Commissioners address dike, other issues

Wahkiakum County commissioners addressed issues ranging from diking district work to Health and Human Services when they met Tuesday.

Darren Haupt, Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Conservation District manager, and Mike Linn, Diking District 5 commissioner, reported that the Department of Natural Resources has thrown a road block on their project that would repair drainage structure in the Skamokawa area.

The DNR's aquatic habitat restoration specialist has written the district to request that the district re-evaluate the project design to consider other alternatives, that include restoring more tidal and steam flow. The DNR also raised the issue that the district may have to pay for an aquatic lands lease for the equipment site, for the agency manages and leases the state's tidelands.

Haupt said the project is well off the historic channel which the DNR references. And if the tideland space is small, the district could pay and get the project done. But if the agency wants payment for all land covered by district dikes, the expense would be too much for the district.

Linn asked for and received commission approval to work with Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow on the issue.

In other business:

--The board approved a resolution and inter-local agreement with the Wahkiakum School District to loan the district $665,000 to help finance projects underway this summer.

Superintendent Bob Garrett said the loan would help the district manage cash flow. It would be repaid as soon as possible.

Treasurer Marlena Silva said the county would charge the interest rate paid by the state investment pool plus a half a percentage point. This is the rate set by the county for a similar loan to Wahkiakum PUD from the Treasurer's Investment Fund.

--The board approved an updated contract with the state Department of Developmental Disabilities for $13,446, a decline from the previously paid amount of $20,000. Mental Health Director Chris Holmes said the reduction was the result of state budget cuts. Each client will have a set limit of expense; previously, the county could use all the funds to serve all its developmentally disabled clients. However, he said, the department will have funds from other sources, including a tax enacted to support mental health services, so no clients should see a reduction in service.

--Interim Health and Human Services Director Sherri McDonald reported she had completed the evalutation of health and human services which the commissioners had requested. The document will be posted on the county's website.

The first priority, she said, is to find a new permanent director, and the department is now advertising for applications.

"I found I had three applications this morning," she said.

McDonald, Holmes, and county commissioners met in a work session with Dian Cooper of the Cowlitz Family Health Center to discuss how the county's health department and the health center could team up to provide a "health home" as described in the federal Health Care Reform Act.

However, they said, the US Supreme Court has heard a challenge of the act and could gut it in a ruling expected this morning (Thursday).

That could leave health officials in limbo, they said, for management efforts in the past few years have been directed toward creating health homes and cooperative health care.