WHITE SALMON — Councilors renewed White Salmon’s franchise agreement with broadband provider Spectrum and worked on clarifying agenda-setting procedures during last Wednesday’s meeting, but top of mind was the Burdoin Fire response, both at the city and county levels.
“In any role of leadership, you’re either illuminating other people or casting a shadow,” said Mayor Marla Keethler. “This fire, I think across our county, has shown both ways of leading, and I think what I see when I look at my staff is a lot of illumination.”
Earlier that day, for instance, Code Compliance Officer Jenne Patterson helped facilitate the Disaster Assistance Center, a space where affected residents can access resources from several agencies. Councilor Morella Mora, via responses from a city survey, matched those displaced with others who had extra housing available, and Washington Gorge Action Programs helped people find temporary shelter as well.
Finance Director Jennifer Neil was also key in the city’s support, activating and coordinating the enhanced powers opened up by White Salmon’s emergency declaration.In the days immediately following ignition, Keethler herself provided daily updates on fire operations through the Voyent Alert! app, which has seen a 27% increase in subscriptions since the fire began.
Beyond city staff, she also thanked the community for their outpouring of support and donations — not to mention the hundreds of firefighters deployed — as did other councilors.
Mora and Councilor Patty Fink, however, questioned the overall level of engagement from county officials, particularly the commissioners, while Keethler emphasized the need for broader countywide collaboration and leadership to bring agencies and partners together for long-term recovery. Apart from the city and WAGAP, Mora said she hasn’t seen the county assisting with housing, emphasizing that disasters disproportionately impact the poor, and how no critical emergency information was available in Spanish, even though nearly 13% of Klickitat County’s residents are Latino.
She also pointed out that nearly every public servant involved in fire response made an appearance at Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s press conference on July 24, but far fewer showed up to the first community meeting held one day later at The Dalles High School. While all three commissioners were present, Klickitat County Undersheriff Carmen Knopes, who was working 16-18-hour shifts, responded to most questions from the audience.
“If that is what we can expect out of the county,” said Mora, “what do we have to plan for then? What steps do we have to take, both to hold people who need to be held accountable, accountable, and also to make our own plans and move forward?
“The families that we have been placing in homes, that I have been working directly with, have nothing left and have nothing to lean on,” she continued. “I absolutely think the county needs to have some responsibility in addressing those needs.”
On that note, Keethler said the city is advocating for the establishment of a county-wide, long-term recovery group so there’s already support infrastructure in place for disasters that will inevitably occur again, recognizing the trauma and hardship wildfire causes, which Fink readily endorsed.
“We got to shore up our systems and make sure that politics and power struggles don’t get in the way before, during and after the fire. My hope is that the county won’t just talk about partnering with the city, but will actually create a space — a real, coordinated what-can-we-do-better team that brings everyone to the table,” said Fink. “To the west, we’ve seen a fire. To the east, we’ve seen a fire. If this fire had started two miles to the west, we may not be here right now.”
In a later interview, Klickitat County Commissioner Ron Ihring explained all three commissioners assisted with the response. They declared an emergency the day of ignition, authorized additional resources when the Synder Canyon Fire broke out and Ihring was in daily communication with Emergency Management Director Jeff King. Although not on stage, Ihring noted that each commissioner answered questions from the audience after The Dalles community meeting ended.
“We will come back with lessons learned and have a discussion with the community — there’s not a question on that,” said Ihring. “The commissioners have been involved with the process.”
Toward the end of the meeting, Keethler and the councilors said their goodbyes and thanked Public Works Director Andrew Dirks, who’s moving onto a different job, effective Aug. 13. Serving the city since 2017, the group agreed that Dirks is leaving a much stronger, more adept department compared to when he originally joined, and credited Dirks with building out the current public works staff. The city has yet to announce a new director.
“This has been a great opportunity and it’s hard to leave, but I’m excited,” said Dirks.
Relatedly, the city has installed a new pump at the Los Altos Booster Station, but it’s not operating correctly due to a manufacturing discrepancy. As the troubleshooting ensues, residents that rely on water from the two reservoirs atop Strawberry Mountain remain under a Stage 3 water conservation alert.
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