Invasive Eurasian watermilfoil and Brazilian elodea tangle with native cattails, at right, in a local lake. Fighting the aquatic weeds in Black Lake has been a struggle for decades, and Ilwaco is eyeing grant funding to resume the campaign next year.

LONG BEACH and ILWACO — Councilors in Long Beach and Ilwaco are primed to or have already knocked off their biggest task of the year this month: signing off on their respective city’s budget for 2025.

The Long Beach City Council formally approved the city’s budget for next year at a meeting last week, and councilors in Ilwaco were expected to do the same at their meeting this Monday. Additionally, the two municipalities also agreed to renew a longstanding contract for the Long Beach Police Department to continue providing coverage within Ilwaco city limits.

Under the new contract, which runs through the end of 2027, Ilwaco will pay Long Beach about $340,000 annually for LBPD’s services, to be paid out monthly. The arrangement essentially means LBPD has jurisdiction in both cities, although Long Beach maintains sole control over the department’s personnel, such as hirings and potential discipline, as well as equipment and facilities.

Long Beach has the option to bump up the cost of the contract by up to 5% per year, with an eye toward keeping up with increased salaries and other operating costs. LBPD has nine police officers among its ranks, with total salaries and benefits for all department personnel projected at $1.19 million in 2025 — up from $1.13 million this year.

LBPD will continue to receive state funds as part of the Pacific County Joint Drug Task Force, which includes the sheriff’s office and other municipal law enforcement agencies in the county. The department is slated to receive $120,000 in 2025 as part of its allotment, which goes toward funding a dedicated task force officer.

Long Beach notes

Councilors at last week’s meeting unanimously approved a 4% pay increase for all Long Beach staff next year, a bump that was already guaranteed for union members.

Salaries and benefits for all city employees in the general fund — excluding those covered by dedicated funds, such as LBPD and workers at the city’s water and wastewater plants — is budgeted to hit $1.02 million next year, which represents a 7.4% increase over the $950,000 paid out in 2024.

The city’s parks crew has about $160,000 in maintenance projects and other operating expenses planned for next year, with $50,000 going toward resurfacing and fencing the tennis and pickleball court at Culbertson Park. Another $75,000 is eyed for drainage and irrigation projects at the park’s baseball field, where the Ilwaco Fishermen baseball team practices and plays their home games.

Property tax and sales tax collections are two of the biggest sources of revenue for Long Beach’s general fund. Property tax collections are slated to rise by 1%, the maximum annual increase state law allows for, and are estimated to bring in $497,500 for 2025. Revenue from sales tax is projected at $850,000 and is more volatile on a year-to-year basis, although actual collections have exceeded that mark in each year since 2021 and nearly topped $950,000 in 2023.

Ilwaco rates hold steady

While Long Beach raised its water and sewer rates by 8-10% for 2025, Ilwaco is set to take the opposite approach.

Councilors were expected to approve Ilwaco’s budget for the coming year at their Dec. 9 meeting, which calls for no changes to the city’s utility rates. The minimum monthly water rate would remain at $38.25 for residences, which it was first set at for 2024.

Ilwaco in recent years has fluctuated between increasing its water rate and leaving it unchanged. There was a 20% increase from 2020 to 2021, which the city said was called for in order to make up for lost commercial revenue at the port — namely, in the aftermath of Jessie’s Ilwaco Fish Co. entering into receivership — and fund crucial water projects. The rate held flat for both 2022 and 2023 before being increased by 3.4% last year.

The city’s administrator, Holly Beller, said Ilwaco’s water fund could benefit from a rate increase in the future. A rate study funded by a grant from the county will be conducted next year, “so that we can ascertain better how we are distributing those utility rates across both residential and commercial customers.”

Ilwaco’s sewer and stormwater rates would also remain unchanged from their current levels if the draft budget is approved.

Citywide road repairs are one of the biggest undertakings planned for 2025, thanks in part to a $1.425 million grant Ilwaco was recently awarded from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board — for a total amount of $1.5 million when factoring in the city’s $75,000 match. The funds will allow nearly 70,000 square yards of city street surface to be treated.

Most of the roads being treated will receive a single or double layer of Otta seal, which uses less expensive “dirty rock” that is not as brittle at low temperatures as washed rock, can last twice as long as chip seal, and is less prone to temperature-related failures and traffic damage. Otta seal can look like gravel immediately after being installed, but it eventually creates the appearance of a normally paved surface as black oils work their way up.

City officials are also eyeing grant funding that would allow them to update Ilwaco’s Integrated Aquatic Vegetation Management Plan for the Brazilian elodea in Black Lake. The non-native, invasive weed has previously been targeted by the city and county with aquatic herbicides but continues to persist in local waters. Beller is hopeful that an updated management plan will identify a way to successfully eradicate the elodea.