Airway Council chooses new Mayor

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – Following up last week’s deadlock, the city council of Airway Heights opened the floor to mayoral nominations and Councilman Larry Bowman came away as the new council chair to serve for the next two years.

Councilman Dave Malet nominated Bowman, and Deputy Mayor Veronica Messing nominated current Mayor Sonny Weathers. Councilman Art Bubb asked the two candidates to speak on the vision and plans they have for the next year or two so council could have a clearer understanding of direction for the city.

Sonny Weathers spoke first and said he would like to continue telling the city’s amazing story through progress, and focus on some certain key plans such as developing a key outcome for the city water and support the development of a k-12 school system.

Bowman took the floor and agreed that schools are a priority along with youth sports and other programs that will help support the children of Airway Heights.

Bowman continued and expressed some concern over council communications when he said that “communications need to be brought back to council” and be done more effectively. “We can do better for our constituents,” Bowman said.

Councilman Bubb asked them about developing a separate school district for Airway Heights, and both candidates agreed the current partnership with Cheney School District is strong and should be maintained.

The floor was opened for council to vote for Bowman, and he received four votes sealing his position as council chair.

Airway Heights Police Chief Brad Richmond then asked council to take action to allow the police department to surplus some older model Kember 1911 .45 handguns so he could reinvest in the newer Glock 9mm handguns and provide a uniform handgun option for his units.

The proposal was unanimously approved by council after a brief discussion.

The Parks and Recreation Department Director J.C. Kennedy went to council asking for approval to apply to the Spokane Parks Foundation 2022 grant cycle, to ask for $12,500 to allocate with $10,000 that is already budgeted for projects.

Councilman Davin Perry wanted to address the issue of potentially have council moving into a hybrid meeting model. Through discussion it was agreed a test meeting should be run once all of the equipment was allocated and in place, and that test was planned for early in February and possibly on the February 7 council meeting.

Matthew can be reached at reporter2@cheneyfreepress.com