Commissioners work on capital project plan, other issues

Wahkiakum County Commissioners Blair Brady, Dan Cothren and Lisa worked on issues ranging from a capital projects plan to computer programming licensing fees when they met Tuesday.

The board met with county department heads to continue discussions on how to prioritize capital improvement projects that can be funded through the Capital Projects Fund. The fund gets revenue from a tax on real estate transactions; the funds can only be spent on public infrastructure projects.

After an hour of discussion, the group agreed to have to prioritizing groups. One would be county officials, who would prioritize county government projects; the other would be an advisory board that would solicit and evaluate proposals from other governmental entities such as port districts or the Town of Cathlamet.

Marsyla said she would lead the community advisory board and develop a form which could be used to evaluate the projects.

Commissioners and Assessor Sulema Zerr expressed dissatisfaction with news that the county would need to pay $32,000 for a license for a website mapping program to be used by the assessor, treasurer and other departments.

Zerr and commissioners agreed that they thought licensing fees were included in the contract they had negotiated with a computer technology consulting firm.

"The problem," Zerr said, "is that they're used to dealing with large counties which have multiple licenses. They didn't imagine that we would have only one and would need more."

The officials said they would meet with representatives of the firm to discuss the issue.

Commissioners also gave permission to construction firm Tapani Underground to close Steamboat Slough Road July 13- through August 31.

The firm will replace two culverts and tidegates, one at Duck Lake near the office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service on the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge for the Columbian White-tailed Deer, and the other 1.5 miles further down the road at Indian Jack Slough.

Commissioners insisted that the public be able to access the fishing area along the road, and Tapani officials said the closure wouldn't affect that access.