GOLDENDALE — Klickitat County Commissioners met Jan. 28 in their workshop-in-the-morning, formal-meeting-in-the-afternoon format. Regular callers have found some advantages to the new setup, as it allows the public to hear commissioners discuss things in the morning and comment on them in the afternoon before commissioners vote on them.
One of the biggest concerns from callers this week was a change in public access to meeting agendas. Prior to this meeting, people could go directly to the county commissioners website, click on the current agenda and download it. Now, though, if people go to the same location they used before, they will be directed to a site that required a sign-up to be automatically notified when the agendas were posted, but no way to get to the agenda from there.
In order to get to the new agenda location, people need to go to the county’s main page, scroll down past the alerts and National Weather Service links to the Board of County Commissioners. Click that, then you’ll be at the portal. Once you get to the agenda page, you’ll notice it’s in a broad outline and you can chose to download as little as a single agenda item at a time, rather than the whole thing, which can run for hundreds of pages.
Another advantage of the Zoomed morning workshop was that allowed the public to listen in when Washington counties lobbyist Zak Kennedy reported to the commissioners about politics in Olympia. He said Friday night, leadership in the House, with only a few hours notice, called an emergency meeting to change a House rule that’s been in effect since the 1890s. For more than a century and a quarter, on final passage, it has taken a two-thirds majority to end discussion and move directly to a vote on the bill. That was changed to a simple majority.
“Now, basically, the majority party will be able to end discussion of any bill on final passage,” he said, “despite the minority’s opposition.”
He also reported the Speaker and the House majority leadership, all Democrats, have told the Democratic governor that his staff is not allowed in the building without an invitation.
The county meeting was unusual in one respect in that Commissioner Lori Zoller was not present, and the two newly-elected commissioners, Todd Andrews and Ron Ihrig, ran the show.
One of the most intriguing items came towards the end of the afternoon regular session, commissioners heard updates from Goldendale and Mt. Adams Chamber of Commerce Executive Directors Teja Finch and Tamara Tippel.
Tippel said one of the biggest thing going on in the west county, is a tourism initiative based on the paranormal:
“Margie’s Outdoor Store is the hub for that,” she said. “They really turned this into a serious marketing strategy. In 2018, Scotland Tourism determined the Loch Ness Monster was dragging in $54 million a year, just because of the Loch Ness Monster mystery.”
The people involved with the promotion have gone to the lengths of making up (or discovering, take your pick) a new cryptid, a creature that is said to exist but has not been proven to do, like Bigfoot or the Loch Nes Monster. Their entry for the newest member of the cryptid family is the Klickitat Ape-Cat, a black panther-like beast standing 6-feet tall at the shoulder, that is said to haunt the Columbia River Gorge. Come hunt for them, tourists, promoters say — and bring your money.
Under the consent agenda, commissioners approved:
• An amendment to the Local Solid Waste Financial Assistance Agreement with Washington State Department of Ecology for the 2023-2025 Biennium.
• Executing Contracts and Contract Bonds for the Bickleton Hwy Overlay-Box Springs Vicinity, CRP 382.
• Advertising to fill a vacant maintenance technician for the Public Works Department White Salmon location.
• Renewal of the Radio System Management, Operation & Maintenance Support Agreement with Radio Service Solutions, LLC for two years.
• Release of retainage of a contract bond with Knife River Corporation NW for the Curve Warning Signs Guide Posts.
•Set 2026 Budget Development Process Dates.
• The Klickitat County Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance.
• A request to temporarily increase the credit card limit on the Emergency Management E-911 card to allow coverage of conference and travel expenses.
• A request to temporarily increase the credit card limit on the Filiberto Ontiveros Jr’s card for the Department of Emergency Management to allow coverage of conference and travel expenses.
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