Bulgarian Connection Delegation Studying How Spokane Provides Services To Residents

Since their arrival in Spokane this week, delegates from Dobrich, Bulgaria, have been dazzled by the same city services Spokane residents love to complain about.

Wide streets. Clean sidewalks and parks. Running water - all day.

Water is especially a problem in Dobrich.

“There is water, but it is impossible to have running water 24 hours a day,” said Mayor Lachezar Rossenov.

The delegation is in Spokane as part of a technical exchange program. A month ago, four Spokane officials visited Dobrich.

This week, in addition to meeting with neighborhood and business representatives, the delegation toured major city facilities including the water department, the waste-to-energy system, Spokane International Airport and the sewage treatment plant.

It’s not Spokane’s standard tourist itinerary, but the Dobrich delegates were delighted.

They soaked up the information as quickly as city staff could dish it out.

Rossenov, an electrical engineer, asked questions like a dedicated student.

With the fall of communism in Bulgaria, cities there face a new challenge of learning how to provide basic services to their residents.

With municipal elections set for this year, Mayor Rossenov is anxious to bring a sense of optimism to discouraged Dobrich residents.

He’ll return to Dobrich this weekend armed with brochures, photographs, and a suitcase full of videos.

Since his arrival, Rossenov has viewed most of Spokane through the lens of his video camera.

“The most important thing is for the people in Dobrich to see that this can be done. They don’t believe in the possibility and are very discouraged,” he said.

Dobrich, with 130,000 residents, is smaller than Spokane. It has a strong-mayor form of government and 51 city council members. It’s located in the wheat-growing region of northeastern Bulgaria.

Dobrich water pipes are leaky, snowy streets go unplowed, two garbage trucks collect refuse for the entire city.

Education is a top priority, children are treasured, and preserving the national culture is a source of pride.

This week delegates donned bright red hard hats and goggles to tour the waste-to-energy plant to see how Spokane’s daily mountain of garbage is turned into piles of ash.

They shook and sniffed small jars of sludge on display at the advanced wastewater treatment plant, and peered down a deep well at the sparkling Spokane aquifer.

At each stop they were handed souvenirs. The water department offered bottles of clear Spokane water - and bottles of beer from the Spokane Brewery made from that water.

They were given small gold trash can-shaped lapel pins, and cartons of Marlboro cigarettes at the waste-toenergy plant.

“I am very happy to have this,” said Deputy Mayor Ljubomir Sivkov, raising the carton of cigarettes.

They mused that non-smoking restaurants and offices like they’ve encountered in Spokane would never be seriously considered in Dobrich.

Spokane staff, wrestling with tongue-twisting Bulgarian names, resorted to nicknames for some of the Dobrich officials.

Sivkov, who has a degree in philosophy and directs the city’s health, education and cultural programs was respectfully dubbed “Mr. Culture.”

Sivkov said he was impressed by the tolerance he noted between different age, economic and racial groups in Spokane. Already, social and class distinctions are arising in Dobrich, he said.

“The process of forming a middle class is slow and difficult, but it is most important,” he said.

Officials from both cities communicated with the help of an interpreter.

Despite the intense schedule, some fun was planned, including dinner at Patsy Clark’s, hamburgers at The Onion, watching a basketball game on TV at The Ram restaurant and shopping at NorthTown Mall.

The city-to-city mentoring program is sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the International City Managers Association, which pay for all travel and accommodations, as well as an allowance to cover basic expenses for the visitors. No city money is used for the project.

The group leaves today with an action plan for implementing three projects this year in Dobrich. Spokane city officials will likely make at least a couple of individual trips there during the next year to offer assistance.