GOLDENDALE — The Klickitat County Commission meeting of April 27 saw a slight change to its format, inserting a nearly two-hour childcare workshop between its morning work session and afternoon formal session.
The workshop attracted a number of attendees by Zoom, including District 17 State Sen. Paul Harris. Lynn Mason of Rural Solutions opened by recounting a visit to Families First, a model childcare center in Boardman (see story at columbiagorgenews.com). The impetus for the trip came from White Salmon resident Gabrielle Gilbert, a longtime advocate, and regular contributor to the commission’s weekly public comment period, organized a field trip to the center.
Brenda Profit, the director of that center, presented a detailed overview of its successful public-private partnership funding model, which relies on an “enterprise zone” and corporate sponsorships to subsidize costs. She told commissioners that investing in child care may be an expense up front, but it is a money generator in the end.
“Childcare actually pays for the investment,” she said, “because now you put more people to work. More people are paying property taxes; more people are paying sales taxes.”
Gilbert wrapped up the session with a discussion on the regulatory and bureaucratic barriers faced by individuals trying to open home daycares in Washington.
County sheriffs bill
In the afternoon session, there was one note of interest on the controversial bill passed by the last legislative session to curtail the power of county sheriffs, and in some cases remove a legally elected sheriff (see story, columbiagorgenews.com).
John Bruce, who is a longtime law enforcement officer and a candidate for Klickitat County Sheriff told commissioners, “I just wanted to update you that tomorrow there will be an emergency hearing over in Thurston County on one of the lawsuits against the new law from Senate Bill 5974, because the law is supposed to take effect on Thursday. We’ll see whether or not next week for filing week we have to do an additional certification.”
On April 29, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Schaller did rule SB 5974, the “Sheriff Removal Bill” unconstitutional and granted a preliminary injunction to prevent it from going into law. In all likelihood, Attorney General Nick Brown will appeal, but for now, it’s blocked.
Other business
In other action, commissioners noted they lost one person in the administrative department and decided rather than replace that position with a full-time employee, they would try to resurrect an intern program of fond memory
“They did it for a number of years,” said County Administrator Robb Van Cleave. “It was very popular with the offices and the departments, very productive for the young folks who used it, and they gained a lot of workforce training and experience. It was a very worthy program and was unfortunate that we discontinued it.”
Commissioners were assured there were funds available to pay the intern from the unused portion of retiring employees.
And it feels way too soon for a burn ban, but Jeff Hunter gave commissioners this report in his new role supervising Emergency Management: “We heard from the three east side fire chiefs, and they would like to start the burn ban for the east side of the county on Saturday, May 16,” he said. None of the commissioners objected, and the matter will be on the agenda next week.
Under the consent agenda, Commissioners approved:
• Local agency federal aid project prospectus for the guardrail upgrades project, CRP 398.
• Local agency agreement for the guardrail upgrades project, CRP 398.
• Local agency federal aid project prospectus for the curve warning sign upgrades project, CRP 399.
• Local agency agreement for the curve warning sign upgrades project, CRP 399.
• Concurrence to award bid, guardrail upgrades, CRP 390.
• Contracts for 2026 liquid asphalt purchase.
• A public meeting on approval of short plat, SPL 2023-12, Griebel.
• Authorization to advertise for a mechanic or master mechanic in thepublic works department.
• Washington State Military Department grant agreement number E26-249 with Emergency Management
• Camp host agreement for Guler Mt. Adams County Park with Shellie Schaffer.
• Concurrence to award bid for the Klickitat County Courthouse exterior wall repair & stucco replacement project
• Concurrence to award bid for the Klickitat County Courthouse exterior wall painting project.
• Resolution providing additional compensation to the Deputy Director of Finance and Administrative Services and Deputy Director of Facilities for performing work outside their classifications.
• Local agency supplemental agreement 8 with Applied Archaeological Research, Inc. for on-call Archaeological Services.
•2025-26 Title VI, Non-discrimination accomplishments and Goals report and standard assurances.
• Health Department Meadow Outdoor advertising agreement.
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