Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Wasco County Commissioners met yesterday. One area that drew a lot of concern was the county’s decision to include the cemetery in Friend as part of the county’s sale of properties , which the county came by through a foreclosure for back taxes. A number of residents objected, and Commissioner Scott Hage was able to share some good news.
“So we did decide to pull it at this time. It’s not going to be sold at this point and we’re going to figure out what to do with it. There’s a lot of people that seem to have a lot of interest, so my hope is that we can kind of pull together a meeting of folks that are interested to figure out what’s the best way that the community wants to move forward and address this.”
And heads up for everyone to mark June 2 on their calendar. Commissioner Phil Brady made the motion that passed unanimously.
“I move to approve order 25 dash zero zero three, declaring a fireworks ban and a ban on residential burning in Wasco County after 12:01 am on June 2nd, 2025.”
That was the same start date picked for a county-wide burn ban in Klickitat County. County Commissioners announced that decision at their meeting Tuesday.
And Wasco County Commissioners passed a package of updates to the county’s land use development ordinances, but not before commissioners made some adjustments in the recommendations from the county planning commission. The planning commission had suggested a ban on singlewide trailers with flat roofs. The flat roof prohibition was removed by commissioners, concerned that trailers with pitched roofs would be too expensive for some people.
“I think we want to keep it safe and keep them healthy, but I’d rather have them in a house, even if it’s a single wide with a flat roof that I would having them not have a house.”
Commissioners also removed a requirement that single wides coming in demonstrate that the asset value was equal to or greater than a single wide 15 years old, by changing it to 25 years old. And they removed a requirement that no white oak trees be removed in siting a home or building. Commissioners pointed out that the way it was worded, it would even apply to tiny starts in the ground. It was modified to allow up to 5 trees of a certain size to be removed without penalty.