Medical Lake council approves funds for food bank

MEDICAL LAKE – The food bank in Medical Lake recently requested emergency funds to help remodel and expand the group’s current facilities. City Administrator Doug Ross announced the request to council on December 7, and council voted to approve the dispersal of $75,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the food bank.

The food bank will be utilizing the funds to build a drive through station to pick up food items, and this will help keep volunteers and workers out of the elements. Some of the funds will be used to expand the Care and Share donation location as well so it can hold more products.

Finance committee reports led to a discussion about making some changes to Resolution 535, and this is regarding late fees and utility bills. Administrator Ross said the city currently has a late fee of three dollars when people don’t pay on time, and another eight dollar fee if that leads to a shut-off notice. Ross said beyond that, the city also charges an eight dollar re-connection fee.

Ross said the city is showing nearly $60,000 in late fees from residents since 2020, and he wants to implement a system that will hopefully get residents to pay on time so those late fees don’t accumulate so much. Council agreed to raise each of the appropriate fees to $10 each, meaning that residents will face $30 in total fees if utilities are shut off.

Another amended agreement was the agreement between the city of Medical Lake and Four Lakes water district, as the city wanted to make adjustments that would show Four Lakes paying for more water from Spokane that would in turn free up extra water for Medical Lake.

Ross said water rights in the West Plains are allotted, so cities (referring to Airway Heights) that want to drill more wells won’t create much of a difference. “It’s basically like sticking an extra straw in the same cup,” he said, “it just won’t make a difference in the end because cities can’t get more water than what they are allowed.”

Cody Rohrbach, the Fire Chief for Spokane Fire District 3 spoke on behalf of public safety, and said the district has answered more calls this year than ever at over 3100 emergency calls. That number is over 400 calls higher than last year he said, and he expects the growth will continue to increase the number of received calls.

He said the district is understaffed and over 2 dozen of the firefighters can’t participate in medical calls due to the vaccine mandate, which puts more pressure on the department because over 80 percent of received calls are medical calls.

Rohrbach also said with the department taking over emergency services in some areas, the district has been able to reduce response times to emergencies by nearly 10 minutes.

The department of parks and recreation are continuing to struggle to put a youth basketball league together because of limited gym space as the school facilities aren’t open to outside groups.

Matthew can be reached at reporter2@cheneyfreepress.com