Correction: In an article about the Winlock City Council meeting in Saturday’s edition of The Chronicle, it was incorrectly stated commenters at a public hearing opposed the proposed traffic revision under consideration at the public hearing, when they actually opposed the status quo.
While the July 27 Winlock City Council meeting started off with the unexpected resignations of both City Attorney Jim Buzzard and Councilor Jess Bowers, albeit for different reasons, a public hearing on a proposed traffic revision on the streets surrounding Winlock Elementary School was also held.
A pair of residents spoke in support of the changes.
The first was Randy Pennington, who spoke as a citizen. He’s the Winlock Police Department’s school resource officer (SRO) at the elementary school and a Lewis County Fire District 15 commissioner.
His main concerns are the small size of the roads to begin with, particularly Northwest Fir Street and Northwest Benton Avenue, which are both currently two-way streets. The proposed traffic revision would make Fir Street a one-way street westbound starting at Northwest Arden Avenue, Benton Avenue a one-way street going south from Fir, and Northwest Arden Avenue a one-way going north to Fir.
“The north side of Fir Street between Arden and Benton is coned off. Nobody can park there. Why is that? There’s a couple reasons,” Pennington said. “One, the parking space is 96 inches. Which leaves a total of 96 inches in the lane of travel. Per Washington Administrative Code, (WAC) it’s supposed to be 120 inches. It is not.”
Because of the tight squeeze, the north side of Fir Street has to be coned off, otherwise traffic including the school buses cannot make the turn at Fir and Benton.
“The school buses, when they turn onto Benton Street, for them to turn from here into here, they can’t. They have to cheat. They have to go into these parking spaces to make the turn, otherwise they cannot make that turn,” Pennington added. “That’s the reason why it’s coned off.”
While the north side of Fir Street is too narrow, Pennington stated the south side is too wide as well. Given the difficulty larger vehicles have navigating the narrow streets, there have already been three reported collisions in the area between January and April, and Pennington stated there are probably more he hasn’t heard about.
The traffic problem has gotten so bad, it now dominates Pennington’s time as the SRO.
“Every day we have near-collisions. Every single day. I spend most of my day trying to direct traffic,” he said.
Because the streets are residential as well, residents’ cars are the ones being hit by parents trying to pick up or drop off students.
According to Pennington, if the revisions are made, it will ensure the roads are now compliant with WAC state law guidelines and provide more space for both residents parking, and parents and bus drivers going through.
Winlock resident Jesse Buckner, who lives Arden Avenue, concurred with Pennington’s support for the traffic revision, and also stated he was concerned about speeders in the area.
“Cars are just flying through there. They come down Benton and turn on Walnut and they gun it. They’re coming down from the cemetery down the hill, and I was turning in and I think a guy passed me on Walnut, for goodness sake,” Buckner said.
West Walnut Street just south of the school has no passing lane.
No other commenters spoke on the proposed traffic revision, which will be up for approval at a future Winlock City Council meeting.
New councilor applications and changes made to city attorney contract
At the next Winlock City Council meeting, scheduled for Monday, Aug. 10, councilors will hold the public interview and appointment process to replace Bowers, according to a post on the city’s official Facebook page announcing applications are currently being accepted.
Bowers announced his resignation at the July 27 meeting, citing an impending move outside of Winlock city limits due to getting a new job.
Interested applicants must be registered voters and have lived within Winlock city limits for at least one year.
The deadline to apply is Friday, Aug. 7, and applications can be found and submitted at Winlock City Hall, located at 323 NE First St. in Winlock.
As for Buzzard’s resignation, it came after Winlock Mayor Victoria Marincin tried to terminate the city attorney contract in her first few months in office earlier this year, citing disapproval with recent changes to the contract approved last December before she took office.
Specifically, section three of the contract, “organizational entity.”
The old contract, approved in November 2023, stated, “Law firm shall represent the city as an organizational entity, and the city as an organizational entity shall be a client of law firm. With the exception of requests from the city council acting as a body, the mayor shall act as the ‘gatekeeper’ for the city in requesting the services of law firm, coordinating and designating the flow of work to law firm, and establishing the relative priorities to be placed on tasks to be performed by law firm. No member of the city staff may require law firm to perform work for the city unless authorized by the mayor. This provision does not prevent law firm, in the discretion of law firm, from having one-on-one contact with city council members and/or city staff. When requesting legal services, the city shall state specific services requested and the response date.”
In the newly approved contract, the paragraph has the mayoral gatekeeper provision removed to read, “Law firm shall represent the city as an organizational entity, and the city as an organizational entity shall be a client of law firm. This provision does not prevent law firm, in the discretion of law firm, from having one-on-one contact with city council members and/or city staff. When requesting legal services, the city shall state specific services requested and the response date.”
The only other contract revisions were the pay rate increases, which saw the city attorney’s hourly rate rise from $250 to $275 in 2027, and up to $300 an hour in 2028 — and the removal of section four, subsection g, which stated “law firm will provide such other services as are necessary and appropriate in order to provide the city with adequate legal representation.”
The subsections prior to that, which remained unchanged, laid out the general responsibilities of the law firm to the city, including advising and consulting the mayor and city council on city legal matters, and drafting ordinances, contracts and resolutions.
To learn more, read The Chronicle’s previous coverage of Buzzard’s resignation at https://tinyurl.com/bdhbhcdw.
