Highlights of the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners Meeting, Wed March 23

In yesterday’s regular meeting, the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners voted to vacate all seven positions on the Clatsop County Planning Commission and solicit new applications.
The board voted 3-2 for the move. Commissioners Scott Lee and Patricia Roberts voted no.
The board set a deadline of June 30 to re-fill the positions. Current planning commission members will also be allowed to re-apply for their seats.
Commissioner Debra Birkby called the move a “rite of passage” and compared it to a new President or governor changing staff members.
Several audience members, including planning commission members Pat O’Grady and Marcia Harper-Vellutini, spoke against the proposal.
The planning commission serves at the pleasure of the board and members can be removed at any time.
The new appointments will conform to the existing terms of office. Two of the terms expire this year; two expire in 2012; and the remaining three terms expire in 2014.

In other business the board:
-Approved a contract with Community Action Team Inc. of Columbia County to provide weatherization and other housing rehabilitation services to Clatsop County families. Funding will come from a $48,000 trust account.
-Approved making a request to the Oregon Department of Transportation for a Transportation and Growth Management grant to fund pedestrian, bicycle and transit improvements on Highway 30 in Westport. The project is one of several developed by the county and community members and included in the Westport Community and Corridor Plan.
-Approved a housekeeping measure dissolving four inactive water districts. The districts Burnside, Fernhill, Fishhawk Lake and Olney-Walluski were all replaced by private water associations in the 1950s and ‘60s and have not be active since then.
-Voted to begin discussions with Charter Communications, which has requested that Clatsop County sign a formal franchise agreement with the cable television provider.