Talking Kelso

You probably saw the article this morning on the efforts the city is making to keep up with road problems caused by the wet weather. The crews have done so much repair work that they’ve used more material than we budgeted. To me, that’s a good problem to have. They’ve been working very hard and doing what they can to maintain our streets. I suspect at some point in the future we’ll approve whatever increase it takes to keep the streets patched appropriately.

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Appointment to Civil Service Board

Larry Anderson has been selected by the manager to the Civil Service Commission, replacing Glynnis Hill, who no longer lives within the city limits.
LNG Resolution

Citizens representing landowners affected by the proposed liquid natural gas pipeline requested the council’s consideration of a resolution opposing the project. The mayor asked them to return with such a resolution and we would discuss it at that point.

SkatePark fundraising update

Jeremy Hooper stopped by to let us know that the recent fundraiser went well, netting $800 for the effort to fund a skatepark in Kelso. An additional $200 was received at the meeting, getting Jeremy up to $1,000 so far!

Also on the agenda…

• We approved the solid waste agreement approved by Longview and other cities, so that the garbage tipping fees will stay low for a long time.
• We cleaned up some misleading language in one of the plan review ordinances.
• We authorized contracting for another planner to keep up with the workload that’s coming from the various projects being considered and constructed.
• We approved a labor contract with the Teamsters. The librarians are part of the Teamsters? Who’d have thought???

Officer Promotions

The council was introduced to new Captain Andy Hamilton and Sergeant Darr Kirk of KPD. These two were recently selected for promotions arising from the retirement of Captain Doug Taylor.

Facade Agreement

The council was able to approve a final version of the facade improvement loan program. The program is designed to encourage investment and improvement of the look of downtown buildings. As I’ve reported before, the initial applicant for this program is the Kelso Theater Pub. They will be applying for the maximum loan amount, $30,000, in order to replace their marquee and repaint the facility.

The conditions of the loan include no interest to the recipient, with repayment in full required upon the sale or refinancing of the property. The program is funded by some HUD funds the city received to use for these types of improvements. The council sees this as a tool to help improve the quality and appearance of the downtown core.

Columbia Apartments Elevator Replacement

The council elected to allocate the 2007 document recording fees of $16,200 to the Kelso Housing Authority to use as part of the funding to replace an elevator at the Columbia Apartments. Apparently, the elevator hasn’t worked for quite a while. It’ll be nice to see this funding really make a difference in the lives of the folks who live at the Columbia Apartments.

Offer on S. River Road property

Within a week of listing the property on South River Road for sale, the realtor received a full-price offer of $1.1M for the property. The developer who made the offer, Nicholson Enterprises, plans a development of 240 condo units, to be built in 3 phases. The condos are projected to sell for between $250,000-$400,000, and are planned to include parking for golf carts, pool and spa, a fitness center, and more. The council approved the offer.

In other business, the council approved funding for moving the AWOS station at the airport (funded with FAA $) and getting the bridge strength evaluated (required), and approved the contract with the union representing the public works employees.