With several dozen Winlock residents once again in attendance, members of the Winlock City Council convened for their first regular meeting of 2026 on Monday, Jan. 12 — including newly elected Mayor Victoria Marincin and City Councilor Alishia Hornburg.
Hornburg ran unopposed for former Councilor Lindsey Alvord’s position while Marincin handily defeated former Winlock Mayor Brandon Svenson, garnering over 60% of the votes in last November’s general election.
Marincin began the meeting by greeting attendees and thanking Winlock Public Works staff for their work clearing roads during recent storms. She also thanked staff at Winlock City Hall for welcoming her, despite some of the somewhat contentious conversations at city council meetings after the election.
“Everyone in the office has been incredibly kind and gracious, and forgiving of all my questions that I have. I appreciate that,” Marincin said. “(Winlock Community Development Director) Robert (Webster) has been busy getting me up to speed on several issues — many, many issues. And I don’t have full access to our financial records, but (Winlock City Treasurer) Jill (Davis) is working on that. (Winlock City Clerk) Maureen (Crabtree) worked very hard, and I so appreciate her putting the entire agenda on the website. She’s doing a great job with that website.”
She added she planned on taking a ride-along with Winlock Police Chief Stephen Valentine, as soon as Valentine has time available.
During the meeting, the council discussed a number of agenda items, including a request from the local volunteer group Winlock Patriotic Citizens, who were asking to expand their U.S. flag raising efforts on holidays to include lining First Street in the downtown area with flags.
Winlock Patriot Citizens was founded by Winlock resident Tommy Thompson, who runs it along with other local volunteers, including Kathy Chastain. Both Thompson and Chastain were in attendance to see what they needed to do in order to get flags along the main downtown Winlock street.
Currently, the group puts up and takes down U.S. flags on federal holidays on the roads going in and out of Winlock.
In order to also put up flags on First Street, though, Thompson explained that they were there to ask if Webster and the public works department could drill holes in the sidewalk concrete for them to use.
“Based on what we did before, I think it wouldn’t take more than half a day, but that’s if there’s no cars in the way,” Thompson said.
Chastain added there are some existing holes in the sidewalk, but according to Winlock City Councilor Jeramy Allman, city staff used the holes to also put up flags in the past but stopped, as the flag poles would lean and hit cars.
In order to help pay for drilling new holes, the group has raised $3,000, though Chastain told Winlock City Councilor Jodie Curtis they weren’t going to be able to meet Curtis’s challenge of putting up 250 flags for the country’s 250th birthday celebration this year.
Both Thompson and Chastain were asked to talk to business owners on First Street to see if they would be OK with the flags being put up. Winlock City Attorney Jim Buzzard also recommended getting an engineering schematic for the sidewalk holes for the public works staff and the insurance company — along with ensuring they wouldn’t impede pedestrians, including those using walkers and wheelchairs.
Also discussed was a case of flooding resulting from a damaged water main line. While the line itself is owned and was installed by the city, it is located on private property, which is frequently flooding a resident’s garage, according to Webster.
“It’s flooding the lady’s garage, and it has been for a long time. And really, it needs to be fixed. It’s not right that somebody has to deal with water in their garage,” Webster said. “... I went through the ‘07 flood and lost everything, so I’m kind of a little impartial to people flooding. I don’t want this lady to have to deal with this, I think it’s wrong that she deals with it. And she’s as nice as she is about it.”
Based on recommendations from Buzzard, city staff were tasked with getting an easement from the property owner to dig up the water line for repairs. Given the history of flooding issues in general on First Street, Allman also recommended getting the repair project approved by the city’s engineering consultant.
The next Winlock City Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. inside Winlock City Hall. Meeting agendas and recordings can be found on the city’s website at https://www.cityofwinlock.com/174/Agendas-Meeting-Minutes.
