> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ⚽️ $2.8M Parks Wish List, Splash Pad Dreams - Goldendale Sept '26 Round-up - URL: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/2-8m-parks-wish-list-splash-pad-dreams-goldendale-sept-26-round-up/ - Published: 2026-10-09T07:00:58.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T07:00:58.000Z - Description: Goldendale heard its first parks plan in 26 years, then tabled it until the mayor is back. The mayor asked the county for data center impact fees, the Kiwanis Club is folding, and the police chief wants the county prosecutor to take city cases. - Author: Dispatch Squatch - Tags: Goldendale, Goldendale City Council, Klickitat County *Enjoy the* [*audio edition on Buzzsprout*](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2605109/episodes/19902249?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io)*, or look for "Open Gorge" wherever you get your podcasts.* ## 🕯 Cabinet of Curiosities: The Curse Today's Halloween month selection from our Cabinet of Curiosities brings us the foreboding words of a doomed man. On April 6, 1888, Goldendale held the only legal execution in Klickitat County's history. The condemned man was Henry Timmerman, convicted of murdering William Sterling, a freight driver headed home to Walla Walla, out in the Horse Heaven Hills. More than 3,000 people came to watch. Timmerman rode to the scaffold in a wagon, sitting up in his own coffin, reportedly smoking a cigar. He climbed the steps on his own and tossed the cigar butt into the crowd. People fought over the pieces as souvenirs. His last words: "All I can say is that if you ever get caught in a scrape like this, don't let them take you alive." ([HistoryLink](https://www.historylink.org/File/7808?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io)) He said he was innocent to the end, and local tradition says he made a prophecy: Goldendale would burn. A little more than a month later, on Sunday, May 13, with many people out at a picnic, fire broke out downtown. The town had no water system, only wells, and the fire burned too hot to fight with buckets. Seven blocks went, including the county courthouse and the county's earliest records. ([HistoryLink](https://www.historylink.org/File/7802?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io)) In 1890 someone dug up Timmerman's grave and dumped his bones in the Little Klickitat River. They washed up on the bank, and he was buried all over again. Let's hope that this time, his curse was buried with him. Now, on to September's business. ## 🏛 September 2026 Goldendale Round-Up **Agencies Covered:** Goldendale City Council (regular meetings September 8 and September 21) **The Bottom Line:** Two meetings, about half an hour of business between them. The big item, the city's first comprehensive parks plan since 2000, got its public hearing on September 21 and then waited, because the mayor was home sick and the council wanted him there to present it. **The Vibe:** Brisk and neighborly. The September 21 chair, closing out the night: "I am presuming the next meeting won't be quite so quick." ### 🔎 What Changed - The parks plan had its public hearing on September 21\. Nobody spoke. Resolution 760, which adopts it, was tabled to October 5. - Mayor Dave Jones put his position on data centers on the record: he is asking the county for impact fees and community benefit agreements. - Police are towing cars parked in school loading zones after a two-week grace period. ### ⚠ What Escalated - Police Chief Mike Smith asked the county prosecutor whether her office could take Goldendale's misdemeanor cases. - The Kiwanis Club of Goldendale is dissolving October 1, and nobody has taken over the downtown flags. ### 🧭 What's Next - **October 5, 6:00 p.m.:** the council meeting Resolution 760 was tabled to. - **Early November:** the mayor expects word on the city's two Transportation Improvement Board applications, for Mill Street and Railroad Avenue. TIB said it would announce 2026 awards after its November 6 board meeting. - **No date set:** a meeting between the mayor, the police chief, the new school superintendent and the primary school principal on pickup and drop-off, with the council's Traffic Safety Committee invited. --- ## Goldendale City Council ### 🌳 A Parks Plan 26 Years in the Making, Held for One More Meeting Goldendale last adopted a comprehensive parks plan in April 2000\. The new one has been in the works since 2022, and on September 21 it reached the council: a public hearing, with notice published twice. No one from the public spoke, in the room or online. Then the council stopped. Mayor Jones was out sick, and Mayor Pro Tem Danielle Clevidence, chairing, recommended holding Resolution 760 so he could present it and take questions. The council agreed and tabled it to October 5 ([Gorge News Center](https://gorgenewscenter.com/2026/09/22/9-21-goldendale-city-council-meeting/?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io) has the same account). Why the plan matters is mostly about money. The mayor put it plainly on September 8: adoption "would improve eligibility for RCO grants," meaning the state Recreation and Conservation Office. RCO requires a current plan before a city can apply to its main recreation programs, and [a plan counts for six years from the date it is adopted](https://rco.wa.gov/recreation-and-conservation-office-grants/grant-requirements/planning-requirements/?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io). Goldendale has won seven RCO grants since 1969, including $85,000 in 2023 for design work at Ekone and Little League parks. What's in it: - **Seven spaces.** The city owns Ekone Park (9 acres), Little League Park (7 acres), World War II Memorial Park (2.3 acres), Hornibrook Park (half an acre) and about five miles of trail on Observatory Hill. The Central Klickitat County Parks and Recreation District owns the pool and the Little Klickitat River Park, and helped write the plan. - **What people said.