🚧 What lies beneath? North Bonneville maps its infrastructure - March '26 City Round-up

Enjoy the audio edition.

Welcome to our March 2026 North Bonneville round-up! We're taking a different approach to reduce the information overload. We're going to give each city their own monthly round-up.

🏛 North Bonneville City Council - March 10 & 24, 2026 Meetings

The Body: North Bonneville City Council

The Bottom Line: The City is taking a proactive approach to deferred maintenance by funding an underground utility mapping project and replacing obsolete fire infrastructure, all while navigating administrative staffing gaps and inter-agency partnerships.

The Vibe: Pragmatic and heavily focused on the literal nuts and bolts of running a city, though punctuated by lingering tensions over regional environmental boards.

Executive Summary:

🔎 What Changed

• City Council pproved a shared-cost agreement with the Skamania PUD for underground utility mapping.
• City Council Initiated an update to the building department interlocal agreement with Skamania County.
• Planning Commission Roster: Suzanne Bradshaw and Julie Dallas were officially seated as Commissioner and Alternate, respectively.
• Hearing Status: The public hearing for the CAO Periodic Review was officially opened and entered into the public record.

⚠ What Escalated

• Personnel disputes regarding the Bradford Island Restoration Advisory Board have formally entered the public municipal record, indicating ongoing regional environmental friction.
• The inability to source replacement parts for aging safety infrastructure forced an unbudgeted $3,500 fire hydrant replacement.
• Regulatory Complexity: The formal introduction of the 71-page Critical Areas Ordinance amendment highlights the growing complexity of local land-use laws. With civil infractions tied to violations, property owners will need to navigate tighter restrictions regarding tree removal, earth-moving, and development near mapped critical areas.

🧭 What’s Next

• April 18 & April 28: Special City Council meetings scheduled at 6:00 p.m. to interview candidates for the vacant City Council Seats #4 and #5.
• Final CAO Recommendation: The Planning Commission will finalize its review of the Critical Areas Ordinance draft and vote to send a formal recommendation to the City Council.
• City Council Review: Once the Planning Commission passes the baton, the City Council will hold its own review and take final legislative action to adopt the ordinance into city law.

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🚧 Public Works & Infrastructure

• The Council approved a joint project with the Skamania County Public Utility District (PUD) to inspect and record underground sanitary sewer and utility lines. The project cost is capped at $2,500.
• Mayor JB Tennison announced the upcoming replacement of an obsolete fire hydrant near City Hall. Replacement is estimated at $3,500.
• The Council approved a $4,133.24 payment to Jammie's Environmental for biosolids removal at the wastewater treatment plant.

Deferred maintenance is a structural hurdle for small municipalities, often resulting in emergency repairs that break budgets. By proactively partnering with the Skamania PUD to bring in Scott Pipeline Video to map underground voids and offsets, North Bonneville is attempting to get ahead of expensive infrastructure failures. Meanwhile, the obsolete fire hydrant near City Hall highlights the harsh reality of municipal safety, when parts are no longer manufactured, the city must absorb the total replacement cost, straining limited capital reserves.

🗣 Public Comment & Regional Friction

• Mitch Patton submitted a written public comment regarding his termination from the Bradford Island Restoration Advisory Board.
• Patton's comment alleged retaliation and utilized past Internal Affairs records to question the credibility of a specific law enforcement officer.

While city councils typically focus on localized zoning and budgets, regional environmental cleanups frequently spill into their public comment periods. Patton’s termination from the Bradford Island board introduces administrative friction into an already complex Superfund cleanup effort, raising questions about how small-town representatives and residents navigate inter-agency disputes and maintain public trust during high-stakes environmental remediation.

🤝 Administration & Staffing

• Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Taylor Chambers is actively recruiting a summer temporary maintenance worker to manage city mowing and upkeep.
• Chambers and Mayor Tennison met with Sarah Kelly and Arnold Bell from the Skamania County Building Department to update their shared building and permitting agreement.
• The Council formally approved over $54,000 in operational vouchers across the two March meetings.

Small-town administration relies heavily on interlocal agreements to function efficiently. Re-evaluating the agreement with Skamania County for building permitting is a strategic move to streamline development bottlenecks and ensure code compliance without the overhead of a full-time municipal building inspector. Furthermore, the ongoing search for public works staff reveals the continuous challenge of maintaining city aesthetics and operations in a tight rural labor market.

