Commissioners' Report

During Tuesday's meeting, the Wahkiakum County Commissioners approved a three-year loan in the amount of $13,000 to Wahkiakum Fire District #3 for a new generator. The district received a bid from Ford Electric Company in the amount of $17,997.90 and had $5,000 of their own to go towards the generator. Commissioner Mark Letham recused himself from the motion to prevent a conflict, as he is commissioner over Fire District #3. Commissioners Lee Tischer and Dan Cothren voted unanimously to approve the loan to Fire District #3.

During the commissioner reports segment of the meeting, Tischer expressed his concern over Senate Bill 5839 regarding ferries. Section 2 of the bill states, "The governing body of a ferry district may levy each year an ad valorem tax on all taxable property located in the district not to exceed 75 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value, except a ferry district in a county with a population of 1,500,000 or more may not levy at a rate that exceeds seven and one-half cents per $1,000 of assessed value." Voicing his concern, Tischer said, "If they assume we could create our ferry district - taxing district - they would say, ‘You have availability to other funding. Now you don't need our extra money.'" Cothren noted that he had met with Representative Joel McEntire and discussed the "taxing part" of the bill, especially considering the unemployment rate and elderly population in Wahkiakum County. "I told Joel we need to go back to the drawing table," said Cothren. "It really wouldn't work for us...Joel understands this...You're trying to take care of yourself and relying on the legislature to give out more money. We have limited resources here...It's a huge cost....Not everybody uses the ferry. It's a good thing, but we use these roads more."

Later on during commissioner reports, Cothren voiced his concern over House Bill 2489, which is currently in committee. The bill "establishes statewide standards for when local governments may enforce laws regulating the use of public space for life-sustaining activities." Noting "those legislative folks in those urban settings setting this" wouldn't be the ones as affected by the bill, Cothren said, "It's going to affect the rural community. They don't give a damn about us, so we get dumped on again if this thing goes through. There's a lot of concern with that. We have a lot of DNR land here. We start getting those folks back up in there, it'd be a mess. I get so tired of the ‘feel good club' and that's what it is. It's a feel good club. They're all feeling good about giving our money away."

A proposed agreement with Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for the Deep River Tide Gates was removed from Tuesday's agenda. According to Public Works Director Chuck Beyer, "the paperwork keeps changing." For more info, visit co.wahkiakum.wa.us.