Last night’s meeting of The Dalles City Council wound up in less than an hour. The main votes of the meeting were to update the contract with Jacobs, the company that manages The Dalles Wastewater Treatment Plant, and a budget adjustment moving funds from one department to another prior to the close of the fiscal year on June 30.
There were some interesting items along the way. City Manager Matthew Klebes said help for victims of the Rowena Fire was being organized.
“The incident management team is being set up by the end of this week, fully operational or early next week to orchestrate all the different recovery efforts that are going on. This includes volunteers, cash donations, physical aid and whatnot. So there will be more information coming out in the coming week.”
He also mentioned an aspect that is seldom mentioned around these disasters.
“Several septic tanks and septic facilities were damaged by fire and we ultimately received about 36,000 gallons of septic material to process it through our facility here. The last load of that material was received on June 18.”
And Councilor Rod Runyon gave a well-deserved salute to the city police department, when the Veterans Home had a visit from one of the Fallen Hero Carts that are used to respectfully transport military remains.
“How proud I am of The Dalles Police Department. The Dalles police escorted the towing vehicle for the cart and 40-plus motorcycles from the Patriot Guard riders from around the Northwest as they entered The Dalles and up to the Oregon Veterans Home. This was much appreciated by staff and residents of the Veterans Home.