'Welcome to 2023. It's a brand new year.'

SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake City Council held its first meeting of the year Wednesday evening. At the meeting were discussions and decisions about an emergency proclamation, a plaque for the new basketball courts and council member duties.

“Welcome to 2023, it's a brand new year,” Soap Lake Mayor Michelle Agliano said to open the meeting.

For the first business of the meeting, the council elected a new mayor pro tem. At the beginning of the new year, the council selects a new mayor pro tem for the year. Since the resignation of previous mayor Alex Kovach in May, councilmember Leslie Taylor has been the mayor pro tem. In a 3-2 vote, Taylor was reselected as the mayor pro tem over Kayleen Bryson.

“How this usually goes, we normally change the mayor pro tem every year (rotating through the council members) but Leslie has done a good job too, so I don't have a problem with that,” council member Kat Sanderson said in the meeting.

“I will be a faithful mayor pro tem,” Taylor said upon her selection.

Mayor Agliano also gave other council members the option to take on their representative position with the Grant County Transit Authority Board, to which it was decided the mayor would continue to represent the city, as she has for the last two years.

Mona Kaiser, head of the Soap Lake Park and Recreation Committee, brought a draft plaque design to the city council to be placed near the courts to recognize the completion of the facility and substantial donors. Kaiser said the plaque would be made of bronze and cost about $1,100.

As a part of the new business on the agenda, the Council approved an amendment to the contract for the basketball court project to pay an additional almost $10,000 for services, not a part of the initial scope, related to power pole and line issues as well as property easements. The work has already been completed and only needed approval by the council to pay for services rendered.

The second item on the new agenda was Resolution 991, an emergency declaration in relation to one of the city’s sewer pump stations that started leaking in the early hours of Jan. 1.

“We have had an eye on Pump Station Two for several years and we were hoping to try and stretch it another five years; that’s not happening,” Agliano said.

According to the proclamation, the pump station had been experiencing periodic failures that had increased in frequency resulting in raw sewage leaks and discharges.

The mayor said that the emergency proclamation would allow the city to waive competitive bidding rules and hopefully secure a contractor and fix the issue quicker.

“The reason we decided to go this way is, if we just put it up for bid, it would take a minimum of two months, and as is, just doing this declaration, is still going to be about a month,” said Agliano.

The mayor noted she had been in contact with the Department of Ecology because some sewage had gotten into the lake as a result of the leak. She also stated she was in contact with the city’s engineers about grants and other funding available to help with the cost of the repair because it is estimated to be over $30,000. The resolution was passed unanimously.

Before the close of the meeting, the council held an executive session to review the performance of an employee.

Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.