Auditor Certifies Petition For Incorporation Election

Opportunity will get its chance.

Spokane County Auditor William Donahue on Thursday certified a petition calling for an election on the proposed city of 16,000 in the Spokane Valley.

That means the proposal could be on the ballot as soon as May.

Ed Meadows, a member of the group pushing Opportunity, said his group would begin holding strategy sessions right away.

The city’s supporters are eager to have the election in May, Meadows said.

The ballot would be relatively empty then and the voter turnout low, which is likely to help Opportunity’s cause.

The next available election date would be September, when the ballot would be full of primary candidates and issues.

“We don’t want to get involved with that,” Meadows said.

Opportunity is bounded roughly by Interstate 90, 16th Avenue, Evergreen and Argonne roads.

It becomes the second proposed city to work its way onto the ballot recently.

Donahue also has certified petitions for the city of Evergreen, and that proposed municipality of 12,000 people is scheduled for election this year.

An exact date hasn’t been set.

The two elections will be the fourth and fifth held on Valley incorporation since 1990.

Three attempts to form a Valleywide city have failed, and a fourth now under way will have to wait for the outcome of the Opportunity and Evergreen elections.

, DataTimes