Castle Rock Council Meeting

As 7:30 p.m. approached on Monday, August 10, the Castle Rock Council Meeting began with a full council.

Starting this council meeting with business from the floor, John Miller spoke up with his concern: the rise of his water rates.

"That would just be on consumption," Clerk-Treasurer Ryana Covington stated. The last time they increased rates was in January.

Next, Police Chief Bob Heuer reported the success of the National Night Out.

"We estimated about 200 people came in."

He notified the council that Longview had half the amount that Castle Rock did and the Bike Rodeo was "a great, big hit!" After several thank you's to everyone that helped with putting on the event, Chief Heuer also made the statement, "We had a really good turn out once again. It was a lot of fun. It's nice to see that for a smaller community, we can put on as big, if not a better showing than like Longview or Kelso." Finishing his time with thanking the council, the report concluded. After this closing, Public Works Director, Dave Vorse, gave the update of the Overlay Project. As he gave his update, he told the council that the chipping finish should take place next month. Following Vorse, City Engineer Mike Johnson claimed "nothing specific" for his report and the council turned their attention to Covington who addressed the distribution of the 2016 budget calendar. "We are beginning the process now... gives you a better idea of the steps we need to take," Treasure Covington claimed as she told the council that the estimates should be prepared by the end of September. As soon as the estimates are in, the mayor will have to report to the council by October 5. At this time, the council began to discuss plans of a retreat to address these terms.

Following Treasurer Covington's update, Librarian Vicki Selander rose to discuss the preliminary report on the library excess levy vote. "It's not official yet, but we have 61.22% yes votes, as opposed to 38.78% no votes and we needed 157 votes cast to validate and that was a total of 392 votes cast." With this report, the council gave a sigh of relief for it appeared that the levy had passed but the official validation would be around August 28. The closing of departments as well as mayor and council reports brought the start of Nancy Chennault's update.

In this report, Chennault brought to light Castle Rock's America in Bloom competition video entry. Chennault thanked those involved in their contribution to the video and said that the video on YouTube has around "1400 views and has reached 4000 people and has been shared across the world." With all the shares, many proven winners have also posted this video to their pages. Chennault then proceeded to show the video to the council members. Also in her report, Chennault stated that there would be a Showcase Open House of Available Storefront on September 10 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. This open house will have tables set up and information on open buildings and homes for people to purchase. As Chennault sat back down, the approval of minutes and July Invoices in the amount of over $600,000 were approved, the council continued to the matters of old business.

First the council moved to approve the second reading of Ordinance Number 2012-05. This "ordinance of the city of Castle Rock, Washington, providing for the issuance and sale of a $329,000 principal amount limited tax general obligation bond to pay the costs of certain street improvements; preventing the date, form, terms and maturity, interest rate, terms, and covenants of the bond; and approving the sale and providing for the delivery of the bond to the United States of America, acting through the United States Department of Agriculture" as stated in the agenda. The council quickly moved to approve the second reading and with no members opposed to this motion, the motion carried. Next, the council approved the passing of the second reading of Ordinance Number 2015-06, this ordinance is for addressing and caring for the water and sewage treatments. Following the pattern of approving second readings, the council also moved to approve Ordinance Number 2015-07, the adopting policy for a city credit card use by employees and city officials. The council then decided that they would like to research more of this topic before any approval.

Moving to new business, the first topic started with the State Route 504 sidewalk project bid results and engineer's recommendation for award. The city engineer, Mike Johnson, recommended to the council to table this topic until a later time. Following his advice, council members tabled this topic. Second, for new agenda was the Front Avenue SW Sidewalk Project. With Johnson's recommendation, the council moved to approve an estimate for the sidewalk project bid results. Next was the establishment of review for process to fill the vacant city council position, which is Council Position 1. For those who are interested in running, they can pick up their application in the City Clerk's office. The deadline for applications will be the last week of September. Last on the agenda was the park plan update from Public Works Director, Dave Vorse. Reporting that there must be an updated plan for any trails or recreation facilities, the plan must be approved by March of 2016. In order to receive a grant, the estimates would have to be approved. Without these adequate funds, these plans could not be submitted. Vorse stated that he was looking for around "$4,500 to the end of the year." With that, the council agreed to discuss this topic at later meetings. The closing of this topic led to the adjournment of the meeting. The next scheduled council meeting will be on August 24 at 7:30 p.m.