Good Samaritan Center Astride Proposed Boundary
Incorporation
In/Around: Greenacres
The stationery used by officials of the Spokane Valley Good Samaritan Center states that the nursing home is in Greenacres, Wash.
It may soon say Greenacres and Spokane Valley, Wash., if the boundaries of a new city proposed for the Valley aren’t altered.
Those borders currently split the center’s 200-acre spread off 8th Avenue.
About 10 acres owned by the center north of 8th, including its main building, are within boundaries proposed for the new city.
The remaining 190 acres, including a garage and maintenance shed, are outside the boundary, which runs along 8th Aveune in that area.
Administrator Jim Droppers is a bit confused by it all.
“I don’t know how that happened,” Droppers said earlier this week. “I guess it was an oversight on the part of the incorporation supporters.”
Citizens for Valley Incorporation cochairman Joe McKinnon said it was an honest mistake and added that his group, which proposed the current boundaries, would be willing to work with Good Samaritan officials to straighten it out.
Droppers sent a letter to the state Boundary Review Board for Spokane County on Feb. 7 asking that it do something about it.
The review board can alter the boundaries of the proposed city as long as it does not change the land area of the city by more than 10 percent.
“We would like to have all our property within one jurisdiction in the future,” he said in the letter.
Droppers said in an interview this week that if he had his choice, he’d just as soon be out.
It would be easier for him and his operation to continue dealing with county regulations instead of having to learn a whole new routine under a city, he said.
“At this time, I think it makes more sense,” Droppers said. “I know what I’ve got.”
When a remodel is finished this summer, the center will contain a 163-bed nursing home, an assisted-living facility capable of housing 15 people and 86 independent apartments for the elderly.
McKinnon said it didn’t matter to his group if the center was in or out because much of its property is tax exempt.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a turning point in history whether they’re in or out,” he said. “We don’t care.”