Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Klickitat Commissioners covered a lot of ground yesterday. In the morning workshop session, Public Works Director Jeff Hunter expressed frustration about a problem at the Lyle boat launch.
“People don’t realize that is a county road. It’s from the days when there used to be a ferry. We have signs, no parking signs so people can use the launch, and they took the signs right out. So we put ’em in with the screws that you can’t take out. And we put ’em in concrete so you couldn’t take the post out. Well, they ripped the post out, concrete and everything./ It’s laying there or it’s gone?/ No, it’s gone.”
He said he would notify the sheriff and they’d have to anchor a replacement sign in a large rock or a Jersey barrier.
Public Health Director Erin Quinn said health departments around the state had been notified of a significant cut in state funding.
“Statewide, there will be $21 million of cuts. I know that will impact our department. I have no idea what that will look like. We haven’t gotten any heads up if it’s going to be programmatic or overall. We know that July 1st, we anticipate running a very lean department.”
In the formal afternoon session, commissioners opened rebids for repairing the stucco on the county courthouse and repainting it after a first round of bids came in higher than the county’s budget. Once the bidder’s qualifications have been approved, the county will confirm the winner.
But the best quotes of the day, as usual, came from county lobbyist Zak Kennedy, who noted that in a previous session, they had succeeded in getting the legislature to approve the designation of frontier counties
“Imagine you’re a downtown Seattle legislator – Senate, House, doesn’t matter. Most likely Democrat, probably never driven your car on a gravel road in your life. And so they look at frontier counties, and they basically look at us from a position of complete neglect. We need to leverage that.”
He said in the past, the only kind of flexibility the state had given counties was the flexibility to increase taxes. He suggested that, working together, frontier counties might be able to get some flexibility on regulations that did not work well in rural areas, such as additional dwelling units, or ADUs.
“In downtown Seattle, someone living in your garage is a big deal. In the country, someone puttin’ a small apartment in the garage or shop or barn or whatever could be a quarter mile away from your house or more. Nobody cares. There’s no danger there. Could we possibly get some exemption in there for the frontier counties, because it just doesn’t make sense.”