Town, county continue library talks

Officials from the Town of Cathlamet and Wahkiakum County agreed Tuesday to continue discussions of the town's request for support of a temporary relocation of the Bradley Library to the Cathlamet Food Mart Building in Rosedale.

Commissioners Dan Cothren and Lisa Marsyla indicated they would consider contributing to rent payments, but they showed little support for the town's request to waive sewer connection fees for the mini-mall.

"Those are two separate issues," Cothren commented.

The town is looking for temporary quarters for the library, for a remodel of the town hall building is expected to start in September. A library advisory committee evaluated possible temporary quarters and recommended the empty spaces in the mini-mall because of their size and location.

The mall, however, isn't connected to the municipal sewer system, and officials worry that the building's septic system couldn't handle the load the library might place on the it.

The building is located near a sewer line that goes part way up Boege Road. Connection fees stand at $8,000 per unit, $5,000 for the town and $3,000 for the county, which helped finance construction with a $252,000 contribution. The mall has five units, so its connection fee would be $40,000.

On Monday, the town council voted to amend its Public Utilities Ordinance and lower connection fees to $100, but that won't be final until another hearing and vote in May. However, there were no changes in the portion of the ordinance pertaining to the Boege Road area.

Officials from the two boards will schedule a workshop meeting to discuss the issues further.

The county's environmental health inspector will analyze mall's sewer system and make a report.

Chris Weiler, an administrative assistant for the county health department said the inspector will look at the building's history and try to determine if it has the capacity to handle what the town is planning.

Commissioner Marsyla said she wanted to hear the inspector's report before voting on anything. "I'm willing to support the library beyond that," she said.

Cothren said he is willing to support rent.

"We could come up with $3,000," he said. "As for the sewer connection, I'm not willing to tie the contract into that. It (waiving the connection fee) would open up a big can of worms."

"I'm not for giving it away or for forgiving it, but we need to find a way to pay for it," said Commissioner Blair Brady.

The town and county entered an inter-local agreement in 2006 to construct a sewer main along SR 4 and part way up Boege Road. Officials hoped to get connections from a development planned along Skyline Golf Course and from the residences up Boege Road, Clover Street and the Cochran Addition.

However, the connection fee stood at $8,000, there was no interest in forming a local improvement district to construct a sewer main to residences up the hill from the end of the Boege Road line.

Mayor George Wehrfritz said the council's vote Monday to lower connection costs is an effort to get more people to connect to the sewer system and spread operating costs across more customers in order to lower customers' rates.

"At the town level, our objective is to make it as easy to connect as we can," he said.

Even if the town passed its amended its ordinance, the mall would have five units at $3,000 each for the county's connection repayment, a total of $15,000 plus $500 for the town under its new rates.

However, Wehrfritz indicated the 2006 inter-local agreement may prohibit the lowering of rates.

"They language may be that we can't adjust hook-up fees at all," Wehrfritz said.

"That's my understanding," Marsyla said. "I'm not trying to stop the process, but we need to be careful, and I'm trying to understand what the issues are."

Marsyla commented that the commission had received a memo from Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow stating that, according to the agreement, if the town changes fees, the town must pay the balance of all monies.

The agreement is to remain in effect until the county has received full recoupment of its $252,000 contribution.

The officials agreed that they would like to see sewer lines extend into the residential areas above Boege Road so that people could connect.

"Let's have a town hall meeting and talk about possibilities," Cothren said.

On Monday evening, Clover Street resident Gwen Gorley told the town council that her family and others would be interested in connecting to a sewer main in their area. Clay soil and sloping hillsides make it hard for traditional septic systems to function in the area.

"Since 1970, we've had nothing but problems with our septic system," she said.

Mayor Wehrfritz said officials are looking at contemporary programs to extend sewer systems into residential areas at the lowest costs possible.