[Klickitat] 🚦 A Green Light for the Quiet Zone - Bingen June '26

Bingen City Council had a packed June. The new Hood River-White Salmon Bridge reached sixty-percent design, the city hired an engineer to push its long-awaited railroad Quiet Zone forward, and Olympia's latest housing rules landed on the council's desk. Here's your plain-English guide to what it all means for you.

In This Episode:

• The new bridge at 60%: the roundabout, the overlooks, and the toll-and-TIFIA math
• Quiet Zone: Gray and Osborne hired, the BNSF agreement signed
• Which of the state's new housing rules Bingen has to follow, and why it can't require affordable units
• Free e-bikes coming to Daubenspeck Park, plus new stop signs and a possible 20 mph limit
• TextMyGov emergency text alerts
• An early wildfire season, and lead paint at the Gorge Heritage Museum

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Bingen City Council agendas and minutes: bingenwashington.org (AgendaCenter)
• Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority: hrwsba.gov

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Transcript

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Hey there, and welcome back to the Open Gorge Podcast, your neighborly read on what your local governments are actually up to. Today we're in Benjin, the little city on the Washington side of the river. Benjamin's City Council met twice in June, on the 2nd and on the 16th. And honestly, it was a very big month. A new bridge, a rail project decades in the making, and a stack of new housing rules from Olympia. Let's get into it. We're going to start with a big one, the bridge. If you drive between Hurt River and White Salmon, you know the old bridge that we all cross sometimes every day. It went up in 1924. Narrow lanes, no shoulders, and no room for people on bikes or on foot. And some days it seems like no room for mistakes. On June 16th, the design team, a firm called HNTB, brought the council the 60% design for the replacement bridge. And they asked the council to be champions for the project out in the community, not plan checkers. So here's the new bridge, and you might recall some of this from our other episodes that cover the bridge replacement authority. The new bridge will sit about 150 feet downstream from the old one. Two travel lanes, real shoulders, and on the west side, bike lanes and a sidewalk. We'll have dark sky lighting so it won't wash out the night. And two overlooks for taking in the view. On foot, please, not from your car. And on the Washington side, there's gonna be a roundabout where Hitter River Street meets Highway 14. And that's where the council pushed back. One member pointed to a nearby roundabout that folks already complain about and said, quote, bigger trucks are basically driving right on the brick apron, and people are calling here left, right, and center to complain. The design team said this one is built for trucks to roll right over the center. And they said that the shape is really Washington DOT's call because it's the state highway. Roundabouts, they said, are the state's number one fix. They're planning to sit down with trucking companies to walk them through it first. Now the money, and there's a lot of it. Starting July 1st, all the total revenue splits two ways, keeping the old bridge running and building a reserve for the new one. That reserve holds just under $10 million right now and it needs to reach $15 million to unlock $105 million in federal financing through a program called TIFA, TIFIA. They hope to get there by next summer, but money is tight in the meantime. The Bridge Authority's own June update showed it's getting ready to tap loan reserves just to pay its bills, while an insurance snag held up test piling in the river. Covered that in a previous episode that we'll link in the show notes. One council member summed up the mood like this quote, the unexplainable large numbers that I see in all of this are just mind-boggling to me, but as it spread across the citizens of Washington, not just our residents, I'm grateful for this, but wow, unquote. As for timing, the drilling wrapped up in June. The city sends its design comments in July and August. Construction plans are done by spring 2027, and the inwater work is meant to start that October. The new bridge, hopefully, opens in 2031. Moving over to the railroad. For years, Bingen has been working towards a quiet zone. That's a stretch of track where once the crossings are made safe, the trains don't have to blast their horns day and night. I'm sure that'll come as a relief to many of the residents of Bingin. In June, the project finally got its engineer. The city asked for qualifications, and only one firm answered, Graham Osborne, a company the city already works with a lot. Because this is state money, not federal, there was no need to readvertise, so the council awarded the work. The price is not to exceed $255,000 for the design at the Walnut Street and Maple Street crossings. Staff were quick to add that the city only pays for the work actually done. The council signed a preliminary agreement with the railroad, BNSF, estimated at $50,000, though staff admitted that number is, quote, conservative and likely to climb. Here's the good news for your wallet. These projects run on state and federal dollars. If the numbers go over, that mostly means more paperwork, not a bigger bill for Bengin. Now let's talk housing, because Olympia sent Benjen some homework. City Administrator Chris Deloney walked the council through a batch of new state housing laws, and the headline for Benchin is most of them don't apply. Because Benson sits in Clickitac County, which only partially plans under the state's Growth Management Act, the newest rules on co-living requiring two backyard cottages per lot, and on transit-oriented development, those don't bind Benjin. The city is already in line on middle housing. But here's the flip side. Counselor Dale Grinstead Mail asked whether the city could require developers to set aside apartments for lower income families. City attorney's answer was no. That same partially planning status that lets Bingeon off the hook for the state mandates also takes away the tool it would need to require affordable units, so it cuts both ways. And it's the reason that Binshin handles all its land use decisions right at the council table. There is no separate planning commission. You may have noticed on this podcast and in our written edition that we don't tend to cover a separate Bingeon Planning Commission. So, some quicker hits. Binshin is getting free e-bikes. The council signed on with a nonprofit called Forth for an e-bike lending library, paid for by a state grant. You'll be able to borrow an electric bike for free anywhere from a couple of days up to a month. The Binshin station goes in at Dobin Spec Park right on Steuben Street, with more stations in White Salmon and over at Skyline Hospital. On traffic, the council agreed to a whole batch of new stop signs around town and asked staff to look at dropping the citywide speed limit from 25 to 20 miles an hour. That came right after a resident, Brian Mattingley, asked for a stop sign near his home, and he said drivers are still cutting corners through down. The city is also setting up text alerts. The council approved a service called TextMyGov so the city can text you in an emergency. It runs $1,000 to set up, then $2,000 a year. And a couple of housekeeping notes, Fire Chief Carl Spratt warned that wildfire season is running about a month early this year after the worst rainstorm he's seen in Binge and since 1996. Wook, that's quite an assessment. And over at the Gorge Heritage Museum, testing turned up lead in the paint. Though the basement tested clean for asbestos. That's feeding the city's long-term plan for the old building. One more note, a warmer one, the Mount Adams Chamber director stopped by to thank the sponsors behind those patriotic wind socks lining downtown for the fourth. She also cleared up a little mystery. The kissing bench that vanished from Dobin Speck Park was not, in fact, stolen. The artist just came and collected it at the end of the season. A new fish sculpture, a big-eyed bluegill that you might have noticed winking at you on the highway, is taking a permanent spot over at Margie's. Mayor Kelsey Ramsey also flagged a regional headache. The money bingeon, Goldendale, and White Salmon all chip in for county emergency management just isn't enough to pay a professional a fair wage. The mayors are going to get together and compare notes. So what's next? This past July 7th was the next council meeting where the quiet zone budget was coming back for review. You'll hear about that in a future episode. And the council approves June 16th minutes. So the city's building conversion code is due by June 30th to stay in line with state law, and Minton's comments on the bridge design go in through July and August. So that's your June Inving. If you want the full written version with every number and every link, head to SchemaniaDispatch.com and read our written edition. You've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, the home of Schemania 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 Schemaniadispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.comslash opengorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.