New Airway Heights council members take seats at year's last meeting

By RYAN LANCASTER

Staff Reporter

The Airway Heights City Council saw a changing of the guard in their last meeting of the year Monday, Dec. 21, as a newly elected council was sworn in and a few longstanding members gave up their seats.

The council also adopted the 2010 budget and approved a collective bargaining agreement with the Washington State Council of County and City Employees, a union that represents about 15 city workers.

Steven Lawrence, Tanya Dashiell and Kevin Richey took the oath of office for Positions 2, 4 and 5 respectively. Lawrence has been a resident of the city since the late 1970s and is the husband of Position 3 Councilwoman Charlotte Lawrence, whose term expires in 2011.

Richey ran unopposed for Position 5 to complete a two-year term after a residency rule oversight deemed him ineligible to run in 2007. Dashiell, who ran unopposed for Position 4, sits on the planning commission and has said she was convinced to run by Don Mitchell, her co-worker at a local bank who is stepping out of Position 4 after eight years on the council.

Mitchell wasn't present to receive a send off, but the council said goodbye to Mayor Matthew Pederson and deputy mayor Larry Haskell, both of whom have also served on the council for a number of years. Pederson, who lost the council chair position by a two-vote margin to challenger Patrick Rushing, has been on the council since 2002, the last four years as mayor. Rushing opted to host his own swearing in ceremony Sunday, Dec. 27 at 1:30 p.m.

Haskell made the choice not to finish out another two years in Position 6 and will step down effective Dec. 31. The seat will be declared vacant and the council will appoint a new member after the new year.

In other city business, the council approved a sewer capacity agreement with the Kalispell Tribe of Indians, which provides for the purchase of 120,000 gallons per day of sewer capacity within the advanced wastewater reclamation facility upon its completion in 2011.

Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].