With Review Board’s Green Light, Race Is On For Incorporation Team

Brace yourself, Spokane Valley. The onslaught is about to begin.

That next knock on the door or telephone call could be from a member of Citizens for Valley Incorporation.

With less than two months until a possible election, the group leading the charge to form a city in the Valley is planning an all-out, grass-roots assault to get the vote out.

“If it’s going to be May 16, we’re going to have to do some hurrying,” said Eleanor Anderson, the group’s vice chairwoman.

With only about $5,000 in its war chest, grass roots are about all Citizens for Valley Incorporation can afford right now.

But that shouldn’t matter, said Joe McKinnon, the group’s co-chairman.

“They can outspend us, but they can’t outwork us,” McKinnon told about 75 supporters at a Thursday organizational meeting.

Group members plan to go doorto-door in all 56 voting precincts within the proposed city’s boundaries to spread the word.

Allan Hinkle, a Valley dentist and CVI’s precinct committee chairman, said that strategy was quite effective when he used it to gather signatures to get incorporation on the ballot.

“They’re doable. They’re winable. You just have to get out there and talk to them and answer their questions,” Hinkle said.

The group also has a list with nearly 5,000 names and phone numbers of registered voters whom members plan to call.

Pro-incorporation campaign signs will begin sprouting in earnest throughout the Valley this weekend.

The rush is on.

“David is going to be meeting Goliath pretty darn soon,” McKinnon said.

BRB blues

Despite the Boundary Review Board’s efforts to expedite the incorporation process, there are still some city backers who think the board is out to get them.

Hinkle is one. He thinks the board should be disbanded.

Hinkle said at Thursday’s meeting that he feels the board cut Otis Orchards from the proposal and added the Orchard Avenue, Midilome and East Spokane neighborhoods to hurt the proposition’s chances.

Voters in Orchard Avenue and East Spokane have voted against the proposal in past elections.

“They did what they could to hamper our effort,” Hinkle said.

Lloyd Peterson of Otis Orchards used even stronger language.

Peterson desperately wants to be included in the proposed city and said he was disgusted with the review board for cutting him out.

“And what makes me even more mad is that those housewives who did it to me don’t even know where Otis Orchards is,” Peterson said of the four women board members who made the decision.

Incorporation meetings

Citizens for Valley Incorporation plan a series of meetings throughout the Valley to answer questions about their proposal.

The meetings will begin at 7 p.m. in schools throughout the Valley.

The schedule is:

March 27 at Evergreen Junior High, 14221 E. 16th.

March 28 at Centennial Middle School, 915 N. Ella.

April 10 at Bowdish Junior High, 2109 S. Skipworth.

April 11 at Greenacres Junior High, 17409 E. Sprague.

April 17 at Horizon Junior High, 3915 S. Pines.

April 18 at North Pines Junior High, 701 N. Pines.