By DAVID TELLER
Staff Reporter
Budgeting is the buzzword floating around the Cheney City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Cindy Niemeier, Cheney's finance director, presented a budget amendment. The amendment covers various items in numerous funds totaling $298,000.
Councilman Curt Huff balked at some of the changes, questioning their necessity. The most noticeable resistance came over the travel fund of $1,100. Councilman Tom Trulove debated the need with Huff.
“You're not going to get funding from Olympia hanging around Cheney,” Trulove said. The amendment passed with Huff opposed.
Also in the city's budget review, the police and fire presented their financial status. Cheney Fire Chief Mike Winters summarized his budgeting needs.
“The biggest thrust is manpower,” he said.
Winters explained his biggest problem with manpower is when he has difficulty meeting the National Fire Protection Association's standards of having the proper number of personnel on shift. He said the department only meets the quota 6 percent of the time.
Winters also pointed out that because of the shortage in firefighters, the department would have difficulty responding to calls. He said 12 percent of their calls come simultaneously or back to back. He said there simply isn't enough people.
Currently the department has two men on at all times, but he says he needs three men to an engine. He is asking for two more firefighters.
A selling point Winters used was overtime funding. He said the extra manpower would be a decrease in his overtime budget because more firefighters can cover missed shifts.
He said the department is on pace for a record number of calls this year.
Cheney Police Chief Jeff Sale said in a comparison of time from January through September 2006 with January through September 2007, total crime increased 4.34 percent.
He is asking for a $5,000 increase for overtime in his budget. His department is currently over budget for the year in overtime funding by more than $4,600.
To defend his need for additional funding, Sale said department calls had increased 9 percent, reports being filed had increased 20 percent. Misdemeanors were up 12 percent and felonies had increased 9 percent.
The biggest increases were in drug and alcohol incidents. Sale said alcohol offenses are up 32 percent from last year, and drug offenses had risen by 50 percent.
Sale also noted that meth was not as big a problem in Cheney as one might think. The most frequently abused drugs, Sale said, next to marijuana, are stolen or misappropriated prescription drugs.
In other police actions, Sale presented a “Hometown Hero” award from the American Red Cross to Officer Zeb Campbell for his actions during an accident near Salnave Park last summer.
Campbell's critical first responder care saved the life of a 15-year-old cyclist who had been hit by a truck.
The teen's breathing was obstructed. Campbell cleared the airway allowing the unconscious teen to breathe while paramedics evacuated the youth.
Other resolutions that passed are authorizing the mayor to accept Department of Justice grant money that will replace bulletproof vests.
The Cheney Police Department applies for this grant every year. The funds from the Department of Justice are for the purpose of offsetting the department's cost of the vests.
The Cheney Police Department has been funded $2,000 for 2008.
The council passed a resolution to renew, with Airway Heights, an interlocal agreement where the Cheney Police Department provides data entry and warrant housing for Medical Lake, Airway Heights, and Eastern Washington University police departments.
Cheney will be compensated for the service.
The amount of $38,377 was authorized when the council passed a resolution to replace pole-mount and pad-mount transformers for routine maintenance and development.
An interlocal cooperation agreement was reached when the council passed a resolution on providing fire protection and emergency medical services to EWU for 2008.
The council passed a resolution to ratify the agreement with the Department of Transportation permitting the closing of SR-904 for the EWU homecoming parade.
An ordinance passed correcting the deficiencies in the building code and the project review chapters of the municipal code for building permit applications.
The revisions will include direction for appeal purposes.
David Teller can be reached at [email protected]
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