Royal City approves golf course funding
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 9 months AGO
Royal City Police Chief Rey Rodriguez, left, addresses the city council Tuesday evening flanked by Finance Director Shilo Christensen.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
The Royal City City Council meets Tuesday evening. From left: Michael Christensen, Mayor Kent Anderson, Hector Rodriguez, Mackenzee Anderson and Tiffany Workinger.
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. | January 5, 2023 5:11 PM
ROYAL CITY — The Royal City Golf Course could be getting a boost this year.
The Royal City City Council voted Tuesday to approve an amendment to the usual annual agreement between the city and the Royal Golf Association regarding funding for the Royal City Golf Course. The amendment would allow the Royal Golf Association to request up to $30,000 in additional city funding for equipment replacements.
“They have equipment there that's been aging for years,” Finance Director Shilo Christensen told the Herald Thursday. “And they just don't have a way to fund capital expenditures for equipment purchases. The last few years, they've been saying they're having a hard time with their current equipment. So this year, they're saying, well, maybe the city as part of the management team can help fund that. Because if they can't maintain the golf course, then we have no golf course.”
The city owns the land the golf course is on, an 82.8-acre tract about four miles east of town, and pays the Royal Golf Association an annual fee, generally about $5,000, to maintain the course, Christensen said. County records indicate that the land was given to the city in 1985. It has to be used as a municipal golf course, Christensen explained, or the land reverts to its original owners. The course also has a building that serves as the Royal Community Center, which the city rents out, he added, but otherwise, the golf course isn’t a revenue source for the city.
The $30,000 isn’t a settled sum like the standard $5,000 maintenance fee, Council Member Tiffany Workinger clarified in the meeting.
“We're not saying we're giving them the $30,000,” she said. “We're saying if you guys have an issue, and you're stuck somewhere and you can't make the money, we budgeted some money, they could come and ask around. I don’t think anybody here wants to just give this golf course $30,000. And I don't think anybody plans on doing it again next year. It's like a stop gap to try to fill this hole.”
Royal City Police Chief Rey Rodriguez told the council that crime numbers are encouraging.
“We finished with 492 calls for the year,” he said. “It's a little bit higher than last year, but we've been going down, down, down, down.”
Last year was one of the lowest years he’s seen, he said.
“So 492, it's more, but it's still pretty manageable here in town.”
Rodriguez added that 17 of those calls were handled by Officer Josh Bronn in his capacity as a student resource officer at Royal Schools, a position he’s held since November.
“He’s doing great out there,” Rodriguez said.
Public Works Director John Lasen said that the biggest challenge for his department recently had been snow removal and keeping up with the slick roads.
“I will say, that truck with the plow? Awesome in the cul-de-sacs,” Rodriguez said. “It's nice actually having not just a little roundabout and snow in the middle; it was nice to have it all cleared out. I've heard it from all my neighbors too.”
“People are learning,” Lasen said. “There's a handful of them who'll go by and just throw it back out in the road. After we scooted it over there about three or four times they gave up and put it on the pile.”
“Everyone was telling me the sidewalks are cleaner,” said Council Member Mackenzee Anderson.
“We take safety seriously,” Lasen said. “We like to make sure that our people are taken care of.”
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.”