Commissioners' Report

During their meeting Tuesday, Feb. 24, the Wahkiakum County Commissioners unanimously approved Resolution 34-26, authorizing an interlocal agreement between the county and Fire District No. 3 for the purpose of borrowing funds in the amount of $13,000. The commissioners then authorized the Chair's signature on the County Road Levy to the County Road Administration Board (CRAB). Per Washington Administrative Code 136-150-021, state law requires each county to submit an annual certification of their road levy by March 1.

County Department of Emergency Management (DEM) Coordinator Austin Smith then brought before the commissioners the personal services agreement between Wahkiakum County and Incident Management Partners, LLC for the update of the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. According to the meeting's packet the $7,500 funding needed for the agreement is already allocated for the project in the DEM budget and will be reimbursed by the 23SHSP (State Homeland Security Program) grant. Health and Human Services Operations Manager Duncan Cruickshank presented before the board, requesting the approval of the Laboratory Services Agreement with Millennium Health, LLC. According to the packet, the costs of these lab services "are charged to the programs paying for them and included in the rate reimbursed for the service," and the funds exist in the Behavioral Health/Substance Use Disorder budget. The commissioners then unanimously approved the Chair's signature on an animal service agreement with the Wahkiakum Animal Advocates Group (WAAG), providing $2,000 in funding in 2026. The agreement authorizes the county to "utilize WAAG as a contractor for animal-related services."

During the commissioners' individual reports, Commissioner Lee Tischer mentioned the discussion that arose during the Feb. 17 meeting for the Town of Cathlamet surrounding stormwater treatment charges. Tischer noted, according to the charges discussed in the meeting, the courthouse's yearly bill would be $2,032 and the marina parking lot would be looking at around $6,000 a year. Tischer, who spoke via zoom at the Feb. 17 meeting, noted, "I basically said, 'We didn't budget for this.' As tight as things are, and more funded mandates come in, and liability insurance is climbing like crazy every year, it's just less money that we're going to have to help these other agencies out."

Tischer then noted Cathlamet's Town Council said they would come back with a final amount during its next meeting on Monday, March 16. Tischer noted the Town had a "loss of revenue" when they lost both sewer and water revenue by way of the PUD consolidation and "they're looking for resources." During the commissioners' meeting,Tischer said, "Down the pipe, they're sure that there's going to have to be different treatments to the water going into the Columbia. I'm thinking at that time, it's going to be a multi-million dollar project and then there would be grants available through ecology to help them out."

Chiming in, Commissioner and Chair Dan Cothren said, "What crosses me is we're on the lower end of the Columbia, but Portland can dump in millions of gallons of raw sewage into their system and guess who gets it. We do, and they're worried about storm water? This is an added cost, and it creates a domino effect on the other agencies...We're trying to protect the environment and all that, but it seems like the urban settings sure can dump on us, and we have to abide by some little thing that really doesn't amount to jack, but they're gonna soak us for it."

Commissioner Mark Letham, who had expressed an interest in becoming the board's liaison for Johnson Park, noted he had spoken with the food bank and that it is currently supporting 40 families.

During his report, Cothren noted that a timber sale is coming up, and the environmental community is sending people in to "disrupt the meeting." Noting both that timber sales "are crucial to this county’s survival" and that "the timber markets are not good now," Cothren added that "some of the pricing might come up in the second quarter." Discussing the export market, Cothren said, "I know a lot of folks are against export, but if you don't have export, you don't have a domestic market either....You've got to be able to flush those logs out." Noting that 2027 "looks bad," Cothren added they are going to "work around that." Cothren went on to say, "We've had discussions working with the DNR (Department of Natural Resources). We brought a sale forward to add to the sale that we have. I don't want to go through this layoff stuff anymore."