Warden council OKs annexation

WARDEN — Warden is getting 34 acres bigger thanks to a unanimous vote of the Warden City Council on Tuesday.

During a regular meeting, the Warden City Council voted to annex 33.89 acres currently owned by the Port of Warden immediately west of Madison Avenue between 8th Street and 11th Street. The land is currently part of Warden’s urban growth area and is zoned residential.

The land, which the port bought from a local farmer several years ago, sits between the city and the port’s Industrial Park 5, which is currently landlocked and cannot be developed.

“We’d prefer to have it annexed,” Port of Warden Executive Director Pat Millard told the council before the vote. “We can’t do anything with it, and we would like to sell it and continue to have it zoned residential.”

Council members wanted to know if the city could provide municipal services to the 34 acres.

Warden City Administrator Kristine Shuler said because the land is currently part of the town’s UGA, the city is already obligated to provide city water, sewer and roads should the property be developed. However, those services won’t have to be provided until the land is developed.

“We will have to address that when a developer applies,” Shuler said.

The city of Warden is also looking for local or regional sponsors to help the Second Harvest Mobile Market come to Warden after City Attorney Anna Franz advised the council they could spend any city money to help defray the $2,000 cost.

“You are authorized to spend city money if it's in support of the poor,” Franz said, noting that Second Harvest gives away food to all comers without verifying need. “Without income requirements, that’s a gift, and you’re not able to do this.”

Shuler said the Port of Warden asked the city if it was interested in splitting the cost, noting that the port may be covered under different rules. Millard said she would have to check if the port could spend its own money, but was also drawing up a list of local and regional businesses that might be willing to help.

After the meeting, Shuler said Second Harvest brought its mobile market to Warden prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. That time, however, the cost was paid for by Microsoft, and the city provided space for the giveaway at the community center.

With offices in the Tri-Cities and Spokane, Second Harvest provides food to people in 26 counties across Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, according to the organization’s website. Second Harvest also operates mobile giveaways from semitractor-trailer trucks and buses that can provide food baskets to anywhere from 75 to 300 families in just a couple of hours, the website says.

Shuler said anyone willing to help can contact either the city of Warden at 509-349-2326 or the Port of Warden at 509-349-2480.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.