Cheney puts EMS levy on August ballot

The Cheney City Council unanimously agreed at their April 24 meeting to ask voters to approve an extension of the city’s emergency medical services levy with a ballot measure on Aug. 7.

The current levy is in its sixth and final year, set to expire at the end of 2018. The current levy amount is 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, and Fire Chief Tom Jenkins stressed to the council that what is being asked from residents is an extension of that rate, not an increase.

Jenkins said the EMS levy is used solely for funding emergency medical personnel, unlike 2015’s levy lid lift that was meant to provide additional property tax resources for emergency equipment. According to information from Jenkins, EMS levy funds cover wages, benefits and overtime for 75 percent of a battalion chief position, 50 percent of each of three positions: lieutenant, firefighter and administrative assistant.

Jenkins told the council that of the 1,462 emergency contacts made by Cheney personnel in 2017, 68 percent were for medical reasons. That figure is 3 percent above the national average, he added.

“We do everything from simple broken fingers to all of the dangerous situations,” Jenkins said.

If approved, the EMS levy rate would continue through 2024.

Council also approved just over $400,780 of expenditures under three separate items. The most expensive, $230,337, was an authorization allowing the Public Works Department to purchase a new loader for the wastewater collection department that will replace an existing model bought in 2004.

Public Works Director Todd Ableman told the council the department went though the National Joint Powers Alliance, a national purchasing agency Cheney is currently a member of that allowed for “A fairly good quote.” Originally quoted locally from Pape Machinery at $359,279, membership in the NJPA provided the city with a $128,841 discount, thereby sharply reducing the purchase price.

A second approved expenditure is a $173,430 bid from Potelco, Inc. for the city’s 2018 Reconductor Project later this spring and summer. The project involves pole and wire replacement in an area extending from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks to Fourth Street and from Washington to K Street.

Unlike a similar project in 2017, this year’s work contains some three-phase power as well as single-phase.

Light Department Director Steve Boorman said Potelco came in quite a bit under the only other bidder, DJ’s Electric, the contractor on the 2017 replacement project. Boorman said he called Potelco, did some checking and confirmed they were a “reputable firm” and recommended award of the contract.

The final expenditure awarded was a $96,900 contract with Itasca Construction for the city’s 2018 Covered Storage Project for Light Department equipment at the Utility Building.

Council also approved extending an interlocal agreement with Eastern Washington University’s Police Department to use Cheney Police Department’s ACCESS records storage system. Police Chief John Hensley said new language in the three-year, $12,300 annual contract allows for the price to increase by $300 each year.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].