Things Seemed to Calm Down In Moscow This Week…

After the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks, it’s nice to have a pretty standard Moscow City Council meeting. All the same, let’s talk about it!

Read the full transcript of the video below:

At the risk of losing the viewers at this point, dare I say it was a pretty normal week?

How’s it going y’all? Aiden Anderson here with the Moscow Minutes. After a few weeks with relatively light agendas, this week the Moscow City Council had a return to status quo. Let’s take a look.

After a round of mayoral appointments to various city commissions, the city heard public comment from two individuals. Nancy Tribble highlighted an issue with litter and trash along Palouse River drive, and offered the council her suggestions for possible solutions. Tim Park reminded the council of his concerns about the yard waste transfer station which he spoke about at a previous meeting.

Aaron Johnson and Megan Cherry spoke next, delivering the Moscow Arts Commission report on their past year of activities. Highlights include a sharp increase in their commission’s volunteer hours, the 15th annual Palouse Plein Air event, and new public art including the mural for the city water building. They ended with a reminder about the upcoming Artwalk season finale, and word of thanks for those who support local artists.

The council then turned their attention to Paige Collins who delivered an update from COAST transportation. COAST, which I believe stands for Council On Aging Senior Transportation, has submitted for a regional transport grant with the state of Washington for a new route between Colfax, Pullman, and Moscow. The plan is such that the route will potentially be available by July, and fully funded, though no contract has yet been drawn. COAST needs about $13,000 to finish their funding goal for the senior assistance shuttle service, and they are asking for the city to help with this final stretch of funding.

Collins said possible benefits for the shuttle could include freeing up ADA accessibility, and greater dialysis accessibility for the region, along with highlighting potential stops and answering logistical questions from the council. She ended by highlighting the funding deadline in May and asking for council input. While no official decision was made at this meeting, the mayor did ask for additional data sheets to work with as the city makes a decision on whether to lend their support or not.

Police Chief Anthony Dahlinger delivered the next item, which was a series of updates to the mutual assistance compact between the city of Moscow and the city of Lewiston. This document allows for direct cooperation and collaboration between the two cities’ law enforcement offices. The updates included new physical addresses for the police departments and new terms and renewals for the compact itself. As such, it was quickly approved unanimously by the council.

This next item was a little interesting, Alisa Anderson of city staff presented a request for a retroactive approval of a grant agreement with the Leary Firefighters Foundation. The city applied for this grant as a long shot to get new extraction equipment for the fire department, and they received a grant award in the amount of roughly $28,000. However, they didn’t get a chance to bring it before council ahead of time like they usually do, hence the retroactive approval request. With everything already said and done, the council approved this item unanimously as well.

With action items complete, the council turned to reports, where each member of the council gives an update on what they’ve been up to recently. The main highlight here is that a number of the councilors were down in Boise the week before for an Association of Idaho Cities (AIC) meeting. During this time, they were able to meet with the state legislatures and discuss issues and policy that impacts local municipalities like the city of Moscow. While the council didn’t go into much detail at their Monday meeting, Councilor Bryce Blankenship discussed details of his time in Boise in an Instagram post.

In this post, Blankenship expresses his frustration with workshops on a proposed state bill that is working to prohibit DEI on college campuses. He also expresses gratitude for his time with state Senator Melissa Wintrow for being a lone voice of dissent on this issue. As the state session continues, we’re likely to learn more about how state law impacts local governments like Moscow, and we’re likely to see the council express further opinions on such matters.

That’s all I got for you this week. It’s nice to have a relatively calm set of meetings after the flurry of activity from earlier this year. That being said, the work of government is ongoing, so we’ll be sure to keep you posted as things progress. As always, we’ll have the relevant links posted with this video, and if you have any questions, please reach out. I’m Aiden Anderson with the Moscow Minutes. See you next time!