City buying property for service team

A small industrial property at 2428 E. Riverside Ave. is being purchased by the city of Spokane to create additional office and training area for the Spokane Service Team, which operates a job-training program through Educational Service District 101.

Spokane City Council members approved a purchase agreement for the property Monday. The plan is to add it to an adjacent building at 2424 E. Riverside, already owned by the city and leased to the Service Team.

The city agreed to pay seller Vincent L. Penn $65,000 plus closing costs. The acquisition is being financed through the city’s community development department.

The Spokane Service Team is a training program for adults ages 18 to 25 who work on affordable housing projects and other projects sponsored by local nonprofit organizations. The team has worked on housing projects for the city’s community development department.

In other business, the council approved an agreement with Fire District 10 allowing the city to take over a small part of the fire district as part of the 495-acre Park Place annexation near Riverside State Park southwest of Nine Mile Road.

The council also approved a low bid of Red Diamond Construction Inc. of Opportunity for construction of an extension of the sanitary sewer on Austin Road in northwest Spokane at a cost of $136,600, including sales tax.