City council, school board seats, levy requests on Election Day ballot

EPHRATA — Candidates for mayor, city councils, school boards, hospital boards, fire districts, port districts and others will learn whether or not they were elected after 8 p.m. tonight. Ballot boxes for the 2023 general election close at 8 p.m., or voters must have mailed their ballots in time to have them postmarked today.

The fate of some levy proposals around the Columbia Basin also will be decided in today’s election.

Mayors will be chosen in Warden, Mattawa, George, Ritzville, Soap Lake, Washtucna and Grand Coulee. Council member seats are up for election in every town and city in Grant and Adams counties. So are school board seats in every district. Commission seats are up in all Grant County hospital districts, two hospital districts in Adams County and most fire districts in both counties. 

Grant County Fire District 3 is asking district patrons for a “levy lid lift,” proposing to raise the district’s levy to $1.30 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Fire District 3 is in the Quincy area, but doesn’t include the city of Quincy. 

Grant County Fire District 7 also has a levy lid lift on the ballot. Fire District 7 voters are being asked to approve an assessment of $1.30 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Fire District 7 includes the city of Soap Lake.

In both cases, the levy lid lift requires a bare majority, 50% plus one vote, to pass.

Quincy-area voters also are being asked to approve or reject the formation of a parks and recreation district. The district would include the cities of Quincy and George, along with residents of the Quincy School District except the Douglas County portion. 

Money raised through the parks and recreation district would be used to pay for an indoor athletic field, called the Q-Plex, and a new Quincy Aquatic Center. Property owners who live within the district would pay 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Voters in the Wahluke School District will be asked to approve or reject a four-year capital levy request. If it’s approved, WSD property owners would be assessed 99 cents per $1,000 assessed property value. 

The money would be used to pay for a new heating-cooling system at Mattawa Elementary, repair the Wahluke HIgh School track and tennis courts and add lights at the WHS soccer field.

Washtucna-area voters will decide the fate of a one-year levy request to operate the Washtucna pool. If the levy passes, property owners would be assessed 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.