsyla reported that the US Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to deposit dredge spoils along Ostervold Beach. "They have all the permits and documents they need to proceed," she said, adding that the dredge that will work on the project will work on a problem area around Pillar Rock before coming to the Island. Part of the Ostervold project will be to refill a sand pit the county and Diking District No. 1 operate; another portion will be to deposit spoils on eroding shorelines.

--Commissioners reported that the Beaver Creek Road detour was working well. Commission Chair Dan Cothren said private landowners and the state Department of Natural Resources signed agreements last week to allow Beaver Creek Road residents and people working in that area to obtain permits from the county to use a privately owned bridge and road linking Elochoman Valley and Beaver Creek Roads. A contractor closed the A.G. Hanson Bridge last week to begin a three-month improvement project on the bridge.

--Commissioner Blair Brady reported that a contractor is making improvements to flood damaged Kandoll Road near Rosburg. Later, Public Works Director Pete Ringen explained that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had agreed to cover the cost of damage to Kandoll Road from the January flood event up to a little less than $7,000. "Ducks Unlimited was willing to have their contractor go back and restore Kandoll Road to the pre-January flood condition, and the county was willing to reimburse them for their costs, up to the extent we are reimbursed by FEMA, through Washington Emergency Management Division," Ringen said. "This work should be complete at this time."