Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Klickitat County Commissioners met Tuesday. The primary discussion in the morning workshop session, centered on the animal shelter project, which faced significant challenges in meeting a grant June construction deadline due to personnel and resource constraints from other grant projects due at the same time. The board discussed the possibility of a grant extension, the financial risks involved, and an operational plan for the shelter presented by the Sheriff’s office.
Other topics included an update on the airport’s T-hangar construction project, which was on track and seeing high demand; and staffing news from the prosecuting attorney’s office, which had hired a new attorney and a public records officer. The board also approved a hiring freeze exemption for the Sheriff’s Office.
In the formal afternoon session, the board confirmed they had hired a public records officer, for $75,000 a year. A little online research found that to be fairly generous. The City of Vancouver pays $51,000 a year, Spokane pays $56,000, and Seattle pays $69,000. Granted, those are all cities, but they range from 8 times to 32 times the population of Klickitat County.
The most significant item of the afternoon session was this motion by Todd Andrews.
“An interim ordinance declaring and 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 a video of a man throwing up. The session was closed in just seconds, and the rest of the meeting was concluded offline. Results of the discussion and votes were not immediately available this morning.