Council takes no action on park food bank plan

The Cathlamet Town Council covered a lot of ground in a light meeting Monday night.

The council took no action on a proposal to site a food bank in Erickson Park; it tabled action on amendments to the town's zoning laws, and the council addressed a variety of other issues.

The council has held two workshop meetings in the past few weeks on a proposal to construct a building in Erickson Park for food bank use.

The county has three food banks. One has a distribution site in the county's Health and Human Services campus on Elochoman Valley Road, a second program has just started and is working out of St. Catherine Catholic Church, and a third rents quarters in the old River Rat Tap building at the foot of Broadway Street.

Operators of the second and third programs approached Mayor George Wehrfritz recently and asked if the town could lease town land near the Elochoman Slough Marina for a food bank, which they would construct. Wehrfritz said that area may be redeveloped once the town's wastewater treatment plant moves, and he suggested a site in the park.

When the topic came up on the agenda Tuesday, Wehrfritz called for a motion, and Council Member Dick Swart moved to allow construction of a food bank in the park. No second came, however, and Wehrfritz ruled that the motion was dead. Council members made no other motion, and the council moved to other business.

At the end of the meeting, Council Member Wally Wright started to comment that he wanted to support food banks, but none of his constituents had supported the park site proposal.

Wehrfritz commented that even if council members weren't going to vote for the proposal, they should have seconded the motion to allow discussion under rules of parliamentary procedure. The public would have known what they were thinking, and then they could have defeated the motion.

In other business:

--Swimming pool manager Duncan Cruikshank reported the pool was open for the summer season, and the council adopted a resolution setting fees for pool use.

--Consulting Engineer Ken Alexander reported that the wastewater treatment plant construction project was close to its schedule and that the contractor would bore a main under SR 4 this week. The 2nd Street paving project is proceeding, and new paving should be installed by mid-July.

--The council approved its updated Six Year Transportation Improvement Program. Projects on the program include downtown street lighting improvements, 2nd Street sidewalks and paving, Chester and 2nd Street improvements; improvements to Alder and South Second streets, improvements to South Third Street, and improvements to Columbia Street. No estimated project costs are given.

Council Member Bob Rendler wondered why Messinger Hill had been taken off the program; other council members responded that the council had added the street lighting and 2nd Street projects last year, which probably bumped Messinger Hill off the list.

--Consideration of an ordinance amending the towns zoning ordinance was on the agenda, but Wehrfritz asked that the item be taken off.

He asked for an executive session to discuss potential litigation regarding the ordinance.