[Klickitat] 🏗️ 6 Summer Bridge Closures - Klickitat BoCC 5/26 & 6/2

A major wave of bridge closures is coming to Klickitat County this summer, with six local bridges slated for mandatory repairs and detours. Plus, we look at a looming crisis in the East District Court as state Supreme Court rules complicate the hiring of critical public defense attorneys, and explore the severe statistics and regulatory red tape defining the Gorge's "childcare desert."

In This Episode:

• The pre-development trap and regulatory costs stalling early education
• State limits on public defender caseloads
• The creation of a new unified Community Development Department
• The push to centralize public records requests

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Review the full June 2 BOCC Meeting Agenda & Minutes at klickitatcounty.org
• Learn more about the Boardman childcare model

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the audio edition of the Clickatler. Today we're looking at late May and early June meetings from the Clickitat County Board of Commissioners. If you're commuting on the gorgeous backroads this summer, you'll want to listen closely. The county has approved a resolution to temporarily close six bridges for major structural maintenance. This list includes the Lytle, White Salmon, Whitmore, Bear Creek, Tom Miller, and Horthward Bend Bridges. Public workscrews need to physically jack up the bridge decks to replace failing bearing pads. You cannot put a live traffic load on a bridge while it's suspended on jacks, so complete closures are mandatory. Most closures will be brief, but the Lytle Bridge is scheduled to be shut down entirely for up to 10 days in early July. That's going to cut off a primary local artery and force detours onto the Glenwood Highway. Public Works leadership noted during the meeting that while folks are not going to be happy, they unfortunately don't have a choice, and they're working closely with emergency services to ensure ambulances and fire trucks are fully routed around closures ahead of time. Turning out of the justice system, the East District Court is facing a critical bottleneck. A key court commissioner recently filed for a Superior Court judge seat over in Scamania County. That departure leaves ClickAtat with only two primary defense attorneys to handle the entire legal caseload. Here's the friction point. The Washington State Supreme Court enforces strict limits on how many cases a single public defender can take on. If a county cannot provide a lawyer, cases get delayed or tossed out entirely, or folks are forced to wait an unreasonable amount of time in order to get access to counsel. District Court Judge Hansen told the board that the county needs to hire at least two additional attorneys immediately. However, recent state Supreme Court rulings prohibit judges from negotiating contracts or their pay directly with prospective hires, a rule that Hansen called ridiculous, arguing that judges are in the best position to know exactly what the court needs. Now the county is trying to recruit defense attorneys in a rural area without the ability to flexibly negotiate, and they're heavily leaning on the promise of remote Zoom work to entice lawyers who refuse to travel. A quick look at early education, Commissioner Lori Zahler is hunting for county-owned land or buildings near Bing and White Salmon that could be converted into childcare facilities. As our peers at Columbia Gorge News highlighted, Click-itak County is in a severe child care desert. The Center for American Progress defines a child care desert as any area with more than three kids per licensed slot. Right now, Click-itak County has over 1,000 children under the age of five, but fewer than 200 licensed spots. So that's actually nearly six kids for every one spot. Wow, pretty incredible numbers there. While the educational service district is pushing to open a full-time preschool this fall, the commissioners expressed frustration over state red tape and regulatory costs. Before the county can break ground on a new center or remodel an old building, the state demands expensive and time-consuming feasibility studies. The county is currently looking across the river for a solution. The family's first facility at the Port of Marlon Boardman, Oregon, has become a nationally recognized model, championed by local Senator Wyden, and this was something that local childcare advocates in ClickTack County had toured earlier this year. Over in Boardman, the port provided the physical space, and roughly 40 local companies sponsor the operating budget, effectively treating childcare as a critical piece of public utility infrastructure required to keep the workforce running. I think the relief there to also hear that no one employer had to shoulder the burden entirely themselves, an interesting way to look at how we can all pool the risk and share the burdens moving forward, so it's not just up on families and not just on individual employers. Looking ahead, the construction on bridge repair bundle started on June 15th with a major Lytle Bridge closure scheduled for July 7th through the 17th. And with that, you've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, home of the Scamania Dispatch and the Click of Taddler. 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 ScamaniaDispatch.com to 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.