Vote On Valley City Locked In For May 16 With No Appeals Filed, Way Is Cleared For Election

It’s official. Citizens in the Spokane Valley will go to the polls next month to decide whether to form their own city.

Monday was the deadline for appealing the proposed boundaries of the city, and no one did.

That cleared the way for the May election.

“Let the word go forth from this time and place that there is going to be an election on May 16,” said Joe McKinnon, cochairman of Citizens for Valley Incorporation.

If someone had appealed the boundaries, the election would have been delayed until September, maybe longer.

McKinnon said it was welcome news to incorporation supporters, who during two past attempts at forming a city spent “more time in court than on the campaign trail.”

Last year, Kaiser Aluminum challenged the city and delayed a vote for five months while the litigation was ironed out.

The 1990 incorporation proposal also was argued in the courts before ultimately reaching the ballot.

Voters turned down both of those proposals.

The victory left incorporation supporters with a scant four weeks to campaign for the effort, which received 44 percent voter approval last year.

Citizens for Valley Incorporation immediately announced the opening of their campaign headquarters and scheduled a campaign kickoff and rally.

The campaign headquarters will open today. The office, located in the Redwood Plaza, 11707 E. Sprague, will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The telephone number is 924-8342.

The campaign kickoff will be held tonight in the Spokane Valley Foundation bingo hall at 1212 N. Pines.

It begins at 7 p.m. “After that, we’re hell-bent for the election,” McKinnon said.