Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Yesterday’s Klickitat County Commissioners meeting was a two-fer. That is, there was a bare minimum quorum of two. With Chair Ron Ihrig off elk hunting, Commissioner Todd Andrews slid into the Chair position to run the meeting. When Commissioner Lori Zoller made a motion, Andrews stepped down to second the motion then resumed the Chair role.
There was a mixed bag of news in the morning workshop session. The bad news was that the insurance pool that coves the county is On the positive side, Public Works Director Jeff Hunter said one of the bridges in the county was going to be repaired at somebody else:
“We have noticed the contractors to advertise the Wood Gulch preventative maintenance project, CRP 388. That is fully reimbursed by one of the green energy utility companies. They need to use the bridge and it has to be fixed prior to them using it. That’s part of their road haul.”
He was talking about the Schrantz Road Bridge over Wood Gulch Creek, and the road haul agreement, which compensates the county for wear an tear on the roads due to increased contractor traffic.
On the negative side, there was word from a meeting last week of the insurance pool used by the county that rates for the coming year would go up 30 percent, rather than the 20 percent the county had originally planned to include in the budget.
That subject was also mentioned in the afternoon session when Andrews and Zoller were asked what news items they thought were currently the most important at the county:
“I guess insurance is going to be more this year, as always. / Our risk management insurance is increasing. Mr. Edelman had a nice report. He’s moving forward — which everybody’s interested in — the comp plan. They are working in it, and the critical area ordinance and shoreline management plan are coming along. So the planning commission has been busy. And we have some things to come to our desk pretty soon. So that’s encouraging.”
Commissioners canceled the workshop scheduled for this Thursday and adjourned the meeting until next week’s Tuesday’s morning workshop session at 9:30.