Happy New Year! The upcoming City Council meeting agenda for the January 15th meeting can be found here: https://www.towncloud.io/go/kalama-wa
Simply tap or click the hyperlink to access the newsletter. Happy New Year!
Garbage service will be delayed by one day following the holidays. If you receive Thursday service, you will be picked up on Friday. If you receive Friday service, you will be picked up on Saturday both weeks.
Mayor Mike Reuter “passed the gavel” to incoming Mayor Jon Stanfill, and the two new Councilmembers, Rose Scattergood Council Position 1, and Paige Bozarth Council Position 2 were sworn into office. These newly elected positions are effective January 1st, 2026. The City Council reviewed the final draft of the 2026 Budget and 2026-2031 Capital Facilities Plan and adopted Ordinance 1550 finalizing the budget for the coming year. The budget is a very tight one and will be monitored closely but is balanced.
The Council also adopted Ordinance 1546 setting a 3% sewer rate increase for 2026, Ordinance 1551 increasing the utility tax 1% on water, sewer, and garbage, Ordinance 1553 adopting the recodification of the Kalama Municipal Code, and Ordinance 1554 amending the 2025 budget in the amount of $102,350.00. The Council authorized the mayor to sign the agreement with the City of Kelso for prosecutorial services.
Council authorized new signers for City bank accounts to be City Administrator Adam Smee, Mayor Jon Stanfill, and Clerk Emily Moore. They also appointed Adam Smee to act as Claims Agent for the City beginning in 2026.
Mayor and Council appointed McKenzie Taylor and Naomi Stanfield to the Library Board for 5-year terms and Colleen Peterson to the Planning Commission for a 4-year term.
Councilmembers thanked Mayor Reuter and Councilmember Moon for their service to the City as this will be their last meeting. They also recognized Clerk/Treasurer McMaster for her service and wished her well in her retirement. Ms. McMaster thanked the community and citizens of Kalama, noting that service to the City is a group effort of all its employees, and she thanked staff, current and past, for all they do, noting they act in best interest of the city.
City offices will be closed December 24th-26th, and January 1st for the holidays. The Library will be open December 26th & 27th. Happy Holidays to all!
The meeting starts at 7:00pm and is open to the public. The virtual attendance information can be found on the agenda.
After 31 years of dedication, Clerk/Treasurer Coni McMaster is retiring. Join us on Friday, December 19th, from 3-5pm @ City Hall for open office hours to celebrate her!
Dan Polacek of the Port of Kalama, made a presentation on the “History Blades” that will provide an interactive walking tour through downtown Kalama. This has been in the works for a couple of years and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
City Council continued their work on the 2026 Budget and Capital Facilities Plan with a presentation from Waterworth exploring various sewer rate increases and pushing planned improvements out further. City Administrator Adam Smee reported on the wastewater plant’s free capacity. City engineers ran numbers related to the current plant’s usage for the past 10 years which shows it’s operating at 81% of total capacity for TSS currently. Waterworth also addressed water rates for the 10%/15% increases to outside city limits users, noting the cost-of-service allocation they completed supported this recommendation to address equalizing the rate distribution to cover the actual costs of service.
Council reviewed the adjustments to the Tourism and Library which included the legal opinion of the attorney that it is unwise to allocate Tourism tax funding to the library. The Council wants the Library to remain open on Mondays and restored the book and janitorial expenses to make the Library whole. For the General Fund, after all the cuts and revenue changes were included, a deficit of about $90,000 remained. Councilmember Stanfill recommended the City adopt the TBD sales tax of .1% and a 1% Utility tax increase to fund the Library and the needs of General Fund (including the janitorial budget). Adding these revenue sources will bring the General Fund into balance. This proposal does not provide any contingency funding. There was also a review of the effects of shuttering the Community Building.
After much discussion the consensus of the Council was to move the following items for consideration and inclusion into the budget for finalizing the budget ordinance for December 18, 2025.
