More money needed to play

The Airway Heights City Council held a public hearing on Nov. 5 on the city’s 2019 final preliminary budget, and also approved two measures allocating additional monies to the Airway Heights Recreation Complex project.

Council unanimously approved the use of money from two separate real estate excise tax funds (REET) to go toward the construction of the recreation center, which has been under construction since November 2017. About $229,000 from REET 1 and $197,000 from REET 2 will go toward the complex’s completion.

The city also allocated more than $130,000 in bond interest to the recreation center construction budget.

According to city documents, neither of these fund authorizations will increase the approved project budget, but they will reduce the amount of the interfund loan necessary to complete the project.

In other news, council members discussed the city’s legislative priorities for the state’s 2019 legislative session. Councilman Sonny “James” Weathers made a few wordsmithing suggestions to improve clarity in the documents the city will present to the Legislature.

Deputy Mayor Don Inman also expressed some concern that the highway bypass proposed near Sixth Avenue would not be the most effective way to mitigate traffic and requested clarification from city staff.

“I need somebody to explain why they think that’s a viable route for going east and west,” Inman said in the meeting.

Council also heard the first reading of Ordinance C-193, which establishes the regular property tax levy, bond levy and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) levy for 2019. The ordinance would provide for a 1 percent increase in the regular property tax levy and a 1 percent increase in the EMS levy exclusive of any increase of additional revenue resulting from new construction, improvements, annexations and refunds made approved by the electorate on Nov. 3, 2015.

Shannen Talbot can be reached at shannen@cheneyfreepress.com.