Town of South Prairie

04/23/2026

04/07/2026

SPRING CLEAN UP 2026 | News https://share.google/YyEqZkNHVFT8x3TPE

03/18/2026

Event extended to 7 p.m.

03/17/2026

3pm to 7pm the time has been updated!

📣On Thursday, March 19, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., the U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Recovery team is visiting Town of South Prairie to help residents and businesses impacted by the December 2025 storms/floods learn about disaster assistance options.

Stop by the South Prairie Fire Station & Community Center on Thursday afternoon or visit https://lending.sba.gov/search-disaster/?disaster=WA-20025 to learn more.

02/27/2026

02/27/2026

The Town of South Prairie disables comments on social media to avoid the high costs and legal risks associated with the Washington Public Records Act (PRA).

Here is the breakdown of why :

Public Record Compliance: Under Washington state law, every comment made on a government social media page is considered a "public record." The Town is legally required to archive and store every single one of these comments, including those that are deleted or edited.

Archiving Costs: To legally allow comments, the Town would need to pay for specialized software to capture and preserve all social media metadata. As small town with a limited budget, these subscription costs are often seen as an unnecessary expense.

Liability and Monitoring: If the Town allows comments but removes "inappropriate" ones, we risk violating First Amendment rights (viewpoint discrimination). To avoid the legal headache of "policing" a forum or potentially being sued for deleting a comment, the Town chooses to keep the page "one-way" for announcements only.

Staffing Constraints: The Town doesn't have a dedicated social media manager to monitor threads 24/7 to ensure they don't become hubs for spam or harassment.

By disabling comments, the Town turns its social media into a "Digital Bulletin Board" rather than a "Public Forum," which significantly reduces their legal and administrative workload.

Send a message to learn more