WHITE SALMON — The White Salmon city council met on July 19 to continue answering questions about the proposed West Klickitat Regional Fire Authority. The city held another meeting on Monday, July 24 to vote on the matter (after press deadline). Columbia Gorge News will report on the verdict Monday night and the decision will be posted online.
Mayor Marla Keethler was back in the fold and running the show. One of the first items on the agenda was the potential merger between the City of White Salmon and the Klickitat County Fire Protection District No. 3. In May, Columbia Gorge News reported that the vote had been delayed due to concerns that the process was rushed. At the July 17 meeting, Fire Chief Bill Hunsaker said the WKRFA planning committee met at least six times before preparing the report, which was finalized on July 10. City Councilors Ben Giant, Jason Hartmann and Jim Ransier represent the City of White Salmon on the planning committee. White Salmon voters ultimately have the final say during the November election, but in order to get the proposal on the ballot the plan must be submitted to the county no later than Aug. 1.
Councilor Patty Fink brought up discussion points such as the length of terms for committee members, steps for adding other fire districts in the future and how volunteerism could be impacted. Ransier added that it was negotiated to have an even split of representatives from White Salmon and the Fire District No. 3 on the eventual governance committee. Ransier also said there are still unanswered questions about implementation and hierarchy within the potentially new regional authority. Fink expressed her own hesitancy about asking voters to approve something that has not been laid out yet.
“I think it is part of our transparency to allow the citizens of White Salmon to understand what they are getting and what they are paying for. And having a plan that is not yet created and asking voters to approve this is a little bit backwards to me,” said Fink, whose son is a volunteer firefighter.
Bob Merritt, adviser for the task force, explained that establishing positions will be one of the first action items the governance board will consider. And in the future, if another fire district had interest in joining the already established WKRFA it would simply be subject to an amendment from the governance board to change jurisdictional boundaries.
Volunteerism has been a talking point among discussions as well. According to a report by the task force, “at current levels of volunteers, there are not enough people to show up to each emergency,” and “current training levels for volunteers do not meet state requirements and are not sufficient to provide consistently safe responses for our volunteers or to the many different kinds of emergencies that can occur in our community.”
Chief Hunsaker said, “In the years I have been the chief here, I encourage people to join where they can do the most good.”
Councilors were presented a periodic update of the White Salmon Draft Shoreline Master Plan (SMP) by Dan Nickel, vice president of The Watershed Company. The plan is state funded and funds were exhausted on June 30, the end of the biennium. The plan underwent a comprehensive update in 2017, and state law requires all local governments to review their SMPs on an eight-year schedule. Nickel said the state legislature updated the requirements to updates every 10 years. According to Nickel and the council report, the Washington Department of Ecology conducted their Initial Determination of Consistency and determined “the city’s proposed amendment is consistent with the policy and standards” set forth by the State of Washington.
Amendments include “removing specific exemption language,” and using the Washington Administrative Code. Other adjustments include clarifying which forest practices require review.
The amendments will be submitted and Nickel anticipates approval before the end of 2023: “Once this gets passed to [the Department of] Ecology and knowing there are a ton of jurisdictions doing through this same process."
After the presentation and questions from council, Ransier made a motion to approve Resolution 2023-07-570 Adopting the Shoreline Master Plan Update.
City council also approved amendments to the city budget for the fiscal year ending on Dec. 31. Stephanie Porter said salaries and benefits were adjusted to account for staffing changes. Funds have been added to the Parks budget for the federal grant award for the Bluff Pedestrian Trail totaling $100,000. For the full list of changes to the budget, visit white-salmon.net/administration/page/budget.
Another action item for council review was the purchase of the Main Street LLC property, including the construction of a city owned sewer line. The seller and city settled on June 30 for the vacant land on 40 Rocky Road, Trout Lake. Councilors approved the voucher in the amount of $449,996.07 for the land and section of sewer line.
Commented