Royal City OKs funds for police car, park survey
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 2 months AGO
From left: Royal City City Council members Michael Christensen, Mayor Kent Andersen, Hector Rodriguez and Tiffany Workinger discuss the purchase of a new police vehicle Tuesday.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | July 20, 2022 4:02 PM
ROYAL CITY — The Royal City City Council Tuesday evening considered buying a patrol car from the Soap Lake Police Department to fill a need identified by Royal City Police Chief Rey Rodriguez but decided against it, instead budgeting available money for a vehicle already on order. Another vehicle is sorely needed, said Royal City Police Chief Rey Rodriguez.
“Right now we only have three vehicles,” Rodriguez said. “And we have four of us who are working right now. We have Hannah (Soelter), who just started yesterday in Moses Lake, she's taking her personal car now. We reimburse her for her mileage, obviously … So, if we don't get at least a temporary one, we're going to be shuffling vehicles, and right now we have take-home vehicles because when we go out on calls, we've been taking our stuff out, putting the other stuff in.”
The police department currently has a Ford Explorer on order from the state, explained City Finance Director Shilo Christensen in an interview later. The vehicle was previously expected to be available in July, but its current estimated availability date is September, and even that is uncertain.
In the meeting, Christensen pointed out that the city has funds from a federal program that could be used to purchase the vehicle outright. The money would come from the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, part of the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress last year.
“We received the COVID money from the federal government,” Christensen said. “Right now we have $624,000 that's been allocated to us … Those funds could be used for police vehicles. So this vehicle that we're purchasing, what do you think about instead of using general funds, which we can use on anything anyway, we can use these COVID funds that we have to use? We have to commit these COVID funds by 2024, or else we lose them. Personally, as a finance person, if I have use-it-or-lose-it money or money I can spend on anything, I want to use the use-it-or-lose-it money first.”
The council ultimately voted to budget $65,000 from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds - also known as SLFRF - for the new vehicle.
The council also voted to allocate up to $7,000 to engineering firm Anderson Perry & Associates, based in Walla Walla, to survey the land east of the existing city park and determine exactly where the lines are between city-owned and privately-owned property, as a step in the process of expanding the park. The city has applied for two grants to help cover the cost of the expansion, but won’t find out until next June whether those grants are approved.
Joel Martin can be reached via email at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”