GOLDENDALE — Klickitat County Commissioners covered a lot of issues at their next-to-last meeting of the year on Dec. 16. There was good news in the afternoon session as representatives from the White Salmon Valley Pool District presented an update on their project.
They had successfully secured more than $2.7 million in state grants, raised more than $150,000 in a community match campaign, and a total of more than $7 million in projected funding, representatives said. In addition, the project had 100% complete construction documents and state health permit approval.
The project was described as “shovel ready,” pending final county permits.
During the morning workshop session, Public Works Director Jeff Hunter gave updates on a couple of issues. He said he has been getting a lot of questions about a giant flag local philanthropist Ty Ross hopes to place at the Goldendale courthouse.
“The last thing we have to put together is the cost is going to be to replace the light on top of the flag,” he said. “I’ve heard costs at as much as $50,000 to get a crane in here, get it assembled to change a light bulb. That’s why people don’t put in 200 foot [flagpoles]. Once we get that cost, it will be time to meet with the board, with Ty and Scott [Edelman] and see what they can do to offset the costs.”
Yes, they’re talking about a really, really big flag.
Hunter also surprised commissioners by informing them he’d had a survey done in the service area of the Dallesport Wastewater District. He said he’d teamed up with Mid-Columbia Economic Development District (MCEDD). They’d sent three teams of two, each consisting of one person from MCEDD and one from the county and were able to reach about 25%of the district.
It was a very simple survey, he said, with only three questions. The first would be to establish they were talking to the owner of the property, rather than a guest or visitor.
The second asked, on a scale of one to 10, how happy the homeowner was with the current wastewater service, and the third noted Klickitat County is considering turning over ownership of the Dallesport wastewater system to its current operator, Klickitat PUD.
The response on the second question averaged 7.51 out of 10. And for the third question, “12.6% said they would support the change in ownership, 61.2 felt neutral, and 26.2 said they would not support the change in ownership,” Hunter said.
He said he kept the survey under wraps initially because he wanted a true sample without any advance community discussion. The proposal to turn over the treatment plant has been strongly opposed in the past by the board of the Dallesport Water District, believing they are best suited to operate the plant.
Also in the morning workshop session, Planning Director Scott Edelman argued for a comprehensive update to the planning department’s fee schedule, justifying the changes as necessary to achieve cost recovery for staff time and consultant expenses associated with permit reviews, long-term monitoring of conditional uses, and processing complex, large-scale projects.
In his status report, he proposed a two-pronged approach to amending the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance. He suggested first making a simple change to the conditional use requirement to provide immediate cost and time savings for applicants, followed by a more thorough review of other criteria in a separate, later process. To that end, the department was planning an ADU workshop.
He also said a solar ordinance was ready to be sent to the Prosecuting Attorney’s office for review.
Commissioners also approved an 18-item consent agenda menu, including
• An interlocal agreement with Pend Oreille County to help support the OnBase document imaging system in the Clerk’s office.
• Request to carry over vacation hours to 2026 for Jeff King.
• Request to carry over vacation hours to 2026 for Filiberto Ontiveros.
• Reviewing 2025 equipment rental rates for the Equipment Rental and Revolving Fund no. 504.
• Agreement with Advanced Security and Electrical Technology, Inc. to provide
monitoring, cloud, smart services and communications services to the county.
• Notice to contractors to advertise for the Bundle #2 – Preventative Maintenance – Bearing Repairs Project, CRP 378.
• Advertising to fill a vacant senior traffic engineering technician position in the Public Works Department’s Goldendale location.
• Request to carry over vacation hours to 2026 for Scott Edelman.
• A grant to the Port of Klickitat to enhance economic development opportunities.
• Memorandum of understanding with the Port of Klickitat.
• A grant to the City of White Salmon to enhance economic development opportunities.
• Memorandum of understanding with the City of White Salmon.
• Amendment No. 2 to agreement no. TCPIPG-2325-KICoED-00061 with the State of Washington Department of Ecology for the Klickitat Mill Site.
• The annual renewal of evidence software subscription with FileOnQ for the Sheriff’s office.
• Adjusting wages for regular employees, contract employees and elected officials.
• An appointment to the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority.
• An appointment to the Veterans Advisory Board.
• Joint Resolution of the Clark County Council and the Boards of County Commissioners for Klickitat and Skamania counties, appointing trustees to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library.
• Bid award for Wood Gulch Bridge preventative maintenance, CRP 388.
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