Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Klickitat County Commissioners met yesterday. 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. I’ve heard costs at as much as $50,000. Get a crane in here, get it assembled to change a light bulb. That’s why people don’t put in 200 foot. But we haven’t got that. Once we get that, it will be time to meet with the board with Ty and Scott and where our costs stand and 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 MCEDD, the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District. 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 percent of the district. The questions and results:
“On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you with your current waste water service? The average was 7.51. Question 2, Klickitat County is considering turning over ownership of the wastewater system to Klickitat PUD. 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.”
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.
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 over $2.7 million in state grants, raised over $150,000 in a community match campaign, and had 100% complete construction documents. The project was described as “shovel ready,” pending final county permits.