Royal City City Council swears in members, discusses water line replacement
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 9 months AGO
Royal City Council Member Hector Rodriguez, right, takes the oath of office at the council’s Tuesday meeting, as Council Member Perla Garcia, left, and Mayor Michael Christensen look on.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | January 3, 2024 3:47 PM
ROYAL CITY — The Royal City City Council swore in three council members at its meeting Tuesday evening, all returning after the November elections.
Hector Rodriguez, who holds Position 3, Perla Garcia, who was reelected to Position 2, and Ryan Piercy, who retained the Position 4 seat in the November election by a single vote, all raised their right hands and swore to uphold the Constitution and carry out the duties of their office. Deputy City Clerk Sherrie Rodriguez administered the oaths.
The water main replacement project is moving along slowly but surely, Public Works Director John Lasen told the council. The upgrades are underway on the west end of town, Lasen said, starting with Hemlock, Grape and Calla streets and moving on to Calla Loop, Balsam Street and Royal Avenue.
“Then there's other places throughout town (where) we've got these isolated, small pipelines that need to be replaced as well,” Lasen said.
Some of the pipes being replaced are made from asbestos cement, Lasen said, which was common until the 1970s. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, asbestos is only harmful if the fibers are inhaled.
“You hear ‘asbestos’ and you worry about health risk, but there isn't,” Lasen said. “The only time you have a health risk with asbestos is if it's dry and what they call friable. If you drill it and it creates dust and it gets into your lungs, that can cause problems. But if it's wet, even if you ingest it, to my knowledge, you can't cause any health problems at all.”
The crews replacing the water lines will restore the roads they tear up in the course of their work, but that’s as far as they’ll go, Lasen explained.
Garcia asked if the roads would be repaired in the process of replacing pipes underneath them.
“There is an element for (repairs) to the road,” Lasen replied. “Are they going to be brand-new roads? Absolutely not. They're not going to be in much better condition than they currently are.”
“That's dirt now,” Garcia said. “Literally, that's mud. You drive through there, it’s mud. And it's only gonna get worse, people driving it (when) it’s wet.”
“They have some (repairs) that they have to do but it's only where they actually dig,” Lasen said “And then there's gonna be some BST, bituminous surface treatment, which is what those roads were originally constructed as. That's where they just put down oil and gravel.”
Joel Martin may be reached via email at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”