The City of Winlock has a new city clerk after the Winlock City Council approved the appointment of Shelley Buresh to the vacant position during its regular meeting on Monday, Nov. 9, inside Winlock City Hall.
Buresh was the candidate selected by Winlock Mayor Victoria Marincin to be appointed to the position, pending council approval, though Marincin wasn’t the only one involved in the candidate interview process.
“I’ve been involved with the scouting process of doing interviews and skill tests of many of the candidates,” Winlock City Councilor David Anderson said. “And we had two great, in the end, side-by-side, great candidates. Shelley just happened to … just edge the others out. It was a pleasure being in the interview process with her and reading her skills test. I can vouch along with the mayor, we’ve done a really long and due-dilligence process on this, and we’re happy to announce Shelley was selected.”
The recommendation to hire Buresh was approved unanimously. Buresh takes over as city clerk following the resignation of former Winlock City Clerk Maureen Crabtree.
Christmas events
During the meeting, councilors also heard a presentation from members of the Winlock Youth Leadership Club, who were requesting permission to utilize the city’s insurance and staff for flaggers to hold a lighted Christmas parade.
“I am here to introduce you to a few members of the Winlock Youth Leadership Club. We are a group of 10 kids who are learning two very important skills,” Georgia Sayler said. “One, how to organize a group of individuals with differing ideas efficiently, so that we can work together to accomplish a common goal. And, two, to bring some community spirit to Winlock.”
To go along with the community spirit, the kids want to bring “Christmas spirit” to Winlock as well, with their lighted parade scheduled for Dec. 19, following the same route normally taken by the Winlock Egg Day parade.
Councilor Jodie Curtis vocalized support for the parade.
“If we do it for the Egg Day parade and we do it for the Veterans Parade, there’s no reason we shouldn’t do it for a Christmas parade,” Curtis said.
Marincin added the city’s insurance provider was open to the idea, saying events like this are what they “expect from small towns,” and it just needed to be listed. The club’s request to use the city’s insurance and get assistance for the parade was unanimously approved.
The Winlock Youth Leadership Club’s Christmas parade wasn’t the only Christmas event going on in Winlock announced at Monday’s meeting.
Marincin read a public comment from Xenia Gomez of the Old Sacred Heart Church, announcing the “Bethlehem, Make Ready,” event, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 21, at 3 p.m. Along with a Nativity scene, traditional European Christmas music will be performed by the church’s choir.
According to the event’s Facebook page, the performance “brings together centuries of sacred music from the Western Christian tradition and the Ruthenian Byzantine tradition, celebrating the beauty and richness of the Christmas season,” and “journeys from the ancient sounds of Gregorian chant and the Renaissance polyphony of Tomás Luis de Victoria to traditional European carols, Byzantine liturgical hymns, and the beautiful choral traditions of Eastern Europe.”
“After the concert, we will have fellowship with homemade pies, hot chocolate and hot cider. It's an opportunity to stay, visit and enjoy an afternoon together. We’d love to invite everyone here and everyone in the community to join us,” Gomez added in her comment.
The event is free to attend, though donations are welcome. The Old Sacred Heart Church is located at 216 NW Arden Ave. in Winlock.
Other council business
At the start of Monday’s meeting, the council held a public hearing to take comments on their recently enacted data center moratorium. The council enacted the six-month moratorium at the end of September.
While saying he didn’t care about the data centers himself, Winlock resident Mike Lowry did take issue with some of those against data centers.
“I hear a bunch of people complaining about data centers, but then I hear how they love to use artificial intelligence,” Lowry said. “Without data centers, you don’t get artificial intelligence. That’s the whole point of data centers … Don’t complain about something if you want to use what that something provides you. I’m not specifically talking to anybody here. I am talking to the world.”
Toledo resident Joe Notch also spoke on data centers, adding they aren’t only used for AI.
“That’s where all your web hosting, cloud storage, cloud computing, software as a service, all of that stuff goes through data centers,” Notch said. “I realize people think it’s for AI only, but they’ve been around for decades. They’re just getting much, much bigger than they ever have been before.”
Councilors enacted the six-month moratorium in order to give both the Winlock Planning Commission and city staff time to draft new building codes to set guidelines for developers looking to construct data centers in Winlock in the future, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
While it was up for consideration for approval, councilors moved to table acceptance of a tree removal bid from North Ridge Resources in Chehalis for a falling Douglas fir tree on city property near a city well. The property borders a residential property on Oak Street in Winlock, and the owner of that property has been dealing with falling branches from that tree and another on their property.
For cutting down one tree, along with cutting up logs and removal, work was estimated at $4,158. While city staff requested estimates from other businesses, North Ridge was the only one who replied before Monday’s meeting.
Councilors moved to table the issue in order to get more bids and come up with a plan to possibly sell the cut wood as firewood in order to try to recover some of the costs of tree removal.
Councilors also approved a resolution which repealed a September resolution surplusing an old Winlock Police Department 2017 Ford Taurus. While the police department is still getting a new vehicle, city staff elected to retain the Taurus for use by the Winlock Public Works Department.
And following an executive session to discuss the potential acquisition of real estate, councilors unanimously approved a purchase and sale agreement for a total of seven parcels totalling 16 acres across from the Cedar Village IGA and reaching to Cemetery Road.
Marincin added the sale would be “contingent upon the town of Winlock receiving a government grant.”
Following the meeting, it was stated the land was being eyed for purchase to facilitate the construction of a new city hall and police department building.
