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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Storm Water Needs Sexing Up

Doug Floyd Interactive Editor

Maybe you saw the advertisement Spokane County officials placed in The Spokesman-Review under the headline “Get Your Feet Wet.”

The ad is intended to generate public turnout for three meetings next week about storm water management.

Storm water management? Rushing to the calendar to scribble a reminder, are you? No?

“Storm water management isn’t exciting,” the ad notes, “unless the basement is flooding.”

These 7 p.m. meetings (Monday at the Sierra Hotel, 4212 W. Sunset Blvd.; Wednesday at the North Spokane Library, 44 E. Hawthorne Road; and May 9 at East Valley High School, 15711 E. Wellesley) are necessary because growth in Spokane County poses difficult challenges for local governments. Challenges such as: What happens when the winter snow is melting and the spring rain is falling and open lands that once absorbed the water are paved over with streets and driveways and patios?

Meetings such as those scheduled next week are an opportunity for people who must live with the consequences to learn more about those challenges and to share their opinions.

But will they?

Similar meetings about various public-policy questions are scheduled routinely. And they routinely are ignored.

When the Spokane Planning Department held its Spokane Horizons meetings, also aimed at preparing for substantial growth in the community, it struggled to get public participation.

For two years, Spokane County freeholders agonized over the paltry public input they got when they were drafting a county charter that voters ultimately rejected.

Even the volatile waste-to-energy debate of a few years back came to a head only after months of public-input and public-education opportunities had gone unattended.

The Spokane City Council and the Board of Spokane County Commissioners both have their respective critics who expect televised agenda time to present citizen concerns to the governing bodies - frequently lamenting the unwillingness of officials to listen to them.

What will it take to get equally intense grass-roots interest in such mundane, off-camera opportunities for civic involvement as a storm water management meeting?

, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.

“Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.