SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake City Council unanimously passed a budget amendment, a fireworks contract for the Fourth of July and the Suds-n-Sun event application at its regular council meeting May 20. 

Budget amendment  

Three council members approved a 2026 budget amendment, adjusting appropriations to address updated financial needs identified earlier this year. Council members Kayleen Bryson, John Carlson and Susan Carson all voted in favor of the amendment. Council members Judith Gorman and Andrew Arnold were excused from the meeting.  

Ordinance No. 2026-1363 amends the city’s original 2026 budget, reflecting changes based on a review of revenue and expenditures through the first four months of the year. 

“We have a budget that we use every year, and then there’s periods of time when we reflect on how successful the budget is and what needs to be changed,” Bryson said. “At this point, we have a few things that we’d like to address, and the city council determined it’s necessary to make further adjustments in the budget.” 

According to information provided by City Treasurer Jeff Balentine, the amendment increases appropriation authority in four funds: the Street Fund, Capital Projects Fund, Sewer Fund and Mineral Water Fund. The total adjustment amounts to approximately $213,294. 

The largest increase is in the Sewer Fund, where funding for professional engineering services was raised from $35,000 to $222,000 to support the Lift Station and Force Main Improvements Project. 

Additional adjustments include funding for street maintenance and state audit costs within the Street Fund, as well as appropriations tied to a Transportation Improvement Board grant for the Main Avenue West improvements project. 

A small transfer adjustment was also made in the Mineral Water Fund to correct a previous accounting issue. 

Balentine noted that no other funds require amendments at this time, and the city’s General Fund remains financially stable. 

The amendment does not require new taxes or rate increases, as the changes are supported by existing fund balances, grant funding and dedicated utility revenues, according to Balentine’s report.  

Fourth of July fireworks  

The council also unanimously approved a $15,000 contract for Evers Pyro Explosives to conduct the fireworks show for the Fourth of July.  

“We got started probably a year later than what we should have on finding somebody to do the fireworks,” Public Works Director Eli Olson said. “I spend a lot of time making phone calls with people chuckling at me.” 

Olson said after several failed attempts to find someone to run this year's firework show, he went to the state’s website and printed off a list of all the licensed pyrotechnics in the state and began calling each of them. He said he was only able to get one estimate because he was only able to find one company who was not booked out for the day. 

“We got really lucky to find this company, because the stuff I was seeing was that shows were starting at around $25,000,” Olson said.  

Carson gave Olson kudos saying it was impressive he was able to find someone to do the show for only $15,000. 

“It’s the 250th, so you did an amazing job finding this guy at the last minute,” Carson said.  

Suds-N-Sun 

The council approved the Suds-N-Sun event application, pending approval from directors. The event application was turned in later than anticipated, according to Soap Lake Chamber President Karen Woodhouse.  

“We had held up a little bit on the permit because we weren’t sure, but now that we know everything’s okay, now that we know we have fireworks, we can officially talk about it,” Woodhouse said. “Otherwise, we might have had the permit a week ago. We were just waiting for things to fall into place.”  

Woodhouse said the event will have “good old-fashioned carnival games,” a 7:30 p.m. parade, a car show and the firework show.  

“The only thing I was going to bring up is this is a big event for our town, so I know the chamber definitely needs volunteers,” Carson said.  

Those interested in volunteering can reach out directly to the Soap Lake Chamber of Commerce at [email protected].