Property owner still looking for solution regarding levee repair

WAITSBURG—A letter signed by the Waitsburg City Council and the Mayor was published in The Times and sent out to residents of Waitsburg last week. The letter referenced the 2020 flood and the city’s need to make repairs to the affected areas of the levee within city limits. The letter said the city could not make the necessary repairs unless they received approval from all property owners in the affected area.

The letter said that while 75% of the property owners in the area had agreed to grant the city access to the levee, there were four property owners who had not signed on. The Mayor and City Council have said they will not move forward with the project without approval from all property owners involved, including private and government entities.

In addition to seeking access rights from private property owners, the City of Waitsburg must also gain access from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which owns properties on either side of the project, and from Walla Walla County. City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe said the property owned by the county was supposed to be transferred into the City of Waitsburg’s ownership years ago but had not yet happened.

One property owner who had not accepted the city’s proposal felt the letter had a ‘pitchforks and torches’ tone. He said it seemed the city was pitting neighbor against neighbor to persuade property owners to settle.

“What they are asking for, to me, is ludicrous,” said Court Ruppenthal, who owns two commercial properties in the affected area. “A perpetual right of way, with no defining boundaries of what that really means; that’s about the broadest term that you can use. There is nothing saying that they are just going down the levee or within a certain percentage.”

Ruppenthal is one of the remaining private property owners who are hesitant to grant the city a right of way to his properties in perpetuity, saying that there is not enough transparency, communication, or clarification from the city.

Ruppenthal said he asked for clarification as to what “maintenance and repair” would entail and had not received a satisfactory answer from anyone involved in the project.

“Is that weed control- are you going to kill the blackberries I like to pick back there? I plan on planting fruit trees, so does that mean they will be at risk? There are just too many questions,” he said.

Property owners were initially contacted in June 2021. The city hosted the first informational meeting on June 16, joined by John Wells, an engineer with Anderson Perry and Associates. Attendees were presented with a design for a setback levee which was overwhelmingly rejected by property owners. Reasons for their response included the plan’s significant alterations to their properties which would reduce property value.

A second meeting in September was attended by fewer property owners than the first. Ruppenthal said notice for the second meeting was not given with enough time for him to attend.

“Certainly, I care about people’s property and what happens to them,” Ruppenthal said. “But I do not get a warm, fuzzy feeling from what the city’s intentions are or what they will carry out. I will not give them a perpetual right of way.”

Ruppenthal agreed to give access to Northbank Civil and Marine, a company who was awarded a $1.5 million levee repair project by the United States Army Corps of Engineers late last year to repair a severely damaged section of the levee behind his property. He said he would be willing to make a similar agreement with the city to make necessary repairs in emergency situations.

The City Council will meet on October 20 to decide the next steps for the levee project.