Special meeting set for Dec. 22 to discuss 2010 Tonasket employee salaries

By Gazette-Tribune • December 17, 2009 4:48 pm
Outgoing Tonasket Mayor Patrick Walter received a plaque at the last regular city council meeting honoring his years of service.

Outgoing Tonasket Mayor Patrick Walter received a plaque at the last regular city council meeting honoring his years of service.

TONASKET – The city council set a special meeting for Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. to discuss the 2010 salaries of city employees during their regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

“The finance committee and I have been working diligently,” Alice Attwood, city clerk, said. Council member Connie Maden added that the committee is not finished and requested the Dec. 22 meeting to finalize the 2010 salaries.

During the meeting, the city council also approved the only bid they received for the provision of fuel to the city. Coleman Oil was awarded the bid for 2010 and 2011.

Jeff Cravy from the Tonasket EMS then spoke to the council about the condition of the old fire hall the EMS uses to house their ambulances. Cravy said the biggest issue with the fire hall is that one of the doors won’t open, so ambulances can not get in or out of the fire hall. He said three people have to push open the door and then some one has to hold it open with a broom.

Since the EMS is using the building for free, the city council stated confusion about whether or not the city was responsible for improvements or if the EMS is responsible for them.

“My understanding was that we weren’t allowed to do anything such as modifying the building,” Cravy said.

The city council asked for copies of the expenses of the fire hall and stated that they can’t incur the costs of fixing the hall without bringing in revenue to the city. They stated that if the EMS can bring in the costs of fixing the building, then perhaps the council can discuss the issue further and prioritize the issues to possibly work it into the budget.

Mark Varela of Varela Engineers then gave a presentation to the council regarding the extension of sewer lines south of Tonasket and also possibly annexing the area into the city. Varela said a survey should be done of the area to see if the people want to be annexed. The council approved his request to apply for a Community Development Block Grant in order to find funding for the expansion of the sewer lines. Tuesday, Jan. 12 was set as a public hearing the CDBG grant.

The special meeting on Dec. 22 will be open to the public.