Washougal officials set priorities for new year

Washougal City Manager David Scott will be a busy man in 2023. Scott's goals for 2023, adopted by the Washougal City Council during its Dec. 5 meeting, are divided into seven categories -- strategic planning, public safety, transportation, parks, land use, community and core services. The Council has asked Scott to prepare the City's next strategic update; help the Washougal Police Department implement a body-worn camera program; pursue funding for the design and construction of the City's planned 32nd Street railroad overpass and civic campus projects; launch a city aesthetics program; and complete the City's utility rate study in the next 12 months. Scott has also been tasked with leading the City into a new partnership with the city of Camas to provide fire and emergency medical services. Scott said in 2020, that Washougal city councilors "have generally acknowledged the need for enhanced staffing" for the Camas-Washougal Fire Department, but are struggling to find revenue to cover Washougal's share. The cities hired Merina+Co, a Tualatin, Oregon-based accounting firm, in 2021 to analyze the current partnership. "For Washougal, it's pretty telling," Merina+Co consultant Rob Moody told Camas-Washougal officials in 2021. "Based on what we believe the city of Washougal could raise in property taxes given the current rates ... (paying the city's share of the CWFD partnership in 2023 through 2028) is not sustainable for the city of Washougal. In order to come up with money for contributions to Camas, (Washougal) would have to increase tax rates or come up with another source of revenue." Merina consultants told Washougal and Camas officials on June 21 that city leaders should consider forming a regional fire authority (RFA) that would continue to provide fire and emergency medical services to the entire Camas-Washougal area. The RFA has several "key benefits," Scott said. "It eliminates the disconnect between accountability for service delivery and governance, it mitigates the financial equity issues by establishing one entity (with) one tax rate, and it provides the most flexibility in terms of how the governance structure will be established, how the initial financing of the new entity is determined, and how the financial impact to each city is managed," he said. "It also requires an extensive planning process before an RFA plan is presented to the voters, who ultimately decide whether this is the correct approach." City leaders have also identified several key legislative priorities for 2023. The City will lobby the state legislature to restore and maintain existing infrastructure funding programs; extend the time allowed for the expenditure of impact fees and system development charges; provide funding for transportation needs; enhance local government funding and local authority; increase housing availability and affordability; and provide funding for its civic campus, Washougal Town Center transportation access improvements and State Route 14 West Camas slough bridge projects. "There are other programs, but those are the key ones that we want to ask the state to keep those funded," Scott said. Transportation needs include slough bridge The slough bridge also is a top priority for the Port of Camas-Washougal. The proposed $50 Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) project would widen State Route 14 from Interstate 205 to 164th Avenue. "It's a critical regional project," Scott said. "It's a WSDOT project, and they're certainly an advocate for it. In terms of our regional advocacy, the Port of Camas-Washougal is obviously a strong proponent as freight moves in and out of their facilities, and (the cities of Washougal and Camas) because our constituents -- residential, commercial and industrial -- are using (the bridge), and we'd like to have it be two lanes instead of one." The project is "critical ... to address acute corridor congestion," according to the Port's 2023 legislative agenda statement. "I think for right now, the most important thing is we keep it on the table and keep mentioning it," Port Commissioner Larry Keister said. "That was the problem -- nobody talked about it for over a year until I realized it wasn't on the list. Now it's on the list, but we need to get off the list and into funding." The Port will ask legislators to support improvements to the Interstate 5 corridor to facilitate freight mobility; support equity in the taxation of publicly owned broadband; provide cities operating under the state's Growth Management Act with "a clearer direction to protect and preserve essential public facilities and industrial lands"; and incentivize ports and their partners to become more environmentally sustainable and efficient through grants and voluntary programs.

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