Westenders host commissioners visit

The Wahkiakum County Commissioners traveled to Johnson Park in Rosburg Sept. 21 to talk with Westend residents about a myriad of issues, including the junk ordinance, timber revenue and budgets.

One Westend resident asked about the junk ordinance, noting that changes weren’t coming quickly.

“It has been real slow,” Commissioner Dan Cothren admitted. “The Health Department gets the complaints, and they are supposed to follow through. There are some bad spots, and it’s going to take awhile.

"But then you look at the costs. Some of the people that have accumulated all this stuff can’t afford to get rid of it and there’s no money in metal right now. The county doesn’t want to pay for it either, we can’t afford it.”

“Unfortunately some places that were making progress have reverted,” Commissioner Blair Brady added.

Altoona resident Peter McGuire thanked the commissioners for their work on the junk ordinance.

“A miracle has happened at Crooked Creek,” he said. “All those junk cars and camper vans that have been there for God knows how many years are being moved.”

Cothren shared his thoughts on timber, a natural resource that the county relies on for revenue.

“If we don’t have timber, folks, we don’t survive as a county,” Cothren said. We really strive to make sure our resource is being utilized to the fullest. It’s been threatened a few times, if the county can’t survive, it will be taken over by another county. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be urbanized. I want to stay rural. That’s the goal of the board to find the avenues to do that. The fight will continue.”

He reported that the commissioners were trying to swap their encumbered land with common schools, which has land free of spotted owls and marbled murrelets. According to Cothren, it would be a win-win situation for both parties.

“It might not happen at the next legislative session,” Cothren said, “but the seed has been planted. We have a new land commissioner coming on and a new superintendent of public schools so I kind of got the rug pulled out from underneath me.”

“We have to build our timber base,” Cothren said. “We’re basically flatlined. We’ve got to get back to where we are bringing in $1.5 to 1.6 million just to stay status. Right now we’re bringing in $900,000 per year. That doesn’t cut it. We’re having to tap into the road fund to survive.”

When a resident asked if the commissioners were trying to purchase land, Brady reported that investors had been driving up the price to the point where the county couldn’t compete.

“That’s why were looking at the land exchange,” Cothren said.

Shonda Ware, a member of the Johnson Park Board reported that ECEAP (Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program) had been instituted at the Rosburg school and asked commissioners if they could have signs posted to slow drivers and alert them that children were on site and sometimes playing outside.

Commissioner Blair Brady suggested adding speed bumps to further slow drivers.

Another member of the board, Kimberly DeJesus asked for an update on the bathroom remodel at Johnson Park. The bathrooms will need to be ADA accessible.

“It is financially defunct at this point,” Brady said. “Every bid we’ve gotten in has come in so far out of line from the money that is available. We’ve put the project out to bid two or three times. They’ve come in 50 percent above the funds available. It may be a minimal requirements adjustment instead of the Taj Mahal.”

McGuire had a concern about a point on Altoona-Pillar Rock Road. He shared a recent experience on a blind curve on a one lane section of the road where he said he and his wife were nearly “punted over the cliff” by another driver who came speeding around the corner.

McGuire suggested that drivers honk their horn as they approach the curve, or an installation of speed bumps.

Grays River resident Mike Whalen asked about the slide on Covered Bridge Road.

According to Brady, designs to repair the road were in, but commissioners were waiting for funding from FEMA.

Whalen asked if it would be fixed this year.

“They told us it would be, but I don’t see it,” Brady said. “If the money is not there, it’s not going to get done this year.”