Little cities

Small town life is alive and well in Eastern Washington.

While a building boom continues to sweep the region, leaders in places like Fairfield, Rockford and Millwood say their communities look much like they always have.

“You know your neighbors, you know your business owners,” said Fairfield Mayor Ed Huber.

“When the houses go up for sale in town, they sell,” he said, but otherwise he hasn’t seen a lot of growth in town.

Sitting in the single room that seres as City Hall, Huber said that the town is in good shape financially and has a few projects on the horizon for next year.

While the lifestyle in Fairfield stays the same, so do the challenges: Keeping the roads paved, paying the bills and working though the myriad of state and federal regulations with limited staffing and expertise.

“Towns of our size have basically the same problems,” said Rockford Councilman Steven Meyer.

With a limited tax base, state and federal grants fund most capital projects in small towns, roadwork in particular.

Last year, Meyer’s council colleague, Micki Harnois, suggested that City Councils in the area meet regularly to hash out the best way to go after grant money and share their experiences in local government.

“It just took off from there,” Harnois said. Five towns in the South Spokane County Consortium, as it has come to be known, have been meeting regularly since last May.

The body doesn’t make decisions but officials have used the forum to address topics ranging from traffic to the federal census.

Law enforcement remains an issue for smaller jurisdictions countywide. When Spokane Valley incorporated in 2003, the county reassessed how much it charges to provide police service inside their borders. The towns were charged for the full cost of police service starting in 2005.

“It costs them a lot of money. too, so we have to pay our share,” Meyer said. Residents aren’t likely to see a deputy driving down the street, but they are available in emergencies and pretty well dispersed among the towns, he said.

“It’s one of those things we have to deal with” Meyer said.

One idea that Rockford, Fairfield, Spangle, Waverly and Latah have considered is combining forces for their own police department, but so far there isn’t a way to pay for it.

Overall, though, officials say town operations and budgets this year are looking good.

Millwood

“We’re off to a really good start,” said Millwood Mayor Dan Mork.

The City Council’s priorities for this year include more staff training, a better enforcement of city ordinances and making the city business friendly. They also will hire a lawyer to review the city’s zoning regulations.

In coming years, the city is hoping to win state grants to rebuild intersections along its main drag on Argonne Road.

“There’s quite a bit of work that needs to be done there,” he said.

On a survey sent to residents in January, preserving the atmosphere of the Millwood neighborhood was one of the most prominent responses, Mork said.

“They’re just proud of being from Millwood,” he said.

In the future, he said, the council will look into old-style street lighting, signs and other things the city could do to reflect the era when Millwood was commercially thriving.

Fairfield

Like most cities lately Fairfield isn’t exactly awash in tax money, but revenues are looking better than they have in the past, Huber said.

Projects in 2005 were aided by a $50,000 donation from a Fairfield resident to refurbish the city’s community center.

Also last year, a seed plant that burned down in 2003 was rebuilt and is back in business.

In the future, city leaders and volunteers hope to add a skate park to the town’s upper park.

At this year’s Flag Day celebration, the city’s other park will be renamed in honor of longtime physicians Francis and Shirley Thiel. They retired in 1990 after 34 years of treating patients in Fairfield.

“You knew them as families, not as just a client,” Shirley Thiel said.

“We’re very honored because that’s just something that kids in the next generation will say, ‘Well, who are the Thiels?’ and possibly somebody will know,” she said.

City leaders decided to name the park for them after Francis Thiel died in April.

Rockford

“We’ve got a little growth,” said Meyer. Some housing has been built in recent years, but few projects are larger than 10 or 20 homes.

On the commercial side, Harnois said a new two-story building is in the works that eventually could house retail and offices on the first floor with residences on the second.

At one of the city’s older buildings, volunteers are planning to clean up a historic brick power plant for flea markets and farmers’ markets.

“It can at least serve for that kind of purpose,” Harnois said.

Traffic is on ongoing concern as well, she said. The number of cars that pass through the town has almost doubled since the Coeur d’Alene Casino was built in 1993, she said.

For the most part, though, Meyer said the atmosphere in Rockford has changed little in recent years in the town 16 miles south of Spokane Valley.

“Overall this is a pretty good little place to live,” Meyer said.