Manson Community Council Chair resigns, council hears of new planned resort

MANSON – The Manson Community Council held their October meeting on Tuesday the 16th. Two members of the Council were absent, leaving Kathy Blum, Kathy Miller and Jorge Valencia conducting the meeting.

That evening, the public present was informed about Kim Ustanik’s resignation as Chair of the Manson Community Council.

“We received a letter, that was delivered to us this evening that Kim Ustanik has resigned, effected immediately, dated October 16,” stated Blum.

With elections coming up in December, the Council will have two open positions. Blum reported that Kathy Miller has decided to not run again for her position as member of the Council.

“I am obligated to other things and my other obligations are where my heart is. I cannot give enough time for here … I am going to go where my heart goes. I am not reapplying for my position,” explained Miller.

Since 2015, Miller has been involved with the Tender Loving Care Program as part of the Senior Living Initiative. Miller volunteers her time as the TLC Manager, “it’s really a lot of fun and you really get friendships with it … I really enjoy doing it. I am also involved with the Senior Meal Program and I have been there for a long, long time.”

Up for re-election is Valencia, after being appointed last year to the Council. He is still thinking about whether or not he wants to run again for spot in the Council.

Elections will take place on December 11, Blum encourages those who are interested to apply and run for a spot. She clarified if only two people run and there’s two spots open they will automatically be appointed and elections will not take place.

Those who are registered Chelan County voters and live within the Manson School District can be mailed an application by contacting any of the current Council Members, applications will also be available online at mansoncommunitycouncil.com and at the Lake Chelan Reclamation Office.

“Nice to see everyone here it shows that there’s a desire to know what is going with this community,” said Miller.

Neighbors of Klate Road had updates for the Council regarding a 19 acres project on Griffith Ranch Road.

“Three parcels were recently purchased and a master plan resort is applying for permission to put in a plethora of activities and buildings. The buildings will include 24 camping sheds, 14 room hotel, kitchens, cafes, the list goes on, a wedding venue, an amphitheater,” said Robin Werner.
Werner also mention the fact that the plan has been submitted and it is currently being reviewed by the County. Such area is zoned as Agricultural (AZ), one house per five acres and it is of heavy farm usage.

“There’s a number of reasons to why the neighbors are very concerned about this, the traffic impact along, it’s estimated 1 to 250 cars a day running back and forth Klate Road … the resort would be allowed 5,000 gallons a day for water, that’s not nearly enough … this well will feed of the hotel, the 24 camping cabins, bathrooms, showers, facilities … everybody else in the whole area is on wells as well and we have idea if we endangering our own wells with this development our own water,” explained Werner.

The neighbors are also concerned about the sewage and the potential of having weddings in the area very frequently. It was also reported that on the master plan “it was indicated for this to a very hands own experience for their visitors into agriculture.”

“There’s a lot of agricultural things they are proposing such as vegetable stands and people using the gardens to produce their own food and this is on old orchard land,” Werner stated.
The land, previously an orchard has been there since the late 1920s and it was sprayed seven times a year with lead and arsenic for years.  

Earlier that day, Werner had been out testing some of the soil surrounding the property with the Department of Ecology and they found “the lowest arsenic was 35 parts per million, the highest was 135-140, we tested at least 40 spots … lead was anything from maybe 250 being the lowest up to 1500 parts per million.”

The reason why the neighbors from the area were there that evening was to ask the Council to host a community meeting, “this is a pretty large plan that will affect the community simply because of the magnitude of the plan but it also shows what is potentially possible in any AZ land zoning. This tourism thing can kind of slip in there.”

“We have nothing on that project, we have nothing, have not even heard from them,” said Miller.
Sarah Cushing who lives around the area also had something to say, “it’s all agriculture, orchards, there’s nothing even similar to what is being proposed.”

Carl Blum asked Werner, “what company or person owns this?” to this she answered, “it’s called Magic Earth LLC and that’s Mr. and Mrs. Ustanik.”

Valencia claims that he heard that a couple of months ago, however he wasn’t sure if that was true or not.

With this information given, the Council will now move forward. “I will contact the County and see where the package sits … we can host it, we’ll ask the Grange, but it will be up to you people to bring everything in, we will act as the host, we will certainly invite the owners of the property to also come and maybe have opportunity to explain to everybody … and take questions from the audience,” said Blum.

In other business:
    •    The Council presented a Treasure’s report, with a balance of $462.
    •    The Council questioned the minutes from Sept. 18, regarding Bob Knauss request for a text change from 2017 dealing with residential on lower level behind county and state road. Members were confused about whether or not a letter of approval was sent to Knauss supporting a zoning change. Miller made a motion to get letter mention in the minutes, Valencia seconded it and Blum voted against it. Blum voted against it because she doesn’t understand what has happened with Knauss request.
    •    The Council also commented on the PUD request on a Shoreline Substantial Development Permit that will allow the addition of two concrete steps at the Manson Bay Park Swim area. The project includes removing the sand, building the two steps and putting the sand back in, PUD is doing this renovation because of the erosion that has occurred in the swimming area. All members voted and agreed to support the proposal, they will send a letter to PUD and members suggested PUD to also include a handrail to help ADA users.