City seeks early fall start for Bella Lago work

Mayor Wendy Van Orman will sign off on the Valleyway/Lakeside improvement project and the city will request the developers to start construction before school starts in the fall.

Developers of the Bella Lago development will complete a 6-foot wide sidewalk on the southwest portion of Valleyway and Lakeside public rights of way. Some residents expressed their frustration in the delay of the project – many were hoping the project would have started at the beginning of August. One resident said there has been an accident along that road in the last six months and worried that if the sidewalk was not finished soon, there could be more accidents.

“We’ve been talking about this since November of last year,” said Councilman Josh Beckett. “How do we make this go away, get construction started?”

Sean Boutz, the city attorney, told the council he was under the impression the council wanted to approve any changes to the contract as they came up, but made sure to clarify that was what the council wished.

“I don’t need to see this come back if it’s just minor tweaks,” said Councilman David Crump.

The council agreed that it shouldn’t come back for a vote for approval and Van Orman said she would let the developer know the city wants construction to begin by Sept. 1.

“I am entering into agreement,” she said.

Van Orman also told the council that the city had received a petition requesting the city to remove 91 black locust trees that line the north side of Sprague Avenue.

She said an arborist will look at the trees, and she will meet with the petition’s originators on July 1 to discuss the recommendations of the arborist. The meeting will be held at the Liberty Lake Golf Course at 8 a.m.

She mentioned that Liberty Lake is a Tree City USA, and in order to maintain that status, it is the city’s responsibility to keep an inventory and to maintain or replace trees as needed.

Councilwoman Judi Owens asked the mayor why the petitioners wanted the trees removed.

Van Orman said that it seemed to be a safety issue – the trees are aging and when heavy winds sweep through the area the old branches are falling.

But Owens also wanted to know why the residents felt they needed to circulate a petition, rather than call the city to deal with the trees.

Doug Smith, director of community development, said the city has received complaints about some of the trees and deals with them on a case by case basis, but he hasn’t heard that anyone wanted all of the trees removed. He suggested that since there were so many of the trees wanted for removal, citizens chose to circulate the petition.

“That would be my read on why the petition was generated,” Smith said.

Beckett told Smith that he has heard a few complaints about service from the city and suggested this might be the case with the petitioners.

Smith said that the city is in the business of problem solving and hoped this wasn’t the case. Beckett said he would like to talk to Smith about this issue privately.

Owens requested a copy of the petition and Van Orman said the council will receive that.