Members of the Winlock City Council convened on Monday, June 23, for their second regular meeting of the month.
During Monday’s meeting, the council approved a new contract with CivicPlus to redesign the city’s official website.
Councilors also approved the creation of an official city social media page, as recently a parody Winlock Facebook page has been mistaken for an official city account. Winlock Mayor Brandon Svenson addressed this issue during the meeting, which prompted the council to approve moving forward with creating its own official social media page.
Additionally, the City of Winlock will soon have a Winlock Farm and Agricultural Advisory Board after the council approved an ordinance establishing and setting guidelines for the board.
During the meeting, the council unanimously approved fireworks stand permits for both the Winlock Lions Club and the Jesus Name Pentecostal Church in Chehalis, and agreed to move forward with amending city code to allow for multiple stands in the future.
Svenson also briefly discussed recent vandalism carried out at his property as a result of a recent abatement and notice to evict that was issued to a Winlock resident.
Winlock website update and social media issues
Winlock City Clerk Maureen Crabtree and city Treasurer Jill Davis submitted a funding request to revamp the city’s official website, https://cityofwinlock.com/.
“The current city website is hard to navigate. It’s impossible to find when you Google the City of Winlock. We’ve looked at different options and had a couple meetings with the folks from CivicPlus. They have a very straight-forward website (design),” Crabtree said. “It’s also very mobile-friendly, because everybody is looking at websites on their phones currently, nobody’s looking at websites from a desktop or a laptop.”
CivicPlus is a Kansas-based software company that specializes in website design for municipalities and other local governing bodies. Svenson concurred that the city’s website was not easy to find or navigate, and the current mobile version is suboptimal.
While cheaper packages were available, staff recommended going with CivicPlus’ premium option, $6,894.80 for the first year, with the costs being split between all department budgets. The premium package offers not only the basic city website design, but pages for ordinances, meeting recordings, meeting agenda packets and more.
“It is pricey, but, at the end of the year, if we didn’t like it, we could find something else, go another route,” Davis added.
City staff said they looked at other municipal city website companies, but CivicPlus’ was the most user-friendly. Additionally, neighboring municipalities, such as Napavine, also use CivicPlus to run websites.
The council voted unanimously to enter into a contract with CivicPlus to redesign the city’s official website.
Councilors also approved a resolution establishing an official City of Winlock social media policy and page.
With recent confusion over the Winlock City Facebook page and website, Svenson decided it was finally time for city staff to run official social media accounts — something that had not been done before.
“Majority of the people are getting their information this way, so I believe it’s time to put this policy in effect, and create said social media page,” Svenson said.
He added the social media page will strictly be used to publish official City of Winlock information and documents such as meeting agendas, public hearing notices and other documents of official nature. City staff running the page will not interact with commenters.
This resolution came after a recent letter to the editor published in The Chronicle on June 21 by America Lunsford. In the letter, Lunsford — also a Winlock mayoral candidate this year — believed the city had an official social media page which had laugh-reacted on Facebook to a Chronicle story about Juneteenth.
The Facebook page, called Winlock City, is not affiliated with the City of Winlock. For its profile picture, it has a photoshopped version of the city’s official logo with extra trees and a Confederate battle flag added along with the phrase “Port Winlock.”
While no official Port of Winlock exists either, the Winlock City Facebook page links to winlockcity.com, which includes advertisements for the Winlock Industrial Park, created by former Winlock resident Dennis Guilliam in 2018.
The Chronicle contacted Guilliam on Thursday, June 26, and confirmed he is still the person running both winlockcity.com and the associated Facebook page.
While formerly a Winlock resident, Guilliam told The Chronicle he and his wife moved following the COVID-19 pandemic and an incident involving Lynette Hoffman of the Lewis County News. While no longer residing in Winlock, Guilliam still frequently posts about Winlock and other local stories.
On Guilliam’s website, a disclaimer explains the website is a parody site.
“This is satire. I am not a public official,” Guilliam states on the website. “The Port of Winlock is not recognized by the City of Winlock.”
Additionally, the Facebook page links visitors to the disclaimer at https://winlockcity.com/disclaimer/.
During Monday’s meeting, Svenson reiterated this point.
“This individual does not represent the city in any way, shape or form, does not speak for us whatsoever. This is not a council member. This isn’t a staff member. To my knowledge, this person doesn’t even live in the state. And it’s not City of Winlock, it’s Winlock City,” Svenson said.
