Cashmere City Council Meeting July 24

The lack of water pressure at homes on S. Douglas St. was the topic of considerable discussion at the Cashmere City Council’s July 24 meeting. Patty Howe addressed the Council and explained that the water pressure is so poor at her mom’s house, on S. Douglas, that it is not possible to take a shower if a neighbor is watering their lawn. She explained that she had talked with 12 of the 21 residents who all also have low water pressure. According to Howe, two different plumbers told her that the service line needs to be replaced but that should not be done until the water main has been replaced. She said that she had been told by city staff that repair is not slated for 2024, but Howe requested that the water main be fixed sooner to solve the issue. She also expressed concern that her mom is not receiving a service that she is paying for.

Mayor Jim Fletcher asked if he could make copies of Howe’s notes so that the city’s engineers could look into the extent of the problem. Fletcher told Howe that he doesn’t have answers right now, but he explained that wants to find some short-term fixes to the lack of pressure until the water main can be completely replaced. Dorien McElroy, manager of Cashmere’s water and wastewater facilities, said that Woodard and Curran have engineers who can also investigate solutions to the low pressure. He explained that the Council would have to have discussions about any potential options in terms of water rate charges.

In a 3:1 split vote, with John Perry voting against, and Jayne Stephenson absent, authorization was given to the Mayor to approve and sign the designation of an easement on the driveway to Simpson Park. The easement will officially allow access to a parking lot behind the manufacturing shop. According to Fletcher, mutual use of the driveway has existed since at least 1947. However due to the upcoming sale of the L.E. Wilson property, a formal easement is required to complete sale. Perry voted against approval, saying he would like to see the actual language to know for sure what the city was agreeing to, in case at some point the city might want to make changes to the park or driveway. Fletcher told Perry and the other council members that even though approval was given, he would still let them see it before he actually signed the document.

The Council unanimously approved an amendment to the 2023 budget. City Clerk/Treasurer, Kay Jones explained that this was a normal mid-year amendment based on changes in revenue and expenditures that were not anticipated.

Also unanimously approved was the migration of city servers to the cloud. Jones told the Council that the city’s server was scheduled for replacement last year, but was not. Jones added, that it is recommended that the server and hardware be replaced every 5 years. The city’s tech contractor, Vision IT, recommends migration to the cloud. Jones explained that the annual recurring costs will increase from $2,384.00 to $3,308.00, a difference of $924.00, however this will eliminate the approximately $17,000 cost of replacing the server and hardware every 5 years. There will be a total recurring annual cost of $6,188.00. She explained that the cloud migration would eliminate the need for onsite maintenance and repairs, improve security and give some staff the ability to work from anywhere. Director of Operations, Steve Croci, said that it would be nice to be able to go on the cloud and grab some documents, to be more productive.

Council member Chris Carlson asked if this would mean that the city will be stuck with this IT company once city data is on their cloud. Jones explained that the company does all of the IT for the city and so does not know why they would want to switch, but Fletcher added that yes, the city could switch. Council member Derrick Pratt suggested that the IT company do the migration for free since they already have all of the city’s data in their system.

Final approval for the annexation of the Christ Center Church and Marc Spears properties was unanimously given by the Council. The property will be zoned single family. Fletcher explained that the vote was only approving the annexation and that any future development of the properties is a separate matter and would be required to go through the normal permitting processes. The Council vote was following actions by the County’s Boundary Review Board, which included a public hearing and a 4:0 vote approving the annexation. In 2022, the Council had held a public hearing and had voted to accept the annexation application from the church and Spears, who had both requested to be annexed into the city.