GOLDENDALE — Jan. 21 was a busy day for government meetings in Klickitat County. Under the new format, Klickitat County Commissioners hold a workshop session on Tuesday morning, where they can confer with department heads and discuss issues but not take any votes. The regular meeting starts after lunch, moving the public comment period to the start of the afternoon session. The advantage is the public can then comment on all the items discussed by the commissioners that morning before they vote on those issues that afternoon.
The one disadvantage is that meetings that used to conclude at 2-3 p.m. now edge closer to 5 p.m.
Much of the morning workshop session is taken up with reports from departments that previously appeared in the afternoon. Among those reports was some good news for the county. Public Health Director Erinn Quinn said she had been working with the new Corrections Department Director Bill Frantz and would help him apply for money the state has granted to improve conditions at jails.
“The state through Medicaid is offering money for jail facilities,” she said. “The medical providers in jails will be able to bill Medicaid, which will offer some revenue to them. The funding I believe is $2 million. One of the things it will provide the jail is electronic medical records, and that is very much a needed thing.”
Earlier, Frantz said he had been concerned about reporting too much to commissioners in an open session.
“I’m trying to be really methodical on the stuff that I share publicly,” he said, “because I don’t want to share something that would violate the security of the jail and have somebody who’s listening come in tonight.”
He did tell commissioners that the jail was down two positions, plus an officer out on approved medical leave and another who is leaving for approved medical leave in April. Information about the two open positions and their requirements are posted on the county website.
Frantz also reported supply chain issues. One was for new uniform patches. He said the company that they had dealt with previously said that the county would have to wait until after Chinese New Year before they could even start. That’s Jan. 29 this year.
“We didn’t have to wait for the Chinese because one of our employees reached out to another vendor who’s a little bit more local and was able to get our patch done and ordered,” he said.
Public Works Director Jeff Hunter noted that the very last jail vent replacement was scheduled to arrive around Jan. 25 and would be installed by the end of the month. This is one of the vents located in a public area of the jail, considered a much less likely location for a prisoner to harm themselves.
He also reported that the county had started replacement of the ceiling in the Dallesport Community Center and would supply the paint for local citizens to repaint the structure when they were finished.
The afternoon session included an update from Todd Jacobsen, who title is Wildlife Conflict Biologist. He works for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. One of the big issues he deals with is the effect the reintroduction of wolves into Washington, which are returning to Washington on their own, dispersing from neighboring regions such as British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. This natural recolonization process has been well-documented and is a key component of gray wolf recovery in Washington.
But he did have words of reassurance for county ranchers:
“There have been zero confirmed or probable wolf depredations on livestock in Klickitat County,” he said flatly. “There have been a handful that have been unknown because the carcass was too far gone, but on none of the carcasses have we seen evidence of a wolf depredation.”
He noted that WDFW doesn’t just work with commercial-level ranchers, but also small hobby farm livestock owners, and people who have pets.
“By far, that’s where most of our livestock issues originate,” he said, “especially as you get closer to Clark County. Probably 95% of our livestock depredations are on these smaller hobby operations instead of the commercial, larger commercial operations.”
He also discussed the sometimes frustrating on-again, off-again endangered species listing and delisting of wolf populations, by both state and federal authorities. Jacobsen reminding people that four wolves had been spotted in the county last year, and currently there were none. A total of $20,000 reward is offered for information leading to the person who killed at least one of them.
Under the consent agenda, commissioners approved:
• Advertising to fill a vacant foreman position for the Glenwood location of the Public Works Department
• An amendment to the Interlocal Agreement between Klickitat County and Pend Oreille County for administrator services for the OnBase cloud-based document management program.
• Scheduling a public meeting for Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 1:30 p.m. to consider a second extension to complete all conditions of approval for short plats SPL 2022-21 and SPL 2022-24.
• Appointments to the Klickitat County Planning Solar and Battery Energy.
• An amendment to the contract with the Department of Health to add statements of worth and receive an allocation increase of $2,257,122.
• A resolution reviewing 2024 equipment rates for the Equipment Rental and Revolving Fund 504.
• A $26,337.50 purchase of used precast concrete barriers from Storie Barriers in the amount of for Old Highway 8 slide repair.
• A $2,392,756 contract and bond with James Dean Construction for the improvement of 2.8 miles of Sunnyside Road.
• Notice of a Centerville town roads overlay project, with an estimate of 275,000.
• The assignment of CRP numbers for county road projects for Centerville town roads, Beyerlin Bridge and Cove Road.
• A supplemental agreement with Baer Testing, Inc to provide on-call materials testing services and increasing the maximum amount payable to $175,000 to cover additional materials.
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