May 15, 2009

County Court gets slim attendance in Mosier

By Sam Craig
The Chronicle

     Taking their show on the road, members of the Wasco County Court got a little lost on the way to their first out-of-town gig.
     It was pouring rain when the members of the court left The Dalles and moseyed out to Mosier for an evening meeting on Wednesday, May 13, so having a little trouble finding the place was understandable. The audience was kind of sparse for what was supposed to be an event for the public to meet the court and express any concerns they had about county issues, but the view from the Mosier Creek Terrace meeting room was pretty spectacular.
     “This is almost as good as the view from my office,” said Dan Ericksen, Wasco County Judge.
     With a window that looked out at the low, gray clouds rolling across the pine down to the Columbia to their left, the county court got to work and dove into a few issues.
     They filled out a survey for the Oregon Department of Forestry, rating their services and cooperation with other agencies excellent.
     Next, the board discussed the need for the county to find two people to serve on a board in charge of recategorizing local state forest lands. It’s in response to House Bill 189 that aims to clear up what obligation timberland owners have in regards to taxes and assessments.
     “This is a process they’re supposed to go through on a much more regular basis,” said Ericksen, “but it hasn’t gone on for years and years. It is a re-evaluation of forest lands, recategorizing them. So they are going to go through that process over the next year or so.”
     After discussing a few more items on the consent calendar, the board moved on to take questions from the audience. Only two members of the public showed up, and one of them was Marc Berry, the recently retired mayor of Mosier.
     “I’d just like to welcome you to Mosier,” Berry said. “It really says something that you’re all here and there isn’t anybody here to complain to you.”
     This is the first in a series of treks the Wasco County Court will be making. They’ll be trying to get to every town in the county.
     “We made the decision a few months ago to do this quarterly and hit a different community every time,” Ericksen said. The court wants to give county citizens a chance to voice their concerns, or simply observe meetings they might not otherwise be able to attend.
     There was one last announcement for the court that Bill Lennox had as the meeting room was emptying.
     “I forgot to tell the court, every Wednesday, if you can stay up until 10 o’clock, watch ‘The Unusuals’ on ABC,” Lennox said. “My nephew, Kai Lennox has been on that show. He’s got a good part in it. He plays Eddie Alvarez. He’s tall and he has a moustache, he looks kind of like I did when I was a detective.”