Members of the Vader City Council convened on Wednesday, May 6, for their first regular monthly meeting, and among the discussion topics was the scheduling of a public hearing regarding the possible annexation of the South Lewis County community’s urban growth area (UGA).
During the meeting, Vader Mayor Joe Schey announced there is currently a proposal for merging Lewis County Fire District 15 in Winlock with Cowlitz-Lewis Fire District 20 in Vader and Ryderwood.
“They already share admins, they already share fire chiefs … It’s a matter of cost savings,” Schey said. “There’s a signature campaign right now that folks are working on to get enough signatures so they can do that with an initiative, instead of necessarily a vote. There will be more on that as details arise.”
As for the UGA annexation public hearing, no exact date or time has been established, but Schey stated both he and Lewis County officials expect the public hearing to be held during the second week of June.
During the meeting, a Lewis County auditor candidate, Mitchell Merrill, and Lewis County sheriff candidate, Gabriel Frase, both spoke to introduce themselves to the council and take questions about their candidacies. While listed on the council’s meeting agenda to also introduce himself and take questions, Lewis County Sheriff candidate Kenneth Cheeseman was not present at Wednesday’s meeting.
During public comment, Vader resident Ken Joslin, who also serves as the city’s park board chair, expressed concerns about a new sawmill private developers have in the works.
While he was “excited” about both the new jobs coming to town on top of the additional tax revenue, he was worried about excessive noise coming from the mill. This wasn’t his only concern, though.
“The log trucks, the flat beds, the chip wagons that are gonna come through, I’m worried about our roads. I’m worried about the speed of the log trucks,” Joslin said.
Being a truck driver himself, he was worried about trucks also causing damage to the city’s roads by exceeding load limits.
“I’m not sure if our roads can handle overweight limits. We haul lots of (wood) chips, and let me tell you, I hear some scary numbers that people are loading up in chips. During the wintertime, some drivers are hauling 110,000 pounds. The weight limit for Washington is 104,” said Joslin.
He added drivers are paid by the tonnage, incentivising them to try to take as heavy as they can each time. They also frequently take state Route 411, also known as the Westside Highway, as it runs parallel to Interstate 5 from Vader all the way down to Longview, and there are no weigh stations like there are on Interstate 5.
With the mill being privately owned, Schey explained the city had no authority one way or another concerning the mill’s construction. But he had talked with the owners of the mill about noise worries.
“They want to be good community partners, and noise, they’ve noticed, is a big concern,” Schey said. “We’ve already had some discussions about that, mitigation techniques for noise. Encapsulating the equipment fully inside the building, which is already insulated. They do not want to be a nuisance for the city. They want to work with us.”
Schey added there is nothing the city can do about trucks on the road, as the Westside Highway was already a state-designated truck route.
To end Wednesday’s meeting, Vader City Councilor Nicole Hansen made a presentation where she pitched the idea of the city purchasing a carousel.
Specifically, a 1927 Dentzel-Muller Grand Amusement carousel, which Hansen started a nonprofit to head up restoration efforts on it. When she moved to Vader though, she had to give up her seat on the nonprofit’s board.
“Yesterday, I was informed that the organization is closing, and that they need a new home for the project,” Hansen said.
She acknowledged it would not be easy or cheap to restore, but said she still wanted to float the idea as the carousel is “believed to be the last off the Dentzel line out of Pennsylvania."
Originally, it was used at an amusement park in West Virginia before being auctioned off in the 1970s to pay for a highway project.
The horses and menagerie were auctioned off separately from the main body, which eventually found its way to a pistachio farm in California. One of the carousel’s old horses is on display
Eventually, Hansen found out about it and was able to get it transferred up to Snoqualmie, where she along with Snoqualmie Valley Carousel were hoping to restore it and turn it into a tourist attraction.
“It’s believed to be one of the most intact carousels in the country,” Hansen said.
If the City of Vader were to purchase it, Hansen stated it could be installed in a place like McMurphy Park. According to Hansen, classic carousels are big tourist attractions, and the city could even rent it out for events such as weddings.
She stated the city could sell sponsorship opportunities where people would be able to get a new horse or other custom animals dedicated to themselves or their families installed on the restored carousel.
“I just wanted to share this with you,” said Hansen.
For more information, visit Snoqualmie Valley Carousel’s website at https://www.snoqualmievalleycarousel.org/.
