School, fire measures face voters

Ballots were mailed this week for a Feb. 9 special election that includes seven school and fire measures throughout Spokane County.

Cheney

A $79 million bond measure in the Cheney School District would build and equip two new middle schools and a 400-student elementary school at an undetermined location on the West Plains.

Cheney Middle School would be replaced at the same site and a new middle school would be built next to Windsor Elementary.

School officials anticipate receiving $18 million from the state to supplement the bond money.

If approved by 60 percent of voters, the 20-year bond measure would cost school district property owners an estimated $4.96 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Medical Lake

The Medical Lake School District is proposing a bond measure for $15.65 million.

The 20-year Medical Lake school bond would expand and modernize Medical Lake Middle School and Hallett Elementary School.

It would cost an estimated $2.47 per $1,000 of assessed value, but would be offset by expiration of a high school bond that costs $1.75 per thousand. The net increase is 72 cents.

The new bond measure also would pay for demolition of Medical Lake Elementary and construction of athletic fields on the site.

Superintendent Pam Veltri said Medical Elementary has plumbing, fire-suppression and electrical problems that can’t economically be corrected because of asbestos.

Instead, the district plans to transfer the school’s kindergarten through third-grade students to Hallett Elementary, which now houses fourth- through sixth-graders.

The sixth-graders would be shifted to the middle school.

Fire District 4

In Fire District 4, at the northern edge of the county, voters are asked to lift the 1 percent lid on levy growth and restore the district’s maximum property tax rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Because of the 1 percent lid, the district’s tax rate has fallen to 89 cents per thousand since 2002.

Restoring the $1.50 rate would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $61 next year. After that, the levy lid would start driving the rate down again.

Fire officials say the one-year lid lift is needed to pay for equipment, replacement of Station 41 in Deer Park and construction of a new station on Elk-Chattaroy Road.

The measure also would allow the district to establish round-the-clock staffing at Station 42 in Chattaroy. It requires a simple majority to pass.

School levies

Routine operating levies for the Great Northern, Tekoa, St. John’s and Rosalia school districts also are on next month’s ballot. Except for Great Northern, only portions of the districts are in Spokane County.

The two-year levies all would be collected in 2011 and 2012.

Here are the amounts and estimated rates:

Great Northern, $159,000 per year, $1.85 per thousand; Tekoa, $290,000 per year, $5.44 per thousand; St. John’s, $330,000 per year, $2.19 per thousand; Rosalia, $526,301 per year, $4.79 per thousand.