Airway Heights appoints new judge
Council OKs Fassbender to serve on municipal bench
The Airway Heights City Council appointed Jennifer L. Fassbender as municipal court judge at Monday’s meeting. The role has been vacant since the previous judge, Charles Rohr, left in late May after serving seven years with the city.
Fassbender will finish out the remaining four months of Rohr’s term before being reappointed to a four-year term, according to City Manager Albert Tripp. The position pays $3,000 a month.
Fassbender, a criminal defense attorney with the Spokane law firm John Cooney and Associates, has occasionally filled in as both a defense attorney and a prosecuting attorney with the city over the past five years.
In a statement to the council, Fassbender said she planned to uphold the court’s current standard while boosting the system’s efficiency and adding to community service programs. “This city is expanding and things are going to change,” she said. “I understand that this court works well now, but we’re unfortunately going to see a lot more citizens come through this courthouse.”
At least six judges along with numerous attorneys were part of a crowd of about 50 that came to see Fassenbender take the oath of office.
In other city business, the council accepted the completion of the Traditions Park development by Viking Construction. The company chose to build the one-acre park next to the intersection of Horton Street and Fourth Avenue instead of paying park impact fees tied to its 200-lot subdivision north of Sixth Avenue.
The impact fee is meant to ensure that any new residential development in Airway Heights bears a share of the cost of supporting parks related to the growth.
Mayor Matthew Pederson congratulated Scott Krajack, land development director at Viking Construction, on being the first developer to provide a park in lieu of paying the fees.
“As we’ve always discussed, that’s really our intention – to provide quality parks for the neighborhoods that we’re building,” said Pederson. “The park you’ve built is extremely impressive and fits the neighborhood very well.”