The Citizens for Parks committee is gaining speed in getting the community behind the proposition #1 ballot measure.  In the two weeks since we last met together we've already organized a schedule for writing letters to the editor, one of which was published in last Thursday's paper.  We've also recieved enough donations to print 250 yard signs that are already going out to the public.   Finally, we were able to launch a new website at www.50AcrePark.com.  This website is dedicated to providing information about the park, and the bond issue, as well as gaining and promoting committments from communtiy members who favor the park issue.

If you are interested in getting involved in the Citizens for Parks committee, our next meeting is tomorrow, August 18, at 7pm in the library of Cheney Middle School.  The committee will continue to meet at 7pm on the first and third Tuesdays of every month through November 9th, 2009.

If you or anyone you know would like a sign for your yard please contact our treasurer Jill Weiszmann.  Her phone number is (509) 953-9499.  Keep spreading the word about this project!  We need all the support we can get!  Thank you.

Since I was very late in reporting on the last City Council meeting, I figured I'd make up for it by posting the report on today's City Council meeting immediately following the meeting.

First of all, I'm happy to report that the City of Cheney has officially named today, George Brooks day.  George Brooks retired as a long time city employee, and the naming of today (August 11) was done in honor of his many years of service.

There were over a dozen resolutions passed at the meeting.  I'll report on the most important issues.

1. Cheney-Spangle Road will soon be widened to 100 feet wide from First Street (SR-904) south to the end of City limits.  This will make a safer passage for both vehicles and pedestrian traffic, including bikes, to the Colombia Plateau Trail and beyond.  This improvement does not include the railroad crossing as the rail company has this right of way; however, the City will be working towards this in the future.  The total cost of this improvement is $456,042.75, plus a 10% contingency for unforeseen expenses, bringing the total to $546,000.  The city budgeted $776,000 for this improvement.

2. The City will be taking on several paving and water main replacement projects this fall.  Streets affected are:

   • Bonnie Way (from Gary St. to Salnave Rd.)
   • West Fifth Street (from Washington St. to Buena Vista St., and from Union St. to Dubois St.)
   • Clover Street (from Washington St. to Buena Vista)
   • Union Street (from 6th St. to 7th St.)
   • "C" Street (from Elm St. to 4th St.))
   • 7th Street (from Mary St. to Clay St.)
   • Montague Drive (from Sunrise Dr. to the north end)

   In addition to these improvements, the City Council has decided to pave the dirt/grassy area surrounding City Hall, and using this area as a parking lot for City employees, and City Hall visitors.  The Council decided that even though this additional expenditure was not budgeted for (around $27,000), there is a need for additional parking in the Downtown core, and it is more economical to complete this project now while the city is already contracting for similar services in other areas of town.

   The lowest bid submitted for this project was $649,628.50.  The city has also received a community development block grant (CDBG) in the amount of $148,500 for the water main replacements.

3. The City Council amended the light pole banner policy to lower the monthly banner display fee and provide a discount for banners paid for a year in advance.  The previous fee was $10 per month, per banner, and was reduced to $5 per month in order to promote the banner program in tough economic times.  Additionally, a 25% discount will be taken off if the fee is paid for a year in advance.  This discount is justified since the banner policy states that refunds will not be granted for banners that are torn or damaged.  Five local entities, all owning bucket trucks, will be responsible for hanging the banners.  These agencies are: the Cheney Light Department, Davis Communications, Century-Tel, EWU, and Arbor Pro.

4. The Cheney Fire Department received a USDA Grant award that they recently applied for amounting to over $17,000.  With this money, the Fire Department intends to purchase new personal protective equipment, new apparatus equipment (bags hose fittings), new engine equipment mounting, and a large amount of new confined space equipment.

In an information item, Community Development director, Brian Jennings, reported on the rules governing unrelated individuals living together in the R-1 zone.  Mr. Jennings stated that our current code allows for a "functional family" and an additional unrelated person to live together in a single family home.  Because of the confusion surrounding the definition of "functional family", Mr. Jennings plans to provide an administrative interpretation of this code at the next city council meeting.  I'd advise any citizen or R-1 property owner who may be unsure as to what is and isn't allowed in this zone to attend this meeting on Aug 25th at 6pm in the City Council Chambers at City Hall.

