Fisher receives award for excellence

Cheney City Administrator Arlene Fisher got a rare opportunity at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to receive a prestigious award twice.

Fisher, City Administrator since 2006, was presented the Award for Excellence by the Washington City/County Management Association at its annual conference Aug. 13-16 in Port Townsend. Tuesday night, she was re-presented the award by an appreciative Mayor Tom Trulove and City Council.

According to a city press release, the award “recognizes an outstanding administrator or manger who has enhanced the effectiveness of local elected officials and consistently initiated creative and successful programs in a jurisdiction with population greater than 5,000.”

In his letter nominating Fisher, Trulove ticked off her roles in many city accomplishments such as passing a utility tax to fund street and sidewalk repairs – by a 75.8 percent yes vote – along with developing a program to contain information technology system costs, championing the replacement of the Wren Pierson Community Center after it was destroyed by a large snowfall, and being a “driving force behind various community events” such as the Cheney Jubilee.

“This is a big deal,” Trulove said of the award, noting there are 151 cities in Washington bigger than 5,000 populations as well as 39 counties. Trulove said that created a candidate pool of between 1,500-2,000 potential nominees.

“I do love working for the city,” Fisher told the council. “I do love making a difference.”

In other business the council authorized signing a lease agreement for a new IBM server that will replace and combine machines currently in the finance and police departments. The five-year agreement will cost $173,000.

Finance Director Cindy Niemeier told the council the unit would be split in two to separate information in either department.

“One half will be the city’s side, one half will be the police side,” Niemeier said. “They can’t talk to each other.”

The council also approved two days of additional maintenance work, totaling $4,348, at the city’s No. 4 water reservoir, and authorized the Police Department to take ownership of a radar trailer previously surplused by the city of Medical Lake.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.