Why progress is hard for this community
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The current runaround faced by the local Regional Board of Mayors points to a structural problem we’ve tried to work around before and failed.
The RBOM, itself, was created as an end run around the reality that this is a community split by municipal boundaries drawn in a time when they may have made perfect sense but no longer do.
That group of four mayors was formed so we could have and operate a landfill, with all four towns paying their fair share. It has worked for decades and might possibly work for decades more. But not well, and with four times the effort that it should take. Each city council must separately approve of every budget item for the landfill. If one city council won’t agree, there’s no budget.
Most of the time, that’s not a problem. But the human factor is all too prevalent in any small-town operation. Personalities or conflicting viewpoints can make things challenging but multiplying the possible pitfalls by four makes it likely that progress is harder than it might otherwise be.
At best, each of these towns is a neighborhood, not a city. Most small towns run with their legislative branch, the town council, made up of five to seven elected members. We have 20. And four mayors.
Our system of government by its own nature ensures that rash decisions and foolhardy ventures are difficult to make go. People don’t put up with shenanigans easily. That’s all good. But multiplying that natural conservatism by four makes it four times less likely that meaningful progress can be achieved.
Another local government institution that was created specifically to work around this problem is the Coulee Area Park and Recreation District. Voters approved the formation of it nearly two decades ago, specifically to get a new swimming pool built, but didn’t fund it.
Since then, CAPRD has done some good things, but no pool. It currently continues keeping North Dam Park going, which it took over in an emergency when Grand Coulee suddenly abandoned it, a situation that arose because a park that the entire community uses should not depend entirely on only one of its neighborhoods for support.
Which is exactly why there’s no swimming pool. Coulee Dam gave up maintaining its pool without the help of its neighbors.
Nibbling around the edges isn’t working. Together we can make progress. Apart, we never will. We need to consolidate the four towns into one city.
Scott Hunter
editor and publisher
Reader Comments(1)
Bob VALEN writes:
Here's a further perspective. Four communities, or neighborhoods, that have a combined population of 3,378 (current Census), a distance of 7 miles or 15 minutes from the southern most to the northern most town. Today, as Scott states, 20 council members and 4 mayors for a population of less than 3,400 people. Each town competes with the others, duplicating efforts for such things as grant dollars for various and important community needs and improvements. Fire protection, ambulance and police needs are contracts or agreements between the four. This creates daily gaps of coverage while fire and ambulance services are operated by volunteers. General coordination between the four towns is nearly nonexistence. One of the four towns actually should be classified as a village according to geographic experts. Elmer City even lacks some of the attributes that comprise what a village is. This area is a population enigma, one that many embrace it would appear.
12/12/2021, 9:46 am