Planning Commission Meeting Report (8-10-2009)

This week also marked another planning commission meeting.  This week's meeting included an application to mitigate the removal of a category IV wetland from the Cheney Industrial and Commerce Park, by enhancing a wetland located near the wastewater treatment plan, commonly known as Miller Pond.  This proposal is met with controversy for a number of reasons.

First, the wetland being destroyed only exists because of a previous project where dirt & rock were removed creating a 16' deep hole at the current location.  This hole filled up with groundwater and run-off, and began to grow vegetation.  

Second, the wetland currently sits smack dab in the middle of the City's Phase 1 development of the Cheney Industrial and Commerce Park.  This means that if the wetland is not removed, the city will be unable to sell the land for commercial development, the intended purpose of building the business park in the first place.

Third, the mitigation to enhance Miller pond involves a great deal of demolition and bringing heavy machinery into the wetland, potentially destroying the habitat that currently resides there.

Overall, we decided to postpone the decision until the next Planning Commission meeting, where Public Works Director, Todd Ableman, will be brining in the city's wetland consultant, Dr. Robert Quinn of EWU, to present more information about what this mitigation project entails, as well as environmental information about wetlands.

We also approved a written decision for both the Cheney Care Center zoning amendment, and the Fire District #3 conditional use permit that were approved at the last meeting.

Finally, Commissioner Grover gave his comprehensive plan review on Chapter 13, Utilities.  Unfortunately, this chapter was very short and quite outdated.  Commissioner Grover will serve as the Chairman for the Utilities topic group in the Comp Plan rewrite process.

It's been a very busy week since ballots were mailed out last Wednesday.  Sorry for the delay in reporting on Cheney's City Council meeting.

The biggest issue to come before the City Council last week was the issue of Cheney's 50 Acre Park.  The city council was asked to approve an ordinance to place a bond issue on the November 3rd ballot.  This bond is in the amount of $5 million dollars to be paid by taxpayers over a 20 year period.  At Cheney's current valuation this equates to $10 per month in additional property taxes on a $150,000 home.

All of this money will go towards building the first phase of the park which includes two softball fields, two soccer fields, a dog park and a community and senior centers.  The city has already secured $1 million dollars in seed money from the insurance claim against the Wren Pierson building, and other real estate excise taxes.  The city is also applying for grant funding to build out the second phase of the project, for which the $1 million seed money, and $5 million bond revenue will serve as our matching funds.

Director of Cheney Parks and Recreation, Paul Simmons,  gave an informative presentation to the City Council about the true cost of operating the Wren Pierson building, in order to put into perspective that this bond measure is not as large as it may seem.  Over 20 years, the cost of the Wren Pierson building was calculated at $2.2 million dollars, roughly half of what the bond has been set at.  However, for the price of the bond, we're receiving a brand new, energy efficient facility with over twice the square footage and additional technology upgrades.  On top of this, the green space for parks nearly doubles the inventory of park space currently developed in the city. 

Paul went on to explain the economic benefit that this park will have on our community as well.  The park will be a big draw for sporting tournaments in the area, along with facility rentals for weddings, anniversaries, reunions, and the like.

The city council approved this ordinance unanimously, and this issue will appear on the election ballot in November.  A citizen action committee has been formed call "Citizens for Parks".  This committee will be educating the public about this measure, and gaining support for a Yes vote on the Nov. 3rd ballot.   Paul explained that in order to pass this measure, we need to obtain a super-majority vote (60% in favor), and in order for that to count, at least 40% of the last election (2008 presidential election) needs to turn out to vote in this election.  Using figures from the last election, about 1335 individuals must turn out to vote, and at least 801 must vote in favor of the bond.

I have joined the Citizens for Parks committee in order to support this measure.  I believe this park will be an excellent addition to our city, and I fully support the bond to pay for it.  I will write more about this committee later, and give updates on their progress.  Below are some photos of the proposed park and community center.

This week has seen both a Planning Commission Meeting, and the Cheney City Council's meeting on back to back evenings. Here are the highlights of the two meetings:

Planning Commission

Monday night's meeting brought the biggest turnout of an audience that the Planning Commission has seen in a while. The Cheney Care Center was proposing a Rezone request for a 1.38 acre parcel located just north of their existing facility on 6th street.  They proposed to change the zone from R-1 Residential to R-3 Multi-Family.  Their intention is to build 10 single-story like homes on the property for what they call "Go-Go" seniors, or retired seniors who find themselves traveling a lot and need a home base where the property is maintained, and a facility nearby for health care and local activities.

