Medical Lake High School and Washington State University graduate, Ashlee King was recently hired by the city of Medical Lake as a parks and recreation department coordinator. - Photo by Cara Lorello
By CARA LORELLO
Staff Reporter
In Medical Lake's city staffing news, it's one vacancy down, one to go.
Medical Lake Parks and Recreation Department's newly hired recreation coordinator Ashlee King, joined the staff at City Hall on Jan. 2, replacing former recreation coordinator Jessica Roberts who in December became the city's new court administrator.
King, a 2004 Medical Lake High School graduate, just graduated from Washington State University with a psychology degree with a focus in human development. She originally planned to pursue a master's degree in school psychology but opted to enter the job hunt when the opportunity to work with the city came up.
It was perfect timing, King said.
“It's everything I want to do actually. I love working with kids, and am a big sports fanatic, played all through high school,” King said.
“A big majority of the work I'll be doing is focused towards kids, so it's a good fit,” she added.
King plans to work alongside Roberts for a short time to get a feel for the activities she'll be coordinating through the department, starting now with the indoor sports activities for youth and adults this winter season.
“My focus now is getting used to the routine here, mostly increasing participation in current programs that we have within the current budget,” King said. She's been a longtime participant of the city's parks programs, from the age of 5 to the time she entered middle school.
It's fortunate that Medical Lake has seen its Parks and Recreation Department remain active in providing activity outlets for the community's youth, King said.
“It's really important, I believe, to get as many kids as possible involved in some sort of activity, and begin that at a young age,” she added.
In other hiring news, officials' search for a new police chief entered its fourth month of advertising, which so far has rendered less than 10 applications.
The city has been a year without a full-time chief. Since no qualified applicants have come through, contracting out police services may be a very real possibility at this point, City Administrator Doug Ross said.
“We've been extremely unsuccessful in finding a police chief. We've not received the amount of qualified applicants we wanted,” Ross said on Jan. 7. The chief position won't be offered to any officers currently on staff with the city. Ross said this is because require the new chief is required to have so many years of managerial experience at this level, and he or she must also work as a commissioned officer as chief.
Contracting police services, Ross added, has only gone as far as “preliminary, general discussions,” with both Spokane County Sheriff's Office and the city of Airway Heights.
“We've no specifics, or gotten any more detailed than that,” he added.
Medical Lake Officer Ian Haynes was recently replaced, via a day shift rotation, with Officer Jacob Keith as interim sergeant while Sgt. Joe Mehrens is on administrative leave pending a February trial for a recent harassment case through Spokane County Court.
City officials offered the Free Press no comment regarding the status of the case, or a timeline for Mehren's administrative leave.
Cara Lorello can be reached at [email protected]
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