The Goldendale City Council had a busy night last night. Councilors heard a report on regional economic development from Jonathan Lewis of Klickitat Valley Health, and an update on the Klickitat County Administration Building and parking analysis from Klickitat County Commissioner Dan Christopher. He said that there would be an open house tonight from 4 to 6 pm at the new building, that light refreshments would be served and there would be tours of the new building,
One of the consequences of building the new building was the loss of parking spaces, temporarily. The county will be tearing down a couple of structures to provide parking, and proposed the city vacate South Grant Street between West Court Street and West Allyn Street for additional parking. The city will hold a hearing on that subject April 4.
Klickitat County Public Works Director Gordon Kelsey told the council there will be a great improvement in the long run:
“Before we did this project we had 175 spaces total. The number of spaces after construction is 261, so that’s a net gain of 86 parking spaces. That will help everybody, and they’re all public parking spaces, so whether you’re shopping on Main Street of visiting the courthouse, they’re available to everybody.”
He also answered a question many people had about the big hole by the courthouse:
“I’ve heard all kinds of things that might be. It’s not a swimming pool or anything like that. We discovered two underground fuel tanks from the old courthouse, so those had to be dug up and then we had to dig up all the contaminated soil and then we had to wait to get permission to fill the hole back in. We got some of the permission that the water in the hole is not contaminated last week and then actually today we got news from the Department of Ecology that DOE has cleared it. We’re all clean, and no further action, so that’s a good thing.”
Kelsey said all the building demolition and parking lot construction should be done in time for Community Days in July.
In other business, councilors voted to award a $168,800 contract for site preparation and electrical work at the Airport to a Hood River firm, M&M Excavation LLC. And they awarded $405,000 to RH2 Engineering of Lake Oswego for design services involving the wastewater treatment plant. That’s the first phase of a $4 million project to refurbish and modernize the city’s aging wastewater treatment plant
Finally, following a short executive session, the council reconvened in open session to announce they would sign a 10 year ground lease on a 2.44 acre lot in the city’s industrial park with Republic Services for $275 an acre.
3/07 Goldendale City Council Meeting
