Council moves ahead with 1st Avenue Project bid, discusses Appliance Pickup Day

The Ritzville City Council met for its regularly scheduled meeting Feb. 5, with a host of topics on the agenda.

The council kicked off the meeting in an executive session to discuss the contract for a new golf manager at the Ritzville Golf Course, as well as discuss the contract agreement for The Grass Station, a marijuana dispensary on West Galbreath Way. The council approved motions authorizing Mayor Gary Cook to sign both of those contracts.

The council next discussed a notice of intent that the City received from East Adams Rural Healthcare (EARH) to commence annexation proceedings on two parcels of real property that EARH owns outside of the corporate limits of the City—”but contiguous thereto and within the adjacent Urban Growth Area boundary.” The two parcels are located near the Life Care Center on South Lewis Street.

In accordance with the Revised Code of Washington, the council agreed to set a meeting for Feb. 19 to determine whether the City will do the following: accept, reject or geographically modify the proposed annexation; require the simultaneous adoption of a comprehensive plan, and/or; require the assumption of all or of any portion of existing City indebtedness by the area to be annexed.

Mayor Cook was given authorization by the council to move ahead with the bid authorization form for the 1st Avenue Project that will take place this spring between South Clark Street and South Jackson Street. According to Councilmember Michelle Plumb, the bid amount has risen due to inflation and the price increase of Hot Mix Asphalt.

“The sooner we get this bid, the sooner we can lock in prices,” Plumb said.

Mayor Cook said that the City is looking into sponsoring an Appliance Pickup Day later in the spring, in a good-faith effort on the City’s part to help people clean up their properties as they move to start the nuisance process again. Cook said he’s talked to county officials, and there’s likely going to be some type of fee of around $17 that the City will need to pay Adams County to dispose of for each appliance that uses freon. For appliances that don’t use freon, such as stoves or washers and dryers, there’s likely to be a fee of about $8 per appliance.

Mayor Cook said that more information will become available when details have been finalized, but said the City would let its citizens know of the date, and give them designated places—such as in the alley or on the street—to place their appliances for city officials to pick up. Mayor Cook talked with Public Works Director Larry Swift, and said that they would not go into houses and remove appliances, due to there being liability issues. Depending on how many appliances they’re able to collect, the City may owe the County around $500 to $600 to have them dispose of the appliances.

The mayor also re-emphasized that the City is looking into buying water rights, and noted that it’s something they have been trying to do for a while. Mayor Cook said he recently talked to attorney Mark DeWulf of Carpenter, McGuire & DeWulf, P.S., and noted that DeWulf has experience with issues such as water rights. The mayor said that they are still on the front-end of the process, and that they’ll see where it goes from there.

In other news, Mayor Cook shared that Swift has been in the building a couple of times for an hour or two at a time, just a couple of weeks after surgery. The mayor said he looked good and Swift told him he felt good, although he was still dealing with some soreness.

Fire Chief Joel Bell detailed that January was a busy month for the Ritzville Fire Department, which included a call out to an electrical fire at a residence, as well as a call to a residence where a fire pit hadn’t been fully put out overnight and was still smoldering come morning when a neighbor noticed it and contacted the fire department. Bell said they responded and “put a bucket of water” on the fire pit, and advised the residents of the burning rules.

On Jan. 29, the fire department responded to a gasoline leak at Circle K, with approximately 33 gallons of gas being dumped on the ground. Bell said it turned out that someone had been siphoning gas out of the vehicle, which was a pool vehicle for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife that had rarely been in use.