It will no longer cost Lewis County residents $300 to prevent Public Works staff from spraying herbicides on property adjacent to county roads.
A resolution passed by the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) in May 2020 approved charging Lewis County residents $300 and a subsequent $25 yearly maintenance fee to get on the county’s “No Spray List” for vegetation management along the county’s 1,053 miles of roadway.
Residents responded negatively to the fee structure. As previously reported by The Chronicle, letters were sent to the paper and to the BOCC expressing indignation about the high cost to join the list.
Shortly after that story was published, Commissioner Lee Grose introduced a resolution to rescind the No Spray fee agreement.
During a Tuesday BOCC business meeting, all three commissioners approved his resolution. Now, Public Works will go back to the drawing board to create a vegetation management plan with a No Spray agreement that does not include charging residents.
Grose said during a Monday meeting the new agreement drafted should still hold No Spray applicants accountable for maintaining their roadside vegetation.
Josh Metcalf, director of Public Works, asked on Monday that the board consider at least keeping the $25 maintenance fee to cover the costs of Community Development staff time to process applications. All three commissioners were opposed to having any fees for the program at all, with Commissioner Sean Swope calling the agreement “punitive.”
None of the current commissioners were in office in May 2020.
Daniel Barth, a Vietnam veteran who lives east of Centralia, sent the BOCC a letter regarding the No Spray agreement telling the commissioners it was “not appreciated.”
He was pleased with the BOCC’s decision on Tuesday and praised the commissioners for listening to constituents.
“I was unaware that the BOCC would be addressing the issue this quick. Clearly I’m grateful for all the hard work of Commissioner Grose and the understanding and compassion of the BOCC. Their oversight and corrective action is appreciated and welcomed by me and all the other county landowners affected by this Public Works Department (PWD) new fee schedule,” Barth said in an email to The Chronicle. “Now, I hope the PWD will re-look at the program in more depth and be open to more reasonable exceptions to not spray herbicides and other chemicals along our public roads.”
