Cheney council approves street grant application

Water wasn’t the only issue Cheney City Council members tackled at the April 10 meeting.

The council approved a request from the Public Works Department to apply for funding from three grant programs run through the Spokane Regional Transportation Commission (SRTC): the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) program, the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program and the STBG Set-Aside Program.

According to a city staff report, the SRTC anticipates awarding $16 million in STBG funds, $10 million in CMAQ funds and $2 million in STBG Set-Aside funding. The allocations would be for the years 2020-2023 for STBG funding, and 2021-2023 for the other two programs.

Public Works Director Todd Ableman said city staff are proposing submitting an application for the funding to cover preservation work on Washington Street from Oakland to West Sixth streets — essentially through the Eastern Washington University campus. Work has been previously completed on Washington Street from Betz Road to Oakland, and on Betz Road from State Route 904 to North Sixth Street.

Council also approved a $21,700 contract with Alamon Utility Services for the city’s pole testing project. Ableman, standing in for Light Department Director Steve Boorman who was not present, said the city received no sealed bids for the project when it was originally advertised, and subsequently took a different route to get the project done.

“State law allows us to approach and negotiate (a contract) if no sealed bids are received,” Ableman said.

The contract price is based on Alamon testing approximately 550 poles. In a previous Cheney Free Press story, Boorman said there are approximately 1,700 poles in the city’s system serving about 5,500 customers.

Council also approved awards from the city’s lodging tax fund to a pair of events that apply annually for the funding: Cheney Mayfest and the Cheney Rodeo. After reviewing their applications, the Lodging Tax Committee recommended award $16,535 to Mayfest and $4,780 to the rodeo.

In 2017, Mayfest received $12,260 while the rodeo was awarded $4,680. In 2016, council approved awarding $7,800 to Cheney May Festers and $550 to the Cheney Historical Museum, with a $7,174.20 distribution to the Cheney Merchants Association taking place in August. CMA used those funds to help publicize EWU’s Homecoming Week festivities.

The city has budgeted lodging tax uses of $190,500 in 2018.

Finally, the council approved a resolution allowing Mayor Chris Grover to sign an agreement with the Cheney School District to set up a special police officer commission. Two previous ordinances had amended the city municipal code to allow for creation of the commission, and a mutual aid contract with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office to give Cheney the authority to commission special officers to serve as school resource officers to act within the jurisdiction of Spokane County.

Cheney Police Chief John Hensley said the final resolution approved on April 10 spells out how the agreement operates and the responsibilities and jurisdictions of the various parties involved.

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