Pair challenge incumbent in Cheney
CHENEY – First-term Cheney City Councilman Patrick Rast faces two challengers in the Aug. 21 primary.
Neither Doug Nixon, 61, nor Jason Alvarado, 24, has run for public office before, but Nixon has served on the city Planning Commission about six months and Alvarado was senior class president at East Valley High School.
Rast, 57, said he had planned to serve only one term, but found the job enjoyable and wants to keep working on economic development and trying to get State Route 904 widened between Four Lakes and Cheney.
“We have been on a real steady growth process, and I’d like to see it continue that way,” Rast said.
He thinks things are “real good” in Cheney and wants to “continue on in what I’ve done in the past.”
Nixon and Alvarado both have concerns about growth.
“The community is growing, but we’re not keeping up with our infrastructure,” Alavarado said. “The current City Council seems like they are blindly approving new projects just for the growth.”
He worries that the city lacks enough water and that its sewage treatment plant is operating at 85 percent of capacity. Alvarado also would like to widen SR 904 and preserve Cheney’s small-town atmosphere by discouraging large chain stores.
“My goal is to keep the small-town environment and the quality of life,” Nixon said. “I’m not against growth, but there’s got to be a plan that’s thought out.”
Nixon said he wants to make sure police and fire protection and the city water supply remain adequate.
He is a longtime Farmers insurance agent who moved to Cheney about 8 ½ years ago from Everett. His resume includes a bachelor’s degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma in 1970 and Vietnam War duty on a minesweeper as a Navy bosun’s mate.
Nixon and his wife, Kris, have been married 37 years and have two adult children.
Alvarado grew up in Spokane Valley and moved to Cheney five years ago. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science last year from Eastern Washington University and is working on a master’s degree in public administration.
Single, Alvarado has no children. He completed the Leadership Spokane program earlier this year, where he learned the “servant leadership model” he wants to bring to the City Council.
Rast grew up in north Spokane and moved to Cheney about 30 years ago – after several years in San Diego – to study at Eastern Washington University, where he has been employed for 27 years – as a biology technician and, for the past seven years, as an electrician. His resume includes a Vietnam War tour as a Navy petty officer first-class and a medical corpsman.
Divorced, Rast has two adult children.
He was charged with drunken driving in 2001 and pleaded guilty to first-degree negligent driving. He pleaded guilty to drunken driving in August 2005. Rast said he no longer drinks.