The Mossyrock City Council is complete once more, as Samuel Schellenger Jr. was unanimously appointed to a vacant position during its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 18.
During his initial introduction after applying for the vacancy last month, Schellenger said he recently retired from a 36-year career in the U.S. Merchant Marines. The vacancy occurred following the death of Councilor Beatrice Minnear, who passed away on March 22 at the age of 81.
After Schellenger was sworn in by Mayor Randall Sasser, the council moved forward with discussing agenda items, including updating the city’s fee schedule and dog ordinance.
During a meeting in April, a fee schedule update was first introduced after the city’s treasurer discovered the operating and maintenance costs of renting out the Mossyrock Community Center were outpacing the revenue rental fees were generating. The city’s fee schedule was last updated in 2015.
Added to the new draft fee schedule are fines for having roaming dogs or dogs considered a nuisance in Klickitat Prairie Park — which the updated dog ordinance sets up a framework to enforce.
“We’re going to come up with a big sign as you go into the park that’s going to have some sort of verbiage that says, ‘This is our park, treat it with respect,’ and, ‘Dogs must be on leashes,’” Sasser said. “Once we get the dog ordinance all done, we’ll refer back to that.”
According to the draft fee schedule, the fine for the first notice of having an unleashed or nuisance dog at the park is $100, then $250 for the second notice and $500 for the third.
Other fee increases proposed include raising a vendor permit from $20 to $25 and to begin charging $25 a day for use of Klickitat Prairie Park’s amphitheater and covered picnic area. It was proposed to raise the community center’s rental fee from $150 to $200 a day for commercial purposes.
While the city council was meant to make a motion to adopt a resolution for the new fee schedule, Mossyrock Planning Commission Chair Marcia Manley asked the council to table adoption until the planning commission had a chance to review it and make its own amendment recommendations.
Ultimately, the council moved to table the motion and vote on it during their meeting in July. Manley also told the council she would have a new draft RV ordinance ready for them to vote on by next month.
Discussed originally in April, the RV ordinance pertains to establishing guidelines as to where RVs and mobile homes can be located on properties and how long someone can live inside one on the property — along with prohibiting renting or subletting an RV.
During the meeting, Sasser also mentioned that a “very interesting event” happened at the city’s wastewater treatment plant along U.S. Highway 12.
“Somebody in a vehicle left Highway 12, went through the fence and went into the old retention pond out there,” Sasser said.
While the retention pond was no longer actively used by the city, it still had some collected rainwater in it — forcing the driver to abandon his truck in the mud for city workers to find on Monday morning.
“It happened, I’m thinking early in the morning, because it wasn’t there over the weekend. Monday morning, it showed up,” Sasser added.
As for whether the driver was impaired or not, it is still unknown as while Washington State Patrol were attempting to find the driver, they had still not been located as of Wednesday’s meeting.
According to Morton Police Chief Cole Cournyer, they had discovered the truck was owned by someone in the area.
“I provided that information to state so they could further look into that. A lot of times what they’ll say is it’s their vehicle but they left the scene, try to report their vehicle as stolen. That’s kind of common for it to go that way, but that's being looked into by the state patrol,” Cournyer said during his report.
The Mossyrock City Council’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 16, at 6 p.m. inside the Mossyrock Community Center, located at 219 E. State St. in downtown Mossyrock.
For more information, visit the city’s website at https://www.cityofmossyrock.com/city-hall/.
