Othello-ACFD 5 negotiations continue

OTHELLO — The Othello City Council meeting Tuesday featured an update from the city regarding its contract negotiations with Adams County Fire District 5, with a mediation date set for July 25. The city recently provided ACFD 5 with a two-year notice of termination of its contract.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Othello Mayor Shawn Logan read out loud a letter from ACFD 5 regarding the negotiations. 

“Although there may be some short-term difficulties between our two municipal entities, we believe and hope you agree, that the city and district are natural partners when it comes to the delivery of fire service,” the letter said. “We've enjoyed a long and productive relationship with the city and hope that continues.”

The letter elaborated on potential next steps for the negotiation.

“Consultants reported that the mayor seemed very receptive to the idea that possibly the best long-term course of action might be for the parties to consider annexation of the city into the fire district, as allowed through the Revised Code of Washington,” the letter said. “The purpose of this letter is to inquire whether the city, acting through the city council, will consider taking the first step toward annexation. The first step is an ordinance requesting annexation into the district.”

Council member Mark Snyder commented on the possibility of annexing the city into ACFD 5.

“Even if say we did want to annex, it's still going to be years down the road,” he said. “And if we don't negotiate first, we're still going to pay that $300,000 more a year for the next few years. So to me, we need to wait until July 25 and find out what they have to say then.”

Othello Finance Director Spencer Williams gave an update on what the city is expecting from its property tax revenue – ACFD 5’s current contract fee with the city is also based on this revenue.

“It's still kind of early. I don't know that we're on target to receive the $3.8 (million) that the county said we would receive, but we are on target to receive about either $2.4 or $2.5 million, which is considerably more than the $2.1 million that we originally planned on receiving,” Williams said. “Early in our budget process, we budgeted that we'd receive $2.1 million in property tax, and after all this discussion with the county, with the assessor's office, we didn't increase our estimate from that to $3.8 million, we increased it up to $2.5 million and I think that's likely, so far.”

Council member John Lallas also commented on the contract fee. 

“I don't want to be paying more for fire protection than somebody in the county is paying,” he said. “I want it to be the same.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.