Rainier City Council renews Thurston County Sheriff’s Office contract, approves city code traffic ordinance update

Members of the Rainier City Council met on Tuesday, April 14, and approved a contract renewal for law enforcement services with the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO).

This contract renewal comes as city councilors in Rainier’s neighbor to the west, Tenino, are debating entering into their own TCSO contract while the future of the Tenino Police Department remains uncertain. While the Tenino City Council also met on Tuesday, a draft contract for the councilors to vote on was not yet ready.

According to Rainier Mayor Bob Shaw, the contract renewal the city signed actually removed a previous stipulation requiring the purchase of a patrol vehicle.

“Sheriff (Derek) Sanders and I have worked out an agreement that there will not be the purchase of a car in this three-year contract,” Shaw said.

The renewal includes the annual 1% increase previously included.

This marks the 13th year the City of Rainier has contracted with the TCSO for policing services after it initially terminated a contract with the Tenino Police Department back in 2013, as previously reported by The Chronicle.

Prior to that, Rainier had been contracting policing services from Tenino for nine years, but ended the contract after multiple police chiefs were fired and the department lost a number of other officers between 2011 and 2012.

During the meeting, councilors also approved Ordinance 742, which updates the city’s traffic ordinance. This ordinance was drafted after discussions held during the council’s meeting in March with Rainier City Attorney William Cameron.

Cameron explained the need for the update was specific to vehicles and RVs parked in city right-of-ways, as recently Rainier Public Works staff have been unable to read some meters or perform routine maintenance due to right-of-ways being blocked.

The TCSO will still be responsible for actual traffic enforcement actions, Cameron added.

During the meeting, Shaw also addressed some complaints he has received after the Rainier Public Works Department removed the old gazebo from Holiday Park.

“It was about to fall over, it was an issue with our insurance company. If you haven’t ever been over there, it wasn’t very safe in the first place, kind of wobbled a little bit,” Shaw said. “... I think there have been a couple occasions where kids over there are playing (on it), trying to tip it over, from what I’ve heard.”

He added Rainier City Councilor Tom Arnbrister had also received some complaints about the gazebo being removed, as though the city owns the property, an unnamed individual not associated with the city put up Christmas lights on the gazebo.

Though it wasn’t a large gazebo, it had been a part of the community for years and some residents were not exactly happy to find out it had been taken down.

Holiday Park is where the City of Rainier hosts its annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony and hosts an associated Christmas light display.

With Christmas now four months in the rear view mirror, Shaw explained it wasn’t public works staff’s job to deal with the lights.

“I don’t think it’s our responsibility when somebody puts Christmas lights up there on their own and can’t take them back down,” Shaw said.

“As meaningful as it is and as sentimental as it was, it was getting up there (in age), and I can see the safety concerns as well,” Councilor Amy Baker added.

Some discussion was held as to what should be put in the gazebo’s place, either with a new gazebo or benches. Baker explained Holiday Park also used to be the site of Rainier’s Easter celebration, but that tradition has not happened for a long time.

Some talk was also held on possibly moving the Christmas tree lighting ceremony to Wilkowski Park, as councilors felt the tree lighting ceremony itself had outgrown Holiday Park.

Arnbrister asked the councilors to continue mulling over ideas for either a new gazebo location or propose other ideas for what should replace it at the council’s upcoming retreat later this year.