Members of the Toledo City Council appointed Councilor Dan Anderson as the city’s new mayor pro tem during their first regular meeting of the month on Monday, Nov. 2.
Councilor Rebecca Duerst had been mayor pro tem previously, filling in for Mayor Cherie Devore if the mayor was not present for a meeting. Duerst nominated Anderson to take her place, and the nomination was unanimously approved.
During the meeting, councilors moved to table acceptance of a Washington state Department of Health (DOH) Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan city staff applied for to fund replacement of approximately 4,700 feet of aging cast-iron water main line along state Route 505.
“I’m kind of curious as to why we’re going with such a large-sized pipe. I’ve got some questions for the engineers and stuff like that, seeing where we’re at, trying to make it so that we’re not spending money that we don’t have to spend,” Anderson said.
The DOH loan totals $2,281,400 with an interest rate of 1.75% over 24 years according to the council’s agenda report.
During the meeting, Devore also swore in Joe Notch as a new member of the Toledo Planning Commission, and the council approved the renewal of the Toledo IGA liquor license.
A public hearing was also held to discuss Toledo’s 2027 property tax, which was short as Devore explained the city was not raising its property tax levy.
“We kind of beat this one to death, but we’re not planning to raise property taxes,” Devore said.
The 2027 revenue and property tax levy was approved by the council.
Councilors also approved a request from members of the Toledo Lions Club to add another dry storage box to their existing storage behind Toledo City Hall.
Toledo Lions Club Vice President Todd Meyers explained the club’s need for the extra storage space.
“We were hoping that we could put another storage box to hold our stuff, and to have enough room so that we could set it apart (from the existing storage box) and put a little roof on it to park the parade float under it, that type of thing,” Meyers said.
The extra storage space would also help facilitate other events the club organizes, including the Toledo Cheese Days festival. The council unanimously approved the club’s request.
