There were no comments from the public on a pair of public hearings held by The Goldendale City Council last night. The first was on the revenue sources for the city, and the second on the city’s budget for 2024.
That’s likely because there are no major changes contemplated for the next year. Jan Forsberg explained the results of last week’s budget workshop this way
“The city decided to do kind of a status quo budget, recognizing inflation with a three percent increase across the board for expenditures. We followed the FTF studies for the utility revenue. For the water and sewer, the recommended increases of I believe 10 and 20 percent. It is a balanced budget, and there is nothing different in this proposal tonight than you have seen in the past.”
She did add that there were special capital expenditure projects totaling $7.7 million. The budget will have a second and final hearing at the December 4 meeting of the council.
The local chapter of the Future Farmers of America had several representatives at the meeting last night, including coaches and chaperones. They thanked the city for its support of the FFA and shared some of the events of the national FFA convention in Chicago two weeks ago. Local chapters did very well at the convention, winning national honors, including the Goldendale Middle School chapter, which placed in the top five out of more than 9,000 chapters in the nation
Councilors also showed enthusiasm for a proposal to allow the Fort Vancouver Regional Library to install a “reading trail” telling a story with a series of pages on information signs at local parks. Councilor Fil Ontiveros, who brought the project to the attention of the council.
“It’s my belief that if we had more people visiting the parks for the proper use of the parks, then it would discourage vandalism or we would have more reports for the police department to handle, and eventually those people would go away.
That prospect will go to the parks committee for further work to develop a memorandum of understanding with the library board to proceed.