Bond to cover cost of community center discussed

Liberty Lake City Council members again discussed whether to get a 20, 25 or 30-year bond to pay for its new library and community center, but did not reach a final decision. The $9.8 million bond is expected to be on the April 22 ballot.

Councilwoman Judi Owens was in favor of using a 30-year bond to keep the payments by taxpayers lower. “I think it’s an uphill battle to pass a bond issue anytime you go out,” she said. “We have a lot of young families and we have a lot of fixed income.”

The owner of a $200,000 home could expect to pay about $9.50 per month for a 20-year bond, versus $6.84 per month for a 30-year bond. Doug Smith, director of community development, cautioned that the numbers are estimates. “They have yet to be calibrated to where they need to be,” he said.

The longer the length of the bond, the more the city would be required to pay in interest, making the bond more expensive in the long run. But Owens is willing to do that to make the bond more palatable to voters when so many other bond issues are coming up. “There may be a more positive outcome for the election,” she said.

Council members also discussed selecting a longer term for the bond, then paying it off early if Liberty Lake continues to grow as expected, bringing in more tax revenue. The council is expected to make a final decision on the length of the bond during its Feb. 19 meeting.

The city’s growth is also bringing up more issues, including a 10 percent increase in the number of calls handled by the Spokane Valley Fire Department, mostly in the areas of EMS calls and auto accidents, said Larry Rider, Valley Fire assistant chief. “Most of it was population based,” he said. “The more people you have, the more problems you have and the more you run into each other.”

The department hasn’t had any major problems dealing with the recent snowfall in Liberty Lake, he said. But the one thing the snow has impacted is the city’s budget. The city had set aside $40,000 for plowing in 2007, said Doug Smith. “We have blown the snow removal budget for 2007,” he said. “We exceeded that by $30,000.”

The council discussed a memorandum of understanding with the Valley HUB. The document called for 12 monthly meetings to plan programs, but Councilman Odin Langford was concerned about language that called for the city to advertise HUB programs and process registrations, calling the document “premature.”

“There’s nothing binding here as far as financial responsibility,” Smith said. “There’s absolutely no conversation about specific dollar amounts.”

The HUB can provide something Liberty Lake can’t, said Owens. “The city of Liberty Lake wants to provide a facility,” she said. “We don’t own a facility. This is an opportunity to provide that to our citizens.”

Langford argued that the city’s citizens can already use the HUB without the city entering into an agreement with the organization. “They can just walk over to the HUB and sign up for whatever they want to sign up for,” he said.

The memorandum failed to pass and will go back to city staff for revision.

Council members accepted a bid for slightly more than $280,000 by Aztech Electric to install a traffic light at Appleway and Molter Road. They also voted to hire Wiley E. Waters to provide river rafting and kayak trips and classes during the summer and authorized design work for Rocky Hill Park.