Commissioners Ok Sewer Shop

Spokane County will spend more than $1 million next year building a sewer shop in the Valley.

Commissioners Phil Harris and John Roskelley gave their approval for the project Tuesday over the objections of Commissioner Kate McCaslin.

The shop, office and meeting room will replace a leased building on Fancher Road that the county long ago outgrew, said utilities director Bruce Rawls.

The number of customers served by county sewers has grown 10 percent a year in recent years, said Rawls, with a corresponding increase in the amount of equipment and employees the county uses to keep those lines flowing. That growth is expected to continue, he said.

The new shop will be built on Empire Avenue, two blocks west of Pines Road, said Rawls. The county bought the land last year for $230,000.

The $1.1 million sewer center is designed to handle all the growth expected in sewer customers until 2010, with room to expand after that date, said Rawls.

McCaslin opposed the project, saying she hopes the county eventually can hire private firms for sewer work. If that happens, she said, the shop will be unneeded.

But Roskelley said the shop is “absolutely needed.”

“They’re absolutely up to the rafters out there” in the old building, he said, adding since there’s only one shower, most of the workers go home dirty at the end of their shifts.

That argument didn’t sway McCaslin.

“I know a bazillion construction companies and they all go home pretty dirty,” she said. “They don’t have showers.”

“They’re not connecting live sewers, either,” Roskelley said.

Harris reluctantly cast the deciding vote, saying he didn’t want to add another building to the county’s inventory, but believes the shop is necessary.

“Boy, government buildings: You build them and they fill up,” he said.