Liberty Lake 2000 Forms

Thu., June 10, 1999

By Pat Sciuchetti pats@spokesman.com

Liberty Lake 2000 - a new group born this week to advocate for Liberty Lake incorporation - will hold its first organizational meeting on June 21.

A second group, which has spent the last several months studying governance options for Liberty Lake, disbanded on Monday.

The Liberty Lake Governance Study Group - made up of eight Liberty Lake residents - dissolved itself because it felt the neutral work of researching and surveying the community on governance options was complete. It had promised from the beginning not to take a stand, said Jim Frank, a developer who was part of the group.

Members of the governance group say they formed Liberty Lake 2000 because community surveys and meetings indicated strong interest in the idea of incorporation. Also, a revenue study, completed by a Seattle-area consultant, concluded Liberty Lake has enough revenue to support its own city.

Public input also made it clear that Liberty Lake residents don’t want just part of their community incorporated. Frank said.

As it now stands, only the portion of Liberty Lake north of Sprague could be incorporated. Incorporating the land around the lake would require first bringing it into the interim urban growth area, something that scares some proponents of lake preservation.

Resolving this issue will probably be one of the biggest challenges faced by Liberty Lake 2000.

The group’s first organizational meeting will begin the process of writing an official petition for incorporation. That petition must include the proposed city’s name, boundaries and form of government. Possible forms of government include mayor-council, council-manager and commission.

The process of seeking incorporation involves numerous steps, including public hearings and the gathering of signatures from at least 10 percent of the proposed city’s voters.

Members of the dissolved group who support incorporation will now join the new effort. The others are free to drop the issue or form an opposing group.

Incorporation supporters are looking for help and participation from anyone who shares their views.

They say they chose the name Liberty Lake 2000 because it was future-oriented. It doesn’t indicate a deadline or proposed date for any specific action.

MEETING Liberty Lake 2000 will hold its first meeting at 7 p.m. June 21 at the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District building, 22510 E. Mission.

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