** Twenty people came to a public meeting in October 2024, and 75 answered an online survey that November. The pool was the clear favorite: 62 of 75 were satisfied with it. Little League Park was the least liked, with 29 dissatisfied against 9 satisfied. The plan's own description of it is "very poor shape." - **The top request was a splash pad.** The plan calls it popular but "not feasible in the scope the public demands," then lists one anyway, at $750,000, for 2032. - **The price list.** The city's capital plan has 12 projects totaling $2.845 million from 2027 to 2032\. The first four, all for 2027, are trail signs on Observatory Hill ($20,000), youth field improvements ($50,000), the World War II Park courts ($50,000) and restoration along the Little Klickitat ($75,000). The parks district's list adds $4.55 million, most of it a $3 million permanent building to replace the pool's inflatable dome. - **Who keeps it up.** One of nine public works employees is dedicated to parks. The plan is frank about the gap between the list and the means. It names the city budget, grants, partners and donations, including money "from renewable energy companies," and says the coming Goldendale Energy Storage Project "will spur a revenue increase that Goldendale can use." It also lays out why grants matter so much here, using Census figures: a median household income of $41,621 against $99,389 statewide, and a poverty rate of 28 percent against 9.9\. Those numbers qualify the city for RCO's reduced match for communities in need. One project is nearly done already. The pickleball courts at World War II Park, paid for with a $15,000 gift from Cypress Creek Renewables, were "nearing completion" on September 8, and the crew was striping them that day. ([We covered the start of that work in August.](https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/running-of-the-bull-goldendale-august-26-round-up/)) ### ⚽️ From the Editor: Volunteer to Write Grants for Your Parks I live in Underwood, Washington, and I volunteered in the past helping my parks district, Underwood Parks and Recreation, to apply for some of the state RCO grants to [refurbish our sports courts](https://underwoodcommunity.org/wp-ucc/grant-funds-for-updates-underwood-athletic-courts-fields/?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io). So if you're any good at writing or you want to loan a little bit of time (and even if you live in a different town) I suggest you reach out to the parks department and offer some of your skills. It was a wonderful experience to get to work together with the parks district here in my community, and to be able to see the fruits of our labor together as parks get redone. They join other independently funded projects like [our new playground](https://underwoodcommunity.org/wp-ucc/event-recap-community-play-structure-dedication-and-ice-cream-social/?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io). It's really rewarding, and anybody can do it. I believe that these are the kinds of projects that let every person take pride in the place that we live, and it's more accessible to help out than you might think. If you have any questions about that, reach out to me at skamaniadispatch at gmail dot com. ### 🖥 The Mayor's Data Center Ask None of the data centers proposed in Klickitat County would sit inside Goldendale, so none will come before this council. Mayor Jones told the council on September 8 that he went to the county commissioners' September 3 workshop anyway, because "a big project like that will have impacts on the city, on our police department, our public works, our roads, everything else." His ask, in the city's minutes: he "is advocating for impact fees and community benefit agreements if data centers are allowed." On tape he said he has made that case to the commissioners and to county planning, for "any ordinance they might draft." He urged the council to stay informed on "big projects that are being proposed in our area," adding that "some of them are already being built right now." It is the first position on data centers this council's mayor has taken on the record. In July a resident asked the council point blank whether the city would sell water to a data center, and [got a no-plans answer](https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/are-we-going-to-sell-our-water-to-the-data-center-goldendale-july-26-round-up/). The county side is moving on its own clock: the commissioners took no action at the September 3 workshop, [as we reported](https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/between-budget-gaps-data-centers-klickitat-bocc-8-19-9-15/), and the [Goldendale Sentinel reported September 23](https://www.goldendalesentinel.com/news/six-proposed-data-centers-no-county-applications/article%5F75565614-043d-4847-b358-b6a6da09c804.html?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io) that six projects are in the federal power-interconnection queue, and none has applied for a county permit. The tools the mayor named are not interchangeable, and the difference matters for Goldendale. See the Editor's Note below. ### 👮 Police: August, School Pickup, and One Court Chief Smith reported 348 calls and 10 arrests in August, with about 2,495 calls so far this year. He said five of the arrests were for domestic violence assaults and that domestic violence "was kind of up in the month of August" ([Gorge News Center](https://gorgenewscenter.com/2026/09/09/9-08-goldendale-city-council-meeting/?