Mayor Snow thanks council at last meeting

Quincy Snow wrapped up 16 years as Coulee Dam's mayor last Wednesday at the last town council meeting of the year.

He personally thanked members of the council for their support and hard work, particularly two council members, Karl Hjorten and Andy Trader, who were also defeated in the November election.

The meeting was his last as mayor because the council voted to cancel the next meeting, which would have fallen on Christmas day.

The town operated without much turmoil for most of Snow's 16 years; however, the past year was filled with controversy over the town's proposed wastewater treatment plant, a $4.9 million project that almost reached construction stage.

Snow's opponent in November, Greg Wilder, who won the election and is mayor-elect, disagreed with the town's vision of the project and mounted what was at first a one-man protest.

Later, Elmer City officials and then Coulee Dam residents joined in and the project was eventually put on hold.

Wilder said the town's engineering firm, Gray & Osborne, had been incomplete in its report, failing to do a thorough alternative site study.

Later the Colville Tribes and Indian Health Services became involved at the study level and an alternative site suggestion slowly grew to somewhere in the Belvedere area.

Right now the project is in limbo, and according to Wilder, isn't going anywhere in its present form.