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While both the mayor and Spokane County commissioners have both promised that snow will get plowed in the city of Spokane Valley next year, it’s still not certain how that will happen.
On Friday, the commissioners reaffirmed their December decision to terminate the snow-removal contract for 2009-10. But they also said they would do whatever they could to help the city establish its own department or contract for outside help before the snow flies next winter.
The commissioners also didn’t rule out the possibility of plowing for one more year – but it would only happen after city officials have made “good faith” efforts to figure out an alternate service provider on their own beforehand.
“I don’t want this used as a crutch,” Commissioner Mark Richard told Neil Kersten, Spokane Valley Public Works director, at the meeting.
At a joint meeting between city leaders and the commissioners on Feb. 23, Mayor Richard Munson asked for the commissioners to reconsider their decision in December to terminate the snow-removal contract on Oct. 15. At that time, the commissioners said they would think about it.
On Friday, though, Richard said he wanted to proceed with the commissioners’ original choice, saying he didn’t believe the council “had any heartburn” with the county severing the contract, just with the timing with how it was done. Munson initially learned of the commissioners’ vote during a break in a December council meeting while playing his phone messages.
“I want to move forward with the Valley taking over (snow removal),” Richard said. “But I don’t want their citizens fearful that they’ll be without snow-removal service…I have no interest in letting them fail.”
An ongoing issue, according to Commissioner Todd Mielke, is that the county must pay staff members even when they are not plowing Spokane Valley streets. Spokane Valley only pays the county for work it does within city limits, but under the terms of the contract the county must have personnel ready to do the work at all times.
Mielke did agree with Richard on making county crews available if no other options are viable for Spokane Valley before next winter.
“I want to be there as a backup,” he said.
Commissioner Bonnie Mager said she wanted to see some “benchmarks” put in place that showed the city was actually making progress in putting together some sort of snow-removal plan. She said that between the time the commissioners made their decision in December and Munson’s request in February, there were two months that the city could have been working to get its “ducks in a row.”
“I want to be sure they’re taking this seriously,” she said.
Kersten said the city has already investigated the possibility of the city purchasing its own equipment. It could take four months to order items from the Washington state Department of Transportation, plus another three months to assemble it.
“It’s fairly complicated,” he said.
Bob Brueggeman, county engineer, said it takes about a dozen workers to do the job plus seven pieces of equipment: three graders, two sanders with plows, one deicer truck and a dump truck with a plow.
On Monday, Munson said he was disappointed with the commissioners’ decision but was glad they would at least provide some backup. He added that the city’s relationship with the county had improved since December.
He did question, however, who was going to decide if the city had met the necessary criteria of trying to put together its own snow-removal crew by next winter. By all accounts, he said, it would be tight to try to achieve that goal.
“Who’s going to measure that?” he asked.
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By
Mike Huffman
