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Members of the Vader City Council convened for their first regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 1, and during the meeting unanimously approved an event application from the Friends of Little Falls for a fundraiser car show and concert scheduled for June 27.
Also approved by a vote of 3-1 was a motion to purchase five tablets for councilors to use to read meeting agenda packets to save paper and ink. Depending on what is on a meeting’s agenda, packets can sometimes be well over 100 pages long.
Vader City Councilor Mike Parsons was the lone opposition to the purchase, as per his estimations, it would still take around seven years for the city to make up the cost of the tablets in money saved on paper and ink. By that time, he added, the tablets will be obsolete, and may also break before that point.
“In the grand scheme of things, we’ll probably never recoup the cost,” Vader Mayor Joe Schey said.
Schey looked at two different options for possible tablet purchases, either an Android 15 or Android 16. Though at the time of the meeting, the cheaper of the two options, the Android 15, was no longer available.
“I’m for it, I wouldn’t mind finding something more into the Android 15 price range,” Vader City Councilor Jason Dailey said.
While the council is still short one member after former Vader City Councilor Mike Ferguson resigned earlier this year — and two residents have submitted letters of interest to be appointed to the vacancy so far — Schey asked councilors to table making an appointment for one more meeting to allow others interested to apply if they desire.
Interested applicants can submit their letters at Vader City Hall, which is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed for lunch daily from noon to 1 p.m.
The Vader City Council’s next meeting is scheduled Wednesday, April 15, starting at 6 p.m. inside Vader City Hall, located at 317 Eighth St. in Vader.
Code compliance
During the meeting, councilors also held a substantial discussion with Vader City Attorney Jennifer Robertson on code enforcement. City staff have recently come forward to the council to ask for a code enforcement amendment to give them more authority to enforce corrections given to Vader residents for code violations.
Robertson emphasized that most cities send notice of code violation letters at first informing property owners, and that court orders must be obtained before city staff can enter a property to try to carry out enforcement. She also stated letters are a cheaper option compared to the city having to file a lawsuit against the property owner.
Schey added that while most residents do comply when they get these letters, there are some who don’t. Parsons suggested publicly announcing the names of property owners who refuse to comply even after multiple letters to “shame them.”
Robertson stated this would be allowable if city staff wanted, as the notice of code violation letters sent out to inform property owners of code violations are public record anyway. Parsons recommended waiting until the final warning letter to make them public.
He also stressed that city staff themselves are not going out purposely to find code violations on properties.
“I’ve heard a couple people laugh when Jason said, ‘when we get a report from the neighbors,’” Parsons said. “... Correct me if I’m wrong, but it was all complaint driven. It’s not like we’re driving around looking for issues that we get to do this garbage with. It’s complaints from your neighbors. So, if you get a letter from us, your neighbor doesn’t feel comfortable enough to go talk to you, that’s a whole another issue. But, let’s just clean it up.”
Vader City Councilor John Hurt added even with the public shaming, there may still be some in noncompliance who simply do not care. He brought up a case involving his own neighbor, who is having to spend money on pest control thanks to another adjacent property.
“The neighbors have to put rat poison on their (car) air cleaners, because of the rats coming off that property and getting up into the engine compartments and eating the wiring,” Hurt said. “That person’s being fined hundreds of dollars a day, and just gives us the middle finger.”
Talks were held to come up with a threshold fine amount number in which the council may have as an option to trigger more serious legal action, and Schey said more discussion on this issue will be held at their next meeting.
July 4th events
As for Vader’s July 4th events, volunteers from the Vader Parks Board are planning the annual Red, White and Boom fireworks show and Hell on Wheels car show, among many other Independence Day events including a corn hole tournament, a pie contest and auction and a time capsule dedication.
The South Lewis County community is one of many across the nation officially taking part in the America250 celebration this Independence Day too, marking the nation’s 250th birthday.
While plans are well in the works for the events, Schey explained there is currently one problem — parking.
With the Red, White and Boom fireworks show known for being the biggest Independence Day fireworks display in Lewis County with shows averaging around 45 minutes, cars are often packed throughout the rural city’s streets for blocks surrounding the show site as hundreds attend the show every year.
“(Cowlitz-Lewis Fire District 20) Chief (Richard) Underdahl came last year and kind of did a recap, and suggested we find a way to keep certain fire lanes open,” Schey said. “... In particular, Eighth Street on the way out to the westside highway, there were folks that were parked on both sides of the road, not leaving enough space for a large rig to get through there. Obviously, that can’t happen.”
One meeting attendee did propose offering a property she owned for parking space, though Schey warned her about possible liability issues she would assume if she did that, and the idea of allowing home owners to charge for parking on their property was also floated.
“This is a tough thing, we really don’t have a solution for it,” Schey added.
Schey also stated volunteers are looking into getting a shuttle service to and from McMurphy Park to utilize the park’s parking spaces.
