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By PAUL DELANEY
Contributor 

Finalists chosen for Airway council vacancies

City’s Art Plan launched with formation of commission at Feb. 1 meeting

 

Last updated 2/5/2021 at 3:13pm



AIRWAY HEIGHTS —The citizens of Airway Heights got a peek at the future composition of its city council and a jump start on how its main street might look like following actions of the council at its Feb. 1 meeting.

In a move that required a brief executive session, council pared a list of 13 applications down to six in an effort to fill a pair of vacancies that have existed since a pair of recent resignations.

Steve Lawrence announced his intentions to resign Dec. 14 from his position due to a move out of city limits and was effective Dec. 31. Former Mayor Kevin Richey resigned in October after taking the deputy chief job with the Spokane Valley Police Department.

The process to fill those spots by advertising the vacancies beginning Dec. 30, 2020 and by the Jan. 29 deadline there was a full pool of applicants. The process from here is swift with the spots being filled and oaths being administered on Feb. 22.

In between, the six finalists will be interviewed by council on Feb. 8 and on Feb. 15 council is slated to make a decision on the final selected.

“It’s a healthy list of applicants, it was great to see the participation,” City Manager Albert Tripp told council. (See separate list of applicants and finalists.)

Council suggested a variety of ways to conduct the interviews. There was interest in both providing the finalists with all the questions so as they could best prepare for the Q & A session as well as maybe having candidates have to answer a question impromptu. That process will be fine-tuned prior to interviews.

It was agreed that council would turn over development of questions to Mayor Sonny Weathers and Tripp. They would likely refer to the questions from the past, updating and adjusting accordingly.

In the other notable agenda item, Heather Trautman, the city’s Principal Planner, presented a PowerPoint on the Art Plan for the city. It’s part of a bigger effort to address projected growth of the city that could reach 50% by 2040 and push population from the current 10,010 to over 15,500.

The first step in the process was to approve an Art Commission — which council did unanimously — to move the process forward. Trautman touched upon some themes that might include work dedicated to the Spokane Tribe on the west end of the city. Airway Heights connections to flight would be the focus of art in the city center while to the north would be Kalispel Tribe themes and the east dedicated to the Columbia Plateau.

Coinciding with Monday’s meeting, Feb. 1 also marked a welcome milestone for the citizens as the city’s recreation center finally opened its doors after months of being shuttered due to COVID-19. That reopening was assisted by the council’s authorization of $178,000 in Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) funding. Those funds cover costs associated with part-time employees at the facility.

– Paul Delaney is a retired former Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.

 

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