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Airway Heights asks residents for money to hire new police officers

Airway Heights' Proposition 1 would allow the city to replace older patrol cars with 15 new ones during the next five years.
Photo by Doug Nadvornick
Airway Heights' Proposition 1 would allow the city to replace older patrol cars with 15 new ones during the next five years.

Voters in Airway Heights will decide next month whether to tax themselves to increase city funding for public safety.

The signs of growth are everywhere in Airway Heights, from the tribal casino and hotel complexes to the orange traffic cones directing drivers away from construction work on the city’s main arterial.

With that growth comes more demand for policing.

“Our calls for service are up about 133% over the last five years, so you can understand those unique challenges when we only have 14 police officers. Those officers have taken 1,500+ calls a year, which is a high workload," Police Chief Brad Richmond said.

He says his department only has time to react to what’s happening. It doesn’t have the resources to carry out crime prevention programs or focus on fentanyl trafficking.

Proposition 1 asks property owners to pay another dollar per hundred thousand dollars of assessed value, so, $300-a-year for the owner of a $300,000 home. Richmond says the money would allow him to hire four more officers and invest in the department’s infrastructure.

“We are in desperate need of a vehicle replacement program. We’ve always just band-aided our cars. We have numerous cars in our fleet that are 100,000 miles, which is unsafe for officers and our community. We’ll invest heavier into technology because it’s a force multiplier for us as well," he said.

At a public forum Thursday, City Manager Albert Tripp said the measure is made necessary by rapid growth.

“Clearly, the community is definitely a destination. People see the community. They want to be here, which is a great thing. But with that, unfortunately, also comes sometimes a negative side to it, in terms of a public safety standpoint. This would provide the resources to help us be able to address that.”

Tripp says Airway Heights' property tax rate to provide municipal services is $1.41/$1,000 of assessed valuation. He says even with adding the new tax, its rate would remain less than most or all of the tax rates of the other cities in Spokane County.

The August 6 levy needs a simple majority to pass.

Last August, Airway Heights voters approved two ballot measures to tax themselves to provide more money for its fire department, to renovate an existing building to house fire trucks and to keep its library, operated by the Spokane County Library District, open.

Doug Nadvornick has spent most of his 30+-year radio career at Spokane Public Radio and filled a variety of positions. He is currently the program director and news director. Through the years, he has also been the local Morning Edition and All Things Considered host (not at the same time). He served as the Inland Northwest correspondent for the Northwest News Network, based in Coeur d’Alene. He created the original program grid for KSFC. He has also served for several years as a board member for Public Media Journalists Association. During his years away from SPR, he worked at The Pacific Northwest Inlander, Washington State University in Spokane and KXLY Radio.