Seeking West Plains advocate

Citing lack of support for West Plains’ issues, the Cheney City Council has decided to throw its support behind a pair of bills in the state Legislature that would change the government of Spokane County from a three-member board of county commissioners to a five-member board.

House bill 2610, sponsored by Spokane District 3 Rep. Marcus Ricelli, and its companion measure Senate Bill 6514 requires non-charter counties with populations of 300,000 and more to establish a redistricting committee by Jan. 31, 2017 and divide the county into five commissioner districts. It also requires those counties to hold district-based elections of commissioners by 2018.

Cheney City Administrator Mark Schuller told the council this legislation is seen as an opportunity to change the county government system so that citizens on the West Plains have the chance to elect someone who represents them. Schuller said the three current Spokane County Commissioners are all from the city of Spokane.

“They advocate for Spokane things,” he added.

Cheney, Airway Heights, Medical Lake and unincorporated portions of the West Plains and southwest Spokane County make up Spokane County Commissioner District 3, and are represented by Commissioner Al French. The district also includes portions of Spokane’s South Hill, where French resides.

County voters rejected a ballot measure last April to change the commission from three members to five and have those member elected by their respective districts. Currently, commissioners are selected in primary elections by the voters in their district, but are then elected to the board on a county-wide basis.

“Fifty-four percent of our (Cheney) voting population thought it was a good idea,” Schuller said of the April election outcome.

In other action items, the council unanimously approved passage of a pair of resolutions to begin work on one of the city’s three major road projects this summer. The council approved $51,400 be allocated for preliminary design work on the Washington Street Preservation Project, upgrading that street — sometimes referred to as the front door to Eastern Washington University — from Betz Road to Oakland Street.

The council also approved a prospectus, or scope, of work for the project, which was needed in order to receive $493,400 in grant funding from the federal Surface Transportation Program to pay for the work. Public Works Director Todd Ableman said the Washington Street project was originally slated for 2018-2019, but was moved up at the request of the Spokane Regional Transportation Commission.

The grant funding covers 86.5 percent of the project’s estimated cost, with the city picking up the remaining 13.5 percent.

Council unanimously approved purchase of four different types of LED streetlights from three different vendors as part of the Light Department’s program to replace existing high pressure sodium lamps with more cost-efficient light emitting diode (LED) lamps. The program cost is being paid for through a grant award from the Washington Transportation Improvement Board.

Eleven distributors bid on the project, with the total value of the purchase being $121,732.70 for a total of 725 fixtures. Light Department Director Steve Boorman told the council the recommended bids included going with an improved photo-eye for an extra $10 per fixture.

Boorman also said the award was contingent upon the number of lights in Cheney’s system. Most fixtures have been located and entered into the city’s GPS tracking system, but once crews are in the field they may find some fixtures not accounted for by the system numbers.

Council also approved a Light Department request to declare some scrap metal as surplus and sell it to Pacific Steel, one of three bidders and the one with the highest rate. The council also approved an interlocal agreement allowing the Fire Department to participate with other departments in the West Plains Recruit Structural training academy.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].