The R-3 designation allows for up to 30 units to be developed on the property, and the planning commissioners, myself included, were weary of allowing this rezone in an area completely surrounded by R-1 single family homes.  If the care center were to sell the land after receiving the R-3 designation, a developer could build a 3 story apartment complex that would be both out of character in the area, but also cause the surrounding property values to decrease.  Needless to say this was not a request we took lightly.

Keith Fauerso of the Cheney Care Center explained that this is a special circumstance.  There is no other R-3 zoned land in Cheney that would accommodate such a use, and as a matter of fact, if they were to locate this type of development in any other area besides next door to their existing facility, seniors would not likely use it.   Keith showed us a short video about the Cheney Care Center.  The video was focused on one of the founding seniors and her extraordinary fundraising efforts.  The Cheney Care Center is a 501(c)3 Non-Profit organization and is a unique facility in all of Eastern Washington.  They provide excellent service to our seniors, and have received many generous donations to grow the facility.

The Planning Commission approved this Rezone request in good faith that the Cheney Care Center will build the 10 units they presented to us, and not the 30 units allowed by the code.  I believe this facility is an excellent addition to Cheney, and fills a niche that has been vacant for some time in our community.  The Planning Commission will make a recommendation for approval to the City Council, and it will be heard next month.

City Council

The Cheney City Council meeting was mostly uneventful.  Phase 4 of the Waste Water Treatment Plant was approved. A change order was approved for the Cheney Research & Industrial Park project.  I asked Todd Ableman when he expected this project to be completed.  He expects the city's portion of the park to be completed within the next few weeks.  The next step will be in attracting new businesses to develop on the land.  By Todd's estimate, our land will be very lucrative to developers.  Development land in places such as Liberty Lake and Airway Heights costs upwards of $8 per square foot.  Todd expects us to be able to offer a significantly lower price.

The Council approved the renewal of Cheney Public School's School Resource Officer (SRO).  This approval came after some controversy about the cost of the SRO. In a time when the schools are cutting back expenses and salaries, they could not justify an increase in costs for the SRO position.  The city met them halfway and revised the memorandum of understanding to be at the same level as previous years.

In other business, the council awarded the contract for architectural and engineering services for the Utility building expansion and remodel project to Wolfe Architectural Group (WAG) in the amount of $125,957.  They also awarded Divco (Commercial HVAC) with a contract for the emergency replacement of the IT Department's Air Conditioning at City Hall in the amount of $14,819.  Finally, an Interfund loan was granted to the Parks and Recreation department for the purchase of a Parks Mower in the amount of $30,000 at an interest rate of 1.65%.  This loan comes out of the City's Light Fund, and will yield $1,199 in interest over the 5 years it will be in effect.

The Council went into executive session and had no business following.

This weekend's Rodeo event was a big success.  Thanks to everyone who came downtown for the parade on Saturday.  The community turnout was tremendous, even following the parade.  Many of you stayed downtown to frequent the vendors and to enjoy the live music provided by Two Dudes in the American Legion beer garden.  

I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to Fred Pollard who took the lead on organizing the vendors and the post parade clean-up effort.  

Our campaign setup an informational booth near the parade vendors in Downtown Cheney for this event, and I manned the table for the entire event to meet and talk with community members, and pass out candy to all of the little Cheney-ites. 

It was very nice to meet and discuss my campaign issues with those of you who took the time to speak with me.  I will be knocking on doors in several Cheney neighborhoods in the coming weeks, so this will be another opportunity to meet me and discuss the issues that are important to you.  If I happen to miss your home in my rounds, please feel free to contact me directly, and I will make it a priority to come and speak with you.

Thanks again to everyone who is supporting me in this election.

Cheney's Downtown core continues to be a great place to live, work, and run a business thanks, in part, to the efforts of the Historic Downtown Cheney Partnership (formerly Pathways to Progress).  This organization follows the Main Street™ model for downtown revitalization pioneered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and has been working to revitalize Downtown Cheney for over 10 years now.

In that time, we've successfully started and transitioned the Cheney Farmer's Market from a HDCP project into a new legal entity with a separate board of directors.  We've beautified College Ave by installing benches, brick walkways, and street trees.  We've encouraged businesses to locate in Downtown Cheney, and helped incubate existing businesses.  We've also put on several successful community events such as the Rodeo Days, the Holliday Hoopla, and Mayfest. 

