State auditors at Royal City

Royal City — The City of Royal City has representatives from the state auditor’s office doing an on-site audit. Royal City Finance Director Shilo Christensen told the city council about the audit during a regular city council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 1. The audit takes two weeks onsite. A final report won’t be ready for several weeks.

Police Chief Darren Smith reported that some high school students were found to have marijuana and a pipe with them at school on Sept. 30.

“Someone went into the bathroom and it smelled like marijuana,” Smith said.

After reviewing the school security cameras, three students were identified. When confronted, they smelled like marijuana.

Public Works Director John Lasen said that one of his employees passed the test for his wastewater treatment certification.

“He passed with an 86,” said Lasen. “In my experience, that’s a pretty good score. He’s retaining his training and studying really well.”

Lasen also said that the city has switched the lab they use to test wastewater samples. The previous lab was in Wenatchee and involved a third-party courier to get the samples to the lab. The third-party courier and the location of the testing site sometimes caused problems and extra issues for Lasen. The new lab is in Othello, does not involve a third party and is cheaper than the previous lab.

Darryl Piercy, Royal City’s planning and building, said that he will be “pleasantly surprised” if the Red Rock Elementary School construction project will be completed and moving happens during the Christmas break. Percy thinks that the project is going slowly due to a lack of people working on the project.

“They’re off doing other jobs,” Percy said.