The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

To The Eagle:

With our national presidential race totally off the rails and crashing through la-la land, it's refreshing to have our local county commissioner race generate some good old-fashioned hate and dissension over traditional issues like truth and integrity -- and sewers. Wow! As the original curmudgeon who coined the phrase "sewer to nowhere," I'm inclined to offer my own take on sewer history, which differs slightly from Dan Cothren's.

A decade back, our county commissioners, in their perennial condition of being short of funds, got seduced by the siren call of "economic development" and empowered a couple of ostensibly high-powered individuals to develop and finance schemes to save the county. (In fairness, this was not all Dan's doing -- but he didn't fight the program.) One major plot was to enhance the golf course with a development of golfer condos on the edge of the course, and a developer stepped forward to do this, but wouldn't commence until a sewer line was available. The town came to the county for financing, the line was installed for about five times the price quoted by a local contractor, and the developer promptly reneged, leaving town and county holding the proverbial bag.

There was much wailing and gnashing at the time -- town folk unhappy with pinning town finances to an expanded sewer system, and county folk over the unrealistic payback scheme for their money. Since then, there has been much more sewage under the bridge including the construction of a sewer plant on an inappropriate site which is now forcing sewer rates up 40 percent to 110 percent depending upon the prognosticator. The most telling comment on the current situation comes from town official Dick Swart who is hoping for an ordinance to coerce people to hook up to the system, and attempts to lay some blame off on to Mayor Dale Jacobson are a tad lame since both he and plant manager Duncan Cruickshank are inheritors of an intractable problem.

County commissioner candidate Bob Jungers is correct in his observation that sewer (and water) problems need professional county-wide handling, probably under the PUD. And our county's other perennial problems -- flooding, beach erosion, fish and wildlife concerns -- are all likely to get worse under our out-of-control regulatory state, given our poor choices in future presidential leadership. Bob is a tough and successful businessman with experience in public service in both utilities and law enforcement. He's my choice to represent us in the challenges facing our county.

Howard Brawn

Puget Island