🐕 Animals Out of Control - Goldendale Oct '26 Round-up

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🏛 October 2026 Goldendale Round-Up

Agencies Covered: Goldendale City Council (regular meetings October 5 and October 19)

The Bottom Line: The parks plan the council held in September passed unanimously on October 5, and the state's recreation office certified it, which opens the door to the grants the plan was written for. October 19 was mostly about wildfire: where a fire would run, and how much vegetation work and home hardening would change that.

The Vibe: Productive, with some heat. Councilor Theone Wheeler pushed back on what the parks plan leaves out, and a resident came to the podium to say his neighbor's dogs had bitten him twice.

🔎 What Changed

• Resolution 760 adopted the 2026 Comprehensive Park Plan, 7-0. The state Recreation and Conservation Office says it qualifies the city for its grants through October 5, 2032.
• Resolution 761 approved the county's 2026 to 2031 solid and hazardous waste plan, unanimously.
• The burn ban was lifted October 16.

⚠ What Escalated

• A Goldendale resident told the council dogs from one yard have bitten him twice. The city has no animal control officer.
• Councilor Steve Johnston asked how a Main Street business keeps cattle panels on a public sidewalk. The ordinance committee took it up two days later.

🧭 What's Next

• November: the mayor expects word on the city's two Transportation Improvement Board applications, for Mill Street and Railroad Avenue.
• November 4, 6:30 p.m.: a council budget workshop on the 2027 budget.
• Starting November: a year-long update of the county's Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which presenters urged the city and residents to join.

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Goldendale City Council

🌳 The Parks Plan Passes, With One Objection

In September the council held a public hearing on the city's first comprehensive parks plan since April 2000, then held the vote until Mayor Dave Jones could be there. On October 5 he was, and Resolution 760 passed unanimously, moved by Councilor Danielle Clevidence and seconded by Councilor Andy Halm.

Before the vote, Wheeler raised what the plan does not say. Wheeler said the planning group had talked for more than a year about commemorating local tribes in Goldendale's parks, "maybe it's a fountain, maybe it's a statue," and had brought in people from the Yakama Nation to help. The history section made it into the final plan. "But everything else disappeared," Wheeler said. Plaques for the Observatory Hill trail had gone to another organization, and no park in the plan carries a commitment to honor the history that predates the town.

Keaton Curtice of Klickitat County's economic development office, who helped write the plan, said he was asked to include tribal history in the plan's history section and never in its inventory of the parks. He said that doesn't stop the city: interpretive signs or recreation projects that honor tribal culture can still go into a grant application. A state representative told him the plan is "a big picture document," not a list where every project has to be spelled out. (Gorge News Center covered the same exchange.)

The reason for the plan is money. Curtice called the state Recreation and Conservation Office the largest source of outdoor recreation grants in Washington, and its largest programs require a current parks plan. On October 19 the mayor read the office's reply: the plan meets its requirements, and the city is eligible through October 5, 2032. The council was told the Central Klickitat County Park and Recreation District plans to adopt the same plan, which covers its pool and river park.

Johnston said keeping it current is now the job of future councils, and suggested a list of plans and their renewal dates "so that we have future opportunities for better grants."

🔥 Where a Wildfire Would Run

On October 19, Klickitat County Undersheriff Carmen Knopes, Hilary Lundgren of the nonprofit Resources Legacy Fund and Charlie Landsman of the state Department of Natural Resources brought the council wildfire modeling for three places: White Salmon, the Highway 141 corridor and Goldendale.

The models trace how a fire would move from grass and brush into town and then from house to house, using west winds of 10 to 15 miles an hour, fuels data, fire history and input from local fire districts. Lundgren was blunt about the limits: "All models are wrong. And all models have value." The Goldendale runs compared a no-action scenario with vegetation management, then with vegetation management plus home hardening (vents, siding, roofs, clearing around the house). Each step cut the number of homes likely to ignite. Of the areas modeled, Observatory Hill showed the fastest spread.

Council members had handouts. The meeting packet posted on the city's website includes only the agenda item, not the maps. Knopes said the county's evacuation plan is in its final draft and most of the material is not ready for the public yet: "We don't want to scare people." (Gorge News Center reported the same.) During public comment, Rodger Nichols of The Dalles reminded the council that a document handed out at a meeting can be requested under public records law.

What residents can use now:

• The Klickitat Wildfire Resource Hub, wildfirereadyklickitat.org, with before, during and after checklists and vetted contractors. Knopes asked the city to link it from its website.
• DNR grants, which Landsman described: Firewise USA micro-grants of up to $4,000 for a neighborhood project, a new community grant of up to $25,000 (chipper rental, metal screening, rock around homes), and direct agreements of up to about $40,000 with a fire district or other local group.
• The Community Wildfire Protection Plan update. Lundgren said a year-long update starts in November. Landsman called the plan "the guiding document" for state and federal money: the large federal Community Wildfire Defense Grants only fund projects listed in it. The current plan dates from 2018.

Wheeler asked whether tribes were part of the work. The presenters said tribal representatives, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal law enforcement take part in every evacuation exercise. Wheeler also asked about fire risk from proposed solar farms; the presenters said the models don't include sites that aren't built yet and suggested raising it in the county's comprehensive plan update.

The council showed interest in prescribed burning on Observatory Hill, behind the fuels work already done there. "It's bone dry," one speaker said of the hill. A meeting with the fire chiefs is to be set up. No date was given.

🐕 Bitten Twice, and No Animal Control Officer

During open public comment on October 5, Goldendale resident Richard Allen asked whether the city has animal control. It doesn't. Mayor Jones said the police handle vicious-animal calls.

