Weber Road annexation would be an expense to the citizens

The City of Ritzville is presently involved in the process of adding sidewalks and bike paths for use by the citizenry of our city. Free sidewalks? Free bike paths?

At the city council meeting of March 18, 2014, the subject of annexing Weber road was introduced. The discussions which followed, included annexing into the city, farm land on the south side of Weber road. The name of the person or persons in city hall anxious to annex that farm land was not mentioned.

It appeared the city council members were not prepared to take ownership of Weber road and voted not to do so. Following this vote, the council was induced to revisit the issue. It was pointed out to the council that the city was well along with the process of the sidewalk/bike path project and if the city did not annex Weber road, a large sum of money would have to be returned to Adams County.

So it appears that someone in Adams County government and Ritzville city government have agreed to force the city of Ritzville to annex Weber road and someone(s) wishes the city to annex some privately owned farm land and, and this is important, to run city utilities up Weber road at citizen expense.

There seemingly is no way this deal makes sense to the citizens of Ritzville who will be required to pay for the maintenance of Weber road, not to mention the cost of installing city utilities for the benefit of whom? The cost of rebuilding Weber road is likely to be very expensive after city utilities are installed and again significant annual maintenance cost are likely.

Ask the mayor when the idea that the city should annex Weber road was first broached. Ask her to show you documents with dates outlining this idea. Ask your city councilman when they first learned the bike path/sidewalk project would commit the city to annex Weber road. Ask the council member to show you documents which outline the county-city bike path/sidewalk Weber annex agreement. Look for dates a year or older.

Barry Boyer, Ritzville