Library Summer Reading Program begins

HARRINGTON – The Summer Reading Program for Harrington Public Library runs July 8-29 each Thursday from 3-5 p.m. at Harrington Memorial Hall under the direction of volunteer and local resident, Kris Moritz, who has conducted the program in 2019. Washington State Library provides the library with topics and manuals through their membership in the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP), to keep children reading during the summer months and prevent the "summer slide" that occurs when long periods of cessation of reading occurs.

Moritz and her aide Evie Mann, local high school graduate, were surprised at the wonderful turnout of 18 children between ages 3-12, since only a few had shown interest prior to this opening session. Several mothers stayed and contributed to the success of the day in which the children seemed happy to interact and were excited to learn. A portion of the two hours was divided into coloring, listening to a treasure hunt story, learning about animals and the continents around the world and enjoying word activities. It is likely that a portion of their excitement is that people can again congregate, but they are certainly enthused about this year's Summer Reading Program.

City Council Special Meeting

A special city council meeting was called for the purpose of discussing Public Works Position No. 2. Mayor Nathan Luck led the meeting on Thursday, July 8, at 5 p.m. with the full council present: Justin Slack, Stephen Hardy, David Buddrius, Peter Davenport, and Levi Schenk, and Clerk Jere Lee. Luck announced that he had interviewed a candidate for Position #2 for Public Works and that he needs a decision from the Council since the applicant has other opportunities for employment within the county. Since the Mayor has authority to hire and fire, he stated that he cannot change or make monetary decisions regarding wages and therefore was bringing this issue to the Council.

Luck went over the potential employee's resume and the council discussed at length his qualifications including having a water certificate, a flagger card, forklift CDL, pesticide and herbicide licenses and experience with streets, seal asphalt, fixing water meter boxes and locating and digging up valves. Other topics discussed included that by filling this Position No. 2, the city would not need to be paying Casey Monge for use of her license with the water treatment plant. Money saved there can be moved to cover the added expense of hiring two fulltime employees.

Since the Mayor acts as supervisor for the Public Works Department, Position #1 in Public Works will no longer be considered a supervisor, but will be on equal footing with Position #2. Since the one position is more technical, that could be the difference in their pay scale. The city has learned that having all the information in only one employee is not protecting the city.

Discussion was held regarding the meter reader position, and that if the Public Works Department is handling the water, it may just as well handle the meter reading, rather than having a separate employee for that. Someone mentioned that it might seem a menial task for Public Works, but when the Meter reader person was unable to locate a meter, the problem was solved by the Public Works Department. From the budget, the money saved by not having a meter reader could go toward this Position #2. Were this the policy, the meters performance and quality would be inspected monthly during the summer months, another benefit from this potential change.

A few vague comments were made questioning if the Fire Department or the City was responsible for fire hydrant maintenance. Luck stated that it is probably the city's responsibility since they are a part of the city water system. The question was raised but not answered if the fire district gets free water.

Council voted 5-0 to allow Luck to offer Public Works Position #2 for the same wage as is being paid for Position #1. The YouTube connection failed to function to the conclusion of the special meeting which apparently adjourned before 6 p.m.