MEDICAL LAKE – Terri Cooper was sworn in as the newly elected mayor of Medical Lake, and two new members of city council also recited their respective oath of office.
Dawn Olmstead and Bob Maxwell are the two newest council members, and Mayor Terri Cooper also appointed them to departments for their service term.
Olmstead was accepted being appointed to the Finance Committee and the Parks and Recreation Department. Maxwell was put on the Public Safety and Public Works Departments, and as mayoral appointments those placements did not need mayoral approval.
After those placements, Mayor Cooper requested that the item regarding Community Outreach asking for funds be moved to the next meeting so she could learn more about the process before jumping into the topic.
The request was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved, moving into the next item.
Mayor Cooper could not lead the discussion and asked that Don Kennedy be appointed as the Mayor Pro-Tem for this discussion, and that was approved by council. Kennedy then led the discussion about the city agreement regarding municipal court services and facilities.
An agreement between Cheney and Medical Lake that has been in place since 2014 was discussed as a partnership that Medical Lake wanted to extend and continue. With the terms in the present agreement, Medical Lake will pay Cheney $59,000 annually as part of the agreement.
The agreement has language that would allow it to continue in perpetuity so long as neither party desired to end it.
Moving on to committee reports, the Parks and Recreation Department needs a basketball coach for the 11–12-year-old kids, and City Administrator Doug Ross said that if a participant’s parent chooses to coach the child’s fee will be waived.
Public works will be out in full force to help keep the road’s clear during the bad weather, and during the meeting Heather Starr asked how the city is doing with the process of making de-icer solution for the roads.
Ross answered and said the city is experimenting with that, because the current “brine” solution has a freeze point of around 25 or 26 degrees. It loses effectiveness when the temperature drops too low, so the administrator said they are looking into using higher grade salt with a corrosion inhibitor and a lower freeze point. Ross also said they have to be careful with the lake, so they have to work into the process slowly.
The District 3 Fire Chief Cody Rohrbach spoke on behalf of public safety, and said the district ended with nearly 3,200 emergency calls this year, which is about 300-400 calls more than last year. Mayor Cooper requested some statistics that are specific to Medical Lake, and the chief agreed to bring them to the next meeting.
Prior to closing the meeting, the mayor said she would like to see a return to in person council meetings and hopes for that possibility by the next council session on January 18.
Matthew can be reached at [email protected]
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