Dayton Chronicle - Your Hometown News Source

DAYTON-The Economic and Development Strategy Committee met December 5 to discuss progress on its 2023 goals and establish top priorities for the next year. This year’s top projects included the Wastewater Treatment Facility progress, the new Parks and Rec District, Assisted Living, Childcare, and Broadband.

This meeting was in person by RSVP only, and included approximately 55 people from the community representing different clubs, committees, and businesses dedicated to economic development. The purpose of the meeting, according to Jennie Dickinson, Executive Director of the Port of Columbia, “is to provide a business or project spotlight, to talk about last year’s voted priorities, and vote on what the community should work on in the coming year.”

Jake Hollopeter of Anderson•Perry and Associates, presented an update on the Wastewater Treatment Plant Project. He presented a brief history of the project, where the project currently stands, and project goals. He stated that the city has been proactive in trying to move the project forward and the Department of Ecology has been gracious in giving the city time to stay in compliance. They have been looking at many alternatives to address how to best set up a Wastewater Treatment Plant here in Dayton. They have settled on the idea of wetlands.

The city has a purchase agreement of 40-60 acres of land to install this plant. “We are currently looking at a specific property, where we are doing our due diligence on to see if it is a viable location for the new site” he said. It is two and a half miles from town along SR 12. The plan is to install a full, new, mechanical facility replacing the existing facility which would be located in the back portion of the property, as far away from people as possible. Once effluent is fully disinfected it would then go through a series of polishing wetlands followed by some infiltrating wastelands. There will be no degradation to the lands. This new treatment plant will be smaller than the current one, but still allow for growth of the city.

Dianne McKinley presented an update on the newly voter-approved Park and Recreation District for the purpose of rebuilding a city pool. It is currently a non-funded district. The County Commissioners must make a resolution to form the district, and then Dale Slack will give some legal advice as a municipal corporation, then they will have to get their own legal representation.

“Before we can ever get started on going towards the pool, we have to set up our foundation of policies and procedures, bylaws, elect chairman, set our meetings,” McKinley said. “There is a lot of housekeeping that needs to be done before we get started.”

Each year the district will have to create a budget that will be voted on by the people every year to get funding. The limit is $0.20/$1000 assessed property value.

“Thinking forward, we do have to pay for our own legal services, we must have our own bookkeeper, and then also I found out the district is responsible to pay for the election that just happened, and last year that was a little over $7,000,” McKinley said. “Not having any money in the first place I am not sure how we are going to pay for it.”

In November, 2024, the District can place the initiative on the ballot to request funds from the voters for collection in 2025. McKinley said, “We are still a couple of years off from even having money.”

When asked what the proposed timeline to start break ground on a pool, she stated “We don’t know. We haven’t even gotten to meet as a board. Once the commissioners make a resolution to create the district they can plan a meeting.”

She also stated that the tax money they hope to collect will be for the operation and maintenance only. The board will have to seek grants in order to rebuild the pool first, and that tax money cannot be used to rebuild it.

Shane McGuire presented on the communities need for both affordable senior living and a childcare center. 2020 was the last year that our community had a childcare provider, he said.

After a community survey, it was determined that the community needed at least 70 childcare spots. 76% of families in the district report that lack of childcare options are not affordable or do not provide for the times they need and that their work is suffering because of it. 25% of parents have left the workforce because of lack of childcare. April 2024 the new childcare center is planned to be open and operational in the old Booker Rest Hall building.

Moving on to ALS, “When I started working for the health system there used to be 18 or 19 public hospital districts with long-term-care services. There are four left,” he said.

Long term health service is unsustainable and not a good payout for hospital districts, so the goals here are to increase access not decrease it, make service stable financially, and prepare for future growth of the population.

Booker lost $1.8 million dollars in the last year of operations. “Booker’s bed days were dropping,” McGuire said. “This was by design. Washington state put a bunch of admission hurdles into skilled nursing, you have to get scored and approved for admission into a nursing home. What we found was people would come in because they were failing to thrive, but under our care they got better and would no longer qualify for the nursing home, he said.

In some cases individuals has already gotten rid of their house and they had no place to go. They have seen great growth with Rivers Walk. They have three cottages open with one still open. They are looking for two more staff members to open cottage D.

Dickinson discussed the success for the Port of Columbia’s Broadband project. This project is considered the most successful among other ports in the state.

“So the Dayton Community Broadband project is 100% complete,” she said. “The three partners are hooking up customers as fast as possible. Some 574 premises have been connected which is almost half of the town,” said Dickinson.

It was over a $3 million project with one final bill to be paid and they are expecting to come in under budget, she added.

The next phase is Touchet Valley Broadband which will serve approximately 60 more premises and is expected to be completed by January 31, 2024. This project is budgeted for $1.5 million.

“There are still 749 premises in the county that do not have broadband,” Dickinson stated. “Some of these probably never will. After doing a design study of about 83 homes that would cost in excess of two hundred thousand dollars to bring fiber to their house. Maybe there is a case for subsidizing Starlink for really rural houses, but I don’t know,” Dickinson said.

A third phase desired would be to extend broadband out to the South and North Touchet, the North Folk, and Starbuck area residents.

The meeting concluded with a review of the project list with the opportunity for attendees to add to the list or vote on what is a top priority. Votes will be tallied and scored and present at a later time.