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io) has the same figures). That is down from July's 374. School pickup was the longest discussion on September 8\. Clevidence asked whether the school district had answered the city about bus and pickup arrangements since classes started. The mayor said he is setting up a meeting with the new superintendent, the primary school principal and the chief, and invited the council's Traffic Safety Committee, which is Clevidence and Councilor Steve Johnston. Clevidence asked whether the district would consider using its own property across the street for pickup. Police spent the first two weeks of school educating parents and are now towing cars left in the loading zones. Painted pickup zones are the hope. On September 21 the chief reported on a new idea. He has asked Klickitat County Prosecuting Attorney Rebecca Cranston whether her office could handle Goldendale's misdemeanors, so that "everything would go to one court, one prosecutor," felonies and misdemeanors alike. The city would still pay "if it's reasonable." She asked for a couple of weeks to see whether her office has the staff. Goldendale now contracts its own prosecutor, Lance Fitzjarrald, at $7,600 a month for 2026. ### 🇺🇸 The Kiwanis Club Folds Councilor Theone Wheeler had the month's saddest report. The Kiwanis Club of Goldendale is dissolving at the end of the Kiwanis year, October 1\. "We've tried for two years to keep it alive," she said, but "there's only four of us running the whole show and it's just too much." The club will spend what it has left on books for every school in the county, divided by enrollment. The club has served Goldendale since 1982\. It nearly closed in 2024, until a [Goldendale Sentinel story](https://www.goldendalesentinel.com/features/goldendale-kiwanis-club-near-demise-again/article%5Ff71d211d-5d70-414d-ba83-5966c2136393.html?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io) brought in new members; by July 2025 the club said only five or six of 22 were active. Its signature project is the American flags downtown for holidays, Community Days and the rodeo. That is the gap now. Wheeler said no organization has stepped up to take the flags. Jack Sutton, who has put them up on Broadway for more than 20 years, will keep doing that and add Main Street, "but that's all he can do." "Hopefully somebody will step up and volunteer," the chair said. ### 🚒 Fire, Maryhill and Housekeeping - **Free CPR classes.** Julianna Ontiveros reported for the fire department ([per Gorge News Center](https://gorgenewscenter.com/2026/09/22/9-21-goldendale-city-council-meeting/?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io)) that it is offering free CPR, first aid and Narcan training through a grant, in Goldendale and around the county, with all classes to be finished by the end of the year. Dates are posted on the department's Facebook page. - **Maryhill turns 100.** Councilor Brian Paul helped with parking and security at the Maryhill Museum of Art's [centennial celebration](https://www.opb.org/article/2026/09/18/maryhill-museum-of-art-centennial-tol/?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io) on September 19, which drew visitors from Alaska, California and Nevada. Mayor Jones read a proclamation there. - **A closed session dropped.** The September 21 agenda listed an executive session on "litigation or legal risks of a proposed action." The council voted to remove it. The agenda does not say what the proposed action was. - **Consent agendas.** September 8: payroll of $166,002.95 and claims of $182,439.58\. September 21: payroll of $128,942.67 and claims of $130,328.71\. All approved without discussion. - **A proclamation** for National Surgical Technologists Week, September 20 to 26, was read on September 21. --- ### ⚠️ Editor's Notebook: Broader Context - **"Impact fees" has a specific meaning in Washington law.** Under [RCW 82.02.050](https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=82.02.050&ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io), impact fees are available to counties and cities that plan fully under the Growth Management Act. Klickitat County's planning department has written that the county had the choice to opt in to full planning [and chose not to](https://www.klickitatcounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/13013/Staff-Report?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io). - **Other tools do exist.** A county can attach mitigation conditions to a permit under the State Environmental Policy Act, for impacts its environmental review identifies ([RCW 43.21C.060](https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=43.21C.060&ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io)). It can sign a development agreement with a landowner that sets mitigation and fees ([RCW 36.70B.170](https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=36.70B.170&ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io)). And state law allows voluntary agreements to pay for "a direct impact that has been identified as a consequence of a proposed development" ([RCW 82.02.020](https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=82.02.020&ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io)). A community benefit agreement is a negotiated deal, not a term in state law. - **The open question is the one that matters to Goldendale.** Whether any of them would send money to a city whose limits the projects sit outside, for police calls and road wear inside town, has not been answered on the record by the county or the city. ### 🛠 Jargon Buster - **Comprehensive parks plan:** a long-range plan listing a city's parks, what the public wants, and the projects it means to fund. RCO requires one before most recreation grants. - **RCO:** the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office, the state agency that runs most park and trail grant programs. ### 📅 How to Join & Learn More - **Meetings:** the council normally meets the first and third Mondays at 6:00 p.m., Council Chambers, 1103 South Columbus Avenue. The October 2026 regular meetings fall on October 5 and October 19. - **Remote access:** Zoom or phone at 415-762-9988, meeting ID 373 290 5204, call-in from 5:45 p.m. - **Agendas, packets and minutes:** the city's [agendas and minutes page](https://www.ci.goldendale.wa.us/your-government/city-council/agendas-minutes?ref=skamania-dispatch.ghost.io), which also carries video of each meeting. The full parks plan is in the September 21 packet. - **Public comment:** taken twice, at the start on agenda items only and again near the end on any topic, three minutes each.