Businesses Contributing Heavily To Opposition Group In Final Days
As the incorporation campaign winds to a close, the cash is pouring into the opposition’s coffers.
Concerned Citizens Against Valley Incorporation reported raising more than $13,000 last week, bringing its total to more than $17,000 in just more than two weeks.
Area businesses have contributed heavily.
Les Schwab Tire Centers gave $2,000; Mike and Sara Torre, who own Western Systems and Fabrication, $1,500; Williams Equipment, $1,000; Kim Hotstart Manufacturing Co., $1,500; Hatfield Enterprises, $1,000 and Alvin J. Wolff, $500.
Citizens Against has been spending heavily as well. While there were no expenditure reports filed with the county elections office, the group has purchased several full-page newspaper advertisements, radio spots and television ads.
By comparison, Citizens for Valley Incorporation, which has been campaigning since last year, had raised a total of about $11,400, including nearly $3,700 in the last week or so. That doesn’t include the nearly $5,200 the group raised at an auction last week.
The biggest contributor was the Spokane Valley Business Association, which gave $1,000.
Voting by mail
County elections supervisor Tom Wilbur said Thursday more than 1,500 people have voted on incorporation by absentee ballot.
That’s about 200 more than last year, according to elections records, and may indicate a good turnout at the polls Tuesday.
More than 17,400 people voted on incorporation last April - 44 percent of the registered voters living within the proposed city.
Last year, 47 percent of the absentee voters supported incorporation. Overall, 44 percent said “yes” to forming a new city.
Wilbur said elections officials will count the absentee ballots early Tuesday.
“That will give us some early indication of how this might go,” he said.
Endorsements
The 4th District Democratic Organization has given its blessing to the incorporation of the Spokane Valley.
The club’s board voted unanimously last weekend to endorse the effort.
The District 1 firefighters union also has jumped on the bandwagon, voting to back the effort.
Open house today
Citizens for Valley Incorporation is holding an open house today from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at its campaign headquarters.
The group’s leaders will be available to answer questions about their proposal to form a city of 73,000 in the Valley.
The headquarters is just north of the Alton’s Tires store at 11707 E. Sprague, Building D, Suite 2.
Election day
The polls will be open Tuesday between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. for people interested in voting on Valley incorporation.
Only registered voters who live within the proposed boundaries of the city are eligible to vote. The county elections department, 456-2320, can tell people whether they’re eligible.
It is too late to register.
Voters, unless notified by elections officials to go somewhere else, should report to their regular polling places to cast their ballots.