County may sell seized farm

Wahkiakum County commissioners voted Tuesday to hold a public hearing on the sale of a Puget Island farm property seized from a Vancouver man convicted of drug charges.

The board also held a broad discussion with citizens urging commissioners to cut other county services before cutting the sheriff's department any more.

Officers seized the property on East Birnie Slough Road earlier this year. The owner was charged with manufacturing marijuana in Clark County; he pled guilty to diverting electricity around a meter in Wahkiakum County.

The property consists of approximately six acres, a house and a large shop and barn.

Sheriff Jon Dearmore urged the board to move quickly to sell the property this year. It's appraised at $248,000, he said, and it may take some time before the property sells because of the soft real estate market.

Commissioners Dan Cothren and Blair Brady were split on how to dispose of the house (Commissioners Lisa Marsyla was on vacation and was excused from the meeting Tuesday).

Cothren said he didn't want the county to spend on maintenance of the house and that he wanted to see the property back on the tax roll.

Brady said he didn't want to dispose of the property until it had been evaluated as a possible site for a housing project for low income families.

The property wouldn't be suitable for a housing project, said Chris Holmes, director of Wahkiakum Human Services and a member of the committee exploring the housing project. Holmes said he had inspected the buildings and conferred with a Longview Housing Authority official.

"The property is pretty much out of the way for a public housing site," he said. "We probably wouldn't be able to use the existing house for public housing.

"It's also in the 500 year flood plain, so there's a question of whether or not it's eligible for state and federal housing funds."

"So it doesn't meet our needs," Brady said.

"It would be a bit of a stretch," Holmes said. He added that he would review the matter with the housing committee and attend the hearing on January 24, 11 a.m., to comment on the matter.

Two county residents presented the board letters asking them to maintain funding for the sheriff's and county road departments, cutting other departments if necessary.

Nick Nikkila, Deep River, said about 20 members of the American Legion had discussed the matter and written one letter. They said they understood the county was taking money from the road department and had cut the number of deputy sheriff's so that there isn't 24 hour coverage by deputies.

Mike Mouliot, Cathlamet, presented a similar letter.

Commissioners Brady and Cothren welcomed the comments and tried to explain what they've done. In response to a revenue shortfall spotted several years ago, they ordered departments to cut spending in amounts that required cuts in staff. The sheriff's office hasn't had 24-hour coverage seven days a week for several years, they said.

They have diverted money from the County Road levy to the Current Expense Fund for 2011 and 2012, they said, to cover Current Expense Fund revenue shortages. So far, the road department has had sufficient funds for maintenance and construction, they said.

"There is no moratorium on road maintenance," Brady said.

Commissioners are working with state officials to increase revenue from state managed county timber trusts as a way to increase revenue.

"We have been in a deficit budget for three years," Brady said. "We can't sustain that."

"I don't think we want to go down that road (cutting other departments to support the sheriff and road departments) now," Cothren said.

Dearmore commented that deputies have been able to cover for each other as needed and that he's seeing signs of fatigue among them, but so far "We have had very few citizen complaints about service."

"We take this very seriously," Cothren said. "We're in close contact with the sheriff, and we make decisions a lot of the time based on what they tell us."