The Office of Chehalis Basin had an underwhelming turnout at its one and only local open house for the year.
The local event began at 5 p.m. Thursday in the event space on the second floor of the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis. The open house included a presence not only of the Office of Chehalis Basin but also tabling by many of the groups that work with or under the office or receive funding from it. Those include the Chehalis Basin Flood Control Zone District, the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority and others.
Those hosting the event shared a wealth of information on the ongoing long-term strategy development process centered around proposed large-scale flood mitigation projects in the upper basin. Those projects include a system of levees and flood walls around Centralia and Chehalis and a flowthrough dam near Pe Ell.
The session also shared information about smaller scale projects and programs designed to address flooding and fish habitat restoration.
Those at the event who work with the Office of Chehalis Basin, such as Chehalis Basin Board facilitator Ken Ghalambor, suggested the event may have suffered from a sort of flood issue fatigue as the topic has continued to be discussed for years after the catastrophic floods in 2007 and 2009.
Ghalambor added that, years ago, in the time period more immediately after major catastrophic floods, similar types of events would be packed with local residents.
The two-and-a-half hour open house also competed for attention with both a nail-biter of a Seattle Seahawks game and a Seattle Mariners game in the middle of an exciting week that saw the baseball team clinch its first playoff berth in more than 20 years and Cal Raliegh mark his 60th home run of the season.
Nonetheless, some locals did attend the event. Most who made an appearance were perennial supporters or community members already familiar with the Office of Chehalis Basin and its efforts to mitigate flooding and protect fish in the basin.
Lewis County Farm Bureau President Dennis Styger and Southwest Washington Growers Co-op General Manager Jake Fay made appearances, both exploring the sign presentations and noting they expected more of a presentation than the sort of “move at your own pace” open house event.
“I do like that the Office of the Chehalis Basin took the time to coordinate something to show us what it is they’ve been working on, some of the strategies going forward,” Fay said.
Others, including former Chehalis City Councilor Terry Harris and former Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council President Bob Guenther, made the rounds as well. Each has been involved in different aspects of restoration or conservation in the area for more than a decade, with Harris serving as chair of the Chehalis Basin Partnership and Guenther founding the Pinchot Partners and more recently taking a seat on the board of directors of One Voice Lewis County, a local group advocating for flood mitigation.
Centralia City Councilor Adrianna Garibay, a newer face at flood-related events, also attended and stayed for most of the open house, learning more about the different groups and efforts under the Office of Chehalis Basin. She made a point to speak with many of the groups present and collect flyers and other information written in Spanish to distribute to Spanish speakers in the community.
“That was another thing that I really appreciate,” Garibay said. “You know, how they have a lot of literature, information in Spanish, and I think this is really cool because we have a large community who speak Spanish, and I'm taking all of this and I will share that.”
Garibay, who has become a local leader more recently than many in the room who have been advocating flood issues for many years, said she came after attending some meetings with former Lewis County Commissioner and flood mitigation advocate Edna Fund. She added that she had hoped to see more young people at the event showing an interest in the issue that has posed frequent challenges for the area.
“I see a lot of people here, but I will be happier if we can have younger people,” Garibay said. “You know, students from the college, students that they’re actually learning something like this. I think it will be very beneficial for the plan that they have, and I think it's really important.”
While the event was the only in-person town hall that will be hosted in the upper basin, the Office of Chehalis Basin will hold a similar event in the lower part of the Chehalis Basin in early October. The Oct. 8 event will be held at the Montesano City Hall from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
All of the materials shown at the event are also available online in what the organization calls an online open house. The webpage allows community members to look through the same materials at their own pace. It features videos, diagrams and modeling from all of the different projects being built or researched by the agency.
Those interested can access the online open house through the Office the Chehalis Basin website at https://tinyurl.com/54p7ea66.
