The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - The Dayton City Council voted Monday evening to hire a new city planner who will report only to city officials, and work in- dependently of the Columbia County planning director. The motion passed by a 5-1 margin, with council mem- ber Arthur Hall dissenting.

The new planner will replace Kim Lyonnais, who was recently hired by Colum- bia County to replace retiring planner Richard Hendricksen, beginning May 1. Lyon- nais was hired by the city in October as part-time planner, but resigned last month. The council accepted Lyonnais' resignation Monday.

Hall, who chairs the council's planning committee, has been in talks with new county commissioner Mike Talbott about setting up a joint planning office for the city and county. A tentative plan was worked out in which the city and county planners would work in a joint office, with Lyonnais as lead planner.

But on Monday, several council members expressed concern that a conflict could be created if the city plan- ner were employed by the city but supervised by the county planner. They also questioned whether the city's needs could be met by an office overseen by the county, especially in light of past difficulties the city has expe- rienced with joint planning.

In July, a contract between the city and county, in which the county provided plan- ning for the city, was ended. On Monday, Mayor Craig George said that city officials felt the city's needs weren't being met under that agreement.

Mayor George said one option the council could con- sider going forward would be to operate the city's planning office independently for a year and then revisit the is- sue with the county. Others expressed concern that it would be difficult to move the city planner to a subor- dinate position after working independently for a year.

In February, the council made the decision to make the city's planning position full time. City officials reiter- ated Monday that the list of planning work needed will keep a full time planner busy for the foreseeable future. Based on Monday's decision, the new city planner will work in city hall.

After Monday's meeting, hall said that the city and county are moving ahead on establishing a joint planning commission. A draft agree- ment has been written and the city's attorney is review- ing it.