January Post

Dear Citizens:

It has been interesting to participate in this concept of communication with those of you who have seen fit to comment or simply respond to the informal poll I sent out in late November. The difficulty for those of us at the City who are attempting to establish this new avenue for communication is getting e-mail addresses for those of you who are not already part of some government related e-mail list. The majority of responses I have received are from those who have some kind of vested interest in the subject of utility consolidation due to their affiliation with one of the service districts or their employees. That was not unexpected, in light of the nature of the list with which we began. We are working on creating a link very soon to the City's web site and obtaining e-mail addresses from the business organizations in the valley, as well as getting the word out at the grass roots level. All that should improve the reach of this tool for ascertaining the views of a broader spectrum of the East Wenatchee community.

I will continue to discuss the issue of utility consolidation from time to time on this blog. But first I hope to commission a valid cost/benefit analysis of the issue so that the citizens of East Wenatchee can know whether it is true that such a move would really result in cost savings to the ratepayers and true economies of scale, as I suggested in November. If you are interested in knowing the answers to those questions, I suggest you communicate with members of the City Council, as I will be, about pursuing such an analysis.

Meanwhile, we have a new 2008 budget which provides a glimpse of more prosperous times in East Wenatchee in the next few years due to projections of increased revenue from an expanding central business district and retirement of our debt to Douglas County from the successful cooperative effort we employed over the last five years to accomplish seamless growth of the boundaries of the city. I am in frequent personal communication with the Douglas County Commissioners over issues like annexation and land use planning, which are of mutual importance to our jurisdictions. Currently those discussions are centering around attempts to cooperate in solving waste management issues and rising court and jail expenses in both jurisdictions.

A related issue, which continues to be the subject of discussions by me with officials of Waste Management Corporation and a group of sports-minded potential investors is the establishment of what has come to be called the "Sportsplex." As many of you know, that has been a vision I have shared with other community leaders for some time, the idea that we can create a venue for the attraction of large youth sports tournaments to our valley every year. The potential economic benefits for all who benefit from tourism in the Wenatchee Valley, which we all do, are enormous. The trick is to get such a project done without hitting any of us in our private pocket books. I am seeing a way to do that, which I hope to be able to share in detail with East Wenatchee residents later this year.

If you have ideas, or simply wish to be heard on any matter, I continue to encourage you to communicate with me via this blog.

Sincerely,

Mayor Steven Lacy