Callers Mostly Cool To Renewed Drive For Cityhood

Judging from an informal telephone survey, the latest Spokane Valley incorporation drive appears likely to end the way the previous three did - in defeat.

Last week, the Valley Voice asked readers to call with their thoughts on the new proposal to form five separate cities in the Valley.

Twenty-five people shared their views. Of them, only six said they think it’s a good idea.

The rest said, in varying degrees of intensity, that they wish the whole thing would just go away.

Opponents used words like “ridiculous,” “ludicrous,” and “outrageous” to describe the latest attempt.

Yvonne Hayes said, “I wish they’d just stop and leave us all alone.”

Hayes said she thinks incorporation will lead to higher taxes and more bureaucracy.

Another woman said she wondered when incorporation supporters would get a clue.

“Evidently, those people in favor of incorporation cannot hear,” said the woman, who like many callers didn’t leave her name. “They’ve been told, a resounding three times, no. I don’t understand their problem. They just ignore us.”

A male caller agreed.

“I think the idea stinks,” he said. “It’s already been voted down three times. It seems like they’re going to keep trying until people run out of energy to vote against it.”

Another man, who said he was “absolutely, positively against these little, bitty cities,” said that it’s outrageous that they’d even try again.

“It’s amazing to me that antigovernment people can spend so much government money running elections for their own personal aggrandizement,” he said.

Another caller put it succinctly. “Enough is enough,” he said.

Four callers said the freeholders’ plan to consolidate city and county government should be given a chance over incorporation.

“I think all of the people in the Valley should be looking forward to trying to consolidate government,” Don Stone said.

Shirley Auble agreed.

“I think we should have a vote on the freeholder plan,” Auble said.

One woman who supported past attempts to form a single city in the Valley said incorporation supporters should wait a few years and then bring back a proposition to form one city.

Splitting the Valley into five municipalities is “ridiculous,” she said.

The five-city concept did have some support.

J.E. Richardson said he favored the proposal to form the city of Opportunity, which would be home to about 16,000 in the heart of the Valley.

County government isn’t equipped to deliver services in an urbanized are like the Valley, Richardson said. Speeding and other crime is rampant and needs to be stopped, he said.

Forming a city is the best way to do that, Richardson said.

Incorporation supporter Norma Shane blasted the consolidation effort. “It’s just a (ploy) for the city of Spokane to get some more of our tax money,” Shane said.

Ed Meadows, a leader in the effort to form Opportunity, called to say incorporation is the last, best hope for the Valley.

The only way Valley residents can get the voice they deserve in local government is to form their own city or cities, Meadows said.

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