The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—The Port of Columbia commissioners held their last regularly scheduled meeting of the year at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 08, 2021, via Zoom. Commissioner Shawn Brown called the meeting to order.

There was no public comment.

The Board approved the minutes of the last meeting and addressed the monthly budget report. The Port Director, Jennie Dickinson, announced the Port received $55,000 in tax revenue from the County.

The Port received from the County a bill for the primary election for $7820, which is about twice the past election costs for the Port. Brown stated that it was his understanding the bill was high because the only race on the primary ballot was for a port position. Typically, other entities would have shared the information pamphlet and ballot printing and mailing expenses. Commissioner Sean Milligan asked the Director to check that the Port was not being billed for both the original and corrected information pamphlet since the errors were not the fault of the Port.

The budget report included $8,000 paid for an economic impact analysis to be sent to the commissioners and posted on the Port’s website. The document looks at direct jobs and indirect jobs created by the Port’s activities and discusses how the impact numbers in the report were determined.

The Director said the cash on hand in the budget report might be misleading as it includes $403,500 earmarked for broadband matching funds, so it is not available to spend. The cash reserves remain at $100,000.

The Director announced three changes in leases, one new lease, and two renewals. At Blue Mountain Station (BMS), the Co-op has agreed to a slight rent increase and is ready to sign a new two-year lease

In Suite B of the BMS, Mike Collins, owner of the Bard & Bee Meadery, plans to renew his two-year lease with a two-year extension.

Teresa Rae will rent a recently vacated space for an art studio with a one-year lease at the Port’s Cameron Court location.

Dickinson reported a roof leak at the building leased by the hospital, which has been a recurring problem. An estimate to repair the roof came in at $48,000, which she felt was too expensive. She will investigate other solutions to mitigate the problem.

At another Port property, Dickinson said Lyons Ferry Marina was still planning on adding ten RV pull-through sites, a project she hopes will get started next year. The Marina reported that they had a “great year.”

The Director and Commissioners decided to hold their meetings for 2022 on the second Wednesday of each month at 5 p.m. Since the Port conference room is too small to maintain social distancing, the Board decided to hold their meetings using Zoom. The new time and day for Port meetings are the same as Dayton City Council Meetings, so a citizen will not be able to attend both meetings. The meeting time was changed at the request of the newly elected board members.

Genie Crowe was appointed Board Chair to run the next meeting on January 12.

Vicki Zoller addressed the Board, hoping for support planning for a swimming pool in the County. Although she may find funding to build the pool, she feels that long-term maintenance would be a problem to support financially. After researching how similar communities maintain their pools, the Dayton Friends of the Pool concluded that the best way forward would be to form a parks and recreation district. To get the park and recreation district on next year’s November ballot, 15% of the registered voters in Columbia County would need to sign a petition, and a feasibility study would have to be completed.

To move forward, the Friends of the Pool needs to have a community assessment and feasibility study to collect input from residents of a potential parks and recreation district. Schemata Workshop has been asked to do architectural work and help develop a scope of work for the project. Schemata Workshop will also help with the community outreach, facilitating three public meetings to gather public input.

The Dayton Friends of the Pool is asking for financial support from the city government, school and hospital districts as the project cannot move forward without the study. Ms. Zoller, on behalf of the Friends of the Pool, asked for $5,000 from the Port. The Port did have $3,250 remaining balance in their community support funds budget. The commissioners approved providing the remaining $3,250 to the Friends of the Pool for their feasibility study. Zoller thanked the Board, saying this would “help educate our county voters and give them the opportunity to decide and put it in their hands.”

Next, Dickinson discussed signing the Washington State Department of Commerce Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) contract to support the area’s broadband project. The mission of CERB is to “enrich the lives of all Washington state residents and businesses by ensuring they have access to affordable, reliable, redundant and scalable/future proof broadband technologies ensuring the economic viability of both urban and rural Washington state today and into the future.” The contract would involve federal funds and include a federal audit. In addition to the CERB contract, the pole attachment agreement with Pacificorp was also ready for the commissioners’ signatures. The Director compared this project with the development of the Lyon’s Ferry Marina in the 1970s in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Signing the CERB contract would obligate the Port to provide $96,500 in matching funds, which has only been an issue since the County has been reticent to announce any plans to provide their share of the matching funds.

The Director also announced that their application to the Public Works board for $1,165,000 to extend the broadband project coverage westward to the outskirts of Huntsville was successful. This extension requires no matching funds.

There were no significant updates on the trail project except that it has been decided to plan on the Dayton segment to run down Main Street instead of Commercial Street.

As to the childcare facility, the group developing such a facility has submitted their grant proposal to the Washington Department of Commerce. The group has not yet settled on a location for the facility. The Director said that she does not expect the Port to play a big role in the childcare facility.

The next meeting of the Port Commissioners will be on January 12, 2022, at 5 p.m. on Zoom. The meeting adjourned at 4:52 p.m.