The Cheney City Council approved the city’s six-year, $6.4 million transportation improvement plan at its June 23 meeting. Of that funding, $4.9 million is planned for grant-eligible projects, with $655,470 in grant-eligible matching projects and $1.93 million in funded preservation projects.
The plan qualifies the city for federal and state grant funding for improving 10.75 miles of local streets, with 5.78 miles local access and 4.77 miles arterial streets. The residential street plan calls for $1.8 million in preservation work while the arterial plan includes $3.5 million in preservation work and $1.1 million in new street construction.
Murphy Road was added to the arterial plan while Normal Park Road, Front and Alki streets were added to the street plan. As part of the meeting’s focus on transportation, the council also authorized city staff to submit funding applications to the Transportation Improvement Board for design and construction work on improvements for Murphy Road from Betz and North Sixth Street to the northern city limits.
The applications would also be for arterial preservation work on streets meeting the board’s funding criteria, which includes Betz Road as it bends into Washington Street heading towards Eastern Washington University. Public Works Director Todd Ableman said there is about $14 million in funding for small cities statewide, which also require a 10 percent match in local dollars.
“We would be very competitive in the region to grab some preservation money,” he said.
In other business, the council unanimously awarded a $150,018 contract to Stone Creek for the irrigation system installation and hydro-seeding portion of work at the city’s Betz Road Park, sometimes referred to as the 50-Acre Park. Stone Creek, of Spokane, was the lowest of three bidders, all of which were very close, Ableman said.
Councilman Chris Grover asked if the fields would be ready for use in spring 2016, to which Ableman replied they would not as it takes a full year for the hydro-seeding to take hold.
Finally, the council approved an ordinance amending language in municipal code chapter 2.74 for disposal of surplus property. The ordinance received its first reading at the council’s May 26 meeting, at which City Administrator Mark Schuller said the language changes revolved around disposing of utility equipment, most of which is in the Light Department and implementing “some industry best practices for doing that.”
During citizen’s comments, Cheney resident and current Planning Commission Chair Vince Barthels approached the council regarding an issue between the city and the Storm soccer club for use of the city’s playing fields. Barthels originally spoke to the council at its April 4 meeting, along with Storm president Brad Hemenway and Inland Empire Youth Soccer Association director Denae Heuett, about using the fields during the Storm’s soccer season, which runs mid-March to mid-May.
The conflict between the city and the soccer group is that the city does not allow games or practices on their fields until they are deemed playable, which according to Barthels, kept the Storm from playing in Cheney until after April 11. Barthels said he was asking the city to come up with a more concrete definition of what a playable field is, and would like to receive authorization to use the fields next year in order to help with current registration.
Schuller told the council the city couldn’t extend that kind of authorization because they don’t know what the weather will be like over the coming months. He said the field issue is high on the city’s list of priorities and they will work on something with the soccer club in order to use all of the fields in a way that won’t harm them.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
Facts about Cheney’s streets
- Of Cheney’s 44.6 miles of streets, 14.1 are arterials, 24.2 are collectors, 3.5 are gravel and 2.8 are private.
- From 1999 – 2014 Cheney spent $15.68 million on street work, with 45 percent funding from state and federal grants and 25 percent from the Transportation Improvement Board.
- Of the $5.47 million spent on residential streets from 1999-2014, 89 percent has gone to construction.
Information from Public Works/Streets Department.
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