As McCleary readies for the annual Bear Festival, the city council heard a proposal for a solar power installation during a meeting Wednesday night.

The funding would come from a grant awarded by the state that McCleary was recently tentatively selected for, said Public Works Director Chad Bedlington.

“We’re trying to get the facility built by this time next year. Pretty aggressive schedule,” Bedlington said in an interview. “I think it’s doable for this type of project.”

Representatives from Ameresco, a Washington-based energy services company, presented to the meeting about the proposal.

“We feel we can get this done or else we wouldn’t be here,” said Joel Hansen, a senior account executive with Ameresco.

The proposed project, which would be built north of downtown on city land, would provide about .762 megawatts, Bedlington said, or enough to power about eighty houses for a year. The size would allow it to be built almost entirely out of grant funds, Bedlington said, though the city would be looking for other grants to apply for to expand the scale of the project.

“I think it’s progress. It’ll benefit the community,” Bedlington said. “Any form of power generations, at whatever scale we can afford, is a good thing.”

Power could help keep public safety services running in the case of a disaster that cuts power from the main grid, Bedlington said.

City attorney

City Attorney Chris Coker announced in a letter this week that he’d be discontinuing his contract with the city, effective in October.

“My last date would be October 1. It can be sooner,” Coker said. “As I said in my letter, I wish the city the best of luck.”

The city has put out a request for proposal for acquiring legal representation, to the apparent surprise of some of the members of the city council.

“It just caught me by surprise when I was reading that,” said Councilor Jacob Simmons. “I was seeing if anyone else on the council was aware of that.”

Coker, who has been serving as the city attorney since 2018, said he wished the city well and had had an interesting time working there.

“One of the things I like about this city is, I’m requested to answer a lot of questions that really spin my brain out.” he said.

Coker worked to provide answers as the council continued to grapple with the issue of the city camera use logs, and the forming of a policy for those cameras. Much concern from the council exists about Mayor Chris Miller’s use of the cameras, and his continued refusal to give up the use logs of the cameras to the council.

“So you’re not violating any city policies. Are you violating RCWs? Is that what’s being hidden? If you don’t have anything to hide, why not giving us what we’re asking for?” posed Councilor Andrea Dahl in hypotheticals to the absent mayor during the meeting. “How can we possibly make decisions when we can’t even get the information that we’re asking for to make the decision?”

Other council members repeated that exasperation.

“We’re the city council, for god’s sakes,” said Councilor Max Ross. “It should not be this much of a headache to get information from the city that we’re requesting.”

Absent mayor

The council passed resolutions to renew agreements with Daupler Services, who support the city’s after-hours call center, and Itron, whose software monitors power use. The city council also voted to adopt the county’s hazard mitigation plan, put together by Grays Harbor County Emergency Management. The city council voted down an amendment for the consultant agreement with the SCJ Alliance to update the city’s code.

Simmons recommended to other councilors to begin looking at the proposed budget that would be coming up in the not-so-distant future, while thanking Police Chief Sam Patrick for his work in getting department overtime down.

“It’s not great at the moment. There’s going to be some tough decisions coming up,” Simmons said. “Chief has turned around his overtime and they’re almost even with where they should be for the year.”

Lindsey Jo Baum

The councilors issued a number of proclamations for the month after a slight modification.

“I think we should amend these to have (McCleary City Councilor Huff) Brycen’s name at the bottom, not the mayor’s,” Ross said. “Brycen’s the one doing them.”

Councilors issued proclamations honoring Lindsey Jo Baum, who was kidnapped from McCleary 15 years ago, as well as any other missing children.

“The person or persons responsible for Lindsey’s disappearance and murder have not been identified and brought to justice,” Huff said. “We sincerely hope for Lindsey and her family that the perpetrator is brought to justice.”

Other proclamations honored the 65th anniversary of the Bear Festival, which occurs this weekend, National Parks and Recreation Month, honoring what those parks offer communities and the people that maintain them, and Disability Pride Month, celebrating the achievements, contributions and resilience of individuals with disabilities.

“Hats off to this involved with Bear Festival. It’s no easy task,” Huff said. “If you see volunteers out there run out and thank them for their hard work.”

Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or michael.lockett@thedailyworld.com.