Tuesday the Richland City Council will consider a Neighborhood Traffic Safety (NTS) program that relaxes restrictions on installing traffic calming measures. Also on the agenda is approval of the council’s state legislative priorities and a discussion about extracting gas out of the trash in the landfill. Go to the council agenda and packet for more details.

Traffic Calming

If your neighborhood wants a speed bump or a traffic circle, you’d better get started now. The deadline for applying for the $100,000 in 2024 funding for the first design cycle is Feb. 28 and there are 10 pages of rules (Pg. 70 of the packet).

After your initial request, you have eight steps to go, including scoring your neighborhood’s need, consulting with the neighborhood and conducting balloting. At least 51% of your neighbors have to approve the plan.

A neighborhood can privately fund traffic calming but some of the same rules apply.

Legislative Priorities

At the top of the funding list once again is SR-240/Aaron Drive improvements. The project aims to eliminate the bottleneck at this intersection that many workers use to drive to Hanford and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories.

The city also seeks $300,000 for “potential tourism” for the Columbia Point Marina and the pathways along Howard Amon and Leslie Grove Parks. The Ironman races will be held in those locations next September.

Richland also wants to change the laws to allow a police pursuit for probable cause for any felony, mandatory arrest, and reasonable suspicion of DUI. Any felony could mean that theft, embezzlement and tax evasion would be on the list with murder as a reason to endanger innocent people’s lives with a high-speed chase on our roadways.

The full list of priorities is on page 93 of the packet.

Extracting gas out of the trash

Soon to retire Public Works Director Pete Rogalsky will explain to the council how methane gas from the landfill can be converted into usable energy (pg. 212)

The plan to extract gas from the landfill could also include accepting more trash from around the region, according to Rogalsky. Maybe a councilmember will ask if this means more garbage trucks on the roads around Horn Rapids?

The two new revenue sources could offset the cost borne by the City’s ratepayers.

Misc.

Also on the agenda is changing utility charges from monthly to daily and community development block grants and the HOME investment Partnerships program.

How to participate

If you can’t go to city hall on Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 6 pm, you can watch the council meeting on Cable Channel 192 or stream it on Richland City View. Public comments are allowed in the early part of the meeting and are restricted to two minutes. If you call the city clerk in advance, you can comment remotely.

The rules the city clerk reads about comments may exceed the two-minute limit. It includes don’t ask a question in expectation of an immediate answer. You can ask for an answer ASAP.