Town of Coulee Dam will become a city

The town of Coulee Dam will soon become a “non-charter code city,” following a vote at the town council meeting last week.

The council voted unanimously to make the switch that Town Attorney Mick Howe said most other municipalities in Washington have already taken.

The proposal met with concern among citizens last June, who showed up at a council meeting after hearing of the proposal via a letter delivered door-to-door by a town council candidate, Fred Netzel.

His concern, he said at the time, was not that the move would be bad for the town, but that it wasn’t being done openly.

Howe tried to lay that concern to rest, noting that the council and the town would have 90 days to think it over before taking deciding.

That decision happened Wednesday night.

The move will allow the town far more latitude in decisions. Howe said state laws restrict “towns” from doing anything not specifically spelled out in statute. The code city rules, however allow a city to do anything not specifically prohibited.

Despite the change in official status, the municipality will still keep its same form of government and can even go by “town” of Coulee Dam, Mayor Greg Wilder said, addressing a concern some had expressed in June.

No one in the audience, including Netzel, had any concerns.