Animal shelter update, temporary data center pause failed

Commissioners could get around that problem by using county staff to construct the shelter, but that would create another problem, because there is another grant-funded project at the fairgrounds that has the same deadline.

Sheriff Bob Songer attended the meeting and spoke strongly in favor of the project. Ultimately, the board decided to hold a workshop on the subject soon to consider whether to move the project forward or not.

Other topics included an update on the airport’s T-hangar construction project, which was on track and seeing high demand. “The airport is building two new hangars,” said Airport Manager Jeff Renard. “They’ve finished the roof on both buildings now, and they are sheeting the doors.”

The response from the flying public has been good. “One building is at nearly 100% occupancy, and we received another email last night. It’s a great problem to have.”

The commission also approved an exemption to the hiring freeze for the Sheriff’s Office in order to replace the vacant civil clerk position, which is a current position and in the budget.

Meeting hijacked

In the formal afternoon session, the board confirmed they had hired a public records officer for $75,000 a year.

The most significant item of the afternoon session was this motion by Todd Andrews, who moved for “an interim ordinance declaring an emergency and adopting a moratorium on the acceptance of permit applications for data centers in unincorporated Klickitat County.”

Before any discussion or vote could be taken, the session was hijacked by unknown persons who posted an unsavory video. The session was closed in just seconds, and when the meeting resumed, the motion died for lack of a second. Commissioners did agree to schedule a workshop on data centers for Sept. 3.