Public Hearings, Grants, and K9s

While campaign season continues in the background, the city council is hard at work. Join us as we unpack their latest decisions, which include an agreement with Whitman County and the expansion of the Moscow Police K9 program! 

Read the full transcript of the video below:

How’s it going y’all? Aiden Anderson here with the Moscow Minutes. The county commissioners have been out of town this week, so we just have the city to talk about. 

Councilor Hailey Lewis and Mayor Bettge were both absent for the meeting, which meant that Julia Parker stepped up as acting mayor. Following a proclamation on Constitution Week, the city heard public comment from a couple folks. Dan Johnson, the mayor of Lewiston, expressed his appreciation for the working relationship between the two cities. Another individual, Austin, expressed a complaint against Captain David Hathaway for his apparent actions against Austin in his place of work.

JT Manning, the chair of the Moscow Farmer’s Market Commission, took the podium next to present his annual commission report. JT highlighted the past year of Farmer’s Market activities, including the annual poster contest, and the upcoming Halloween costume contest. JT also mentioned that currently, the Moscow Farmer’s Market is in a competition with farmer’s markets nationwide, so if you think our farmer’s market deserves to be commended, give that a look!

Following that, the council handled two public hearings, one after the other, and both having to do with roughly the same geographical area. The applicant for both, Mike Salisbury, had a couple different projects in mind. The first was the Park Valley Subdivision preliminary plat — 12 lots on a 4.59 acre property — and the second was the Sierra Vista Subdivision preliminary plat and Planned Unit Development (PUD) — 8 lots on a 2.97 acre property.

For both of these projects, Mike Ray of city staff presented the details of the lot sizes, zoning requirements, and potential housing designs. Planning and Zoning had previously recommended approval on both the projects. With no public testimony and minimal deliberations, both projects were approved unanimously by the Moscow city council.

The Moscow Police Department is interested in expanding their K9 program. Chief Anthony Dahlinger outlined the work that has so far been accomplished by K9 Ragnar and his handler Ryan Snyder. Dahlinger further explained that a second K9 unit alongside an additional patrol vehicle outfitted for K9 purposes would aid with coverage and efficiency, as well as streamline the process when it came time for K9 Ragnar to retire. The new vehicle would cost about $80,000, which is accounted for in the city’s budget, while the training and purchase of the new dog would be paid for using funds obtained through the MPD’s drug investigations. This also was approved unanimously by the Moscow city council.

Last on the agenda, Bill Belknap outlined a project currently being undertaken by a neighboring government. Whitman County is interested in utilizing a BUILD grant in order to fund improvements to Sand Road and Kirkendahl Road. Such improvements would impact the traffic corridor in Moscow, and so the city contacted the county about making the BUILD grant application a joint application, so that both entities could benefit from the roadway improvements to be implemented.

The present focus for the project is on planning and design. The city would contract with Welch-Comer for the designs of the roadway improvements. While the total design cost would be $45,000, Belknap explained that the agreement is structured such that Moscow would only be paying $13,500, with Whitman County paying the rest. After some discussion about the details of the project, the council voted to unanimously approve the agreement with Whitman County. This may go without saying, but be on the lookout for these new road construction projects going forward.

That’s all I got for ya this week. If you haven’t seen yet, our first rounds of city candidate interviews are coming out, so if you want to learn more about the people who are running for office this year, please go check those out! 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!