He added while he did not personally agree with many of the things Guilliam says and posts on the Winlock City Facebook page and website, it is out of the city’s control.
Winlock City Attorney Jim Buzzard stated that legal action could be taken against Guilliam if his website or social media page makes a post that constitutes a threat of violence, or something along those lines.
“We’re going to have concepts of freedom of speech and parody. People can say what they want if they make it in a parody-type situation,” Buzzard said.
Farm board creation
In an effort to both help protect and maintain farmland in and around Winlock, along with facilitating better communication between local farmers and their neighbors, the council unanimously approved ordinance 1185 — creating the Winlock Farm and Agricultural Advisory Board.
“In Washington, you have the Right to Farm Act. This is a way to expand upon it and create a board upon which local farmers can sit so that we make sure their voices are heard here,” Svenson said. “... This is a way to establish a board of (farmers) — three people within city limits, two people within the Winlock School District — so they can have this voice here and work with all of us to try to protect what we have left and what people are willing to save.”
He added recently he’s talked to local farmers who have received lucrative offers for their property from housing developers.
Although the city cannot do anything legally to prevent such sales, Svenson wants the board to at least advocate to help preserve as much farmland in the community as possible.
Along with creating the Winlock Farm and Agricultural Advisory Board, the ordinance also laid out zoning regulations and guidelines for smaller hobby farms, tree farms and animal rescues.
As for the board, members will be appointed by the mayor and subject to approval by the city council.
The ordinance officially goes into effect on July 1.
For more information about the Winlock Farm and Agricultural Advisory Board, read ordinance 1185 on the City of Winlock’s website at https://tinyurl.com/394xpmaa.
Fireworks stands
Earlier this month, the Winlock City Council discussed the city’s fireworks stand permitting ordinance — which only allowed one stand permit within city limits.
The reason for the discussion was because multiple applications came in this year.
In prior years, the city had repeatedly only ever received one annual application from the Winlock Lions Club, which runs its stand annually from June 28 to July 4 at the Events Plaza located at 320 SW Kerron St. in Winlock.
Sales from the stand are the club’s biggest fundraiser of the year, raising money for many club projects along with its scholarship fund, according to the club’s website.
The other application was from Jesus Name Pentecostal Church in Chehalis, which starting last year, began running its own fireworks stand near Winlock at the Shell gas station located at 642 state Route 505, just off of Exit 63 on Interstate 5.
According to Jesus Name Pentecostal Church Pastor Shannon Burgess, the fireworks stand will be open on June 28 from noon to 11 p.m., and from June 29 through July 4 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The church had been running the stand already at the Shell gas station the previous two years, but the City of Winlock approved an annexation of unincorporated areas expanding city limits eastward toward I-5.
Despite city code only allowing one stand to be permitted annually, the city council unanimously agreed to approve both permit applications for this year and move forward with amending city code to allow for multiple stands in the future.
Mayor’s property vandalized
During Svenson’s mayoral report in Monday’s meeting, he briefly discussed the recent vandalism carried out at his property by Winlock resident Sarah Meyer.
Meyer was charged with second-degree malicious mischief after admitting to throwing a rock and damaging two windows of a building owned by Svenson this past weekend, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
She carried out the act of vandalism after she was served an abatement notice and a notice to vacate a property located on state Route 505 back in the beginning of May.
During Monday’s meeting, Svenson stated he had expected some form of retaliation to come his way after issuing the abatement.
“I called it. I knew it was coming, but when you do these jobs, you have to take care of business regardless of what the perceived outcome is going to be, or retaliation,” Svenson said. “The second that you don’t do this job for fears of retaliation or reelection you’ve essentially created (an image of) yourself as a politician who doesn’t get things done … I sleep with a pistol and a fire extinguisher for some of the things that I get to take care of here. I do so because I like to serve this community. I will continue to serve this community as long as it wishes me to do so. But I want to remind folks that things like this occur, we’re the ones that bear the brunt of it.”
Winlock resident Simone Bailey spoke during public comment at Monday’s meeting to share her support for Svenson.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry that happened to you. With everything that we’ve been hearing in the news, that’s pretty scary,” Bailey said.
Meyer’s bail was set at $15,000, and her arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, July 3.