We're a dynamic organization, and have many goals for the near future.  In September, we'll be bringing the first annual Harvest Ball to Cheney's Fisher Building.  This Prom-like event will feature music and dancing, flowers, photos, food, and fun.  We promise it will be "The Prom You Always Wanted.  We've also produced the first of three outdoor mural panels as part of our public art initiative, and we've got the ball rolling on a downtown Business Improvement District (BID).

All of this has been made possible by funding from the City of Cheney and EWU, as well as the generous individuals who volunteer their time to run the organization.  However, recent economic events have forced EWU to withdraw funding of the HDCP.  As a result, we can no longer support an executive director, and likewise, will no longer be receiving work study students to help with the leg work for all of our events.   The HDCP has transitioned to an all volunteer organization with, very much so, a working board.  

The HDCP needs your help.  In order to continue providing the level of service that Cheney has come to expect from us, we need more individuals to step up and volunteer to help out.  The HDCP is organized into five committees: Organization, Design, Economic Restructuring, Promotion, and Fundraising. I encourage anyone who has a vision for Downtown Cheney to contact myself, or board president Fred Pollard about joining our efforts.  You can volunteer as much or as little time as you'd like.

The HDCP is also in need of funding.  Every event we put on has significant expenses associated with materials, registration fees, advertising, and more.  In addition, the HDCP also has monthly expenses associated to maintaining an office in Downtown Cheney.  Since losing EWU's funding, we've looked at several ways to obtain financing including the business and occupation (B&O) tax credit. This tax credit allows businesses to donate their B&O funds (1.5% of all gross revenues) directly to the HDCP where they would otherwise send the money to a general fund in Olympia.  If you own a business, or know someone who does, please contact us to learn more about this program.  We also rely on personal donations from community members.  The HDCP is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit orgaization, so any donation you give is 100% tax deductible.  

I fully intend to continue my efforts as a board member for the HDCP following the city council election.  I hope you will take an active involvement with the organization, or at the very least donate to our efforts.  The HDCP office is located 120 G. Street in downtown Cheney.  You can call (509) 559-5818, email office@cheneypathways.org, or visit our website: www.DowntownCheney.org.

This year Cheney faces an important update to the City's Comprehensive Plan.  The Comprehensive Plan is the document that guides nearly all policy and budget decision-making.  The Growth Management Act of Washington stipulates that local jurisdictions adequately plan for growth for a 20 year period.  2010 marks the completion of Cheney's plan through 2030. 

Community involvement is an essential component to ensuring that what goes into this document reflects Cheney's vision and future.   As one of your Cheney Planning Commissioners, I've been tasked to be an ambassador for the Comprehensive Plan.  The Planning Commission is co-responsible for developing the plan and will make our recommendation to the City Council.  I've already participated in a lengthy process to hire the consulting firm, Studio Cascade, who will do the bulk of the work to produce the document.  Now it's only a matter of getting citizen involvement to determine what goes into the document.

The re-write will be broken down into a committee structure.  There will be a total of nine committees, broken down into each of the topic sections in the Comprehensive Plan.  Each committee will likely have seven to nine community members each working to guide the development of their section.  The nine committees will be:

• Transportation
• Housing
• Land use
• Economic development
• Technology
• Utilities
• Public services
• Culture/arts
• Natural assets/sustainability
  

If you're reading this and not yet involved in the re-write process, I urge you to get involved.  Choose a committee that best fits with your interests, goals, or ideas for Cheney's future, and contact Brian Jennings, community development director, at 498-9240 or bjennings@cityofcheney.org.  

This is your chance to have a real impact on Cheney's Future.  Everything from Parks to Zoning will be looked at, updated, and revised.  Then over the next 20 years, when the city is looking at new developments coming in, they will use this plan as the criteria for whether or not to allow the development.  It's often too late to voice your opinion about whether or not a new development should be allowed once the developer is going before the City Council.  Theses policy decisions were made when the Comprehensive Plan was adopted.

If you don't want to, or don't have the time to sit on one of the nine committees, please take a moment to fill out a survey about your viewpoint and vision for Cheney.  Thanks for your participation!

Welcome to my website! I'm excited to kick off my campaign for Cheney City Council Position #3.

Please email me at vote@JasonAlvarado.com with any questions, comments or ideas. I'm looking for volunteers to help spread the word about my candidacy. Thanks!