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By Michaela Friedrich
Cheney Free Press 

City council postpones decision on Blackhawk Ridge plat

 

Last updated 6/16/2022 at 12:29pm



CHENEY— The city of Cheney has postponed its decision on approval or disapproval of the Blackhawk Ridge Preliminary Plat and moved into a brief closed session to address questions and concerns about the modified plan presented at the meeting on Tuesday.

After a handful of public comments related to the proposed plat, Todd Ableman, public works director for the city of Cheney, presented the modified plan of the preliminary plat.

“We’re now at 34 lots so we removed 14 lots from the original plan,” Ableman said.

The modified plan eliminated those lots and two cul-de-sacs proposed in the original plan.

“The staff isn’t looking for a decision tonight. There’s more information to be gathered and more questions,” Mayor Chris Grover said.

Ableman told the council the decision to approve or disapprove the modified proposal can be appealed at the superior court level.

The council also referred to their decision on setting a date for the alley vacation hearing regarding the Pacific Mortgage Center’s request to vacate the four street right of way that abuts their properties. They want to develop a new commercial building in that area.

“I suggest we defer and refer this to the public works meeting until the next city council meeting,” said council member Paul Schmidt.

The council did approve the Cheney Police Department’s request for eight new Panasonic laptops.

The city council also approved a resolution related to the fiber broadband design services contract.

The contract will create a secure and reliable system for the Water Department, Wastewater Department and Light Department infrastructures. The project is eligible for ARPA funding.

“This is good for everyone in town, including small businesses,” council member Teresa Overhauser said.

Councilmember Schmidt said approval of this contract would allow utilities in Cheney to operate in the newest fashion possible.

Two ordinances on the agenda were approved and became effective June 14.

The first ordinance adopted the Capital Facilities Plan, which assigns funding to capital projects in a six-year window— 2022-2027.

“This plan is presented every two years,” Ableman said. “The purpose of this [plan] is to identify future needs as we grow.”

The Capital Facilities Plan identifies transportation, water, water transportation, solid waste, parks and fire, along with some others identified in Ableman’s presentation.

The second ordinance updated the salaries of the fire chief and the accounting manager.

“In doing some research on what other chiefs are paid in the region, we are lagging behind, so we would like to make this change to take the fire chief from an NU-90 to an NU-98 which is consistent with what the other department heads in the city are making and make a salary adjustment along with the classification change,” said City Administrator Mark Schuller. “On the accounting manager side of things— We have an accounting manager that is performing very well.”

Author Bio

Michaela Friedrich, Former intern

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Michaela is a former newsroom intern at the Cheney Free Press. She covered stories on education, city government, cops/courts/fire departments and local businesses.

 

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