Downtown improvements part of proposed 2026 Moses Lake city budget

MOSES LAKE — If it’s approved by the Moses Lake City Council, changes could be coming to Third Avenue and downtown in general to make it more appealing to residents and non-residents alike.  

City Manager Rob Karlinsey said city officials want to make some improvements downtown. 

“We plan to really spruce up the downtown around the (Third Avenue and South Division Street intersection) and a bunch of blocks around there,” he said. “We’re going to repaint those light poles, fix up the lenses in the light poles, get the street furniture to match, including the garbage cans.” 

The city can use funds allocated through the Main Street program, which is funded through state business and occupation taxes. 

“You donate as a business, and then the next year you get three-quarters of what you donated off your B&O taxes,” he said. “The city is a B&O taxpayer on our utilities.” 

The city spends about $50,000 per year now from the Main Street Program, he said. In his opinion, it hasn’t used that fund to its full potential, Karlinsey said, and he wants to change that.  

“We can (fund) up to $250,000 right now,” he said. “We want to go up to $250,000 and really put that money to work.”  

The city will have to increase its contribution by $50,000 to $62,500. But Karlinsey said he thought the return would be substantial. 

“If you really want to improve the image of your town, start with your downtown,” he said. “It's the heart and soul of your city – it's where your city got started.”  

In addition, Karlinsey said he’s proposing that the city establish a “strategic opportunities fund,” which would be funded through one-time revenues.  

“The city just recently sold two properties,” Karlinsey said. “Those purchases total about $350,000. So rather than just plopping that money into the general fund and having it go into the abyss of the general fund, we’re going to put it into the strategic opportunities fund.” 

If the proposals in the 2026 budget are approved, some of the money in the strategic opportunities fund would be used to start planning some new projects downtown. Some of the money would be used to provide conceptual and design work for some remodeling of Sinkiuse Square, he said. 

“Then we’re going to take about $35,000 to do some conceptual renderings for how to better use the land at Civic Center Park, up Fourth Avenue to Alder,” he said. 

The city owned two pieces of property on either side of East Fourth Avenue at the intersection with South Alder Street. Both were used as community gardens for a few years, and city officials worked on but ultimately rejected turning one piece into a food truck park.  

The city sold the property on the south side of the intersection to a neighboring business but will keep the other one, Karlinsey said. It's still a community garden, but Karlinsey said city officials are thinking about moving community garden spaces closer to neighborhoods that would use them. That would leave the Alder Street property open for other options. 

“Using that property to set an example for what kind of investment can happen in the downtown. We’re going to get some conceptual renderings – is there a better way to use this land?” Karlinsey said. 

    Moving the community garden, and studying other options for its existing location, could be one of the projects in a downtown improvement initiative proposed by city officials for 2026.