OTHELLO — Othello residents will be asked to approve or reject a proposal to extend a two-tenths of 1% addition to the city’s sales tax to pay for street improvements in the November general election.  

“That money has been going into the transportation benefit district fund. It’s a sole standalone fund, and those dollars are being used for various street projects, from total rehab of a street to crack seal (and) the smaller things,” said Spencer Williams, the city’s finance officer. “It’s not a new tax. If the members of the public want it, it would continue that tax for the next 10 years.” 

The proposal was approved by the Othello City Council 5-2, with council members Corey Everett and Angel Garza voting no.  

Othello voters approved the tax in 2017, with the proviso that it would expire in 10 years unless city residents decided to extend it. Williams said the tax generated $450,000 in 2024 and estimated it would bring in about $490,000 in 2025. 

“That’s an amount that we spend down every year,” Williams said. “We’ve had some years that we didn’t spend it, anticipating we’d have a bigger project the next year. We’ve done that once or twice.”  

Everett said he thought the money wasn’t being used for the purpose announced when it originally went to voters. City officials should make it clearer what the money will be used for, he said.  

“We said that we were going to use that money to replace streets and fix streets in the community. As far as I’m concerned, that tax is not being used for what we said we were going to use it for,” Everett said.  

Othello Mayor Shawn Logan said he disagreed with Everett. The city has used the money to pave some streets, improve others, fill potholes and do continuing maintenance projects, all of which, in his opinion, were allowed. 

“We spent money on Olympia Street, which was only half a street, and we paved the other half. We paved 14th Avenue from Cemetery Road down to Highway 26. We crack-sealed and chip-sealed,” Logan said.  

Everett argued that the tax originally was intended to repair existing streets, not extend the city’s road network. Garza said he agreed with Everett. 

“Pine Street was shot, and we fixed that. If there are other streets in town that need work, we should get on those first,” Garza said.  

Some of the money was used as the city’s portion of a project on Lee Road. Garza said he thought that was not the intended use, or at least not how city officials announced it would be used. 

Logan said fixing streets is expensive, and city officials are trying to maximize the use of the money.  

“We did one street from Seventh to 14th (avenues) and it was a million dollars to do that one street,” Logan said. 

More extensive projects will be more expensive, he said.  

“We weren’t going to completely tear up every street. Even with half a million dollars, you’ll get three blocks a year (repaired),” he said.