Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
The price for a replacement Hood River-White Salmon bridge keeps going up. That was the message former commissioner Jake Anderson brought to the Klickitat County Commissioners workshop yesterday morning.
“I remember when I was sitting in your seat and we started this project, the whole goal was to raise $500 million dollars and we’ll have a bridge. Well, we went out and we did that. Now the price of everything has went up since Covid, and as we’ve got through the design, the cost has gone up, of course. Even where this thing costs $1.12 billion dollars, the benefits still outweigh the costs by a significant margin.”
He said a $532 million federal grant application has passed the first hurdle. If the grant is awarded, they hope to have in-water work done in 2027 and to complete the project by 2031.
An update to the county’s solid waste management program got commissioner consensus to forward to the cities for their approval. Such updates are required every five years. This one emphasized maintaining flexibility for the county’s regional landfill and preparing for a new batch of regulatory requirements that come into play when the county population exceeds 25,000.And, in the ongoing bridge repair project, staff announced that the Bear Creek Bridge will be closed from October 9th through November 6th for further repairs. All others will remain open with the possibility of some delays.
The formal afternoon session featured a number of public comments on proposed data center development and ordinances, most were concerned about the coming of data centers to the county and pushed for a moratorium.
Commissioner Todd Andrews expressed his concerns as well.
“I do believe a moratorium would be a good thing. I did propose one, and I have concerns that the interim being proposed is not as fail-safe, and doesn’t address things that we were told by our attorneys that we couldn’t do within our solar ordinance, so I share your concerns.”
Chair Ron Ihrig made no comment, and Commissioner Lori Zoller was excused for this meeting.
Commissioners also approved a short plat subdivision, discussed a request to buy special software to process public information requests, and addressed findings of fact for a previous short plat appeal.