At its monthly study session, the Airway Heights City Council listened to a plan that could help create a long-term plan for one of its busiest streets.
The Public Works Department is looking to put together a task order with Sunburst Engineering regarding the future of the Hayford Road and Highway 2 intersection.
“The Hayford Road intersection is becoming a really big deal,” Airway Heights’ public works director, Kelly Williquette, said.
Sunburst would be a partner in creating a long-term mitigation plan for the intersection’s future, factoring in the number of trips generated by new development in the area. Those new developments could potentially face a fee per trip generated that would go through the intersection. Williquette said the idea is similar to what’s in place for new developments near Craig Road and Highway 2, where developer fees are placed in a fund that will go toward rehabilitating the intersection.
The idea is to unify the future of the Hayford Road intersection so that everyone is on the same page now and in the future.
“Instead of piecemealing, we can come up with a long term plan,” Williquette said. “It’s an idea of what we can do to make a permanent fix.”
The Kalispel Tribe is among the new developers looking to build a set of apartment buildings on their tribal trust land to the west of Hayford.
Another item on the agenda was an amendment to an agreement with the Department of Corrections. The city currently provides fire and EMS services to the Airway Heights Corrections Center. City Manager Albert Tripp said the amendment would change the agreement’s timeline to match that of the state’s budgeting cycle, or every two years.
“It also keeps current services in place,” Tripp said.
Williquette also submitted an item for discussion regarding the installation of a fence around a city well on West 21st Avenue. The low bid for the fence came in at $11,416.45 and includes a gate and other elements.
The Public Works Department also put forward a memorandum of understanding with Fairchild Air Force Base to test water quality. Williquette said the memorandum included having access to the base’s monitoring wells and was a no-cost agreement. It also mentions that if a worker breaks something while on the job, they’ll return to repair it.
Water at the base mirrors the quality of water in city wells. Williquette said the city wasn’t monitoring the water on the base, but rather ensuring that the city’s water quality mirrors the base’s.
“We’re monitoring ours through theirs,” he said.
The City Council will also take up two amendments of job descriptions at an upcoming meeting.
The monthly study session provides an in-depth look at items that could appear at a City Council meeting in the near future. No official action was taken at the meeting. The next City Council meeting takes place Monday, July 1 at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers.
James Eik can be reached at [email protected].
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