City Administrator’s Report

December 2005

This report will be devoted to listing our accomplishments in 2005 as well as our “Wish List” for 2006.

First, the 2005 accomplishments:

1. Downtown Revitalization Project.  Although not completed, this is a major facelift for our community.  We expect this will make our Downtown considerably more attractive to shoppers and visitors.
2. Another fabulous Chataqua.  Some estimates claim that around 100,000 people visited Chewelah during Chataqua and this certainly added to our economy.  Many here for the first time think this would be a great place to live! Go figure…
3. Most business storefronts are occupied.  In fact, new business growth has been more than noticeable.  Business is the lifeblood of any community and certainly welcome in Chewelah.
4. Steady growth in the residential sector.  Have you noticed all the new homes going up?
5. Reduced water loss by 1/3.  Our water department did an outstanding job identifying and repairing costly water leaks this fall.  This saves all of our users money in the long run and aids our conservation effort.
6. Fully staffed Police Department.  It took considerable Police Officer overtime work to cover for the vacancies but we are finally fully staffed.  We have been recognized as having one of the finest PDs in the State.
7. Established a new municipal parking lot on East Main.  This great facility gave us additional parking desperately needed for our crowded downtown.
8. Insulated the ceilings in the City Shop, thereby correcting a degraded insulation problem, and installed a new waste oil burner for heating the outer shop.
9. Replaced the water main on West Main from Park to Second St west.  This project replaced an old leaky line that was suspended under the Chewelah Creek bridge.

Next, the 2006 wish list:

1. Clarify and simplify our dog ordinance.  The current ordinance is difficult to enforce and costly to our citizens.  We hope to update language and enforcement to make it at least cost-neutral.
2. Update the Comprehensive Plan.  This task was mandated by the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board. 
3. Secure funding for the remainder of Main Street/Flowery Trail projects.  We still have a lot of work to do to connect with the new Flowery Trail Road.
4. Streamline land use permit application process.  This is simply to make the process easier for all to use and reduce confusion.
5. Identify an employee compensation matrix.  This will make wage administration simpler and add objectivity to the process.
6. Construct the Gateway Icon Project somewhere downtown or adjacent to downtown.