Councilors once again discussed having city-issued cellphones to use for official business during the Morton City Council meeting at the Bob Lyle Community Center on Monday, Feb. 23.
Also discussed were upcoming Independence Day events being planned in July as a part of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration — including an East Lewis County Chamber of Commerce (ELCCC) attempt to set a record for a community potluck-style picnic.
Councilors ended up tabling an amended list of city tourism grant funding requests.
The amendment came after ELCCC President Rhonda Cornwell officially withdrew the ELCCC’s request for city tourism grant funding during the meeting.
In a letter read during the meeting, Cornwell explained they chose to withdraw their tourism grant request as they wanted to try to help the city with lingering budgetary issues, stemming from the fallout of former Morton City Clerk-Treasurer Tamara “Tammy” Clevenger’s embezzlement, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
“Despite withdrawing the grant application, we remain committed to organizing the community picnic, we still want that to go on,” Cornwell said.
In addition to still planning the picnic in Morton, Cornwell stated the ELCCC is collaborating with American Legion Post 2015 to put on the picnic, as during the Morton City Council’s January meeting American Legion Post 215 Commander Ed Smith announced post members were also planning a Fourth of July community picnic event.
Cornwell also asked for donations to help with putting on the community event, adding that anyone who donated anything, even only a few dollars, will be acknowledged.
The ELCCC and Post 215 community picnic in Morton will be held at Jubilee Park on July 4, though an official starting time has yet to be announced. The ELCCC has also been coordinating with Guinness Book of World Records officials as the picnic will be a record-setting attempt for Guinness’ Superlative States records campaign.
Aside from picnic planning, Cornwell also announced an update for the other ELCCC event being planned this year — the second annual SasqWatch: Beyond the Footprint, a two-day festival held in neighboring Randle celebrating Bigfoot.
“We have the host of the TV show Finding Bigfoot — which shows on Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel — Matt Moneymaker, who is helping us with the festival,” Cornwell said. “And we anticipate this will become the largest annual festival surrounding Bigfoot in the United States. Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic, we have a lot of amazing things coming to this festival we’re excited about, and our festival already has vendors coming from as far as Tennessee.”
Aside from the show Finding Bigfoot, Moneymaker is the president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), which he founded in 1995.
“BFRO will be the host of our event, and we (will) have many researchers present,” Cornwell added.
While SasqWatch will be held in Randle, around 17 miles east of Morton, Cornwell said they are anticipating between 2,000 and 3,000 attendees each day, who will need dining and lodging options, which Morton offers.
Cornwell also proposed that the City of Morton apply for a T-Mobile Hometown Grant and offered to help write it, which if approved will get the city up to $50,000. T-Mobile launched this grant program to help support up to 500 rural communities with revitalization and improvement projects, according to its website, with the deadline to apply being March 31.
As for the cellphone issue, both councilors and public commenters once again advocated both for and against them. Some who want councilors to have city-issued phones believe they will help increase government transparency, while others argued the phones aren’t needed as councilors already have official email addresses.
Ultimately, the council voted to table the issue again, as there is currently no budget allocations available to purchase city-issued cell phones for the councilors.
As for the amended city tourism grant funding requests, Morton City Councilor Jason Sawyer wanted to table it in order to get more information concerning the Morton Historical Society’s request for $20,000, as no Historical Society board member was present at the meeting to answer questions.
Sawyer had previously challenged the Historical Society’s, wanting more details as to how the money would be spent and questioning whether the Historical Society should have sent former Morton Mayor Dan Mortensen to make the official request. While the initial request from the Historical Society did lack details, they had since resubmitted a more detailed request.
While the ELCCC’s request for $15,000 was withdrawn, the Fire Mountain Art Council’s request for $3,535, the Loggers’ Jubilee Committee’s request for $2,800 and the city’s own allotment of $5,000 for advertising still remained alongside the Historical Society’s request.
Ultimately, Sawyer’s motion to table was approved, and the matter will be discussed at the next Morton City Council meeting scheduled for March 23.
For those who missed the meeting, recordings can be found on a new citizen-run, unofficial YouTube account, @MortonWACityCouncil.
