SOAP LAKE – The Soap Lake City Council voted four to two during Wednesday’s regular meeting to approve temporary changes to City Hall’s public hours. The council also heard a presentation from the Grant County Health District on an out-of-compliance solid waste disposal site.

For the next two weeks, starting Monday, Soap Lake City Hall will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with employees taking staggered lunches so someone will always be available to the public. Mayor Michelle Agliano said that the temporary change is meant to help devote more hours in the morning to training Soap Lake’s two recently hired city hall employees.

“They're new at their job and with the hours that we are currently under, eight to five Monday through Friday, it’s really hard to take a chunk of time, when you have all kinds of people coming in, to learn a new thing.”

Agliano said the training will consist of in-person guidance from more experienced city hall employees and online training from city hall’s local government management and cloud software vendor.

“This will help the staff to be trained correctly, and it will increase the knowledge of the system’s use and will promote cross-training at City Hall as well,” said Agliano.

The motion passed four to two – council members Allen DuPuy and Steve Wellein voted against the change.

“The reason I voted against it,” said Wellein, “Was because, in my experience – I’ve always been a manager of some sort or an owner of a business – to learn how to do a job it’s got to be on the job training, and stopping all business to teach somebody to do that job not only is disrespectful to the public to not have city hall open, but it doesn’t do as well as when you learn how to do it under pressure.”

DuPuy said that he felt an hour in the morning and potentially an hour in the afternoon for training was reasonable, but that three hours in the morning was too much.

“I don’t believe that they’re going to learn from watching a webinar or a podcast,” said DuPuy, “and you know, the best way they’re going to learn is hands-on experience, on-the-job training…So that’s primarily why I opposed it, because City Hall needs to be open to its residents at reasonable business hours that are dictated by our ordinances.”

DuPuy said that he would rather see more experienced employees shadow new employees while they interact with the public in order to get more practical experience.

“The reason that we need the time is to train our staff properly,” said Agliano. “Otherwise we're going to end up with more turnover because they're frustrated because they can't get it done right.”

Agliano also proposed changing the City Hall hours permanently to be open to the public four days a week, but the motion was tabled for a later meeting. Council member Kayleen Bryson also expressed concern about the frequency of City Hall’s hours changing.

“How long has it been since…we changed it again?” Bryson asked.

“Less than a month,” said Agliano.

“Okay, so we need to figure it out and stick with it,” said Bryson.

Also during the meeting, Stephanie Shopbell, the environmental health manager for the Grant County Health District, talked to the council about a city-owned site on Road A Northeast about one and a half miles north of State Route 28. The land has been used as a dumping ground for solid waste material without a permit. Shopbell said that the GCHD has notified the city previously of the issue and that they need to know what action the city will take on the matter.

“So there are two options for the site as it stands now. The first would be to try to permit it as an inert waste landfill,” said Shopbell.

Some of the waste might not meet the requirements for an inert waste landfill, said Shopbell, as some of it has been buried recently and in the past. Additionally, Shopbell said she wasn’t sure if the site itself meets the requirements as there could potentially be an issue if there are any wells or sources of water within 1000 feet of the property.

“The other option would be to remove the waste over time and dispose of it at a permitted facility, the closest being the Ephrata landfill,” said Shopbell. “The health district is willing to work with the city on whichever option they want to go, but we do need to have the council make a decision and the city make a decision on whether or not they want to try to proceed with permitting or they are going to work towards removing the materials.”

Shopbell said that GCHD does not expect the site to be cleaned up immediately.

“We know it would be a multi-year process to try to remove the materials. There’s a lot of material that's out there, and so we're more than happy to work with the city on a plan, a work plan, to get that material out if that's the direction that the city wants to go.”

The council did not take any action on the matter during the meeting.

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.