Royal City gains new council members, approves water main upgrade
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 4 months AGO
Royal City Finance Director Shilo Christensen, left, administers the oath of office to incoming City Council Member Ryan Piercy at Monday’s council meeting.
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. | June 13, 2023 3:25 PM
ROYAL CITY — The Royal City City Council swore in two new members during its meeting Monday evening. Rick Kannely and Ryan Piercy were selected to fill vacancies left when other members moved out of town.
“I'm here as a volunteer to support the community, to serve the community that I live in,” Kannely said. “I love this place. It’s the best place I’ve ever lived.”
The Council ordinarily meets the first and third Tuesday of each month, but the June 6 meeting had to be rescheduled for lack of a quorum. Council members Tiffany Workinger and Mackenzee Anderson resigned last month as they no longer met the residency requirements, leaving council members Michael Christensen, Perla Garcia and Hector Rodriguez. Rodriguez was unable to attend the June 6 meeting, thus eliminating the possibility of a quorum.
Mayor Kent Andersen attended the Monday meeting by phone, and the council elected Christensen to serve as mayor pro tem. Two applicants to replace Anderson and Workinger were present at the meeting and the council voted to appoint them to the vacant positions. City Finance Director Shilo Christensen swore in the new members.
Position 4, Anderson’s seat, was filled by Piercy, a graduate of Royal High School who works for Trident Soil Fumigation.. He was encouraged to run for Anderson’s seat, which would have been up for election in November, by Anderson herself, he said.
Kannely took over Workinger’s seat at Position 5. Kannely, a California native, retired as an ag teacher at Royal High School five or six years ago, he said. Before that he had taught in Mount Vernon on the west side, he said. Kannely’s wife, a nurse who retired from the Royal School District at the same time, passed away last December, he said.
The newly repopulated council voted to accept a bid from Premier Excavation to complete a water main improvement project for $2.3 million. The project includes replacing about 10,000 feet of old steel pipe, Public Works Director John Lasen explained.
“(The pipe) was put in in the late ’50s,” Lasen said. “Its life expectancy at the time was 30 years. Well, we got our 30 years out of it.”
“So it’s a possible liability,” Piercy said.
“It is a possible liability,” Lasen answered. “There are other communities that have waited for too long and had major system failures in their distribution system as a result of that.”
“It’s the last area to be upgraded,” Michael Christensen said. “All the other areas have been upgraded.”
Joel Martin may be reached 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.”