In preparation for the Governor’s Office of the Chehalis Basin to officially come into existence this summer, the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority on Thursday named its three nominees for the seven-member council.
Of the seven voting members in the office, one must be appointed by the Chehalis Tribe, one by the Quinault Indian Nation, three by the Flood Authority and four by the governor. One of the three nominated by the Flood Authority must be appointed by the governor, so four of the voting members are confirmed by the Washington state Senate.
Two of the three named by the authority are from the lower basin.
The three appointees from the Flood Authority are Lewis County Commissioner Edna Fund, Chehalis Valley farmer and Washington Dairy Federation policy director Jay Gordon, and Grays Harbor County Commissioner Vickie Raines. All are serving on the Flood Authority board.
For five years, Gordon has served on the Governor’s Chehalis Basin Work Group, which helped identify projects and advocate for funding. He has owned and operated his family’s dairy farm near Porter in Grays Harbor County since 1979.
Raines has served on the Flood Authority since 2011 and has been its chairwoman for the same amount of time. Before winning her seat on Grays Harbor County Commission in 2014 with 60 percent of the vote, she served as the mayor of Cosmopolis.
Fund has served on the Lewis County Commission since 2012 and has been on the Flood Authority since 2010. She has served as the vice chairwoman of the authority since 2015. She is the only person named by the authority from the upper basin.
Chehalis resident J. Vander Stoep expressed interest in being appointed by the authority. However, Gov. Jay Inslee appointed him as one of his four.
The Office of the Chehalis Basin was created in 2015 by the state Legislature. It will work alongside the Department of Ecology to implement the flood strategy outlined by the Governor’s Work Group and identify projects in the basin to improve fish habitat while reducing flooding.
The state capital budget has not been finalized and the exact amounts are still being negotiated. However, in both the House of Representatives and the Senate budget at least $40 million has been allocated for flood basin projects. The governor’s work group requested $50 million for basin projects.
Both Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, and Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, have been working in their respective chambers to bring funds to the basin.
“I give a lot of credit to the Governor’s Work Group over the last few years,” Braun told The Chronicle earlier this month.
He also said he focused on local flood projects during his capital budget negotiations as the chairman of the Senate ways and means committee.
