Soap Lake moves forward the 2027 preliminary budget draft

SOAP LAKE — During the Oct. 7 Soap Lake City Council meeting, council members had a number of new business items to get through. The first of which was an agenda bill for the 2027 draft preliminary budget. 

“What we need to do this evening is just acknowledge the fact that we’ve received this and that we want to move forward with the rest of the budget planning that we have scheduled with deadlines that have to be met for state requirements,” said Councilwoman Kayleen Bryson. 

The action taken to accept the 2027 Draft Preliminary Budget and file the preliminary budget to the city clerk by Nov. 2 and have adoption of the budget scheduled by Dec. 2 was approved unanimously by the council.

Councilwoman Susan Carson was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting. 

The council moved on to discuss the second agenda bill which involved 2027 Revenue Estimates – All Sources, Property Tax Levy setting, which is set annually by the city. This estimate would serve as the basis of the 2027 preliminary budget. 

The agenda bill also puts in place a public hearing on revenue sources, including possible increases on property taxes would be set for the next regular council meeting on Oct. 21. 

This action was also approved unanimously by the council. 

Item C on the agenda was the application for event funding deadline coming from the Soap Lake tourism committee. 

“We held our first meeting on September 28,” said Councilman John Carlson. “We elected a chair, a co-chair and a scribe to keep minutes of our ongoing meetings and we reviewed the event application process, including the application forms.” 

In their review, Carlson said the committee found application forms that were time sensitive and need to be updated. The event forms state that event planners must get their applications turned in by Dec. 30, but he said the committee would like to get the applications in ahead of that date.  

“We’d like to encourage event planners to, if you can, get those event applications in as soon as possible so we can start our review process,” he said. “The faster you can get them in, the more thorough we can be and we can get them back out to the city for final approval. 

Council members approved continuation of a grant from the Washington Department of Commerce.  Alex Kovach, the Soap Lake city planner, said this is part of their two-year budget that was approved and got reimbursement for the first year. 

The department gets ready to use the second half of the $49,130 grant and has updated the city on the different state requirements and zoning and building code. 

Council members discussed a proposed interlocal agreement between the Grant County Health District and the City of Soap Lake concerning the city’s contribution for Health District services. 

Bryson said this involves the GCHD providing information to the city on what they do and how they serve the Grant County community over time. To supply this the GCHD is asking Soap Lake to consider a $3 per capita contribution. 

“We haven’t paid anything into the Grant County Health District for a number of years,” she said. “What we used to do is we would negotiate a lower charge contribution to them, and I suggest we do that now." 

Bryson suggested the city could negotiate to lower the contribution from one to two dollars. While Bryson said she wanted to support the GCHD, she doesn’t want to do it at the expense of Soap Lake. 

Mayor Peter Sharp said something to consider when the council votes on their contribution is that there are larger city governments who have opted not to participate in the contribution. 

“When we make this decision, I would definitely think about the residents and their families,” said Sharp. “It’s per person, so it’s something to weigh on and think about if other cities are moving away from it.” 

Bryson said while the cities themselves have moved away from the contribution, there are still organizations within the communities, such as the Moses Lake Community Coalition, are still actively involved.  

Sharp proposed putting up a community survey and asking for public input on the matter. 

Council members approved paying for the upcoming December fireworks show, which is to make up for the Fourth of July show that had to be cancelled due to poor weather conditions. 

Sharp and the members of the city council agreed that this fireworks event is going to be great for the city and unanimously approved the payment. 

Council members unanimously approved a trade between the Soap Lake Police Department and the Grant County Sheriff’s office. Police Chief Patrick Canady said this trade is to swap four Paintball gun brand rifle kits from SLPD for six shotguns from GCSO. 

Canady said this trade would give SLPD officers access to more tools they can use when the situation calls for them. 

The next Soap Lake City Council meeting will be held Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m.