New members elected to council, mayor positions

BINGEN — The regular meeting for Bingen’s City Council happened to occur on election night, which will profoundly affect its make-up. Only two of the current councilors will remain seated.

The meeting kicked off with a presentation from Klickitat County Emergency Manager Jeff King. The county, which includes 12 municipalities, internally budgets $20,949 for disaster response; in the past, it has relied upon more than $1 million in FEMA grants to provide emergency management services. Those grants are “not being executed for various reasons,” he said. Some of the federal grants are frozen, and some simply are not available for application, mainly due the Trump administration’s cuts and freezes to federal funding. King offered two proposals for the county to fund a part-time emergency manager position, and the council agreed to consider how to move forward without the grant funds.

The council also spent time considering the applications for the lodging tax funds the city receives. Three applicants, the Mt. Adams Chamber of Commerce, the Huckleberry Fest, and the city itself, asked for a total of $72,300 in funds, but the lodging tax collected was $55,000. The council agreed to Councilor Brittany Spratt’s suggestion that each entity receive 76% of its request.

Next, City Administrator Krista Loney provided the first draft of the city’s 2026 proposed budget at a public hearing. Per Washington law, the city can only raise property taxes a maximum of 1% over the previous year, despite the rate of inflation being much higher. The budget includes that 1% increase, plus revenue from a variety of sources, including additional taxes from new construction and improvements. City staff will receive a 4% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) based on the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The draft budget reveals $4.782 million in revenue and $4.718 million in expenditures. The council asked for some amendments as the budget process continues.

As of press deadline, preliminary election results show that Kelsey Ramsey will be Bingen’s new mayor, to be seated in January. Ramsey had a 104-49 lead over candidate Clinton L. Deo, with over 99% of ballots counted.

In other election updates, Craig Trummel and Dale Grinstead-Mayle were confirmed for council seats 2 and 3, respectively, after running unopposed. Eric Shroder was leading Maya Deo 87-51 votes for seat 4, and Erika Almskaar had a 92-58 lead over Quinton Deo for seat 5. The election will be certified on Nov. 25.

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See A13 or columbiagorgenews.com for preliminary results of contested Klickitat and Skamania county races.