Local News

Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday named the county’s newest bridge that is yet to be built—the Crown Camp Bridge.
Public Works Director Pete Ringen said the name was needed for reference as plans progress to build the bridge where Duck Creek runs through Crown Camp Road.
The county has been working for two years to get the bridge built; the project originally started as a replacement of a culvert that was a barrier to anadromous fish passage, but the culvert and road washed out in last winter’s storms, forcing several families to rely on a logging road detour to reach their homes.
The project now awaits approval of a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife hydraulics permit, Ringen said. As soon as the permit is received, Ringen will begin preparing the project to go to bid.
WDFW biologists have recommended several changes in the design, Ringen told Commissioners George Trott, Dan Cothren and Tom Doumit on Tuesday.
“After seeing the devastation (at the washout), it’s hard to be patient with the detail they are asking for,” Ringen commented.
“This is major work,” Trott said, after reviewing a description of how the biologist wanted the stream channel to run.

In other business Tuesday:
—Commissioners will consider next Tuesday if they want to follow through on the traditional free dump day the county offers county residents.
For over a decade, the county has allowed residents to dump one load of refuse free of charge each year. The tradition started as part of Earthday community cleaning; when its popularity grew so that there were long lines and congestion at the KM Transfer station, the board began sending coupons to residents to allow them to dump any time in the year following their receipt of a coupon.
However, the board is concerned that they face at least two years of low revenues and they’re looking for ways to reduce costs.
“It costs us about $18,000 in tipping fees,” Trott said.
Commissioner Cothren suggested the board could go ahead this year as revenues and expenses are going as predicted.
“Yeah, but if we have to make up a $250,000 shortfall at the clinic (see separate story in this edition), we need to think ahead,” Doumit said.
After discussion, the board asked Ringen to provide more detail about program costs for consideration at their May 1 meeting.
—Ringen reported he had received a letter from Grays River resident Bob Pyle asking that the roadside herbicide spraying program be cut back to an absolute minimum.
He reminded the board that he had presented a proposed spraying policy for consideration a year ago, and the board hadn’t acted on it.
“I need to take my guidance in policy matters from you three gentlemen,” Ringen said.
Commissioners said they would get to work on the policy, and they felt that the roadside spraying program is a safe, cost effective practice.
—Wahkiakum County Sheriff Dan Bardsley and Pacific County Sheriff John Diddion discussed a possible funding for a school resource officer (SRO) in Naselle schools.
Wahkiakum appropriates about $12,000 a year as a share of a SRO in Naselle schools, with Pacific County traditionally picking up the rest on a per capita basis.
However, Diddion said, he no longer has the budget and staff to supply the SRO. Instead he proposed using the Wahkiakum funds to pay for a deputy that could be stationed, on overtime, at the school to cover traffic and special events.
Bardsley said the question is whether or not the Wahkiakum funds could be used that way.
After discussion, the commissioners and Bardsley said they would take the matter to the Drug Crimes Advisory Committee for a recommendation.
—The board approved names for two private roads on Puget Island to serve a development proposed by S. Scott Horner. Park Place would intersect with the existing West Sunny Sands Road, and Springer Street would come off Park Place.