Council also discusses formation of a solid waste management task force to give better representation to small cities; numerous action items passed
By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
Airway Heights City Council expressed support for the Spokane Tribe's mixed-use development project on Monday with a reading of the first draft of a letter that Mayor Patrick Rushing will deliver to Olympia next week.
“On behalf of the city of Airway Heights and our council I would like to take this opportunity to express our unwavering support of Spokane Tribe and their project to develop this acreage,” the letter reads. “The positive impacts to the city of Airway Heights and to the Spokane region could prove in fact to be enormous.” Rushing said the tribe asked him to author the letter and attend a meeting with Gov. Chris Gregoire about the development, which will include a casino and resort.
“I think it's important that we reiterate our support for the Spokanes and we do so with eyes wide open,” Councilmember Matthew Pederson said. “We know better than anyone else what the impacts of this type of development are. We pioneered this development with the Kalispel Tribe and all the good bad and indifferent, we know what we're getting into.”
Pederson raised his concern that “outside influences” are actively trying to thwart the project and singled out regional chamber of commerce Greater Spokane Incorporated (GSI) as a driving force behind the opposition.
“If (GSI) is working against the city of Airway Heights and the Spokane Tribe on this it will greatly call into question my support for GSI in the future,” Pederson said. “If we are funding an organization that is actually working against us we need to address that.”
When asked later if GSI has in fact worked to oppose the tribe's project, president and CEO Rich Hadley said he was unaware of any specific efforts but that the organization has always been concerned with preventing any possible encroachment issues that could affect future missions at nearby Fairchild Air Force Base.
City Manager Albert Tripp gave council his report on the two day Solid Waste Summit held last week to discuss governance of the Waste to Energy Facility and a pending contract renewal with Wheelabrator Spokane Inc., which runs the plant. On Feb. 2 and Feb. more than three representatives from Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Latah, Deer Park, Millwood, Spokane County, Spokane and Airway Heights discussed their interest and support for a regional solid waste system with a new governance structure.
Council supported forming a task force of jurisdictional representatives that will examine how a regional governing body might result in “improved transparency, increased oversight, efficient solid waste management and reduced costs.”
Cheney School District Superintendent Larry Keller gave council an update on how facility projects are coming along and how they will affect the city.
“When we think of Cheney public schools, we don't just think of Cheney, we think of Airway Heights, Cheney and the greater West Plains,” he said, adding that the district comprises nearly 400 square miles and is seeing rapid growth in enrollment. “A lot of the development that's going on in the region is going on in the Cheney School District.”
Keller said one of two new middle schools will be built near Airway Heights to shorten the distance by about four to six miles for students who live in the eastern part of the Cheney district. The new building would also provide an additional space for community activities on nights and weekends, Keller said.
Other items passed by council on Monday included:
•The reappointment of Claudette Martin to Citizens Park Board Advisory Committee position 1, a term expiring in 2014.
•Approval of a change order to Phase 1 B of the wastewater reclamation facility project for a cost of $20,265, which increases the total contract price to $27.3 million.
•Amendment of the job description for city fire chief, a position that will be vacated with the June retirement of current Fire Chief Tom Ledgerwood. Tripp said the new job description will be posted Friday and will run through April 29 for a projected appointment in early May.
•Approval to solicit bids for a project that will connect municipal wells 1 and 4 to a proposed underground reservoir. Eighty percent of the project will be funded through a Community Development Block Grant and 20 percent through a city match.
•An agreement for Taylor Engineering to provide design, engineering and construction services relating to the connection of city utilities to the Spokane County Raceway Park as per a previous agreement with the county. The connection will cost the city an estimated $162,030.
•The second reading of an ordinance correcting the 2011 salary ranges for the parks, recreation and community services supervisor position and the administrative assistant/building inspector position.
•A resolution proclaiming February 2011 as Kiwanis Children's Cancer Cure Month in the city.
•A resolution supporting the preservation of transit service to the city of Medical Lake and Fairchild Air Force Base.
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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