Royal City gains new council members, approves water main upgrade

ROYAL CITY — The Royal City City Council swore in two new members during its meeting Monday evening. Rick Kannely and Ryan Piercy were selected to fill vacancies left when other members moved out of town.

“I'm here as a volunteer to support the community, to serve the community that I live in,” Kannely said. “I love this place. It’s the best place I’ve ever lived.”

The Council ordinarily meets the first and third Tuesday of each month, but the June 6 meeting had to be rescheduled for lack of a quorum. Council members Tiffany Workinger and Mackenzee Anderson resigned last month as they no longer met the residency requirements, leaving council members Michael Christensen, Perla Garcia and Hector Rodriguez. Rodriguez was unable to attend the June 6 meeting, thus eliminating the possibility of a quorum.

Mayor Kent Andersen attended the Monday meeting by phone, and the council elected Christensen to serve as mayor pro tem. Two applicants to replace Anderson and Workinger were present at the meeting and the council voted to appoint them to the vacant positions. City Finance Director Shilo Christensen swore in the new members.

Position 4, Anderson’s seat, was filled by Piercy, a graduate of Royal High School who works for Trident Soil Fumigation.. He was encouraged to run for Anderson’s seat, which would have been up for election in November, by Anderson herself, he said.

Kannely took over Workinger’s seat at Position 5. Kannely, a California native, retired as an ag teacher at Royal High School five or six years ago, he said. Before that he had taught in Mount Vernon on the west side, he said. Kannely’s wife, a nurse who retired from the Royal School District at the same time, passed away last December, he said.

The newly repopulated council voted to accept a bid from Premier Excavation to complete a water main improvement project for $2.3 million. The project includes replacing about 10,000 feet of old steel pipe, Public Works Director John Lasen explained.

“(The pipe) was put in in the late ’50s,” Lasen said. “Its life expectancy at the time was 30 years. Well, we got our 30 years out of it.”

“So it’s a possible liability,” Piercy said.

“It is a possible liability,” Lasen answered. “There are other communities that have waited for too long and had major system failures in their distribution system as a result of that.”

“It’s the last area to be upgraded,” Michael Christensen said. “All the other areas have been upgraded.”

Joel Martin may be reached at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.