Commissioners work on varied business

Wahkiakum County commissioners handled a variety of business at their Tuesday meeting.

A proposal to sell a surplus excavator to county diking and flood control districts went back to the parties for a new proposal.

Consolidated Diking District No. 1 of Puget Island started the issue last winter by asking the county to sell the excavator to them at a reduced price, without going to bid, as state law allows.

Commissioner Blair Brady asked that an agreement be established that would let all the county's diking and flood control districts use the machine.

Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow and Auditor Diane Tischer had recently suggested the excavator be sold to Diking District No.1 with the provision that all districts be allowed to use it and that a fund be established for all diking districts to pay a share of maintenance costs.

Brady objected last week to one district owning the machine and asked to check with constituents about the agreement.

"That's not what we agreed to originally," Grays River Habitat Enhancement District Chair Delvin Fredrickson said Tuesday.

He suggested to the commissioners that he convene a meeting of the districts to go over the proposal again.

Bigelow commented that trying to make an arrangement in which all district were co-owners would be a paperwork nightmare, but he said he would work with the districts.

In other business, representatives of the Southwest Washington Agency on Aging reported on their work in Wahkiakum County.

Spokesman David Kelly said the agency channels funding from two basic sources into the county for programs for senior citizens.

Federal Medicaid funds go to case workers who coordinate services for the elderly with a goal of allowing them to remain in their homes as long as possible.

Funds from the federal Older Americans Act goes into nutrition and transportation programs.

Much of the services are provided in partnership with the Community Action Program (CAP), which is headquartered in Longview, he said.

Kelly added that Wahkiakum has one of the fastest growing, if not the fastest, portion of elderly population in the state. It is a challenge for counties, he said, to plan for the elderly, and the agency will undertake some major planning efforts next spring.

Puget Island resident Nikki Thomas, who is on the Agency on Aging advisory council, said county residents who are interested in issues involving the aging could attend an agency meeting September 16, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the River Street Meeting Room, Cathlamet.