⚠️ Broader Context

The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) held a virtual meeting this past month regarding the Cascade Renewable Transmission (CRT) project. The ongoing state-level evaluation of this fiber optic and transmission infrastructure will have significant downstream effects on local land use, utility right-of-ways, and community planning across the Gorge. Local municipalities will need to closely monitor EFSEC's recommendations to anticipate future development friction. We'll report on this March meeting soon.

🛠 Jargon Buster

• Interlocal Agreement (ILA): A legal contract between two public agencies (like a city and a county) to share resources, services, or responsibilities. This allows small cities to access county-level building inspectors without hiring full-time staff.
• Vouchers: The formal list of bills, invoices, and expenses the city council must publicly approve before checks are cut to vendors.
• Biosolids: The nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of domestic sewage in a wastewater treatment facility, which must be safely removed and disposed of.

How to Join & Learn More The North Bonneville City Council meets at City Hall and via video conference.

• Next Meeting: Find the agenda and remote login links at NorthBonneville.net
• Read the Raw Documents: Review the March 10 and March 24 agenda packets and meeting transcripts at the same link

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🏛 North Bonneville Planning Commission - March 12, 2026 Meeting

The Body: North Bonneville Planning Commission (Special Meeting)

The Bottom Line: The Commission officially initiated the public hearing phase for a massive 71-page update to the city's Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) and welcomed two new commissioners to help guide the final review.

The Vibe: Procedural and brief. The meeting was heavily focused on establishing an accurate public record, laying the legal groundwork for the CAO update, and smoothly onboarding new civic volunteers.

👔 Governance & Administration

• Filling the Roster: The Commission officially welcomed Suzanne Bradshaw to the #4 position (vacated by Donna Anzellotti) and Julie Dallas to the Alternate position.
• Procedural Housekeeping: Commission Chair Mary Jo Selva emphasized recording procedures to ensure a clear public record of who was present and speaking.
• Fairness Doctrine: Staff explicitly invoked the fairness doctrine on the record, ensuring no commissioners had undisclosed ex parte communications regarding the CAO amendments prior to the public hearing.

Filling vacant commission seats is a constant, quiet struggle for small rural municipalities. By securing Bradshaw and Dallas, North Bonneville restores a full bench just as it wades into one of the most technically demanding legislative tasks of the year: the CAO periodic review.

🌳 Environmental Policy: The Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO)

• Zero Public Comment: Despite the massive scope of the ordinance, no public comments were submitted or voiced during this phase of the hearing.
• 71 Pages of Rules: The draft document updates definitions, buffer zones, and allowed uses across several sensitive designations, including flood hazard areas, steep slopes, wetlands, and fish and wildlife habitat.
• Enforcement: The draft explicitly outlines that violations of the new CAO will be deemed civil infractions, punishable by fines.

The sheer volume of the CAO, relying on state mapping systems from the Department of Ecology and Fish and Wildlife, creates a high barrier to entry for the average resident, which likely explains the lack of public comment.

However, the structural reality is that these updates are not strictly voluntary. State law mandates periodic reviews of critical areas to integrate the latest "Best Available Science." If North Bonneville fails to adopt an updated CAO that meets state standards, the city risks losing access to state grant funding for vital infrastructure projects. The Commission is currently bridging the gap between state-level environmental mandates and hyper-local property rights.

⚠️ Broader Context

The Growth Management Act (GMA) requires all cities and counties in Washington to periodically review and update their Critical Areas Ordinances.

• The Structural Hurdle: Small cities like North Bonneville often lack the internal staff to draft these highly technical documents, requiring them to hire outside consultants (in this case, Jackson Civil Engineering).
• The Legal Mechanic: This process isn't just about environmental stewardship; it's an insurance policy. A legally compliant CAO protects the city from lawsuits led by environmental groups and ensures continued eligibility for the state's Public Works Trust Fund.

🛠 Jargon Buster

• CAO (Critical Areas Ordinance): A set of local rules required by state law that restrict development near sensitive environmental features like wetlands, steep slopes, and drinking water aquifers.
• FIRM (Flood Insurance Rate Map): Official maps created by FEMA that outline flood hazards and risk zones in a community. The new CAO relies on these maps to dictate where you can and cannot build near the river.
• Ex Parte Communication: Any private conversation a commissioner has about a pending issue outside of an official public meeting. Disclosing these prevents bias in the decision-making process.

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How to Join & Learn More

• Next Meeting: Planning Commission meetings are typically held at North Bonneville City Hall. Check the city website for the next scheduled date.
• Raw Materials: You can review the draft 71-page CAO amendment and past meeting minutes directly via the City of North Bonneville's public records portal.