Netzel looks for council seat to do more

Fred Netzel has been prodding Coulee Dam's current administration and town council for more than a year to take action on issues he finds important, so he's running for a council seat to be more effective.

It started with encouraging the town to fix badly broken sidewalks, an issue he raised at a council meeting in July 2016.

"As time unfolded, I realized that from the outside you can only get so much done," said Netzel, who has canvassed the town door-to-door with flyers and petitions to make his points.

In the last few weeks, the city crew has fixed some of the worst sidewalks, following a pointed vote by the town council to force the action.

Netzel said he enjoys working with a group of people focused on achieving a common goal, a taste he refined during a career with the U.S. Forest Service, where he worked with diverse groups, some with opposing interests, and finding trade-offs in service of getting something done.

He thinks Coulee Dam's government is currently "transparent after the fact," and would encourage earlier openness in the decision-making process, perhaps including use of a council newsletter, or better use of newspaper advertisements. He liked Grand Coulee's recent advertisements inviting the public to review the budget in advance of a vote and other issues.

He objected last year to using $70,000 to buy a snow plow truck, a "C minus decision at best," saying that money should have gone toward sidewalks. "We don't have those discussions," he said.

Netzel thinks Coulee Dam needs to "do something about the way we're burning through money," citing millions more spent than taken in this year. He acknowledged, however, that the budget is balanced, following state law, and that reserves were used for special projects, including the wastewater treatment facility under construction.

Many issues will demand the council's attention over the next four years, including growing the fire department and reviving the ambulance crew, he said.

But the top issue at the moment is the potential loss of Elmer City as a treatment plant customer and the division in the larger community.

"You can always make more money," he said; "you can't make more friends," raising a point on which he agrees with opponent David Schmidt, who repeatedly pressed the same at last week's council meeting.

"I want Coulee Dam and Elmer City using the same wastewater treatment plant," Netzel said.

Although he and Schmidt have had at least one heated exchange during the campaign season, Netzel chose to add at the end of this interview: "I think Dave's done a real service to this town over the years, and I won't feel bad if he wins."