On Nov. 8, 2022, a fire destroyed the old Winlock Haunted Hostel Bed and Breakfast in the South Lewis County community, leaving a massive, fenced off pit in downtown Winlock where the hostel once stood.
Plans are now in the works to build a new parking lot on the site, with a Lewis County .09 Fund Committee grant request approved to pay for work to be done on the “hostel hole,” Winlock Mayor Victoria Marincin explained during an informational meeting at Winlock City Hall on Monday, Aug. 3.
The meeting was originally a special meeting announced on the city’s website and social media.
But, with Mayor Pro Tem Jodie Curtis being the only other member of the Winlock City Council who showed up due to an error with the city’s councilor notification system, and no voting action scheduled in the meeting to begin with, Marincin and Curtis decided to still hold it still to share information with a handful of attendees at the meeting.
Curtis added she had only found out the meeting was happening via social media.
“The wall is falling away and our downtown corridor does not have enough parking,” Marincin said.
She added several local downtown business owners have asked for more parking in the area. One attendee asked about potentially acquiring the empty lot spaces just south of the former hostel property, along with the idea of putting a train observation area for local train enthusiasts to sit near the tracks running through Winlock.
Another attendee asked about adding electric vehicle charging stations to the lot.
Marincin said these ideas would be taken into consideration. But, the priority right now is still filling in the hole and getting more downtown parking.
“This is the drawing that the engineers made, the .09 Committee does not want the island in the middle, they do want more parking than that, so we have to restructure that parking a little bit,” Marincin added. “... We’re going to fill it in, and we’re going to put asphalt on it and make it look nice, that’s the big goal.”
As for the .09 Fund grant, it totals $250,000, and Marincin explained she hopes to have the project completed by 2028.
