Road Improvement Plan Paved With Controversy

About four miles of rough road leading to Spokane County Commissioner Phil Harris’ home will be paved next year over the objection of more than half his neighbors.

Harris excused himself every time commissioners voted on the $784,000 paving project for South Bank Road in the northwest corner of the county.

His share of the paving bill will be about $3,000 - more than some neighbors will pay and far less than others, depending on where they live and how much land they own.

Commissioners and county employees involved in the project deny allegations that Harris used his influence to forward the cause.

Some neighbors went to Harris for advice on getting the road paved, said Joyce Read, whose bill for the project will be $3,600.

“But as far as him telling the county, ‘You do this or you do that,’ I don’t think so,” Read said.

Helping set up an initial meeting between neighbors and county engineers “was the last action I took on it,” said Harris, who signed a petition favoring the road project before he was elected commissioner in 1994.

“He played it real straight,” said Commissioner John Roskelley.

Angry opponents don’t buy it. Twice in the last year they defeated proposed road improvement districts by convincing more than half their neighbors to vote against them.

The third time, Roskelley and Commissioner Steve Hasson formed the district by resolution, meaning the project could only be blocked if opposed by landowners who will pay 60 percent of the total bill. More than half the residents opposed the project, but that majority will pay only 49 percent of the paving bill.

The district formed July 2. Paving will be done next summer.

“Phil Harris lives at the end of the proposed paving and he’s tired of driving on gravel,” said Terry Snedden, who will pay about $4,500.

Another neighbor, Don Moore, who will pay $16,000 for road improvements adjoining his four lots, said Hasson told him in April that “Phil Harris was really pushing for it.”

Hasson said he remembers the conversation but denies making the comment.

Road improvement districts, commonly called RIDs, rarely are formed without controversy.

Landowners pay 85 percent of the paving cost, with the county paying the rest. In the South Bank project, the county will pay an additional $40,000 and the state will add $49,000 because they own large tracts of land along the road.

Landowners often complain that paving bills aren’t divided fairly. Many longtime residents resent city folks moving to the woods, then fighting for urban services. Pavement typically encourages more development.

In recent years, commissioners have formed RIDs over neighborhood objection for roads considered dangerous.

“We pass an RID just about every other week,” said Hasson. “We’ve had two or three that have been RIDs from hell, and this was one of them.”

No one denies South Bank Road is in bad shape. Potholes and washboarding jars passengers in the smoothest-riding cars.

An accident on South Bank last June killed a Spokane woman, when her husband lost control of their car on a corner neighbors say is notoriously dangerous. The driver may be charged with vehicular homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Moore said there was an easier solution to the danger and dust.

“If the road had been kept graded (by the county), then I think everybody would have been happy,” he said.

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