With a quorum present, members of the Vader City Council convened for their first regular meeting of the month on Wednesday, Aug. 5, inside the southern Lewis County community’s city hall.
During the meeting, councilors unanimously approved Ordinance 2026-05. Councilor John Hurt was not present for the vote. The ordinance established interim official control, giving the City of Vader the authority to ensure all new future housing developments meet newly proposed city code design standards for housing.
Code changes are being proposed in order to help the city deal with the growth it has seen recently and ensure new housing being built is completed without “the risk of new homes becoming vested to outdated standards,” the ordinance states.
The ordinance had been in the works since the beginning of the year and has been discussed by both the city council and Vader Planning Commission as part of implementing Vader’s updated 2025 Comprehensive Plan.
With the controls being interim, city staff is now accepting public comment on the ordinance up until Wednesday, Aug. 12, when the Vader Planning Committee will hold a public hearing on the permanent ordinance at the committee’s 5:30 p.m. meeting inside Vader City Hall.
However, after councilors approved the interim ordinance, one meeting attendee already expressed opposition to the ordinance during public comment.
Spencer Boudreau of TNJ Investments, LLC, and former Longview mayor, spoke on behalf of his fellow developers and WD3 Construction, which has been building manufactured homes in Vader for several years.
“As we stated before, some of these design changes and code changes that the city could be seeking to implement would, as will be discussed at the public hearing on the 12th, add between $50,000 to $100,000 to the construction of one of the homes that we’re doing,” Boudreau said.
After some back-and-forth with Councilor Sheri McKernan-Kindell about the wholesale invoice cost for the manufactured homes they’re building and how much the proposed code changes would actually add to a home’s cost, Boudreau maintained his opposition to the new proposed building codes.
“We’re here as the provider who’s built the most homes in Vader in the last four years at a price that people can afford,” Boudreau said.
McKernan-Kindell also spoke about the last month’s Red, White and Boom fireworks and car shows, stating that a total of $4,056 was raised in total, with $3,682 dollars being added to the city’s festival account for next year’s show, after preparations for this year’s events was paid for. On top of this, McKernan-Kindell stated Pacific Northwest Truckers Relief Fund members were at this year’s car show and raised $20,000, and will be taking over hosting the future Red, White and Boom Car Shows on future Independence Days.
She thanked all her fellow volunteers and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, Winlock and Vader fire department and Washington state staff for their help in hosting the events, and also addressed an apparently disparaging letter that was recently circulated around Vader following the Fourth of July events.
“We welcome any one of you to have a one-on-one conversation with us to go over the details of these letters that you received,” McKernan-Kindell added.
At the end of the meeting, during her report, Councilor Nicole Hansen gave an update on the status of the carousel project.
Hansen first proposed the city purchase the carousel — a historic 1927 Dentzel-Muller Grand Amusement carousel — back in May after the Snoqualmie Valley Carousel, a nonprofit seeking to restore it, announced it was shutting down. Hansen originally started the nonprofit to head up restoration efforts on it. When she moved to Vader, though, she had to give up her seat on the nonprofit’s board.
While she knew it was a longshot to begin to get the City of Vader to purchase the carousel, Hansen stated since May a number of local volunteers have stepped up to help try to get it to Vader anyways. Hansen believes if it can be restored it can be both a rentable wedding venue and tourist attraction for the southern Lewis County community.
“We have a resident who’s offered to store the containers long term on his property until we can find a nonprofit in the area to take it,” Hansen said.
Volunteers have also offered to help transfer the containers with the deconstructed carousel from Snoqualmie, and a grant application has been submitted to help pay for the transportation costs.
Hansen added a website is in the works for those looking to donate to help save the carousel, and plans on bringing a proposal to the council soon to approve placing the carousel at McMurphy Park.
