Drive Alive For Election This May

It looks like the luck of the Irish is with supporters of Spokane Valley incorporation.

The state Boundary Review Board has scheduled a meeting for today to accept the final boundaries of the group’s proposed city.

The meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in the downstairs meeting room of the county Public Works Building, 1026 W. Broadway.

That action could clear the way for a May 16 election on the proposal, the third such attempt at forming a city in the Valley in the past five years.

If the board had rendered its decision later than Friday, St. Patrick’s Day, the election would have been delayed until September.

City backers have pushed for the May election since December.

They have said they wanted to take advantage of momentum built up during the 1994 Valley incorporation campaign, which saw the city go down to defeat but pick up substantial support at the polls.

They also wanted to jump on the coattails of the November 1994 general election, when voters overwhelming chose to change government by sweeping Democrats from power across the nation.

But incorporation leaders aren’t celebrating just yet.

There is still a 30-day window when someone can appeal the boundary review board’s decision.

Joe McKinnon, co-chairman of Citizens for Valley Incorporation, isn’t optimistic about that period expiring without an appeal being filed.

Someone has appealed the decision each of the last two times incorporation was headed to the ballot.

“When haven’t we had an appeal?” McKinnon said. “It has to dampen anybody’s enthusiasm when they have that cloud hanging over their heads.”

Citizens for Valley Incorporation will meet tonight to discuss its options and lay plans for either a May or September election.

That meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the Spokane Valley Foundation bingo hall, 1212 N. Pines.

McKinnon is now saying that a September election wouldn’t be that bad. It would give his group more time to raise money and get out its message, he said.