Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Due to conflicting events, our reporter was not able to cover the Klickitat County Commission meeting last Tuesday, and the video of the event wasn’t available until late Friday morning. The meeting started with some good news regarding the jail from Public Works chief Jeff Hunter:
“Jail upgrades: we’re installing cameras this week. The jail generator has arrived. We’re scheduling commissioning. It’s quite a coordination. You’ve got to coordinate with PUD, you’ve got to coordinate with an electrician, our people and on top of that, you also have to have Cummings come out so they can bring it online. It’s quite a coordination, but we’re going to try and get that one done as soon as possible.”
The morning session also saw Planning Director Scott Edelman explaining a misconception that has grown up around a public hearing scheduled for June 16.
“They wanted to compose an interim measure for the commission to consider, which includes two major components, and then one that’s a bit more vague. One is that any solar project, industrial scale, is a conditional use. It doesn’t change standards, just adds another level of revue. The other one is clarify that BESS is not a supplemental use. They get a regular conditional use permit.”
Hunter said the third component would be a definition of what constitutes a large project.
The afternoon session brought a revelation. As commissioners considered a supplemental budget for this year, County Auditor Heather Jobe an
“It does appear that there were some technical errors in the spreadsheets. So, while I don’t believe it was anybody’s intention, to reduce the wages and benefits for patrol, ultimately, it did happen. If they weren’t inadvertently removed, what would have been in the Sheriff’s wages and benefits budget for this year, would have been an additional $246,000.”
The Sheriff had been asking for a supplemental budget of $382,020, which would include the funds for jail administrator transferred from the Sheriff’s department to the Corrections department when the jail was moved, and that’s what was presented to the commissioners.
Ultimately, the board voted to reduce that request down to the $246,000 that should have been there at the beginning of the year. Commissioner Todd Andrews, who had been a supporter of adding the full amount, abstained in the final vote. Chair Ron Ihrig said he wouldn’t support the additional funding until they had clear information about revenues.