Dayton welcomes possible alternative to retain current wastewater treatment facility

DAYTON—At last week’s regular city council meeting, City Administrator Trina Cole spoke about a meeting that recently took place between city officials and representatives from Washington Water Trust and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The entities discussed the city’s proposed Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWT), water quality issues, and a willingness on the part of WWT and the Tribes to pay for improvements at the current wastewater facility, to keep water, in, or near the Touchet River.

Cole said, “It is exciting news in that it changes a lot of things. It just would keep everything where it is.”

The city had been given a deadline of 2021 by the Dept. of Ecology (DOE) to get effluent out of the Touchet River six months out of the year.

City officials have been scrambling to locate and purchase 200 acres of land suitable for a complicated and expensive Class C Pond system type of treatment, which would take effluent out of the river for twelve months and would use a land application method for irrigating crops.

Cole said the DOE is open to a change in plans for treating wastewater and that as long as the city is working toward a solution to Total Maximum Daily Load issues for the Touchet River there will be no penalty for not reaching the 2021 deadline.

“Nothing is written in stone,” she cautioned.

Cole will meet with a WWT engineer on May 28, in Spokane, for further discussions and she will report back to the council.

Cole also said the DOE has recommended the city’s inert waste permit application for approval.

She attended a Municipal Treasurer’s Assoc. Conference in April, and learned about the importance of asset management, banking services, and preparing for disasters, as well as being financially ready.

In her report to the city council, Planning Director Meagan Bailey noted a wrap-up open house for Dayton’s Comprehensive Plan will take place on May 21 at 6:30 p. m. at the fairgrounds youth building.

She also said a final public meeting for the proposed Flood Control Zone District will take place on May 23 from 2-6 p.m. at the Delany Building, at 111 S. 3rd St. Bailey said this will be an open house format and will provide the public with a more informal opportunity to ask questions and gain information.

A short course on the 2015 Washington State Energy Code will be presented on Thurs., May 30 from 10 a.m. -- 1 p.m. at the Delany Building, as well, she said. Discussion will include the 2015 Washington State Energy Code as it relates to new residential structures and remodels or additions to existing structures.

Code Compliance achieved full compliance in just a little over thirty days for a property at N. 5th St., Bailey said.

“We’re not just seeing more success with Code Compliance, but faster,” she said.

She said Code Compliance will be moving forward with an abatement case on N. 1st St.

Bailey said there is a vacancy on the Dayton Planning Commission, and she talked about work being done by the Dayton Historic Preservation Commission for a draft provision for the Dayton Municipal Code.

The Dayton to Waitsburg Bike Trail has been renamed the Touchet Valley Trail, said Bailey, who serves on the steering committee for that project.

Bailey has been elected to serve on the board for the Planning Association of Washington, she said.

Cole thanked Bailey for her dedication to the city.

“I want to congratulate you on your Planning Association appointment. I do know Mayor George spent a lot of time involved in a lot of different associations, and he was one of the primary reasons to get our name out, and for people to love our community. So any time you can get people on an association of that magnitude brings a lot of benefits to counties and cities. So thank you,” Cole said.

Special Guest Vicki Zoller gave the city council an update about activities of the Friends of the Community Center, of which she is the President.

Zoller said the original scope of the Friends of the Dayton Pool has broadened to include a senior center and early childhood education center, along with laundromat facilities.

She said expanding to include other community services will save the city from having to provide funds to subsidize the maintenance and operations for a pool.

“There is definitely a lot more money available for grants for community centers, especially in rural communities of need, like ours,” Zoller said.

Zoller said the organization has been given contacts at the state Recreation and Conservation Office, and at the state Department of Commerce, as well as in Health and Human Services, regarding funding for community centers, operations of early learning centers and for technical assistance. A representative from the USDA with knowledge about rural grants will attending the June 25 meeting.

“We are grant writing like crazy,” she said.

Zoller said the Friends have raised enough money to send youth attending The Club to swim in Prescott four times a week and to pay a chaperone to accompany them. Columbia County Public Transportation will provide rides to the Prescott Pool free of charge.

“Anybody in Dayton can swim at the Prescott pool,” Zoller added. “You just say you are from Dayton. They check you out a pass. You swim. You leave. And that pass stays there for the next family or whoever wants to swim,” she said.

Zoller said and the Friends of the Community Center is currently writing a grant to pay for a community survey. She said they recently made a practice presentation at the Dayton Senior Center and are planning for two presentations to the public, in June. They will also work with the city to send surveys out to the public.

They are currently working with an engineering firm specializing in community centers, she said.

Also last week, the city council approved Mayor Pro tem Zac Weatherford’s authorization of the reappointment of Byron Kaczmarski to the Dayton Planning Commission with the term ending March 1, 2023.

They also authorized a proclamation declaring the month of May to be Older Americans Month and they authorized an interagency agreement with Washington State Department of Natural Resources to examine and create a strategic management plan for Main Street trees.