[Skamania] 🚧 North Bonneville March 2026 Round-up - What Lies Beneath

We wrap up a busy March 2026 in North Bonneville, covering recent City Council actions and a critical Planning Commission meeting. We discuss the city’s proactive mapping of underground utilities, the ongoing regional environmental friction spilling into local comment periods, and a massive 71-page update to the Critical Areas Ordinance that could impact riverfront property owners.

In This Episode:

• Mitch Patton's public comment regarding the Bradford Island cleanup board.
• The expensive push to replace an obsolete fire hydrant near City Hall.
• The search for a summer maintenance worker and streamlined building permits.
• Why a 71-page environmental code update is crucial to keeping state grant money flowing.

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• North Bonneville City Council & Planning Commission Agendas: https://northbonneville.net/government/council-meetings/
• Critical Areas Ordinance draft amendments: https://northbonneville.net/planning/periodic-review/

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Transcript

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Welcome back. Today at the Scamania Dispatch, we're starting to dig into what would be a few episodes catching up on the past month of city updates. We tend to go one by one through each municipality. Often these updates will cover a city council, planning commission, and PUD meeting all together for one city. So today we're actually looking at what happened during a busy month of meetings in North Bonneville for March 2026, covering city council on March 10th and 24th, and a special planning commission meeting on March 12th. Let's kick things off with the City Council. We'll start with a situation that brought some regional tension right to the council's doorstep. During public comment, a former board member from the Bradford Island Restoration Advisory Board, Mitch Patton, submitted a written statement regarding his termination from that board. Patton claimed he was facing retaliation and he brought up past internal affairs records to question the credibility of a specific law enforcement officer. It's a stark reminder of how high-stakes environmental cleanups can quickly spill over into local small-town municipal meetings. Moving over to public safety, Mayor J.B. Tennyson shared some frustrating news about a fire hydrant near City Hall. It turns out the hydrant is completely obsolete. You can't even buy replacement parts for it anymore. So the city is forced to absorb the full cost of replacing it outright, which will run about$3,500. Goodness, I've never priced a fire hydrant before, but that's good to know, I guess. Speaking of infrastructure, the council is understandably trying to get ahead of other potential failures. They approved a joint project with the Skamania PUD, capping costs at$2,500. They're bringing in a video pipeline crew to inspect and record underground sanitary sewer and utility lines. They want to find any hidden voids or offsets before they turn into expensive emergency repairs. Tuning now to the administrative side of things, Chief Administrative Officer Taylor Chambers is actively hunting for a temporary summer maintenance worker to handle mowing and city upkeep. Chambers and Mayor Tennyson also met with Scamini County officials to update their shared building and permitting agreement, a move that should help streamline local development and code enforcement. Looking at what's next on the radar, keep an eye out for special city council meetings on April 18th and April 28th at 6 p.m. The council will be interviewing candidates to fill vacant council seats four and five. Also, FSEC, that's the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council we talked about in an earlier episode, is holding virtual meetings soon regarding the Cascade Renewable Transmission Project. Those tend to go on every single month, and we'll be covering those into the future. So tuning now to the North Bonneville Planning Commission special meeting from March 12th. If you own property near the river, steep slopes, or wetlands, you'll want to pay attention to this one. The city is currently working through a massive 71-page update to something called the Critical Areas Ordinance, or CAO. State law requires all cities in Washington to periodically update these rules using best available science. This covers everything from flood hazard areas to fish and wildlife habitat, and the new draft explicitly makes violating these rules a civil infraction with attached fines. During the March 12th meeting, the Commission officially opened the floor for a public hearing on the draft, but surprisingly, there were zero public comments submitted. The sheer volume and technical nature of this document can admittedly be a bit intimidating. But getting this right is going to be crucial for North Bonneville. If the city fails to adopt a compliant update, it risks losing access to vital state granting for future infrastructure projects. So let's take a quick look then at the people behind the Dais. The commission officially welcomed two new faces to help tackle this heavy workload. Suzanne Bradshaw has stepped into a vacant commissioner seat, and Julie Dallas is coming on board as a new alternate. To kick things off smoothly, the Planning Commission Chair Mary Jo Salva and city staff made sure to lay some strict legal groundwork. They invoked the Fairness Doctrine right on the record. This is a procedural move to confirm that no commissioners had any private, off-the-record conversations about environmental rules before the public hearing. It's an insurance policy, meant to protect the 71-page document from future procedural appeals. So what's next? The Planning Commission will finalize its review of this draft and eventually vote to send a formal recommendation to City Council. Once City Council gets it, they will hold their own review before taking final action to adopt it into city law. If you want to dig into the details or read the draft yourself, make sure to check out the text version of this newsletter and our show notes for all the official links. As always, check out the full written dispatch for more details. You've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, the home of the Schemania Dispatch and the Click a Tattler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to schemania dispatch.com and sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.comslash open gorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.