Winthrop’s relatively inexperienced Town Council will schedule a planning workshop to discuss goals and priorities, and to get more familiar with each other, sometime in the next few weeks.
The workshop, which will be open to the public, was suggested by council member Ben Nelson — who has the longest tenure on the group, having been appointed to a vacant seat in April 2017. The other four council members and Mayor Sally Ranzau have all been appointed or elected since then.
At last week’s Town Council meeting, Ranzau agreed that it would be a good idea for the council members to outline their aspirations for the town and indicate special areas of interest. A date, time and place will be determined soon, she said.
Sworn in at that meeting were council members Kirsten Vanderhalf, Joseph O’Driscoll and William Kilby. Vanderhalf and O’Driscoll had been previously appointed to fill vacant council seats. They were elected to their current seats in November, as was Kilby.
In other business, Nelson was reappointed as mayor pro tem in Ranzau’s absence, and Kilby was appointed to chair the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations on how the lodging taxes collected in town are spent to promote tourism.
The council also approved increased water and sewer rates for 2018. Municipalities in Washington state are required to charge water and sewer rates that reflect the actual costs of operating those systems.
