Commissioners okay storage space request from county clerk

Wahkiakum County commissioners had a quiet meeting Tuesday with a light agenda.

With Commissioner Dan Cothren absent and attending a meeting of the state Board of Natural Resources, Commissioners Blair Brady and Mike Backman approved a request from Clerk Kay Holland to purchase a portable storage container.

The container will come equipped with shelving, lighting and electricity connection, and will cost $6,907.92. The county will spend approximately $1,100 to set up the container near the courthouse.

In her written request, Holland said her office has no more storage space; she has six boxes of files under her desk.

"This box will more than hold all my extra files, and we should never outgrow it because we can shred very old files as new ones come in," Holland wrote.

The clerk's office offers an online divorce service which is well used, Brady said, and that has created the record storage problem.

"I think she's done a great job and is helping the county financially," he added.

Backman wondered if there might be cheaper containers available, but Brady pointed out that the supplier, Dry Box, Inc., of Chehalis, provides a container designed for record storage.

Meeting as the board of health, commissioners couldn't approve a request from Health and Human Services Director Sue Cameron.

She asked the board to approve a resolution supporting a state wide effort to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21 years.

Cameron said many other counties are supporting the effort which asks the legislature to change the legal age. Locally, the Wahkiakum Community Network has been working on the effort for a year, she said.

"I have a problem with this," Brady replied. "When they're 18, they're old enough to vote, old enough to shoot a gun and get shot at (in the military).

Brady said he opposes tobacco use, "but I don't believe it's right to restrict a person's rights. You can bring this back when Dan (Commissioner Cothren) is here, but I can't support it."

Backman wanted to support the resolution but understood Brady wouldn't second a motion to adopt it.

""We're trying to get it out of the hands of 18-year-old kids who are carrying it at school around younger kids," he said.

"If the state does something, that's fine," Brady said. "I can't support it at this time."