Leavenworth City Council explores switching to groundwater

The Leavenworth City Council gathered on January 28 for their regular biweekly meeting. The council sought to discuss multiple topics relating to approvals needed in different departments. The Ecology Office of Columbia River/Icicle Work Group was granted $582,000 to mainly cover the water source replacement study. The priority is to explore the possibility of transferring the water rights to groundwater in the form of a well. This grant allows for research and tests to be conducted in order to understand the reality of the situation and will ultimately prove useful to determine a finding for the study at hand. A new position of assistant parks division supervisor was approved for the parks department in order to help maintain the flow of employees and ensure a well maintained department. Two brand new Nissan Frontier pickup trucks were approved for purchase to help the parks and water departments. Each department will receive one truck. Finally, the local event company, Gather, was approved to come to a professional services agreement, allowing them to continue renting the Festhalle for their company. Mayor Florea also led a discussion of the housing crisis in town, stating that there is optimism for solutions in the coming months to increase sales tax by two cents on lodging. He also spoke of Leavenworth being the number three city in the state of Washington in generating lodging tax, even surpassing Seattle in that category. There is support from multiple lodging groups for this notion, and there is a mutual agreement the increase would not affect the guests nor keep them from visiting the city. Christie Voos announced she will be leaving her work with the council, but will stay part of communications until a new person fills the empty position. She is well praised by her colleagues for her work, and will be missed within the council. The Leavenworth City Council will reconvene on March 14 for their biweekly study session and meeting.