Commissioners OK lease, pool funding; address sewer plan

Wahkiakum County Commissioners took care of business and discussed the sewer at their November 22 meeting.

They approved a cooperative funding agreement with the Town of Cathlamet to provide up to $50,000 in 2017 to assist with the operational and maintenance costs of the pool, a renewal of their agreement from last year.

Commissioners also approved a lease agreement with Cowlitz Family Health Center for the clinic building. CFHC will lease the space for $200 a month, a 400 percent increase over the terms agreed to in 2010. According to the old lease, CFHC would pay $5 each month until they recovered expenses. The new lease will last two years, beginning January 1, 2017.

“I’m surprised that we don’t have to pay them $200 a month,” Commissioner Blair Brady said.

Commissioners agreed to add $13,227 to the current Marine Resources Committee contract with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The money will help the MRC complete two more projects.

“The Marine Resource group has done a fantastic job of bringing grants and funds into the county,” Brady said, “and the projects. The kids are involved. It’s really great.”

Commissioners approved the renewal of a contract between Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services and Housing Opportunities of Southwest Washington. The contract will last 10 years and allow Longview Housing to provide $13-15,000 in subsidies to pay for maintenance for the rental units in the River Street building. The cost to the county is zero dollars.

Chris Weiler, the former deputy director of Wahkiakum County Health and Human Services has made himself available to train his replacement as well as prepare the annual end of year report. Sue Cameron, the director of WCHHS asked that commissioners approve an extension of the training period for the new deputy director through the month of December.

“We’re not paying him salary anymore, but we have the money for it,” Cameron said of Weiler.

Commissioner Mike Backman noted that the new deputy director was doing well.

“Do you feel it’s needed or do you just see money and want to spend it?” Backman asked.

“Not all of our billings are done on a regular monthly basis, so he hasn’t even experienced the full cycle yet,” Chris Holmes responded. “This is one of the things that I don’t think a lot of people understand. In terms of operations in this kind of environment, things have become so complex, and when we have staff like Chris Weiler who was here for about 10 years there is that institutional knowledge. Just walking in and having a week or two weeks to say, here’s your job, take over, doesn’t work.”

The commissioners voted to extend training through the month of December.

Commissioner Dan Cothren said that he would like to write a letter to the federal congress and senate on the endangered act and how it has affected the counties.

“I’ve brought this up many times, but I think it needs to be in letter form,” Cothren said. “They have an obligation too, it’s their endangered species act.”

“I would like to see included in that letter that there is no process for when the bird is gone to restore our lands to us,” Brady said of the marbled murrelet.

As for a possible committee to deal with the Town of Cathlamet's sewer issues, Cothren isn’t interested.

“I feel that the county has done their course of doing expansion,” Cothren said. “I think the PUD has had some input into this thing, they want to do that. If they want to help take that over, I think that is their obligation. I realize it is my district, but I think it would be fruitless to try to work with the town and maybe another entity that is going to be there.”

He asked if there was another member of the board that might be interested.

“I’m trying to get the betterment of the community but I’m not going to take the slam and keep taking the slam for that anymore,” Cothren said. “Just being up front. My thing is I think the county already did what they needed to do and I feel the city has an obligation to figure out what they need to do and PUD has stepped up to the plate to do that. I wish them all the best of luck.”

Backman said he was interested and would report on what was going on. Brady said he would go when needed as well.

“We do have a history on this,” Brady said. “I’m glad they are willing to come to a table and have more discussions, it’s not a bad thing. In the past, they were not receptive to the ideas that the county presented in order to take the onus off the new connections. We presented a few alternatives for the county to recoup the funds they loaned the city without it being a huge number for every hookup. They could have added a small amount to every bill until it paid off but they were not receptive.”

“I’m open to hear what they have,” Brady added. “But I’m afraid what they are going to want is something I will probably not support. I think they may be wanting the county to require people to hook up to the sewer that are not in the town. I don’t support that.”

Commissioners will hold a public meeting at 10:30 a.m. on December 13 to consider a supplemental appropriation resolution for the 2016 budget with the intention to allocate unanticipated revenue to line items like public health, mental health, transit, current expenses and more.