Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
There is a saying that the only true universal laws are the law of gravity and the law of unintended consequences. That fact was echoed at last night’s The Dalles City Council meeting. The unintended consequence of the city’s First Street project and infrastructure development involving the closure of Webber Street was a big hit to the Bargeway Pub.
Nolan Hare, an employee at the pub explained:
“Our experience so far on the Webber Street closure and the impact that it’s had on our business, and we track it hour by hour, and some of our lunches were 60% down, like six zero, 60% down, and this could go on into July or even later, according to what they’re communicating to us. So we’re not asking them to stop the project; we’re not asking them to do anything drastic, we’re just asking them to use every means possible to keep access to our business as much as they can.”
City officials responded that there are three ways to get to Bargeway. The easiest is Webber Street. The second is to go through the Union Street underpass to First Street, and the third is to go out to the fish overpass and come back east on River Road. They said their goal was to keep two of the three routes open at all times during the lengthy construction process.
Nolan Hare said that if Webber had to be closed, there should be adequate signage to direct people to the two alternatives, and any time the city could open up Webber Street would be valuable.
On a separate matter, City Manager Matthew Klebes said people had been taking a comment he made on the KODL Coffee Break show out of context:
“It was claimed on one of those shows that I said they are ‘just bricks’ in the context of dismissing the hard work of volunteers. I just want to make it clear that I do have appreciation for volunteers and their services to our community in forms of acknowledging the work and effort that they do for us. My comment that they are ‘just bricks’ was in reference to the literal composition of the bricks themselves and some concern about efforts to salvage those bricks that they will crack during the process.
The lone action item ws a housekeeping measure to update local city election code following some bills passed in the last legislative session. One key change is a new requirement that the deadline for incumbent elected officials filing for re-election will end 7 days ahead of non-incumbents. As an example, the filing period for city offices in this year’s November general election starts June 3, but the ending deadline for elected officials will be August 18, while non-incumbent candidates will have until August 25 to file. This provides early notice on whether or not an incumbent will run for re-election and gives time for other potential candidates to respond appropriately.
Councilors also discussed a proposed new policy on funding requests from nonprofits and agencies that sets up a more structured review process that does not involve applications until after the budget process.
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