1. Increase Water Rates on outside residential 10% and outside Commercial 15%. Ordinance 1545 passed unanimously
2. Increase Sewer Rates 3% - Ordinance 1546 to be revised and presented December 18, 2025
3. Fund the Library fully providing funds for janitorial and restoring the book budget – will require additional General Funds.
4. Close the Community Building and eliminate Parks & Recreation programing.
5. Restore janitorial to Police and City Hall facilities
6. Adopt the 0.1% TBD sales tax for street operations (reducing the General Fund transfer to Streets by an equal amount) – Ordinance 1552 on agenda – Passed by a vote of 4 to 1
7. Prepare Ordinance to consider a 1% Utility Tax increase at the December 18, 2025, meeting.
The 2026 building permit fees & City fee resolutions were adopted. City Council authorized the Mayor to sign both the jail contract with Cowlitz County and the Transportation Improvement Board grant for the Taylor Road overlay accepting the grant award.
In reports it was noted the sewer line replacement project has paused work for the winter and will start again in March to complete the work. Weather reports are indicating storms bringing lots of rain are forecasted so if you see storm drains filling up, please call Public Works (360)-673-3706 or 911 during non-business hours. Christmas in Kalama is on 12/5, https://www.kalamachamber.com/holiday-parade. Celebrate Clerk/Treasurer’s retirement with us on December 19th from 3-5pm at City Hall!
The upcoming city council meeting information can be found here: https://www.towncloud.io/go/kalama-wa
The Council meetings this Thursday, December 4th at 7pm at the City Council Chambers (320 N 1st St Kalama).
The Council approved moving the work on the Transit Feasibility Study to the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Council of Governments and award the 2026 chemical bids to the lowest bidders. The Council adopted several ordinances which included setting property tax levy with no increase for 2026 and banking that future capacity, reallocating the garbage utility tax to the operations of streets rather than street improvements for two years, and establishing a stormwater reserve fund and transferring funds held in operations to this fund.
The Parks and Recreation Committee referred recommended changes to update the 20-year-old Parks plan to the Planning Commission for incorporation into the Comp Plan update which the Commission continues to work on. The Sewer rehab project will be shutting down at the end of November due to the weather with anticipated completion of the remaining work to be in the spring of 2026.
Join us for the upcoming City Council meeting on Thursday, November 20th at 7:00pm at 320 N 1st Street, or virtually through Zoom. Virtual attendance information and the meeting agenda packet can be found here: https://www.towncloud.io/go/kalama-wa/agendas/822
What's Next for the Kalama Community Building?
The Kalama Community Building’s annual expenditure is approximately $60K, and its revenues are projected to be $24K (for 2025), so the General Fund is subsidizing about $3K per month to keep the building open/operational. The building is also in need of significant capital repairs. https://5il.co/3b4la The City Council requested an advisory vote because they saw it as the best way to get accurate feedback from the largest sample size of Kalama’s city residents.
City staff have taken advantage of the opportunity to work with a group of students from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance to structure a public engagement process in Kalama to identify possible valuable uses for the Community Building. This group has been a wonderful resource with fresh eyes and inclusive ideas. Part of the engagement portion of this project is to provide a survey to the community asking what the majority of the taxpayers would like to see.
The goal is to hear from the public and provide the Council with options that create the highest value for the community on this property.
The City Council ultimately makes this policy decision and staff will gather public feedback in new ways to hear from “the many”, and not solely “the few”. To provide your input, complete the survey: https://www.cityofkalama.com/forms/kalama-community-building-what-next
Look for "in person" engagement opportunities (available in the next few weeks) at the Kalama Library and City Hall facilities. You will be able to bring your ideas and place them on the idea board! Thank you for your participation!
The Kalama Library Board will meet on November 19, 2025 at 5:15pm @ 320 N 1st Street. Agenda information can be found at https://www.towncloud.io/go/kalama-wa.
