Debate continues over fairgrounds sewer

GRANT COUNTY — Sewer and water service is something the Grant County Fairgrounds desires in order to become a year-round facility, but officials with Grant County and the City of Moses Lake have different ideas on how to get there.

Fair and Facility Manager Al Holman said without improvements to its current sewer and water system, the fairgrounds won't be able to improve into a year-round facility. Holman said the city reaps a benefit in hotel and sales tax revenue every time an event is held at the fairgrounds. The only way to expand year-round, he said, is to bring sewer service to the fairgrounds.

"We can't expand without it," Holman said, "or without putting in our own system."

Written discussions continued this week on the future of that service. The Grant County Commissioners have found a 1950s land transfer document for city water at the facility that they hope will lead to future agreements on sewer service without that fairgrounds land being annexed into the Moses Lake city limits. City officials said this week that a long-standing city policy precludes them from providing that service unless the land is annexed into Moses Lake.

The half-century-old document shows that the fairgrounds is entitled to city water. That water service was provided by the city until the late 1990s when the fairgrounds developed it own water system. Moses Lake City Manger Joe Gavinski and Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey say water can be provided to the area just as soon as a meter can be hooked up if the county so chooses. But Gavinski said to get sewer services, the fairgrounds would have to be annexed.

"If in fact you are contiguous to the city limits, to get services you must annex," Gavinski said in citing the city's policy. That policy is one Gavinski and Covey have said the city cannot waver from; and if they were to, it would put the integrity of their annexation policy at risk.

Covey said the city doesn't want to take any money away from the county by standing by its policy. But he said that if the city doesn't enforce it now, they run the risk of not being able to enforce it in the future.

Grant County Commission Chair LeRoy Allison believes the county and city should be able to move on a non-annexation inter local agreement that would provide service to the fairgrounds. Allison said historical uses like livestock shows and rodeos should be grandfathered in as uses at the fairgrounds, and has concerns an annexation might not guarantee those uses in the future.

"It's a concern for us if historical uses aren't guaranteed," Allison said.

In this week's letter from the commissioners, the county has asked the city to begin discussions for a non-annexation inter local agreement. Allison said that it was his position that such an agreement would not hurt the city if that agreement specifies that only the Grant County Fairgrounds would be allowed to deviate from the policy. Allison said he feels the plan would be a positive move.

"To me it can be a very specific agreement," Allison said, "Inter government agreements can do that."

At least one Moses Lake City Councilman agrees. Steve Shinn has a different view than Covey and Gavinski, and feels the sewer service would be a benefit to the community as a whole. Shinn feels an agreement signed with the fairgrounds giving them sewer would not put the city's annexation policy at risk because it would be signed with another government agency.

Covey and Gavinski have said they plan on drafting a letter back to the commissioners stating the city's annexation policy, with regard to sewer service. The two said they also hope to meet with groups like the fair board and fair facilities committee in the future.

Allison said the county will be doing a feasibility study in the meantime to determine if it is possible to get the sewer service on their own, and said he is anxious to hear back from the city.