Town council OK's variety of ordinances

Cathlamet Town Council members on Monday covered a variety of new ordinances and wrestled with a request to lease the community center.

Community Integrated Health Service contacted the town about leasing the community center, which has been closed since last winter. The agency would use the facility for services to youth.

Council members said they were sympathetic to the agency's intention, but they felt the facility wouldn't meet the agency's needs, which included the need for a separate room for confidential consultations. The community center doesn't have a separate room.

At the request of Mayor David Olson, Council Member Jeanne Hendrickson would follow up to see how the town could cooperate with the agency.

Council members approved several ordinances and resolutions and also a proclamation from Mayor Olson.

The proclamation recognized Junteenth 2022 and Victoria Freeman, an African American woman who was one of the first residents of Longview. She broke the color barrier by enrolling her sons in Kessler Elementary School; she served the community as a nurse and charity organizer; she was Washington State Mother of the Year, and helped establish Clearview Park, which has been named Victoria Freeman Park. Council Member CeCelia Raglin is a great-granddaughter of Freeman, and the proclamation also thanked her for her service on the town council.

The council approved final readings of ordinances granting a franchise to Wahkiakum West to install fiber optic cable in Cathlamet and another amending the town's facility use policy. The council approved a first reading of another ordinance amending employee insurance benefits.

Three resolutions also received council approval. One set fees for the swimming pool, keeping the fees charged last year; a second approved the town's six-year transportation program, with construction of sidewalks and curbs along South Third Street, and the third citing a town ordinance and requiring abatement of weeds and high grass at

the site of the former nursing home on Alder Street.