Q & A with Airway Heights City Council candidates

Three unknowns are vying for the Airway Heights City Council Position 7 seat, currently held by Dave Malet, ahead of the August primary election. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Aug. 6 and 24 dropbox locations are listed on the county elections website. Final results will be made official on Aug. 20, setting the field for November’s general election.

The Cheney Free Press asked all candidates to answer the same questions on issues facing the city in 150 words or less.

Editor’s Note: Some portions of responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Jennifer Morton

1. What qualifies you to serve on the Airway Heights City Council?

• Local – raised in the small town of Davenport, Wash .; the county seat for Lincoln County and the proud home of the Davenport Gorillas!

• Education – educational background in public administration and business administration and production control.

• Military – over 16 years of experience ranging from road construction, personnel management and operation management.

• Work – experience in aerospace distribution, financial services, city government, and human resources.

• Volunteer – community involvement in working with special needs clients/population, veterans, the homeless community and at-risk youth.

2. What do you think are the biggest issues facing Airway Heights right now?

• Water

• Housing

• Infrastructure

3. Do you have any specific steps or strategies in mind to deal with those issues?

• Water - an actionable solution for providing clean affordable water for Airway Heights citizens.

• Housing - affordable housing for current and new residents.

• Infrastructure – accessible/connected transportation and safe walking/biking paths.

4. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the city any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

• Since resolving the water issue is a major topic affecting the city and its residents, I would put the grant money towards facilitating a workable solution towards this issue.

5. What policies, procedures or ordinances would you, if elected, advocate to be changed, and what changes would you suggest?

• Although it would be easy to assume the basis/reasoning behind every policy, procedure, or ordinance, the council body represents a broad range of knowledgeable and diverse experiences that daily work in earnest to be of service to the citizens of Airway Heights. I would be hard pressed at this moment in time to say what should and shouldn’t be changed.

6. If you have any additional comments, please include them here.

To follow the progress of the campaign, please check out the Jennifer Morton’s campaign page at https://www.facebook.com/Votejennifermorton/ If you would like to support Jennifer Morton by making a donation, please go to https://jennifer-morton-for-airway-heights-city-council.square.site.

Sarah Slater

1. What qualifies you to serve on the Airway Heights City Council?

I am a long-time resident. I am raising my family here and work with people and families and kids in the community. 

2. What do you think are the biggest issues facing Airway Heights right now?

Not in any specific order...housing, water, businesses, pedestrian safety.

3. Do you have any specific steps or strategies in mind to deal with those issues?

As I am new to politics, I am learning what steps start what — who is in charge of what and how things run. I am very excited to learn the process and being a voice for the families who live here. I want to hear from them what they care about. 

4. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the city any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why?

Make our streets safer for our kids. 

5. What policies, procedures or ordinances would you, if elected, advocate to be changed, and what changes would you suggest?

Not knowing a lot about behind the scenes, I don’t think I can answer this to the best of my ability. I am running to not only learn about all these, but to maybe advocate for change or new policies.

6. If you have any additional comments, please include them here.

No additional comments.

Dakota Lawrence

1. What qualifies you to serve on the Airway Heights City Council?

 I think to serve your community you must have no qualifications other than the willingness to serve the community. As for my personal qualifications, both my mother and father have served and are serving on the Council so I have been exposed to the runnings of the city for awhile. I think the introduction of new ideas and ideals would be the biggest change.

2. What do you think are the biggest issues facing Airway Heights right now?

Without a doubt it would be the water issue.

3. Do you have any specific steps or strategies in mind to deal with those issues?

My thoughts on resolving this issue is to first and foremost build a water purifier. As the city is currently not using its own water we need to address this first because a city without its own water will stop. After the purifier I would try to get some specialists in and use their expertise to try and fix the issue.

4. If you received a $1 million grant to use for the city any way you wanted, what would you do with it and why? 

If I received a $1 million grant and I could use it anyway I could, I would use it to try to fix the water issue because again, a city with no water stops growing and withers.

5. What policies, procedures or ordinances would you, if elected, advocate to be changed, and what changes would you suggest? 

As of now most policies, procedures and ordinances are fine but I would like to try and implement a more green policies, maybe things like solar panels on new homes or better EV(electric vehicle) charging areas to try and incentive more people to switch to EV’s.

6. If you have any additional comments, please include them here.

No additional comments.

Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].