Council approves poroposal to end Glengate moratorium

The Cathlamet Town Council met in special meetings Tuesday to address three issues.

First, the council approved a proposal to end a moratorium on new building permits for the Glengate addition.

The council adopted the moratorium last year when it appeared the developer and home owners association weren't working together and weren't completing required road construction.

On Tuesday, Donal McIntosh, representing the developer, said the association had met and come up with a plan to accomplish the work. They proposed setting up an account with the town for $20,000 to go toward paving.

Councilmember David Goodroe cautioned that putting the money in a town account would make the paving a public works project, and private persons or groups could do the work cheaper than a municipality.

After discussion, the group agreed that the association would set up an escrow account with funds dedicated to paving coming from the sale of the first house from the unfinished portion of the development.

Second, the council approved a request from Sheriff Jon Dearmore to transfer an emergency services grant from the town to the county. The transfer will allow the county to hire an emergency services coordinator, he said.

The county once had a coordinator, but the position was eliminated in budget reductions a few years ago, and the sheriff's office was given responsibility for emergency management work.

"We, quite honestly, aren't doing the job as well as we should," Dearmore said. "It's a funding issue, so many things aren't getting done."

Beau Renfro, a captain in the Cathlamet Fire Department, has been the town's coordinator, working on a project in conjunction with sheriff's and county fire departments to upgrade the emergency radio communication system. His contract ends at the end of September.

After discussion, council members voted to pass the grant authority to the county and sheriff's department. They also voted to extend Renfro's contract one month to complete project accounting.

Third, the council approved a recommendation from Renfro and the town Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to purchase three mechanized ambulance cots at a cost of $37,000.

The EMS contracts with American Medical Response of Longview for cooperative response and transportation. AMR is switching nationwide to cots made by Stryker Corporation, and the department by contract needs to use the same cots that AMR uses.

Renfro added that AMR had just recently announced the switch and that a decision was needed by the end of the week to qualify for a $2,400 savings.

The council first agreed that normal purchase policies could be waived because there was only one source of the cots. Next, the council voted to authorize Renfro to place the order for the cots.