By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
Airway Heights City Council is taking steps to avoid water loss through lawn irrigation by adopting new restrictions prohibiting watering between the hours of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through the months of June through September.
A resolution was passed on Sept. 15 to implement these new measures, which shall apply to any property receiving the city's water, public works director Bryan St. Claire explained. This includes residential, commercial and industrial properties, with exemptions for new plantings, new landscaping and/or lawns.
The city of Medical Lake has a similar ordinance that's been in effect since 2006, and St. Claire said it's a conservation measure “more and more cities are enacting.”
Water conservation is an issue statewide, and something the state will soon be regulating a lot more strictly, St. Claire said. In May, the city approved water use efficiency standards mandated by the state Department of Health designed to reduce distribution system loses and consupmption for the next two to six years.
“[Conservation] has been in the background for the last 20 or so years, and it's just now coming to the forefront. Really, it's about protecting the resource,” St. Clair said.
“The intent is not to become the water police,” he added, but to educate the public more on how they can better use water. People manually watering brown spots on lawns, or children using sprinklers for play are not the problem; it's evaporation, like when sprinklers are run to the point of excess because people don't watch them.
Prior to approving the resolution, council requested public works produce some numbers indicating the amount of savings these restrictions could have for the city, which St. Claire agreed would be helpful in educating citizens.
At the recommendation of city attorney Nathan Smith, council agreed to draft a policy explaining how customers may show proof of new plantings to get exemptions through city hall.
Unanimously approved, the resolution, Councilwoman Sharon Lawrence said, is “a first step in helping the city meet the numbers for conservation as required by the state.”
“This is a logical step, and one that is hopefully well-received,” Mayor Matthew Pederson said.
In other news, council heard from Fire Chief John Schoen who presented officials with statistics from the department's 2007 annual report.
Last year the department responded to 868 calls, with 740 being medical and 128 fire emergencies. This was up from 2006's total of 762, and 2005's 681 total calls.
“That's a fairly phenomenal rate for a district of our size,” Schoen said of the department, which employs three full time employees and 71 volunteers, who all collectively contributed 40,000 hours on the job last year. Schoen added that two of the department's major call volume generators are Northern Quest Casino and Airway Heights Correction Center, which account for 21 percent and 12, respectively, of all calls for 2007.
In run volume, AHFD is “right up there with Spokane County Fire District 10 and Cheney,” Schoen said.
The upswing trend is something that is expected to continue, especially with the addition of Northern Quest's new hotel addition that's expected to open in late 2009, Schoen added.
“We expect to reach a 1,000 call plateau this year,” he said.
Given the consistent rise in call volumes, Councilwoman Lawrence asked if current population trends and new developments will start affecting AHFD's level of service, to which Schoen replied it could in the future, if the department doesn't add more personnel.
“We're not at that point yet,” he said, adding hard economic times also contribute to a rise in the number of calls for service.
Councilman Larry Haskell commented the report's stats showed “outstanding results” on the part of staff and volunteers.
“The numbers really indicate the amount of service they perform,” he said.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
Reader Comments(0)