It didn’t take long for the new Klickitat County Commissioners regime to make a sweeping change. Yesterday’s meeting was the first of the year, and the first for with the new lineup that saw Todd Andrews and Ron Ihrig take the place of Dan Christopher and Jake Anderson. Last year’s chair Lori Zoller took the gavel only long enough to supervise election for chair and vice chair. Ron Ihrig picked up the gavel, and Todd Andrews became vice chair.
Ihrig, who served as a commissioner more than 20 years ago, wanted to change the meeting schedule to a pattern he was familiar with from that previous service. After some discussion, Todd Andrews made the motion:
“I’d like to make a motion – change Tuesday’s start time to 9:30, and that is for workshops, and that will currently continue to be up here, and Zoomed. And for us to start having meetings every Thursday downstairs in the Mt. Adams room, starting at 9:30 for workshops that will not be Zoomed.”
Commissioners emphasized that no votes could be taken, nor any decisions made in the workshop sessions, which are open to the public. That would be reserved for the working meetings, which would then be held Tuesday afternoons.
Though with two new commissioners on board, meeting twice a week every week could be helpful getting them up to speed, commissioners are likely to feel backlash in not Zooming the Thursday meetings. There were not many workshop sessions held in 2024, but those that were held were Zoomed.
The schedule change starts immediately, though the very first Thursday workshop tomorrow will be Zoomed. Public comment is not allowed at workshops, so we’ll have to wait until next Tuesday afternoon for public feedback.
Earlier, Public Works Director Jeff Hunter reported that the county will earn some money making street repairs for cities.
“Bingen and White Salmon got job projects which we will do for them. In Bingen, we’re doing Humbolt Street, grinding and repaving, and Franklin Street we’re repairing and repaving, and then in White Salmon we’re doing Dock Grade. We are going to crack seal it, patch it, chip seal it, and then fog seal it.”
The cities got grants from the state’s Transportation Investment Bureau for $450,000 to do the projects.