Telect Objects To Bill For Road Improvements

Owners of Telect Inc. said they were stunned by a $37,000 bill for road improvements required if they expand their high-tech communications plant.

Written over two years by a team of eight Liberty Lake developers and county officials, the Harvard Road mitigation plan mandates impact fees for new construction or the expansion of businesses. The money is set aside to pay for improvements that will be needed when the Harvard interchange becomes congested.

“The philosophy of it was that anybody who built out there would have some kind of an impact” on the roads, said Public Works Director Dennis Scott. “Maybe it’s minuscule, maybe it’s huge.”

But Bill and Judi Williams said they didn’t know about the plan, which was the subject of newspaper articles and at least one public hearing, until they applied for permits for a 110,000-square-foot expansion of their plant.

The fee is unfair because Telect employees work odd hours to help ease traffic in the area, the couple said during a meeting with county commissioners that stretched nearly two hours Monday.

Unlike housing developers, Telect cannot pass on the cost to its customers in its highly competitive industry, said Bill Williams, company chairman and chief executive officer.

“We’re prepared to pay a mitigation fee, but we want you to know that we’re not very happy about it,” said Judi Williams, executive vice president of the company that employs 646 people.

“There is another option” to the road fee, Bill Williams said. “We can ship the work to Dallas. We can ship it to Mexico. … You’re going to trade $37,000 for a $20 million payroll.”

Telect earlier this month announced it may open a production facility in Mexico or another state the next time it needs to expand. Idaho is “begging” the company to move across the border, Bill Williams said.

Williams said the company wouldn’t consider expanding anywhere but Spokane if Washington was friendlier to business. The sales tax on building materials needed for the expansion at Liberty Lake will be about $500,000, he said.

“We can set up another facility somewhere else in the country and start hiring people for half a million dollars,” he said.

Williams found a friendly ear in county Commissioner Phil Harris. Both said they hope voters will elect a Republican governor who would ease business taxes more than the $132 million roll-back passed by the Legislature this year.

Commissioners said that if Telect disputes the $37,000 fee, it can hire an engineer to determine exactly how much traffic the expansion will add to the Harvard interchange. Mitigation fees then would be based on that study, rather than a set amount for each square foot of the expansion.

The study likely would cost between $5,000 and $8,000, said Pat Harper of the county planning department.

, DataTimes