Allen said dogs from one neighbor's yard have threatened children and older neighbors and bitten him twice, once while he was riding a bicycle. "I've been bitten twice and attacked on a weekly basis," he said. The fence is low, the dogs clear it, and he now carries mace. He said officers had told him there was little they could do, and that he has video.

Police Chief Mike Smith said officers have to see a violation to write a citation, and that loose dogs sometimes wait behind other calls: September brought 301 calls, including 13 domestic-assault calls. He said he would look into the address the next day, and the mayor invited Allen to share his video with the chief. "Don't ever hesitate to call the police," Smith said.

This is the gap the council has been circling for months. Councilor Brian Paul, who is working with the county on a shelter, said the county commissioners had granted an extension on the shelter money ("it won't be the full amount of money") and that a volunteer-staffed shelter is "probably at least a year away." That is not what the county board heard on September 22, when Sheriff Bob Songer said the state would not extend the grant. Neither statement is in the county's typed minutes.

🚧 Cattle Panels on Main Street

In his report on October 5, Johnston asked "how it is that a business on Main Street is allowed to have a permanent structure that is an obstacle on our sidewalk": cattle panels in front of a downtown bar. "It's obnoxious," he said, and drivers have to bump them to reach the curb.

The mayor said the chief had already had the panels moved back for wheelchair access after a complaint, and that the business holds a Public Property Use Permit that expires at the end of the year. The council then talked about what it does want. Paul pointed to wrought-iron or wood railings that keep a clear path for pedestrians and wheelchairs. Wheeler described covered sidewalk tables in Portland. Several members drew the line between something built to be permanent and something temporary left out.

The ordinance committee met October 7. Its draft, Ordinance 1560, adds "barricades" to the list of permanent sidewalk objects that need written approval from the council, and strikes the clause that tells the police chief to arrest someone who won't remove an obstruction. The fine stays at $10 to $100.

🗑 The County's Garbage Plan

On October 19 the council approved Resolution 761, the county's comprehensive solid and hazardous waste plan for 2026 through 2031, unanimously (Paul and Halm). It is the plan the county hired Herrera Environmental Consultants to write in 2025. State law has counties write these plans in cooperation with their cities, and the council heard that the county board adopts it formally only after Goldendale, Bingen and White Salmon approve it. The county's solid waste coordinator, Mackenzie Andress, said the advisory committee met for 18 months on it; Clevidence is the city's member.

🚓 Police, Fire and Housekeeping

• Police. September: 301 calls and 13 arrests, five of them tied to 13 domestic-assault calls. The department bought a second hybrid patrol car at the first one's price. Smith said the outfitter's contract takes $500 a day off the bill if the car isn't back by January. He is planning active-shooter training with the school district and its new superintendent.
• Burn ban. Lifted October 16. "It's still dry out there," Halm said.
• Single-wide trailers. The mayor sent the city's ban on single-wide trailers to the ordinance committee (Clevidence, Meagher and Paul) for another look, along with Johnston's request to restore language naming the trailer parks in town.
• A planning agency instead of a Planning Commission. On October 15 the ordinance committee was emailed a proposal to replace the Planning Commission with a staff planning agency (the mayor, city administrator, public works director, building official and city engineer), because it has been hard to fill citizen boards. Half the committee recommended it; the other half asked for a council discussion.
• Mill Street. Former councilor Miland Walling asked about Mill Street. The mayor said the city applied for two Transportation Improvement Board grants, a full rebuild of Mill and an overlay of Railroad Avenue, with an answer expected in November. A four-way stop at Mill and Second may fix the curve that once made Mill ineligible.
• Harvest Festival. Clevidence, Paul and Wheeler thanked the volunteers and asked more people to step up. Resident Larry Hoctor said he had lived here 66 years and didn't think he'd "ever seen that many people in two blocks."
• Consent agendas. October 5: payroll $165,049.18 and claims $139,629.20. October 19: payroll $136,346.85 and claims $296,762.82. Approved unanimously.
• Attendance. Johnston and Councilor Nathaniel Hill were excused on October 19. Wheeler attended both meetings by Zoom.

⚠️ Editor's Notebook: Broader Context

• A parks plan does not fund anything by itself. It makes the city eligible to compete for state grants, which typically ask the city to put up a share. The plan's city project list totals about $2.8 million over 2027 to 2032.
• The wildfire money Landsman described mostly flows to organized groups (a Firewise neighborhood, a fire district, a conservation district). A household acting alone has fewer options, which is why presenters kept pointing residents toward neighborhood groups and the protection plan update.

🛠 Jargon Buster

• Community Wildfire Protection Plan: a county plan that lists wildfire risks and projects. Many state and federal grants only pay for projects named in it.
• Firewise USA: a national program that recognizes neighborhoods that organize to reduce wildfire risk around their homes.
• Home hardening: changes that make a house less likely to catch from embers, like ember-resistant vents and clearing what burns near the walls.
• Public Property Use Permit: the city permit that lets a business use part of a public sidewalk.

How to Join & Learn More

• Meetings: the council meets the first and third Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall, in person or by Zoom (meeting ID 373 290 5204, or call 415-762-9988). November meetings: the 2nd and the 16th. Budget workshop: Wednesday, November 4, 6:30 p.m.
• Agendas, packets and minutes: the city's agendas and minutes page, with video of each meeting. The parks plan is in the October 5 packet; the county waste plan is in the October 19 packet.
• Wildfire: the Klickitat Wildfire Resource Hub.