Town bids on Electric City police work

The town of Coulee Dam has made an offer to Electric City to provide police services.

The offer was sent last week and outlined for Coulee Dam Town Council members last Wednesday night by Mayor Greg Wilder.

The five-year offer would begin in 2015 at $101,253.50, and include annual cost-of-living increases in each subsequent year.

Currently, Electric City contracts with Grand Coulee for police protection, but its five-year contract runs out Dec. 31. The final year on that contract was about $80,000.

In spite of the fact that Electric City and Grand Coulee council committees had met and agreed on a $115,000 contract for 2015, the two cities have been at odds since a police protection levy by Electric City failed in November. Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands stated in a recent council meeting that the defeat of the police levy was an indication that residents didn’t want police protection.

A last-minute effort to get the two council committees back together was undertaken last week by Grand Coulee City Clerk Carol Boyce.

Boyce attended Electric City’s council meeting last week and was careful to make a distinction between appearing as a resident of Electric City and as the city clerk of Grand Coulee.

As a resident, she stated, she was alarmed that Electric City was moving toward no police protection at all. As a city clerk, she volunteered to try to get the two sides together to seek a resolution.

The two council committees had agreed to a one-year deal to give them time to hammer out a joint police force or an on-going contract.

When Boyce heard that Electric City had called to set up a meeting but her own council committee hadn’t returned the call, she offered to assist in getting the two groups together.

The Coulee Dam offer, made after Electric City Mayor Jerry Sands met with Coulee Dam officials, came while all this was going on.

The Coulee Dam offer states that Electric City would get six hours coverage per day, 24-hour response to 911 calls, non-emergency calls, traffic control on all city streets and criminal investigations.