Members of the Vader City Council convened on Wednesday, March 4, for their first regular monthly meeting.
During the meeting, Vader Mayor Joe Schey announced that city staff has received one application for a vacant council position.
The vacancy came after former Vader City Councilor Mike Ferguson’s resignation was announced at the previous regular council meeting on Feb. 18, as due to his work, he would frequently only be able to attend meetings virtually.
“I want to thank Mr. Ferguson for his years of service. He’s still planning on volunteering in a variety of capacities in the city, just not on the council,” Schey said during the Feb. 18 meeting.
While one application had been submitted since the Feb. 18 meeting, councilors on Wednesday agreed to wait for at least another meeting period before holding the public appointment process to fill the vacancy. The Vader City Council meets on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, meaning the council’s next meeting is scheduled for March 18.
Following Ferguson’s resignation, the city council has 90 days to appoint his replacement following the date of his resignation, per state law. If the city is unable to find an appointee, members of the Lewis County Board of Commissioners are required to appoint someone qualified to fill the vacancy.
In addition to the city council vacancy, Schey told The Chronicle after the meeting vacancies also currently exist on the Vader Park Board and Vader Planning Committee. Applications for the vacancies are available at Vader City Hall, located at 317 Eighth St. in Vader.
During his mayor’s report, Schey announced Washington state Department of Health officials had requested additional information about the city’s Water Utility Action Plan, which if approved will provide the framework for water system receivership, transferring control of the water system from Lewis County back to Vader Public Works.
“The city has sent a reply to the Department of Health regarding their request for more information,” Schey said. “So we are again waiting for the Department of Health to get back to us.”
Lewis County staff have operated Vader’s water system since 2010, when the Lewis County Superior Court ordered county officials to take control of Vader’s water system due to the city’s financial instability, on top of failing to secure grants or loans to fund water system upgrades. Between 2006 and 2010, there were at least 17 boil water advisories in the South Lewis County community, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
Schey also announced city staff are now accepting contractor bids for a Washington state Transportation Improvement Board Streets grant-funded project in town. The grant money is meant to pay for city-wide chip sealing work on the roads.
Project details are available online at https://www.questcdn.com/, with the project number being 10084840. Jackson Civil Engineering consultants estimate the total cost of the project to be $280,000. Sealed bids must be turned in in-person at city hall or mailed and received by city staff before bids are opened live and publicly read aloud at Vader City Hall on Thursday, March 26, at 2 p.m.
During the meeting, councilors also reviewed drafts of possibly updated city code chapters prepared by city staff for the first two chapters. No motions were made to accept the updated codes as councilors wanted to spend the next two weeks reviewing them, and the drafts must still be sent to the city attorney for review before the council takes any action on them.
