School board okays logging access plan

On Tuesday, Brandon Olsen approached the Wahkiakum School District Board of Directors to ask for permission for Olsen Logging and DeBriae Logging to use the access road on the school’s farm forest in order to log a nearby property.

“We talked to Mr. [Kyle] Hurley and figured out what needs to be done to keep the road safe for kids up there,” Olsen said, “which includes having a brushing machine clear both sides of the road so they have lots of room to walk. We’ll pay for that.

"We’ll leave the road in better shape than it was when we started. We’ll set firewood out for the FFA for fundraising.”

They hoped to begin next week, according to Olsen. He expected the project to take a month. He also said that they had a $2 million liability coverage, which he said was standard for contract loggers. He also promised to stay in contact with Hurley, the Vocational Ag teacher at Wahkiakum High School, to let him know when they would be working or hauling.

School Board Director Tina Schubert suggested that Olsen consider providing the school with a schedule, in order to allow Hurley and another teacher, Jeff Rooklidge an opportunity to know whether the logging might interfere with their plans to use the farm forest in their classes this fall.

Olsen agreed.

“All I want to make sure is that when Brandon leaves here tonight he has the same understanding that all of us do so that Brandon and I can put something in writing and we can sign it,” Superintendent Bob Garrett said.

After a lot of discussion, it was suggested that it may be a waste of resources to brush the road, if the teachers did not plan to use the farm forest the same days that the loggers would be working.

“If they don’t need the trails,” Schubert said, “maybe $1,000 coming to the school to be used by the FFA or another program would save more time and they could get logging sooner.”

The board did not want to set precedence and agreed to deal with such matters on a case to case basis.

A discussion about whether to re-key the K-8 classroom doors in order to allow teachers to secure their classrooms led to questions about who had keys and who had access to school district property, as well as whether the school needs a policy to deal with keys lost by staff.

The school had received a bid from Keys Plus Locksmiths from Longview, to have the K-8 class room doors re-keyed for $9,803.10 including tax. Two other locksmiths were contacted for a quote but did not show any interest. The school board approved the bid from Keys Plus Locksmith.

A Panic Alarm system for the school also went out for bids. The district attempted to acquire 12 bids but only received one bid in the amount of $18,856.90 from Synapse Technology LLC.

Board Member Shawn Merz expressed concerned about why the school district had received so few bids.

Garrett reported that enrollment for the month was 440.32, which was 10 more students than expected.

The board accepted resignations from middle school coaches Shelley Olsen and Cody Olsen and approved the hiring of Randy Nakonsky as the maintenance supervisor.

The next school board meeting is scheduled for October 20 at 5:30 p.m.