ML council swings into budgeting

This time of year has football, basketball and hockey seasons. It’s also holiday season of course.

And for places like the city of Medical Lake, it’s the start of budget season, as was the case at the Nov. 6 City Council meeting. Along with regular business, this meeting marked the first of two public hearings for the proposed 2019 city expenditures.

City Administrator, Doug Ross said the city expects to spend $3.394 million in 2019, compared to $3.255 million in 2018. Another opportunity for residents to chime in on 2019 will occur at the Nov. 20 council meeting, despite the budget being due to the public on Nov. 19.

Ross told the council that it is “an educated guess” on what all of 2019 looks like at this point because of uncertainties with the final quarter of 2018. Expenditures are often uncertain because of weather and other things. Final true 2019 numbers might not be known until at least April 2019.

Ross said that staff has estimated low on revenues and high on expenditures.

One thing that is known amidst a dozen pages of seemingly endless array of numbers on a spreadsheet is that there will be a $500,000 expenditure on completing the intertie with the city of Spokane to provide an emergency water supply.

At the meeting, Medical Lake’s city attorney Cindy McMullin officially announced what many knew for a while — that she was retiring at the end of 2018. The council agreed to fill her position with Angelle Gerle, who is also working with the city of Cheney. The $2,000 per-month contract was approved by a unanimous 7-0 vote.

Re*Imagine Medical Lake’s Terri Cooper briefed council on the recently completed Halloween Festival. “We had a great turnout, it went well,” she said, drawing about 500 participants, mostly children. A spaghetti feed sold out in an hour and the Lions Club needed to go to the store to buy more hot dogs.

Councilman Ted Olson reported that the senior bingo program has been a big success, growing from nine participants a few months ago to 47 at the last event.

Fire Chief Jason Mayfield noted that call volume was down, with no real explanation he could put a finger on. The department had an outreach opportunity during the Halloween Festival that Mayfield said drew about 500 people.

Mayfield was also hoping that a Fire Fighting Assistance Grant application of $180,000 will be approved so that the department will be able to purchase a new brush truck. Should that happen it would require am $8,000 match from the city.

Council also unanimously approved a permit to allow Rocketman Pyros, LLC to conduct a fireworks display at Winter Fest.

Cooper also gave a heads-up for the upcoming Winter Fest that will take place Saturday, Dec. 8. It includes a variety of activities, among which Cooper singled out a 5K run and a parade in downtown.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.