The Airway Heights City Council tackled a study session Monday that lasted long after its usual meeting time, covering a wide variety of topics that included energy efficiency, marketing and red light cameras.
Council passed two resolutions, but not without some controversy.
A resolution authorizing Fire Chief Mitch Metzger to send the city of Spokane a letter withdrawing from the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications’ combined communications center interlocal agreement by the end of the year was unanimously approved.
But a resolution to finalize the first addition of Phase 4 of the ongoing single-family Traditions Subdivision ran into opposition from council member Dave Malet. Malet was about 20 minutes late to the meeting due to work obligations, thus missing the passage of the first resolution, but expressed concerns about passing resolutions in a study session.
“It’s becoming more frequent that we’re passing things in workshop, and I don’t think we should be doing that,” Malet said. “There’s no video, no recording of any kind.”
City Manager Albert Tripp pointed out that legally, the council may take action at any public meeting with a quorum, but several council members admitted to understanding Malet’s view.
The resolution was ultimately put to a vote and approved 5 – 1, with Malet opposed.
Staff then brought forward a plan to redesign the city website to promote the city’s designation as an Opportunity Zone. Council member Larry Bowman was concerned about the expense of reconstructing the site when a complete city branding overhaul may be on the horizon, but staff assured Council that the updates to the site would be relatively surface-level to enhance its usability, given the short time frame available to maximize the benefits of the Opportunity Zone designation.
The city website has frequently gone months without informational or calendar updates.
Also brought before Council was a list of city service enhancements compiled by the city leadership team. At the top of the list was the goal of minimizing the use of outside consultants as much as possible, followed by developing a program that would allow residents to round up service payments to the nearest dollar with those donations going to provide recreation programs for underprivileged youth.
On those matters the council seemed to be in agreement, but the third suggestion — that the city employ red light cameras and speed reductions programs for certain intersections and corridors — was met with steep opposition.
Bowman cited privacy concerns, while Mayor Kevin Richey, a detective with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and union president, argued that the cameras sap valuable manpower.
“It’s a revenue generator, and the citizens know it’s a revenue generator, and they resent it,” Richey said.
Both Bowman and Richey indicated that they found speed programs in school zones more acceptable.
Other stated goals of the city included developing an automatic consumer price index for all administrative fees, creating an alternate program to support inmate arraignment without relying on court transport and a prorated impact fee structure for transportation and fire services.
Parks and Recreation Director J.C. Kennedy gave an update on the Airway Heights Recreation Center project and notified council that the project would be investing in a better air conditioning unit.
“The temperatures in the natatorium (indoor pool) are mirroring outside temperatures,” he said, noting that the heat may impact membership.
The project was given an expense cap of $17.29 million. With the $168,000 addition of the new AC, the project would essentially hit that limit, having just $161 to spare.
Kennedy said the facility’s air conditioning had been designed based on YMCA buildings, which are constructed out of cinderblock. The recreation center was originally going to be built from cinderblock but was later changed to metal due to costs. The engineer on the project, MW Engineering, couldn’t be sure the AC would keep up as planned.
As it turns out, it hasn’t — a rec center employee said inside temperatures reached 90 degrees or more and upset customers. “By having those temperatures, it’s complete turn around and walk away,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Doyle Inman asked if the building might have the opposite problem in the winter with an inability to keep the building warm. Kennedy answered, “I don’t know.”
Recreation center staff will be finding the answer to that question, he said, but either way it looks like the air conditioning improvements will soon be underway.
Council also heard a presentation by McKinstry, a Spokane company that designs, constructs, maintains high-performing buildings, on energy services performance contracting (ESPC). ESPC is a financial tool that allows organizations to find funding for capital projects by analyzing the energy efficiency of their infrastructure. A preliminary look at Airway Heights’ facilities found a little over $200,000 worth of inefficiencies, with the possibility for more savings.
The idea was a popular one with council, with several members asking questions about the next step and Richey saying, “When do we start?”
In other news, the council studied a Spokane County Library District presentation, reviewed beekeeping code revisions regarding hive obstructions that guide bees above walking paths and decided to gather more information about a potential utility tax ordinance amendment before moving forward.
Shannen Talbot can be reached at shannen@cheneyfreepress.com.
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